I have been racking my brains all week about the subject of my blog. It wasn't until I sat down and read another one of my classmates blogs that I got the idea for mine. Her blog was about the different technologies that she used in the classroom this week. Another classmate had responded by stating some of the technologies she used in class and one thing she mentioned was Youtube.
When I was student teaching, the class I was with was learning about the Winter Olympics and on this particular day they were going to be talking about snowboarding. The teacher wanted to show a clip of a an Olympic snowboarder so she went straight to Youtube, previewed the available clips, found an appropriate clip, and showed it to her class. How easy was this task? This situation made me really made me think. What would she have done before Youtube? She probably would have had to plan a few weeks in advanced, contacted the local library, asked the AEA what they had, searched video stores, etc. That process could have taken her a few days. Youtube took about ten to fifteen minutes. Think of the time she saved! While teachers will not be able to use Youtube for all of their video needs, it is still an excellent source to consider when searching for a clip. Especially if what you want the students to few is only a two to five minute clip!
Excellent point! Another great website is teachertube.com. I would definitely still preview the videos, but this website will give you more "student appropriate" results, which might be an even quicker process that using YouTube!
ReplyDeleteI found it interesting that you discussed youtube because in our school district this had been blocked from all of the computers. We hired a new principal for the high school and technology is his middle name. It was less than a month after school had started and he had the block at the high school taken off of Youtube. He is and has been very open to the idea of technology and has really caused some people to move and shake. I say good for him! I use little clips often when teaching, but I will have to say the techer across the hall is great at using all kinds of technology and uses it WELL! Teachertube is an excellent site too. I saw that mentioned in another comment to your post.
ReplyDeleteIt is fun to have to think outside of the box. Sometimes it is hard for me, but can be very rewarding or that I learn a lot from that experience.
Have a good week!
These two actually said it all - I was going to say remember TaecherTube and the other was to be prepared for YouTube to be blocked at school. So, if that is the case you need to know about sites where you can download the video from YouTube and then take "with" you to school! Look at these two and try it out.... Zamzar (http://www.zamzar.com/) and Keepvid (http://keepvid.com/)
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