Objective 13 - Yippee for YouTube

YouTube is a video sharing website on which users can upload and share videos. YouTube was started by three former PayPal employees in February 2005 (this fact alone is amazing to me). By November 2006, YouTube was part of the Google family. YouTube is free and available to everyone on the Internet.

TeacherTube is an online community for sharing instructional videos; a mixture of classroom teaching resource as well as others designed to aid teacher training. TeacherTube was launched in March 2007 and was initiated by Jason Smith, a veteran teacher from McKinney, Texas. TeacherTube is a free resource and seems to be mostly geared for teachers.

Launched in November 2006, SchoolTube is a teacher monitored video sharing website. It is dedicated to supporting educational institutions and all of their students to broadcast, and share original videos through a web experience. SchoolTube provides many opportunities including: free SchoolTube Channel for your classroom as well as video hosting for educational and scholastic organizations. You can sign up for a free SchoolTube account. This site has a different “feel” than TeacherTube. There seems to be more content dedicated or created by students.

Discovery Education Streaming has 5,000 full-length videos segmented into 41,000 content-specific clips tied directly state and national standards. Discovery Education Streaming requires an annual subscription; the Academy has such a subscription. When you view a video there are several tabs – segments, related materials, citation of the video, and quick access to more videos in the series (if there are any). Teachers can save a video (or segments), create lessons, writing prompts, and quizzes which students can access via a uniquely created URL.

TED is a small nonprofit devoted to “Ideas Worth Spreading”. This movement began in 1984 as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: “Technology, Entertainment, Design.” TED Talks, widely disseminated on the internet, are subject to a strict time limit of 18 minutes. I found many TED Talks on YouTube. More than 500 TED Talks are provided for free viewing online; I found many TED Talks on YouTube.

I have used all of these resources plus Google videos and Yahoo videos to supplement my classroom teaching and my professional development. I know many people are concerned with the content on YouTube – some is disturbing, but here in the US we operate under the right to free speech. If I come across content that I do not want to see then I stop the video. Sites like TeacherTube and SchoolTube have content that is monitored. Discovery Education Streaming content is of high quality plus there are many tools that educators can utilize to enhance the viewing. I have a high opinion of TED Talks. These are my personal free professional development opportunities. The fact that our school does not block these sites is a testament to our belief in Goal V – “personal growth in an atmosphere of wise freedom.”

If you did not take the time to watch An Anthropological Introduction to YouTube – you should do so at some point. I found the video very informative. I was fascinated by this comprehensive study of people and their interactions with YouTube.

My blog is written and now I need to decide which of my favorite videos to embed in my blog plus determine whether if am willing to try my hand in uploading a video. I thought about which videos I wanted to share with this audience…there are several. First I thought about some of my favorite Tex Avery cartoons: Symphony in Slang, The Farm of Tomorrow, The House of Tomorrow, Car of Tomorrow, TV of Tomorrow – but many of the readers of this blog are too young to even know about these classics. Then I thought about some of the powerful message videos: Did You Know 1.0, Did You Know 2.0, Did You Know 3.0, Did You Know 4.0, Web 2.0 ... The Machine is Us/ing Us, and If the World Were a Village. Or I could just do something for fun like: Honda Commercial - Choir FX or the Honda Civic Musical Road or Sound of Music in Belguim. I finally decided on a TED Talk by one of my favorite authors, Daniel Pink. I was able to find this video on YouTube and TED. Pink is talking about the surprising science of motivation; this is the heart of his latest book Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, a fabulous read.