Thing #4: Video Hosting

I have done quite a bit with YouTube and TeacherTube. My personal preference is YouTube, but it's blocked in our district. Hopefully that'll change soon, although I do understand how difficult it will be to keep certain students away from videos that are not school and age-appropriate. I know we can do it, though, with diligence and good digital citizenship teaching. :)

2 years ago, I went to Atlanta to see Stephenie Meyer when she still toured at your neighborhood book stores. My friends and I had a blast, and I used a Flip video camera to record the Q&A, came home, and transferred the video onto YouTube. It's been viewed several hundred times, and every now and then, I still get a comment or 2 on how cool the interview was, etc. I wasn't able to upload the whole thing at once, so it's up there in 4 different parts, but it works! 1 part of my upload is below. I did 5 total. I'm still pretty proud of them. Hee Hee. :)

I am not a fan of TeacherTube. It takes WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY too long to upload stuff to that site. I have tried no less than 10 times, and still have not been able to upload my products. However, it is not blocked in the district, and obviously lots of people get their videos up, so it's a productive place to search, for sure!

There are many advantages to having these learning opportunities available to students. Quite frequently, students need to *see* things to understand and cement their learning of concepts and ideas. Videos from sites like YouTube are perfect for this. They're usually short, direct, and obvious, and kids absolutely eat them up. Teaching with video is the "way of the future", and we need to get on the boat or we're going to be left at the dock!