I use to think that YouTube was only good for a few things:
1.) Posting dumb or funny videos of you and/or your friends.
2.) Learning how to do or make virtually anything.
3.) Trying to get your five minutes of fame and as many views as possible.
It was not until recently, when I had to do a digital story telling project for my Educational Technology & Design class, that I realized the true value YouTube can have in a classroom. You have to understand that I mean more than just showing your class a five minute excerpt from an hour long episode on the History Channel. For my project we had to either make a video that we would use as a teacher in the classroom or an example of a project we would want our students to do. I decided to do an example of a project that I would like my students to do, and was surprised just how educational a short two minute video could be.
From this, I decided to do a little more of my own research to see what else is out there. I stumbled upon
edutopia.org, where educational consultant, Chris O'Neal, has a great beginners video on how to use YouTube to show clips in your classroom. I also enjoyed how he informs the viewers about YouTube EDU, which was not something I had known about. It brings up YouTube clips that have been marked as good resources for the classroom!
In this day and age with rising of young people who use technology, it almost seems pointless not to change our teaching methods to incorporate these technologies. Plus, the students have more fun doing it! Below is a video from YouTube that has students talking about how they use technology....
Whether you use YouTube to share videos and clips, make your own videos or lectures, or have the students make their own videos to teach the class YouTube can be one great resource. And now I know it's about more than getting to that million+ views!
