If you happened to have caught some of my prior posts about the YouTube in schools debate, you know that it is a very controversial debate in all of education because there are so many ways that it can harm the learning process for students as it is helping them at the very same time. A friend of mine recommended trying a similar website that is titled TeacherTube. This website works on the very same premise as YouTube, but puts a cap to the content that is added based on subject matter. I found it incredibly interesting because it does not link videos based on search terms, so students may not be distracted by music from an artist with similar search terms in their song title. After searching through accounts on TeacherTube for enriching videos, I came across certain videos for English word structure. What intrigued me was not only the videos on these pages, but the comments posted by viewers. Some of the comments on these pages said that these people were learning this material for the first time. That itself is an amazing example of how technology is helping students in our country as well as from other countries learn new things about our English language at any age.
Below are some examples of videos on TeacherTube that can aid in various subject content areas. By TeacherTube being somewhat "safer" than YouTube in terms of content exposure for students, is it necessarily better in terms of it's videos? Do you think they have value in a classroom over YouTube and it's vast presence in media/video learning? Check out some of the links below and let me know what you think.
Girard, thanks for your thoughts on TeacherTube. How would you use this tool in a potential lesson?
ReplyDeleteKevin, I would use TeacherTube the same way that I might incorporate any education medium that is outside of the traditional aspect of a book or 2d service to a lesson. Using the videos and additional support that TeacherTube provides would help to emphasize the particular topic and give students a different outlook from what I might be trying to present. Though I might be able to physically give students a visual on a board or on a projector about specific aspects of a lesson, educational videos like those on this site can sometimes provide something that is unspoken to students that will aid in their understanding. It may give them confidence and provide them with the ability to comprehend the lesson using their own context clues and previous learned knowledge without the teacher reiterating certain goals.
DeleteGirard, thanks for your thoughtful response. Glad to see you are making connections to the classroom.
DeleteGirard,
ReplyDeleteMy high school Calculus teacher told me about this website back in high school and I can say without question that it was one of the most helpful tools I have used for understanding mathematics. I was able to find the lessons of other teachers for similar lessons with different approaches. Some I found to be much easier to understand while others I felt lacked usefulness. I believe TeacherTube will be a website I will use while teaching my students because I feel it is important for students to see the same ideas, only from different points of view. If one method does not satisfy their learning needs, then perhaps another will be more sufficient.
I have never heard of this website so thank you for posting it. I have been a fan of youtube because of all the educational content in it. It is every beneficial to both students and teachers where it provides supplemental lessons and sometimes step-by-step instruction to problem solving and arithmetic. I use it for other classes also like Latin, science--pretty much anything!
DeleteSomething like this could be a lot more effective than youtube or another traditional hosting site because of the amount of ads, "trolls" and misleading content. Sometimes when you go to watch a video, you just get a screencap and a link to "actually watch the video" or you sit through irrelevant ads (or perhaps ads with unsuitable content). On a site like this, you can rely on the information that's on there, and you know you won't be led astray, or get involved in a flame war with someone just trying to get a few laughs.
ReplyDeleteI had only vaguely heard of TeacherTube before now. Your plug has motivated me to look into it and it really is wonderful. I have seen some teachers create lesson plans based on YouTube. A very interesting one was about The Odyssey. Students were required to create a visual representation of it using YouTube. One student recorded himself playing Halo while mimicking The Odyssey's plot. It was so innovative and fun for the student. It's often said in our core curriculum classes that it's very difficult to retain the attention of young male students. Something like this would gain it back because boys love their video-games. However, YouTube is filled with inflammatory content. Many students physically filmed themselves for this same project and we all know how dangerous it can be to ask students to put something like that in the public eye. A place like TT is safer and more content secure. Thank you for sharing. :)
ReplyDeleteI love TeacherTube! TeacherTube has helped me with several lessons I taught this semester. I really love all the content that is filtered on the website because it truly helps me find videos that my students can relate to. Since every community is different, I find that websites like TeacherTube help bridge the gap between the curriculum and classroom. I found TeacherTube helpful with my content area when teaching students poetic terminology, literary terms, and the elements of a story. I like Sarin think its great that there is appropriate content on the internet for teachers to present in the classroom without having so many distractions.
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