Thing #4 - Video Hosting

The main advantage of having teaching/learning videos available online on YouTube, TeacherTube, and SchoolTube? Access, access, access - the key to a successful library, an integral part of a successful database, and the obvious advantage to having teaching/learning videos and student created work available online.

Suggested uses of teacher made videos for educational purposes:

• summaries of in-class lectures for students who are absent or for review purposes
• instructional videos
• professional development videos for teachers (technology how-to's) created by the librarian
• resource for sharing with colleagues similar to our LibrariansShare folder

Advantages to uploading student created work:

• inspiration for other students
• being Web published
• ideas for how teachers can implement technology-based projects in their classrooms
• peer teaching tool
• teaches educational use of YouTube
• point of view videos for debating purposes
• encourages exploration-based/connected learning approach
• teaches skills necessary for technology-based future (renown universities are now using YouTube as a venue for setting up individualized accounts for students, faculty, and administrators to use)

SchoolTube looks like a promising site for which to access and post student or teacher produced videos, however, with multiple sites for posting videos, will we need a "reader" of some sort keep up with multiple video hosting sites? In reading more about SchoolTube, it appears that student-created content has to be approved (by registered teachers) before it is posted. Common sense censorship or just censorship? Is there a difference? Does it matter? I do like the fact that, included in the video categories, there is a separate elementary school level category, which many sites don't offer. They mention the possibility that videos of school plays and spelling bees posted on the site would be a way for parents or other family who cannot be there to virtually attend. I searched for my elementary school under "Find a School"and found a page for it just waiting for the first video to be uploaded. I wonder if our district was solicited to register all the of the SBISD schools or whether it was someone's job to search, find, and register various schools around the country.

At present, I don't have anything to upload to YouTube, and I don't want to upload something just for the sake of doing it. So, I will try out that piece at a later date with some student made products using our new bond technology!