Mr Bass Online

Since it was launched in 2005, YouTube has made online video commonplace. When Google bought them in 2006 and began to incorporate it’s search engine in it, it became even more of a powerhouse. However, YouTube is far from the only game in town, it’s just easily the most well known at this point. This week I’d like to give you some other resources for using online video in the classroom.

• Discovery Streaming – Formerly United Streaming, Discovery Education acquired the United Streaming library a number of years ago. Since then they have expanded the catalog and added a number of tools such as assessments, assignments and lessons that you can use based on the videos that you find.
• SchoolTube – Much like YouTube, SchoolTube is a video sharing site that allows schools, students and teachers to upload and share videos. However, SchoolTube provides much more control over the content so you’re sure that there won’t be any inappropriate content.
• Snag Learning – Snag Learning provides professionally produced documentaries about a variety of subjects and categorized them into subject areas and grade levels for easy access to the content that you want for your classroom.
• NextVista – Next Vista for Learning is a non-profit organization based in California that focuses on helping teachers and students use and create content through digital media. The site highlights student work and gives students and teachers an audience for their creations.
• Parkway Digital – Although it’s behind a password, Parkway Digital has a great number of student and teacher created videos that are hosted on Parkway servers. You can post and share videos as well as embedding them in your website for others to see.
• YouTube for Teachers – As I wrote about a few weeks ago, YouTube for Teachers is a curated YouTube channel categorized by subject area and grade level and is constantly being updated.

While not every concept should be explained using video, the visual aspect as well as the connection students can make to content is not something that we should overlook. Posting those videos on a website for enrichment or review can be an important piece of helping students succeed. While this isn’t a complete list, it does offer some options other than the standard YouTube search or textbook videos.

In December, my kids and I began a surprise project for my wife. We were going to “give her a new bathroom” which basically entailed painting our existing one and adding new hardware. My helpers and I went through the process of patching, priming and painting and upon finishing it, my daughter asked when we were going to finish it. In my estimation we had but she pushed on. “What about the stuff up by the ceiling in the living room?” She was talking about crown molding. To finish the room, we needed to add that crown molding. I had installed baseboards before but never the more complex crown molding. I took out my handy dandy home repair book to try to figure out how to make the cuts but then, upon trying it with a small piece of molding, found that I had no idea what I was doing. So it was off to the internet and YouTube to find guidance. Low and behold, I found a video explaining what to do, techniques to help and ultimately found success in my crown molding project.

I’m a big beliver in using video as a part of education. With so many resources now available, it’s becoming hard to ignore the wealth of information online. However, finding those resources can become exceedingly difficult with so many other demands on your time. Finding things on SchoolTube is a great first start but a resource that you may not know is available to you is a YouTube channel specifically for teachers. Reaching out to a group of teachers they identified partner videos that align with common core standards and organized them by subject area, grade level and standard. While the list is incomplete, it’s a great place to start.