You Tube offers countless educational videos that make great additions to your lessons! You just need to know how to access them. If you work in Ross (or probably any other school district) you may have noticed that You Tube is blocked. There is a good reason for that. As many educational and appropriate videos as there are, there are just as many inappropriate videos and content as well! So, to make sure students don't wander onto something they shouldn't be watching most districts block all the videos. However, there are ways teachers can still utilize the appropriate content in their classrooms.
In a recent post, 'iPod Touch for Teaching' I mentioned converting a You Tube video to a file and putting it in your iTunes library. That is great if you have an iPod that can handle video. If you don't, there is still hope! There are free websites available that will convert You Tube videos into actual files (mp4). From there, you can save them on a flash drive or any other device. Once the video is converted you can play it in Quick Time (which most of your school computers most likely already have). The nice thing about Quick Time is there are no unpredictable advertisements or video suggestions of "What you might also like" that may not be appropriate to show in school! Quick Time is free software and works on Macs and PCs. If you work in the Ross District, please ask your tech staff in your building before you download anything! If you are working from home try:
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/
One website that offers file converting is ZAMZAR. You just need the URL of the You Tube video you want to work with. If you would like step by step directions please contact me. I received my handouts from a SOITA professional development for the iPod Touch and am happy to share! Just make sure you view the entire video before you decide to use it in your classroom. You Tube is uncensored so you need to make sure the video you want to use is educational and appropriate for your grade level.
Check out:
http://www.zamzar.com/
Note: You Tube is still blocked by the district. If you are planning on searching and converting You Tube videos you will need to do it from home or somewhere other then the school district.
Don't forget that if you are a Ross teacher you also have access to Discovery Education (formally United Streaming). There are thousands of media clips, movies and resources that are all appropriate for education. Chances are good that if there is a video on You Tube you you want to use with your students you can find something similar on Discovery Education. Plus, you have much better options to search with to find what you need. If you are not already using the subscription it's not too late! Contact me (or your building tech staff) to get the passcode you will need to set up your account.
Go to the link below to get started:
http://streaming.discoveryeducation.com/
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