Friday, August 17, 2007

Can YouTube get ANY BETTER?

I know there are many arguments against using YouTube in schools, but I came across this nifty little feature and wonder why....



YouTube has given the ability to create an embeddable player from any playlist of folder from YouTube...The above are all the videos that I have added as my favorite Ed Tech Videos. Now I DO wish that they would take away the fact that you can still link out to the YouTube site, but what a great way for teachers to provide resources to their students OR to publish student work and then create a player to embed in their blog, wiki, moodle. I added the same player to my own wiki sharing my YouTube playlist in my blog, my wiki....Hmmmm the possibilities....
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10 comments:

  1. Thanks for sharing this one. My hope is that it will play nicer with Firefox for the Mac than just embedding the videos. Have you noticed that embedded videos of any kind in a Wikispaces wiki causes the Mac Firefox to "unexpectedly quit" - often! VERY frustrating.

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  2. Never knew this - great feature for my wiki, actually for any wikis in the classroom.
    (Now if I can just get my son's teachers to know what a wiki is! He would love it if his teachers integrated wikis and youtube videos into instruction since he is a visual learner. Text kills learning for him since he has fluency and decoding issues.)

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  3. Wow thanks for this tool Kristin! And yes Jim, I've noticed my Firefox is very unhappy with videos/wikispaces/blogspot. I thought it was just me!

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  4. Anonymous8:11 AM

    Thanks Kristin - I had not seen this feature - how cool is it. Although I had not noticed any issues with embedded videos on wikispaces wikis.

    Sue

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  5. Great tip. SplashCast is another service that creates an embeddable player / playlist. SplashCast also allows you to bring in other assets (podcasts, blogs, RSS feeds, images, etc.) into one "channel."

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  6. KH,

    Another great find! Do you know of any policies and procedures that directly address the use of YouTube in the school? I would have Skyped, but my tech department blocked the port! =) I am hoping to have it back up by the end of the day!!!

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  7. Anonymous11:32 PM

    Great find... I had been using a widget from widgetbox but it is not as big and beautiful as this player.

    I'm off to have a looksie now.... thanks :)

    Cheers, Rachel, NZ

    PS - thanks for sharing your favourite videos, I have enjoyed viewing 2 I hadn't previously seen.

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  8. Thanks for sharing this tool. I love YouTube - think that it has lots of possibilities in the classroom - but hadn't taken the time to explore this feature. I will now.

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  9. I couldn't agree more, Kristin, that YouTube's embedding is great! I've used it in my blog and my wiki with perfect results. Another great tool is Zamzar's (www.zamzar.com)free conversion tool. By just entering a YouTube video's URL at the Zamzar site, they will convert the video to .avi or .mov or other common format, then email a link for downloading the converted video to your own computer. This enables teachers in districts that block video sites, like YouTube, to download at home and bring the video to class. Nifty solution to a frustrating problem.

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  10. Anonymous3:49 AM

    Thanks for sharing this. I wouldn't have found it myself. Looks like a great way to share videos on one topic etc with students. Luckily You Tube isn't blocked for us but having an embeddable player just makes easier access for students.

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