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....

Technorati Tags: youtube

Candidates debate the Issues on YouTube

Thanks to Ken Pruitt for getting this discussion started . . Like Jen Dorman, I'd like to see some more chatter about the CNN/YouTube debates last week. I have to admit it is a challenge for me to sit for more than 5 minutes at a time...(those of you who know me well will attest to THAT) so having the opportunity to look at individual issues, when I have time to absorb...priceless.

On the topic of NCLB

Gov. Bill Richardson had a VERY strong reaction to the video and strong feelings about what needs to be done in education...
Scrap NCLB –it doesn’t work
One size fits all doesn’t work
Doesn’t emphasize teacher training, kids with diasabilities or English learning students
Worst thing is that it takes funds away from schools not doing well…need to help those schools…
KEY to strong schools is strong teachers
Need to empasize science and math
Unlock minds in science and math
Federal program of arts


On the topic of Public or Private school


I thought it was great that they took questions FROM YouTube

If you visit the debate site you can see not only clips of the debate...but the HUNDREDS of responses to them. The Republicans will have their turn on September 17.

Ken posed a question:

What legitimacy, if any, does this bring to YouTube as a media outlet?

Ken said..."Like it or not it is time to start paying attention so that we can make an educated decision come Nov 08'.".. Jen D offered her thoughts as well..." the answer is that absolutely this legitimizes YouTube as an accepted form of creative expression. Mainstream media has been lamenting the growing power of the online community (remember the Swift Boat Veterans) for years now. People like Matt Drudge and alternative media bloggers have broken, investigated, and dispersed stories that the mainstream media simply did not want to touch. In doing so they brought an entirely new group of citizens into the ongoing national discussion and empowered them to seek their own answers and make their concerns public. I would wager that a concerned citizen cannot make their thoughts any more public than by getting their video question answered a national presidential debate. " and like the 2 of them, I agree...

What a great learning opportunity for students and what a great way for the candidates to connect to the YouTube Generation. Is YouTube blocked at your school....? This is a great argument for why it shouldn't be.

An invitation to the YouTube Generation

In the USA Weekend paper there was an article titled, "Documenting the War" promoting Ken Burns' upcoming World War II special. I find Burns' work fascinating and this project is no exception. From the article:

"If young people could interview a grandparent or senior neighbor, they'd learn what this generation did during the war -- how, in shared sacrifice, they made their country richer and safer than anyone could ever imagine..... That's where the YouTube generation comes in. For the series, we used 40 of the hundreds of interviews we conducted. Now, Americans are being enlisted in the recording of history. Thanks to a cooperative effort involving PBS and the Library of Congress' Veterans History Project, anyone can get a camera and conduct his or her own interviews of a loved one who lived through the war.... I'm hopeful young people will take their YouTube-honed skills and use them for something like this.

America's most respected historian is inviting the YouTube generation to join him in recording the stories of World War II - before we lose them forever. I think about all of what we are trying to do...get kids to learn content by creating... With all the technology we have access to today, wouldn't documenting oral histories would be a great way for our students to learn history and participate in something amazing. I think what blows my mind about the whole idea is that in many schools...YouTube is blocked to both teachers and student users. With ideas as great as this wouldn't it be best to teach ethics than block great content.

Some links from the article include
http://www.loc.gov/vets/vets-home.html
http://www.pbs.org/thewar/

Wouldn't it be cool to have students gathering oral histories on a variety of topics and other historical events. And why not use TeacherTube to share them?

Here are some other resources and guides on preparing oral histories.
http://www.lib.jmu.edu/special/services/oralhistips.aspx
http://dohistory.org/on_your_own/toolkit/oralHistory.html
http://cnets.iste.org/teachers/pf/pf_oral_history.html