Time to Get Off YouTube Bandwagon?

I love YouTube's diversity and shear number of video clips available. I try to use it everyday, but what about those hard to find videos? What if you want to interact with video in your classroom in a new way, through subtitles? What if you want your kids to create video, but have no video cameras?

Or perhaps, you find yourself in a situation where where YouTube is blocked! All you can use is TeacherTube. What do you do then? Are we hurting our kids because a school district doesn't want to unblock a site?

Or then there is the flipside, where it seems like everyone is on the YouTube/Teacher Tube / School Tube bandwagon. Are we getting to the point, where our students have a collective sigh of bordum when YouTube appears? Why not explore some other options too?

Here are some suggestions to enhance the multimedia selection in your room:

· 5 Min Life Videopedia also known as "your one stop shop for instructional videos and DIY projects" is impressive. It provides users with clips ranging from Biodiesel in Germany to Pittsburgh’s Cheese Steak Recipe. The site is well organized, dividing the site into relevant topics / channels like: Arts, Business, Health, News Highlights, Travel, etc.



· Common Craft - Have you ever wondered what a Wiki was? Have you ever wanted to find a simple way of explaining how the Presidential Election works? Did you need a quick way to explain how borrowing money works? Common Craft gives us answers to the questions that perplex many of us, in a rather unique and entertaining way. Common Craft videos fall into 4 main areas: Green, Technology, Finance, and Society. Although limited in the number of videos, the content is impressive.



· DotSUB – Have you ever wanted to create your own subtitles to a clip? Now it’s possible through a site called DotSUB. You can also view, upload, transcribe and translate any video into any language. One of the most unique features of this site is that it gives you an opportunity to “play” with the technology before you decide to sign up and use it. I highly recommend using the Demo, which gives you an opportunity to see all of the bells and whistles! Even if you choose not to create your own video with subtitles, just using some of the sample videos on DotSUB is enough!



· Domo Animate – Sites like GoAnimate have become very popular, allowing students to create their own animated videos. One problem with GoAnimate is the fact that some inappropriate videos and content appear. Domo is advertised as a “school friendly version” of GoAnimate, which all inappropriate content is filtered out. It’s very easy to use and comes with very helpful tutorials, for users who are unsure how the site works.