YouTube EDU

I hear from teachers all of the time, "I love the idea of representing concepts through video, but finding the right video is so difficult. Unless I want to waste away my weekend, I will never find the right video."

YouTube EDU

Perhaps YouTube EDU may help you refine your search. YouTube EDU contains videos submitted from colleges and universities like Harvard, Stanford, and Washington State. When you visit the channel, you will notice that it is divided into subcategories like: Business, Health and Medicine, History, Mathematics, Law, Science, and Social Studies. Just pick one and browse!

Maybe you want to look at a specific school's channel. You are provided with links to visit other channels in YouTube, like Stanford University, Harvard University, and even Berklee Music.

Perhaps you want to search for a specific topic. YouTube EDU's search gives you the opportunity to look for specific videos.

Although, many of these videos may not be at the level where our elementary students can comprehend, you may be able to show these clips at the middle school and high school levels.

How Does this Relate to Universal Design for Learning?

By providing multiple means of representation for a specific topic, we are providing students with opportunities to make connections with subject matter. The power of video is almost mandatory in education today.

When we design course material, we often forget about the students in the margins (your gifted students and lower level students). We provide accommodations for our IEP students when necessary, but we often leave our gifted students out of the equation. YouTube EDU may not be appropriate for all students in your class (depending on your situation). Perhaps differentiating the videos that you show to your students may help. Perhaps providing multiple videos on the same topic could provide the connections that our students need.