I guess I'm not such a digital native after all! I have used YouTube in my classroom, as well as Teacher Tube (therefore I know that it is not currently restricted in my building). One way in which I have used it is during our "School Families". Each of the teachers in the school has a family that consists of students from all of the different grades. In our families we discuss various topics, including tolerance. During one such family discussion, I showed India Arie's video, "I Am Not My Hair", featuring Akon. After viewing the video, we had an amazing discussion about not judging people by the way they look. I feel that the students were hooked in because it was a video with contemporary singers that they listen to all of the time. One of the things that really came out was that some of the students felt alienated because of their cultural differences. As a result, the students brainstormed a list of ways in which we, in our school, could highlight and appreciate the different cultures that we represent.
There are so many videos on YouTube that can be used to improve instruction. Just a few of the ones that I found include a "School House Rock! Electricity", "Life of an Exchange Student in Japan: School", and "Barack Obama Born in Kenya!!" It is important to view the videos beforehand to make sure that they are appropriate for the grade level and that the content is factual. Anyone can post to YouTube, therefore one must be careful not to show a video that has inaccurate information or opinions. Additionally, I found that some videos are amateurish and hard to understand because of background noise and/or hard to view due to poor filming or equipment.
Cool stuff Mag!
ReplyDeleteWe did summer reading booktalks with the LRW YA librarians this year for the first time and took several Youtube clips for the books we shared - and, as you said, it takes a little time to find the right ones because many are done by kids without any editing - but, some of our finds really added to the program
ReplyDeleteJoan