Thing 14: YouTube and Teacher Tube

YouTube Video: It is kinda lengthy, but it's a Michael Crichton book, whattya gonna do?



I like this video because it highlights several things about using technology in the classroom. First of all, the student says he wanted to do this video version instead of the usual boring PowerPoint slideshow. This book report is creative and the amount of effort and work that went into it is obvious. It definitely was not thrown together, scribbled on a piece of crumpled paper on the bus, or cut and pasted onto poster board from the internet. As a mentioned above, it's an 8:04 minute long video! Have you ever had a student do a presentation for that long...and keep your interest? Again, it's obvious that this student read and understood the book. Doing a book report in this manner meets the criteria I think a book report should have--evidence that the student read and understood the book and a rating of some sort (should other students read the book or not).
And speaking of those book reports that are thrown togehter last minute, written to meet exacting standards of the rubric instead of showcasing what the student finds important, with little enthusiasm, check out this other video that I stumbled upon. A classic!
Book Report from You're a Good Man Charlie Brown on YouTube

In my perusal for Greek Mythology videos I found a 'how-to' for creating eye makeup inspired by none other than Aphrodite herself! I honestly never thought to check YouTube for hair and makeup tips, so that was an interesting surprise. I subscribed to the BeautyScope channel...heh, heh, funny thing that it was under my husband's YouTube user name.

I think 'how-tos' and book reports are just the types of videos that would be great for students to create and post on Teacher Tube. Check out this cutie pie doing a presentation on Greek Mythology that would work well to introduce a unit.