YouTube for You - Enhancing Student Learning with Internet Videos
Valorie Zonnefeld | October 2008
I remember sitting in an education class in college when my professor said that to be a teacher, you need to be a scrounger. I remember this statement because it shocked me. I was under the impression as an undergrad that one day I would enter my idealized, abundantly supplied classroom with an incredible curriculum and a sufficient budget to meet my every whim.
As I enter my 11th year teaching, my idealized teaching bubble has long since been burst and the scrounging statement makes perfect sense. I have searched garage sales for classroom supplies and furniture, and have cut interesting pictures out of calendars and magazines to decorate my room. I have emailed organizations which offer free materials and, I somewhat sheepishly admit, have pulled a worksheet that looked interesting out of the garbage. I am a certified scrounger. When I find a treasure that can be utilized to improve the learning in my classroom, I am as thrilled as any good scrounger would be.
Last week, quite by accident, I happened upon a gem of a find on http://www.youtube.com. YouTube is a video sharing website created in February 2005. Along with similar websites, it has recently become a popular place to find videos. Many posts are comical in nature, others document an outrageous event or stunt. I used YouTube just the other day after a student asked if we could watch a video about math. It was an entertaining rap about math to the tune of a popular song. You can find it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ooa8nHKPZ5k. The students loved it and it was a nice change of pace for the class.
When I reviewed the video again, I noticed a list of related videos and was intrigued by some of the titles. As I continued to click, I ran into "The Quotient Rule Song" at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdV2UZV7AoA which was what I was planning to teach in my Business Calculus course half an hour later. The video was two minutes long and showed two undergrads in a dorm room who got distracted doing their calculus homework and sang a song. It was a hit in class, but more importantly it included a chorus which was a catchy mnemonic device to remember the quotient rule. I was hooked. Using YouTube was entertaining. It enhanced my student's learning and it reached students via an avenue they were interested in. The video also had an endearing amateur quality to it. It reminded me of the homemade skits and songs that people sing at family gatherings.
After more research, I realized that there were many more videos which could be used in the classroom. I came across videos which amounted to a taped lecture. People had taped themselves explaining a concept or idea. For example, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zln5sxVp-D0 is a lecture of a professor explaining reflexive verbs in Spanish. This could be useful for a student at home who missed class or would like to hear a concept explained one more time or in different words, but I was not looking for lectures. I wanted videos to enhance my teaching. After more searching, I found a few more gems:
Simulations and Examples: There are many great simulations that teachers could not easily show students. For example, a video of the effects of a ping pong ball hitting a floor of set mouse traps at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfLMcah_nLQ. This is an excellent demonstration of exponential growth.
SONGS AND DITTIES:
Check out "Animaniac's video of Wakko's Famous 50 State Capitols" at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNUDDaEOvuY. It is cute, entertaining, and helpful for memorizing the state capitols. There is also a neat clip called "Biology Cell Rap" at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRrBzCipSqM. Videos of this type can be a great tool to help students memorize concepts.
PROFESSIONAL EDUCATIONAL VIDEOS:
Save your school money by using the online version, or find out-of-print productions. For example, the School House Rock cartoons that I grew up with on Saturday morning television can be found on YouTube, including "How a Bill Becomes a Law" at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEJL2Uuv-oQ, "Interjections" and others, including my personal favorite, "Conjunction Junction".
DRILL AND REPETITION:
"Learn Multiplication Facts to Music" at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3jMyiiJNsg puts the multiplication facts to music, showing each fact for 1.07 seconds. It could be used as another way to reinforce the memorization of multiplication facts.
VIDEO TRAVELOGUES:
There are many short videos documenting the landmarks and highlights of cities and countries. Some are homemade documentaries of trips; others are more polished like "London in Less Than Two Minutes" at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVsF7Mxsth4. Your class can take a fieldtrip without ever leaving the classroom.
HOW-TO AND DIY:
This is one of YouTube's categories for videos. It includes videos of artists sketching, cooks creating culinary masterpieces, and much more. Check http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLiNQisFUzk for an interesting video on a family making maple syrup.
Another possible use of YouTube and other video sharing websites is to assign students their own video to be posted. An example of a school video assignment is "English 12 – Grammar" at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPbjXHBm37A.
Take note of the following cautions: First, communicate well with your students' parents. You should have the appropriate parental consent forms before putting any student's image or work on the Internet. Second, screen any video prior to use in the classroom. Not everything that I found was good or acceptable for classroom use due to language or content.
Another useful video sharing site is http://www.teachertube.com/. It does not have the volume of videos on YouTube, but posts have a greater chance of being useful in the classroom since they are geared for educational purposes. So go ahead, scrounge the Internet for supplementary classroom videos. See what you can find to enhance your teaching!
Valorie Zonnefeld is a teacher at Western Christian High School in Hull, IA.