OK so the last post I talked about how to clean up a Youtube Video for your class viewing (removal of ads and banners). This time I am going to feature two sites that you can use as an alternative to Youtube. Sure Youtube is the place I go to first when looking for videos, but there are other options out there with even more material layer into your lesson.
The first one I am going to discuss is Teacher Tube. What I first liked about Teacher Tube is that it looks similar to Youtube. It made me feel a little less intimidated. You don't have to sign up, but I did. Simple to do. You can sign up as a student or teacher. Not only does it offer videos, it also has audio, photos, and documents that can be shared. Some of the tabs like collections and profiles I am not sure the use, but I did find the blog button that leads to some very informative blogs about education. This site claims to be the safest education video community for teachers, students, and parents. I explored several videos and found most of the to be useful and educational. Some were just for fun videos teachers did for their students. The great thing is that I did not find a single ad or banner on any of the videos. Now the site has a few ads, but most are education related and I found not one to be offensive.
The second site I want to tell you about is Nextvista.org. Next Vista For Learning. This site houses thousands of free videos for teachers and students to use in the classroom. You can also submit your own videos to be considered for the site. You don't have to sign up to use the sight. This site seemed a bit more limited than Teacher Tub. The first topic I submitted for search was "adverbs" and no videos came back. The second topic I submitted for search was "Abraham Lincoln" and only one 55 second video came back. The Abraham Lincoln video was informative, but I was limited on my choices (1). I searched a different way. I looked on the right sidebar tab and found under the banner "Lightbulbs" a few topic choices. I clicked on history and culture and was led to several videos. But as I paged through them I found several that had to do with California and Hawaii. Sure there were other videos about history, but more commonly with these to states and their history. After doing some further research, I found that the creator of the sight was from California and must have piloted a lot of the videos for that region of the country. None the less there were several videos that were not about California and Hawaii that could be used in the classroom.
Recap of the sites:
Teacher Tube:
3 pros
3 cons
Next Vista For Learning
3 Pros
3 Cons
The first one I am going to discuss is Teacher Tube. What I first liked about Teacher Tube is that it looks similar to Youtube. It made me feel a little less intimidated. You don't have to sign up, but I did. Simple to do. You can sign up as a student or teacher. Not only does it offer videos, it also has audio, photos, and documents that can be shared. Some of the tabs like collections and profiles I am not sure the use, but I did find the blog button that leads to some very informative blogs about education. This site claims to be the safest education video community for teachers, students, and parents. I explored several videos and found most of the to be useful and educational. Some were just for fun videos teachers did for their students. The great thing is that I did not find a single ad or banner on any of the videos. Now the site has a few ads, but most are education related and I found not one to be offensive.
The second site I want to tell you about is Nextvista.org. Next Vista For Learning. This site houses thousands of free videos for teachers and students to use in the classroom. You can also submit your own videos to be considered for the site. You don't have to sign up to use the sight. This site seemed a bit more limited than Teacher Tub. The first topic I submitted for search was "adverbs" and no videos came back. The second topic I submitted for search was "Abraham Lincoln" and only one 55 second video came back. The Abraham Lincoln video was informative, but I was limited on my choices (1). I searched a different way. I looked on the right sidebar tab and found under the banner "Lightbulbs" a few topic choices. I clicked on history and culture and was led to several videos. But as I paged through them I found several that had to do with California and Hawaii. Sure there were other videos about history, but more commonly with these to states and their history. After doing some further research, I found that the creator of the sight was from California and must have piloted a lot of the videos for that region of the country. None the less there were several videos that were not about California and Hawaii that could be used in the classroom.
Recap of the sites:
Teacher Tube:
3 pros
- No ads on the videos
- similar video set up to Youtube
- Lots of variety with their videos/ categorized
3 cons
- Confusing Banner of options at the top
- Need to create an account
- Still has ads up and down the sides of the website that can be distracting to you and students
Next Vista For Learning
3 Pros
- Videos encouraged to be submitted by students
- All videos licensed under Creative Commons
- Absolutely NO ADS
3 Cons
- Search options are limited
- Video quality can be low
- Great if you live on the West Coast