YouTube in the Classroom

YouTube is one of the most popular websites on the planet...but are you using it in your classroom? If not, you should be!  There are MILLIONS of educational videos on YouTube to supplement your curriculum or you could be creating your own videos to publish to YouTube a la flipped classroom.

Edumemic.com gives four ways to use YouTube in the classroom:

  1. Bring in videos that show students a more fun side of the lesson.
  2. Create YouTube playlists as assignments or as recommended extra resources.
  3. Record class lessons or lectures and save them for future viewing (flipped classroom).
  4. Take it to the next level (crop, add commentary, include quizzes).
By having a Google account, you already have a YouTube account.  Go to YouTube.com and you should already be logged in.  You can search for content by subject area or specific lesson concepts.  Once you find something that pertains to what you are teaching, add it to a playlist.  You can create as many different playlists with as many different videos as you need.


If you find some videos that you think are really well done (Khan Academy and Crash Course are some good examples), subscribe to those channels and you will be notified when new content is uploaded.

"My channel" is where your created videos will show up if you choose to go that route.  Videos can be created in iMovie and uploaded to YouTube.  "Library" is where your playlists are located.




If you find that your videos are having trouble loading, here are two suggestions to try:

  1. Preload your video by pressing play then pausing it immediately, allowing the video to continue to load while paused.
  2. Change the quality of the video.  From the video, click on the gear, then Quality, then change it to 240p or 360p.
Next time your students are struggling with a concept or you want to extend their learning, consider doing so with a YouTube video.  You can show it in class, post the link in Google Classroom, or create your own video.  




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