Most Popular Posts of the Year - #3, 47 Alternatives to YouTube

Like a lot of other people are, I'm taking this week to relax a bit and do some things that I haven't had time for lately. Therefore, all this week I'm rewinding the year with the 25 most-read posts of the year. I hope that those of you who are also on vacation this week, enjoy every moment of it. See you (virtually) in the New Year. 

Some excellent educational content can be found on YouTube. However, many teachers cannot access YouTube in their classrooms. That is why I originally wrote what became one of the most popular posts to ever appear on Free Technology for Teachers, 30+ Alternatives to YouTube. That post is now fourteen months old and I've come across more alternatives in that time. Also in that time span some of the resources on the list have shut down. So it's time to update the list.

1. School Tube is a website dedicated to the sharing of videos created by students and teachers. School Tube allows teachers and schools to create their own channels for sharing their students' works. School Tube also provides excellent how-to resources, copyright-friendly media, and lesson plans for using video in the classroom.

2. Teacher Tube has been around for a while now, but I still run into teachers who have not heard of it. Teacher Tube provides user generated videos for teachers by teachers. Many of the videos on Teacher Tube have teachers sharing lesson plans in action. Some videos on Teacher Tube are simply inspirational. And other videos don't have teachers or students in them, but contain educational lessons none the less.

3. Teachers.tv is a UK- based website of videos for teachers and about teaching. Teachers.tv provides hundreds of videos available for free download. On Teachers.tv there are videos for all grade levels and content areas. Teachers.tv also has videos about teaching methods and practices.

4. Next Vista is a nonprofit, advertising-free video sharing site run by Google Certified Teacher Rushton Hurley. Next Vista has three video categories. The Light Bulbs category is for videos that teach you how to do something and or provides an explanation of a topic. The Global Views video category contains videos created to promote understanding of cultures around the world. The Seeing Service video category highlights the work of people who are working to make a difference in the lives of others. Watch this interview I did with Rushton to learn more about Next Vista.

5. Academic Earth is a video depot for individual lectures and entire courses from some of the top universities in the United States. Visitors to Academic Earth will find lectures and courses from Yale, MIT, Berkeley, Harvard, Princeton, and Stanford.

6. Snag Films and its companion site Snag Learning are great places to watch full length documentaries from producers like National Geographic for free. Snag Learning provides a catalog of educational films that are accompanied by classroom discussion questions.

Read the rest of the list here.

What's New at Watch Know Learn

I was recently contacted by the good folks at Watch Know, a great alternative to YouTube, with some updates about their services. The first change I noticed was that Watch Know is now rebranded as Watch Know Learn.

Watch Know Learn is available in English, Spanish, and Mandarin. Watch Know Learn has aligned more than 6,000 videos to Common Core standards. And Watch Know Learn is open to editing of pages by registered users. As a confirmed register user you can add videos to grade level and subject area pages.

The most promising new aspect of Watch Know Learn is Watch Know Learn Classrooms. Watch Know Learn Classrooms will allow teachers to create their own classroom pages of videos. Teachers can pick their own subdomains for Watch Know Learn Classrooms. For example, I could create a Watch Know Learn Classroom at mrbyrne.watchknowlearn.org and send my students to that page to watch the educational videos I've selected for them. You can see an example of a Watch Know Learn Classroom here. Watch Know Learn Classrooms should be a great tool for teachers, however I was unable to create a classroom when I  tried early this morning. I even resorted to following the directions in their tutorial video and I couldn't get my classroom going. Hopefully, that issue is resolved quickly.

Learn more about Watch Know Learn in the video below.


Applications for Education
Watch Know Learn is already used by thousands of educators everyday. The best part of Watch Know Learn right now is the organization of the catalog of videos. Rather than randomly searching a video sharing site, you can quickly select a subject and grade level to find videos appropriate for your classroom. And many of the videos on Watch Know Learn are not from YouTube so if you work in a school that blocks YouTube, you can still access useful online videos.

Video - The Tell Tale Heart

This post is for my colleague Pam who is teaching a lesson about The Tell Tale Heart this week.


Applications for Education
Anyone that teaches short stories as part of their curriculum should be aware of the plethora of videos about those stories available on sites like YouTube and Teacher Tube.

On a related note, if YouTube is blocked at your school you may want to try one of these 47 Alternatives to YouTube.

YouTube Policy Myths Clarified

This morning on their official blog YouTube posted a list of nine common myths about YouTube policies. It's an informative list that I'd encourage you to view and perhaps review with any of your students that are posting content to YouTube.

One myth that I wish they had included in the list regards downloading of content from YouTube. From my reading and research it seems that you should only download works that have been labeled for that purpose such those labeled with a Creative Commons license. Of course, there are plenty of tools out there on the web for downloading videos from YouTube, a quick Google search will yield plenty of links to tools for that purpose.

YouTube Teachers - Ideas for Using Videos in Your Classroom

YouTube Teachers is a new YouTube channel launched today by YouTube itself. The purpose of YouTube Teachers is to inform teachers about the many ways that they can use videos in their classrooms. YouTube Teacher features video-based lesson plan suggestions, suggested playlists for a variety of content areas, and suggestions for creating your own videos with students like this set of "choose your own adventure" videos.

Applications for Education
While YouTube Teachers won't, on its own, fix the problem of access to it being restricted in many schools it could help show some decision-makers the educational uses of YouTube in the classroom. And if you are able to access YouTube in your classroom, YouTube Teachers could be a good source of lesson ideas for you.

12 Useful YouTube Accessories for Teachers and Students

If you can access it in your school, YouTube has a ton of useful educational content. Here are ten tools that can make using YouTube in your classroom a better experience for everyone.

Removing Related Content and Banner Advertisements.

A Cleaner YouTube is a browser extension for Chrome, Firefox, and Safari. Once installed A Cleaner YouTube allows you to display YouTube videos without any of the "related videos," comments, or display advertising. There are other tools that do the same thing, but what makes A Cleaner YouTube different is that not only can you display videos without the related materials, but you can also search YouTube without viewing any of the "related videos," comments, suggested videos, or advertisements.

View Pure is a simple little tool that strips way all of the distractions of related videos, comments, and promoted videos. To use View Pure just copy the link of a video into the "purifier," click purify, and your video will be displayed on a blank white background. You can also install the View Pure bookmarklet to accomplish the same goal.

SafeShare.tv makes it possible to view YouTube videos without displaying the related videos and associated comments. To use SafeShare.tv simply copy the url of a YouTube video and paste it into SafeShare.tv. SafeShare also offers browser bookmarklet that eliminates the need to copy and paste links.

Quietube is a handy little browser extension that removes all the clutter from YouTube allowing you to view only your selected video. Quietube removes all advertising, sidebar content, comments, and ratings. Installing Quietube requires nothing more than dragging the Quietube button to your toolbard. Then anytime that you're on YouTube click the Quietube button to remove all of the clutter and just watch your selected video. Quietube works for Viddler and Vimeo videos too.

Tools for Cutting and Remixing YouTube Videos
Disclaimer: Some of these tools might be interpreted as a violation of YouTube's terms of service. I'm not a lawyer so I'll let you interpret the T.O.S. for yourself and determine if you should use these tools in your school.

TubeChop gives you the ability to clip a section from any YouTube video and share it. This could be useful if there is a section of long YouTube video that you want to share with your students. One such instance could be if you want to show students studying public speaking a section of commencement address as a model.

Splicd is a service that lets users select and share a segment of a YouTube video. Splicd is a simple and easy service to use. To use Splicd all you have to do is select a video from YouTube, copy the video's url into Splicd, then enter the start and end times of the video segment you wish to watch. This service will be particularly useful for those times that you want to share only a part of a long video. Click here to see Splicd in action. This tool is no longer online.

If you made mix tapes in the 80's, the concept of Drag On Tape will be familiar to you. Drag On Tape makes it easy to string together a series of YouTube videos and or sections of YouTube videos. Create your mix tape of videos just launch the Drag On Tape editor, enter a search term for videos, then drag videos on to the Drag On Tape timeline. You enter searches and drag videos as many times as you like. To trim video timings and string videos together just match them up on the timeline editor. Drag On Tape allows you to collaborate with others on a mix.

SnipSnip.it is a new service that allows you to easily clip a section from a YouTube video and share that section with others. To use SnipSnip.it  just grab the link to a YouTube video, paste it into SnipSnip.it, and then enter the start and end times for the section of video you want to share. After you've completed those steps SnipSnip.it will generate a link and an embed code that will play just the section of video you selected. This tool is no longer online.

If you've ever shown a YouTube video in your classroom and wanted to show just a portion of it for students to discuss, you know the inconvenience of trying to skip to the right starting point. Embed Plus addresses that problem and others. Embed Plus allows you to start a video at any point you specify. You can also use Embed Plus to skip scenes in a video, play it in slow motion, zoom into an area of a video, and annotate a video. The annotation feature of Embed Plus is a nice complement to the real-time reactions feature offered by Embed Plus. Real-time reactions pulls in Twitter and YouTube comments about your chosen video. The annotation feature lets you comment on specific parts of a video. Your annotations can include links that you insert.

Watch2gether is a neat site through which you can watch YouTube videos and host text chats about them at the same time. It is really quite easy to use Watch2gether. To get started enter a nickname for yourself (it could be your real first name) then search for a video or enter the url of a video that you have previously bookmarked. When you have found the video you want a chat column will be present on the right side of your browser. You can invite others to chat with you by sending them the url assigned to your chat. Together you can watch a video and discuss it.

Editing Tools Within YouTube
YouTube has a couple of handy editing tools built into it. You do have to have an account to use these tools.


You can also use the annotation features in YouTube to create "choose your own adventure" videos. The directions for doing that can be found here.

10 Common Challenges We'll Face This Fall - Challenge #3: Differentiation

Image Credit: Nickwheeleroz

One of my most popular presentations, the one that I'm most frequently asked to give, is 10 Common Challenges Facing Educators. When giving this presentation I outline challenges that classroom teachers often face and present some resources and strategies for addressing those challenges. In preparation for the new school year I've created a series of blog posts based on my presentation. Today's post is about some of my favorite resources for finding differentiated reference materials.

Video
It was during a classroom viewing of a reel-to-reel movie (yes, I'm just barely old enough to have experienced those an all of their frequently jamming glory) that I realized that I really enjoyed the stories of history. It wasn't until much later after my freshman year of college that I decided to really study history. Fast forward to 2011 and there is 35 hours of video content uploaded to YouTube every minute. The point is, video is a popular and engaging medium. Unfortunately, many schools block all access to YouTube in classrooms. If you find yourself in that situation, here are 47 Alternatives to Using YouTube in the Classroom.

Podcasts, Open Courses, and Audio Books
No longer is access to the world's most highly regarded scholars limited to those who can afford an Ivy League education. Through iTunes U and other channels like Yale's Open Courses anyone can watch and listen to Ivy League lectures. In many cases the hand-outs and assignments are available to accompany open lectures.

Books Should Be Free provides audio recordings of hundreds of books in the public domain. Recordings hosted on Books Should Be Free are available for online listening or downloading to your computer and or iPod.

Books and Other Reading Materials
One of my favorite resources for expanding my students' reading choices is Google Books. With Google Books I can create and share virtual shelves of books with each of my classes. I typically will do this when giving students a Civil War reading assignment. Our school's library only has about 30 books on the Civil War that are appropriate for the assignment. To offer more reading choices, I search Google Books for books that can be downloaded in their entirety from Google Books.

This year Google added a reading level filter to their search engine, but their rankings of reading material by "basic," "intermediate," and "advanced" makes you wishing for a little more refinement. For more refinement of search results according to reading level give Twurdy a try.

Best of 2011 So Far - VuSafe

Now that my school year is over I'm taking a short fly fishing vacation. The posts for the rest of the week highlight my favorite resources of 2011 so far.

VuSafe provides a place for you to find, organize, and watch videos in a secure, filtered environment. VuSafe offers a password protected environment in which you can post videos for your students to watch without exposing them to the comments, advertisements, and automatically generated related videos found on YouTube. As a teacher you can search for videos either through VuSafe or directly on YouTube. When you find the video you want, you can tag it by content and grade level and add it to your VuSafe page. Watch the video below to learn more about VuSafe.


VuSafe is currently in beta and you must apply to get an account.

Applications for Education
VuSafe could be a great tool for schools that would like to open up access to YouTube but don't because of objections to the advertisements, comments, and related videos that accompany the videos.

YouTube Launches Copyright School

Today, YouTube launched a redesigned copyright center and a brand new Copyright School. These new services are designed to educate YouTube users about what is and is not a copyright violation. According to their announcement, users who have a video flagged for copyright violations will be required to attend Copyright School before being able to upload more content. Copyright School is essentially a video explanation of copyright accompanied by a series of questions. You can watch the video below.

VuSafe - A Safe Way to View YouTube in Schools

Whenever I go to a conference I like to take an informal poll about access to YouTube. I've never had much more than half of the respondents say that they could access YouTube in their classrooms. While there are plenty of alternatives to YouTube sometimes the only place you can find the clip you want is on YouTube. Larry Ferlazzo may have found a solution to that problem. That solution is called VuSafe.

VuSafe provides a place for you to find, organize, and watch videos in a secure, filtered environment. VuSafe offers a password protected environment in which you can post videos for your students to watch without exposing them to the comments, advertisements, and automatically generated related videos found on YouTube. As a teacher you can search for videos either through VuSafe or directly on YouTube. When you find the video you want, you can tag it by content and grade level and add it to your VuSafe page. Watch the video below to learn more about VuSafe.


VuSafe is currently in beta and you must apply to get an account.

Applications for Education
VuSafe could be a great tool for schools that would like to open up access to YouTube but don't because of objections to the advertisements, comments, and related videos that accompany the videos.

DNA Tube - Sharing Science Videos

DNA Tube is a nice site for watching and sharing videos about topics in science. While most of the videos seem to be about topics related to biology there are also videos about chemistry, physics, and computer science. The videos are a mix of animated, narrated demonstrations and lecture videos. You can search DNA Tube using keywords or browse the categories to find videos. The videos can be embedded into your blog or website and if you register on the site you can download videos.


H/T to Michael Zimmer for the link.

Applications for Education
DNA Tube could be a great resource for science teachers and their students. The lecture videos could appeal to people who want to get in-depth information about a topic or series of topics. The shorter demonstration videos could be useful supplements to a classroom lecture or lesson.

3 Clutter-free Ways to Display YouTube Videos

I'm slowly starting to hear more instances of schools allowing teachers and students to access YouTube in their classrooms. Last week a reader contacted me for suggestions about displaying YouTube videos in her classroom without accidentally having an inappropriate "related video" show up on the screen. What follows are the three resources I recommend for displaying YouTube without the sidebar advertisements and related videos.

View Pure is a simple little tool that strips way all of the distractions of related videos, comments, and promoted videos. To use View Pure just copy the link of a video into the "purifier," click purify, and your video will be displayed on a blank white background. You can also install the View Pure bookmarklet to accomplish the same goal. Of the three tools in this post, ViewPure is the one that I use in my classroom.

Quietube is a handy little browser extension that removes all the clutter from YouTube allowing you to view only your selected video. Quietube removes all advertising, sidebar content, comments, and ratings. Installing Quietube requires nothing more than dragging the Quietube button to your toolbard. Then anytime that you're on YouTube click the Quietube button to remove all of the clutter and just watch your selected video. Quietube works for Viddler and Vimeo videos too.

SafeShare.tv makes it possible to view YouTube videos without displaying the related videos and associated comments. To use SafeShare.tv simply copy the url of a YouTube video and paste it into SafeShare.tv. SafeShare also offers browser bookmarklet that eliminates the need to copy and paste links.

Here's what SafeShare.tv looks like in action.

Holiday Edition: 47 Alternatives to YouTube

I'm taking a few days off to relax and enjoy the holidays. Just as I did at this time last year, for the next three days I'll be re-running the most popular posts of the year. I'll be back on Monday morning with fresh content. Happy Holidays everyone!

Some excellent educational content can be found on YouTube. However, many teachers cannot access YouTube in their classrooms. That is why I originally wrote what became one of the most popular posts to ever appear on Free Technology for Teachers, 30+ Alternatives to YouTube. That post is now fourteen months old and I've come across more alternatives in that time. Also in that time span some of the resources on the list have shut down. So it's time to update the list.

1. School Tube is a website dedicated to the sharing of videos created by students and teachers. School Tube allows teachers and schools to create their own channels for sharing their students' works. School Tube also provides excellent how-to resources, copyright-friendly media, and lesson plans for using video in the classroom.

2. Teacher Tube has been around for a while now, but I still run into teachers who have not heard of it. Teacher Tube provides user generated videos for teachers by teachers. Many of the videos on Teacher Tube have teachers sharing lesson plans in action. Some videos on Teacher Tube are simply inspirational. And other videos don't have teachers or students in them, but contain educational lessons none the less.

3. Teachers.tv is a UK- based website of videos for teachers and about teaching. Teachers.tv provides hundreds of videos available for free download. On Teachers.tv there are videos for all grade levels and content areas. Teachers.tv also has videos about teaching methods and practices.

4. Next Vista is a nonprofit, advertising-free video sharing site run by Google Certified Teacher Rushton Hurley. Next Vista has three video categories. The Light Bulbs category is for videos that teach you how to do something and or provides an explanation of a topic. The Global Views video category contains videos created to promote understanding of cultures around the world. The Seeing Service video category highlights the work of people who are working to make a difference in the lives of others. Watch this interview I did with Rushton to learn more about Next Vista.

5. Academic Earth is a video depot for individual lectures and entire courses from some of the top universities in the United States. Visitors to Academic Earth will find lectures and courses from Yale, MIT, Berkeley, Harvard, Princeton, and Stanford.

6. Snag Films and its companion site Snag Learning are great places to watch full length documentaries from producers like National Geographic for free. Snag Learning provides a catalog of educational films that are accompanied by classroom discussion questions.

Read the rest of list of 47 Alternatives to YouTube here. 

Miro Video Converter & Miro 3.5

Miro, the open source video player, recently released version 3.5 and the new Miro Video Converter. Miro 3.5 includes a media converter that allows you to convert videos into the best formats for display on iPhones and Android devices. Miro 3.5 also updated subtitle display to give you options for the best display for you. If you don't want to download Miro 3.5 you can choose to download just the Miro Video Converter to convert files to formats for iPhone and Android display.

If you're unfamiliar with Miro, watch the video below for a brief introduction and overview.



Applications for Education
Miro is a great way to download videos to use offline. If you work in a school that blocks most video sites, Miro is a good application to have installed on your laptop. You can download videos within your Miro player in a place where you can get on the Internet and then play them back at any time regardless of Internet availability. The mainstream media channels on Miro provide thousands of videos relevant to all content areas. 

YTTM - Search for Videos by Year

YTTM (which we're led to believe means YouTube Time Machine) is a new service that allows you to search for videos by year and genre. The premise of YTTM is simple; select a genre, select a year, watch a video. Want see a television commercial from 1975? Select the "commercials" filter then move the timeline slider to 1975. If you do that you'll see this commercial for the Buick Riviera. Want to see a clip of Michael Jordan in his prime? Select the "sports" filter then move the timeline slider to a year in the early 90's.

YTTM is still in alpha mode so you might run into some bugs or you might not find a video that matches every criteria you select. That said, I really like what YTTM is trying to accomplish.

Applications for Education
YTTM could be a fantastic resource for history teachers and their students. YTTM could be used to find clips of news reports about important events in 20th Century history. Teaching a lesson on the development of advertising, media, or propaganda? YTTM could help you find video clips to use in that lesson.

Here are some related items that may be of interest to you:
47 Alternatives to Using YouTube in the Classroom
3 Ways to Access Khan Academy Without YouTube
Watch WatchKnow Without YouTube

Useful YouTube Channels for Educators

I usually don't write posts about the lists that other people have made, but I'm making an exception for a list written by Online College Courses. Online College Courses has created a list of 100 useful YouTube channels for teachers. Most of the usual suspects like TED, PBS, and National Geographic are on the list, but there are quite a few that I hadn't seen before such as Garland Science, Witness, and Craft. 100 Incredibly Useful YouTube Channels for Teachers is divided into four parts; general education, science & math, history & world issues, visual & performing arts.

Applications for Education
If you're fortunate enough to be able to access YouTube in your classroom, 100 Incredibly Useful YouTube Channels for Teachers could be a good place to find video content to complement your instruction.

Here are some related items that may be of interest to you:
3 Ways to Access Khan Academy Without YouTube
47 Alternatives to Using YouTube in the Classroom

Snag Learning Adds More Films

Snag Learning, the education division of Snag Films that launched in August, contacted me today to say that they now have 275 films in their collection. Snag Learning offers access to most of the same films available on Snag Films. Snag Learning categorizes documentaries by grade level and content area. Additionally, Snag Learning offers a series of guiding questions for each film. You can embed previews of each video into your blog, but you have to watch the full-length versions on Snag Learning.


Applications for Education
Snag Learning is a good resource for teachers who would like to use high-quality documentaries in their classrooms, but don't have the funds to purchase DVDs. Snag Learning also solves the problem that arises when you show a documentary to a class when a student is absent. Rather than having to lend out a valuable copy of the DVD you can direct the student returning from an absence to watch the film on Snag Learning. 


If you would like some other good sources of educational videos, check out
47 Alternatives to Using YouTube in the Classroom.

Watch WatchKnow Without YouTube

One of the great things about the Internet is that new services are always appearing and existing services are always trying to improve. Try as I might, I can't keep up with all of them. That's why I was wrong when I left WatchKnow off of my list of 47 Alternatives to Using YouTube in the Classroom. I originally left it off my list because I mistakenly believed that WatchKnow was still relying on YouTube to serve videos. Over the weekend someone from WatchKnow corrected me by pointing out that there are over 4,000 videos available through WatchKnow that are not served by YouTube. Click the "classroom accessible" button to search for videos that are not hosted by YouTube.

Applications for Education

WatchKnow provides a good resource for locating educational videos that you can use in your classroom. You can search WatchKnow by content area categories and subcategories.

Here are some related items that may be of interest to you:
3 Ways to Access Khan Academy Without YouTube
Hundreds of Reviewed Online Mathematics Resources
Downloading Videos for Use In the Classroom

Mr. Robb's Math - Hundreds of Math Videos

Mr. Robb's Math is a YouTube channel containing 555 videos produced by high school mathematics teacher Bradley Robb. Mr. Robb's videos explain and demonstrate solving problems in Algebra I, Algebra II, and Calculus. Most of the videos are recorded while Mr. Robb is teaching. You can find the videos on the Mr. Robb's Math YouTube channel or visit Mr. Robb's website WowMath to find the videos organized in sequence with accompanying screenshots.

In the video below Mr. Robb shows viewers how to solve one step equations.

Thanks to Scott McLeod for sharing this useful resource.

Here are some related items that may be of interest to you:

Khan Academy - Educating the World via YouTube

47 Alternatives to Using YouTube in the Classroom

Week in Review - Most Popular Posts

It's Saturday morning in Maine and time for another week in review post. I know that this week was the first week of school for a lot of folks, I hope you had a great first week.

Here are this week's most popular posts:
1. 10 Ways to Get Free Money & Classroom Supplies
2. Picturing America - Teaching History With Art
3. 131 Tips for New Teachers
4. How to Create a Facebook Group for Your Classes
5. How to Set Up a Group Blog in Posterous
6. 47 Alternative to Using YouTube in the Classroom
7. Google Family Safety Center - A Resource for Parents

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