Thing 20 - Online Video & Audio Resources

1. I explored School Tube to find videos on cyber-bullying. I do a unit on netiquette and internet safety and I  incorporate videos from Teacher Tube so I decided to explore School Tube. I have explained already that I use Moodle in my classroom. I have links in Moodle to the videos in Teacher Tube. Each student is assigned a pair of headphones so they can watch and listen to the videos at their own pace. After they watch the videos, we have a forum set up where they "discuss" the videos. I will ask them a few questions that they need to reply to and, also, respond to other students' posts. At first, this was quite exciting for the students, but now that they have access to YouTube, watching videos is a part of their everyday life. I still feel like the students learn and absorb the material better when they can watch and listen at their own pace. I have the links available to them at all times, so they can always re-watch videos at their leisure.

2. The features of School Tube are quite simple. The students have a search box where they can type in keywords to search for a particular video, channel or school. Once you find the video, there are options on the side for the "You May Also Like" section. I feel that is helpful because the searching is done for you and you can preview the suggested videos. All the results were relevant to what I was searching and they are safe and teacher-approved.

3. The strengths of video resources compared to audio is that with the video the students get the whole picture and are able to watch what is happening. With audio, they are hearing something and they need to visualize what is happening. Some students are not good at visualizing things and get really distracted and frustrated. On the other hand, there is an advantage to just incorporating audio because what each student pictures in their mind will be different and unique and they can think outside the box. I have saved several samples of previous assignments that students have created. For some assignments, I allow the students to view and use the samples to help them get started. On other occasions, I don't allow them to use samples because I feel it stifles their creativity. Many students have the ability to be really creative and it is important as a teacher to foster that ability.  So depending on what outcome a teacher hopes to achieve would depend on if that teacher wants to incorporate video, audio, or a combination.