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.
7. How Stuff Works is a video site that I have spent hours exploring at times because I was sucked in by the quality of the educational content.
8. Viddler is a service that I enjoy using because of its integrated in-video commenting system. Viddler also allows you to record videos directly to the site through your webcam. I use Viddler to post messages to my students on my classroom blow when I know that I'm going to be out of the classroom.
9. One of the first things you'll notice about Vimeo is the image quality of the videos. The image and sound quality of the videos on Vimeo is far superior to many of those found on YouTube. Vimeo has all of the sharing options found on YouTube, but in a much cleaner and easier to use interface.
10. Blip.tv aims to provide video creators with a high-quality service for sharing their web shows. The content on Blip.tv tends not to include "cat" videos and "hey, Mom, watch this!" content.
11. Dot Sub is full of user generated content that is subtitled into many different languages. I had a hearing impaired student a couple of years ago and Dot Sub was very useful for both of us.
12. CNN Student News is a daily web show highlighting a handful of stories. The stories covered by CNN Student News range from traditional serious news topics to how-to stories appealing mostly to students to light and fun stories. As a social studies teacher every week I find at least a couple of stories from CNN Student News that I can work into my curriculum. CNN Student News provides printable maps and a daily news quiz to go along with each episode.
13. If you're interested in showing your students the inner workings of Congressional proceedings, visit the C-Span video library.
14. To give my students a little more global perspective on the news than CNN Student News provides, I will use Reuters Video Index.
15. Hulu, a joint venture of NBC and News Corps, offers high quality video of television shows, movies, and old news broadcasts. In the past I've featured Hulu collections of NOVA programming and NBC News Time Capsules.
16. TED Talks are a great source of inspirational, thought-provoking, educational, and entertaining presentations given by some of the world's leading experts on a wide variety of topics. Check out this list of 15 TED Talks for Teachers.
17. Big Think is a video website containing expert commentary on a wide range of issues and ideas. The experts featured on Big Think really are experts in their fields. Harvard Professors, editors of major news publications, politicians, and other recognized authorities offer their commentary on various issues and ideas. Registered users of Big Think can comment on and discuss the videos or post an idea to have others discuss.
18. Untamed Science offers a collection of videos and podcasts about biology and Earth science topics.
19. FORA.tv is similar to Big Think in that it presents videos relevant to topics in the news and in the public conscious today. The videos feature well known personalities and experts talking about the important issues of the day. You will also videos of debates, press conferences, and public meetings.
20. PopTech is a conference similar to TED that features leading experts from a variety of fields sharing their knowledge and passions. Videos of the presentations can be found on the PopTech website.
21. iCue, presented by NBC News, features videos about history and current events. There is a capability to connect with other students to discuss topics and learn together. There are also quizzes and learning activities associated with many of the videos.
22. Current TV, the cable network started in part by Al Gore, features user generated content about a diverse array of cultural and current news topics.
23. PBS Video offers videos from the most popular shows including Frontline, NOVA, Nature, and American Experience. For the younger crowd, PBS Kids offers videos as well. If you're not sure what you're looking for, but you think PBS has an appropriate video you can search the PBS Video center by topic.
24 & 25. The History Channel and the Discovery Channel both offer a lot of content similar to and, in some cases, identical to that which is found on their respective television networks.
26. In addition to resources for learning languages, LangMedia offers a section called Culture Talk. LangMedia Culture Talk is a collection of video clips of interviews and discussions with people from many different countries, of different ages and from different walks of life. The videos are intended to give viewers insight into the cultures of peoples around the globe. Some of the videos feature English speakers while other videos do not. Those videos that are not in English are accompanied by a written English transcript.
27. The USGS Multimedia Gallery contains large collections of educational videos, animations, podcasts, and image galleries. You can search each collection by topic and or keyword tags. RSS feeds are available for each gallery.
28. PupilTube is a source of user-generated how-to videos. PupilTube hosts videos in thirteen categories. Some of the videos visitors to PupilTube can find include how to calculate compound interest, how to learn common Spanish phrases, and how to protect yourself from credit card fraud.
29. MonkeeSee.com is a collection of videos featuring experts sharing knowledge and how-to tips about the topic of their fields of expertise. MonkeySee.com, like many other video websites, has channels or categories. The channel most useful to teachers and students is the Careers & Education channel.
30. Europa Film Treasures is an online archive of classic European films. The films in the archive can be viewed for free on Europa Film Treasures. You can search the archives by dates, genre, country of origin, production method, and director. Along with each film in the collection Europa Film Treasures provides some background information such as production method, storyline, director's bio, and information about the the people appearing on camera.
31. Clip Syndicate is a provider of professionally produced news videos from television stations and other media outlets around the United States. Clip Syndicate also provides videos from the Associated Press. All of the videos on Clip Syndicate are categorized into 86 different channels. Users of Clip Syndicate can embed into their blogs one video or an entire channel of videos.
32. Explore.org produces and hosts high-quality documentary films and photographs. The films and images focus on exploring the world and the work of non-profit organizations around the world. The films and images are organized by location and by charitable and or environmental cause. Explore.org is funded in part by the Annenburg Foundation.
33. 22 Frames is a service that provides a central location for locating captioned videos for learning English and for Internet users who have hearing impairments. 22 Frames provides more than just captioned videos. For each video 22 Frames provides a list of idioms, slang words, and commonly mispronounced words in each video. 22 Frames tells viewers where each use of idioms, slang, and commonly mispronounced words appears in each video. Viewers can click on any of the words in the lists provided by 22 Frames to find a definition for each word and to find pronunciation tips.
34. I like websites whose names say exactly what they offers. Free Video Lectures is one of those sites. Free Video Lectures is a library of more than 18,000 video lectures from more than 700 courses offered by some of the world's top colleges and universities. The library of videos can be searched by subject and or university. The video sources are a mix of YouTube and other providers. Many of the videos are available for free download.
35. Kids Tube is a video sharing hosting and sharing site designed for hosting content produced by kids and content about kids. Kids Tube monitors all submissions and monitors comments left on videos. To encourage students to develop their videography skills, Kids Tube holds weekly videos submission contests. The contests are arranged around a theme and one winner is selected by the Kids Tube team.
36. ESL Basics is a site that provides short video vocabulary lessons for beginning and advanced ESL students. For teachers, ESL Basics has a small collection of suggestions and ideas for teaching ESL. ESL Basics is adding new content on a regular basis.
37. FedFlix, hosted by the Internet Archive, is a collection of nearly 2000 films produced by the US government during the 20th Century. The topics of these films range from presidential speeches to agricultural practices to public health and safety. Some films are instructional in nature, for example there is a film for police officers on how to arrest someone. Other films are more informative in nature and some films are flat-out propaganda films. All of the FedFlix films are in the public domain so feel free to reuse and remix them as you and your students desire. The films can be downloaded or viewed online. Films can also be embedded into your blog or website.
38. Art Babble is a video website designed and maintained by the Indianapolis Museum of Art. The purpose of Art Babble is to provide a place for people to learn about the creation of art, artists, and collections through quality video productions. Visitors to Art Babble will find videos related to many forms of and formats for art. Browse the video channels and you'll find videos covering a wide array of topics including abstract art, European Art and Design, African Art, graphic design, glass, sculpture, surrealism, and much more.
39. Math A Tube is a compilation of videos from a variety of users and other websites. Videos are categorized by mathematics topics and sub-topics. The videos demonstrate everything from basic addition through Geometry. The videos on Math A Tube are user-generated so some videos are better than others.
40. The Kids Know It Network is full of educational interactive games and movies intended for elementary school students. The Kids Know It Network hosts a number of animated videos explaining and demonstrating concepts from math, science, geography, and English. Each video starts with an introduction to a topic and is followed by a quiz. If a student gets less than 80% of the items correct they are prompted to start the video again.
41. The Futures Channel has come to the rescue of Math teachers who are constantly asked the question, "when are we ever going to use this?" On the Futures Channel there are many lesson plans and lesson ideas relating math (and other subjects) to current "real life" situations. And by "real life" the Futures Channel doesn't mean just converting recipes like my high school Algebra book did. Check out the Futures Channel today and stop answering the question, "when are we ever going to use this?" The Futures Channel isn't limited to just mathematics videos, you will also find videos for science, music, art, business, sports, and more.
42. The Biology Department at Davidson College has a large collection of videos and animations of cell biology processes. Most of the videos are in QuickTime format while most of the animations are GIF animations. The collection is divided into five categories; Movies of Cells, Movies of Cellular Calcium, Movies of Molecular Methods, Molecular Movies, and a miscellaneous category.
43. Wired Science has hundreds of videos addressing a variety of science and technology topics. In addition to the library of videos, Wired Science, has great articles and lists of science resources.
44. Test Toob is a free website where science teachers and science students can share videos of the experiments they conduct. The service is designed for use by middle schools and high schools. In addition to providing video sharing services, Test Toob offers suggestions for experiments that students can conduct.
45. Math TV offers an extensive collection of high quality mathematics tutorials. Math TV's video lessons cover basic mathematics and Algebra. Math TV videos are not easily embedded in other websites, but they are free and you can create your own individualized playlists.
46. Brightstorm is a provider of online study materials for mathematics as well as ACT and SAT preparation. The ACT and SAT preparation materials are not free, but the mathematics tutorials are free. The mathematics tutorials are videos featuring mathematics teachers explaining and demonstrating how to solve mathematics problems. There are tutorial videos covering Algebra, Geometry, Trigonometry, and Calculus.
47. The Week in Rap is produced by the same people that produce Flocabulary. Each Friday The Week In Rap posts a weekly news summary in the form of a rap music video. The videos cover stories from national and international politics as well as sports and entertainment news.
"Aerodynamically, the Bumble Bee shouldn't be able to fly, but the Bumble Bee doesn't know that, so it goes on flying anyway."
Wow....Now that is what I call a pocket full of resources!!!!!! This is my most "fav" post. :)
ReplyDeleteYes, Wow!! Love visual learning! I can't wait to use this resource.
ReplyDeleteI would have to agree anytime, as a tteacher we can give the students any other form of explanations besides us standing up in front of the board always makes for the possibility of something intresrting to occur.
ReplyDeleteThese are wonderful resources. I thought that The Week in Rap was an excellent way to teach kids about current issues and enhance their Language Arts skills in brainstorming. Also, the elementary kids recent poetry lessons will flourish, because they can utilize them in creating their own lyrics. The Kids Know It is beneficial because if students make less than an eighty percentile on their scores, they are prompted to try again. Practice makes perfect! CNN Student is a way to let our future leaders to be educated about what goes on in our world, process this information and comment on it in their own words. Self-expression should be important and valued... Combined they breed intelligence, confidence, and most importantly, happiness.
ReplyDeleteThe quick access to these video presentations really bring learning to life. Often times, students know about additional resources or educational videos.
ReplyDeleteAnother exciting thing about using these video and short clip presentations comes at the time of reviewing for a quiz or test. The students recall what we watched and repeat the information almost verbatim. Additionally, they often as to view the materials again, this reawakening the lessons learned.
Here is a link to a school's site that has about a hundred or so links to math games, which I have been using this semester in my classroom: http://classrooms.tacoma.k12.wa.us/stadium/eschlytter/index.php?section=links
ReplyDeleteAwesome. Thanks for the list of the sites. I did not know about them but will definitely use them. Now I do not feel as through I have to invent the wheel. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteIt's look like this post is very well searched about how a teacher can use the technology much effective in the classroom. I enjoyed this post and I am going to save it and check all these each sub-youtube teacher helper websites for much better classroom environment. Thanks Dr.
ReplyDeleteWow. These are some fantastic resources. Thank you for sharing. I can't wait to use art babble in the upcoming semester.
ReplyDeleteVery comprehensive list of helpful sites. It is always good to have extra resources when students do not understand a difficult concept or to present the material in a different way to begin with.
ReplyDeleteTeachertube is pretty good, we use it to get the kids worked up about multiplication.
ReplyDeleteWe must go to where the students are coming from. This generation is wired like no other before. I think we adults sometimes overlook this fundamental motivation of many of our students. These are great resources they would find interesting to use!
ReplyDeleteI very much enjoyed the teacher tube because anytime I have used posts from other site I end up with some message stating that the video has been removed. I had several grammar links that fell to the side because they were removed. I love the idea of several of the other posts because I love teaching cross content areas. A lot of times I will pull in math, science and history so the students can really see how everything fits together. This will allow me to access to even more content than I have had before. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteThis is great! I have gone to Region 20 for inservices on this. It's a great way to get students to pay attention to what you are covering.
ReplyDeleteIt is going to take some time to check out all of these sources. Would it be possible to get links to all of these sites sent to us via email or shared on google docs?
ReplyDeleteYou learn something new everyday.... i will have to check out math a tube, the futures channles and math t.v offers. thank you for the resources...
ReplyDeleteSo many resources right here.. All these can be applied for all subjects and great resource for all type of students and teachers as well. I use a few of these in my class and excited to explore more. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteSuch a plethora of resources gives us the opportunity as instructors to pull more than one rabbit out of our top hat for those kids that sometimes just don't catch the trick the first time.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate the suggestions in this post, I was hooked on the Bio games on the KidsKnowIt website, good tools for review
ReplyDeleteI appreciate the list of resources, I was hooked on the Bio games on kidsknowit.com site,great tool for review.
ReplyDeleteI HIGHLY recommend TEDTV, it is great! You will find excellent videos from experts and innovaters that will inspire both you and your students. I watch it all the time.
ReplyDeleteAs far as HULU is concerned, I have it as an App on the IPAD, but moreover as an app/station on my ROKU. ROKU cost $100 (1 time fee) and streams video via internet to your TV. Other stations include news channels like CNN and FOX News, EMarketing channel (how to use Facebook, twitter and relevant, new apps for phones/computers), even includes TED Talks, along with so many more great stations.
I'll be sure to check out the other resources on here! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for the resources. Another great news channel for the students is channel one news. It shows both national and world news. I show it to advisory pretty regularly and they engage in it very well.
ReplyDeleteI have used some of these teaching strategies but I have to admit I didn't think of many of these things. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteWOW I can't wait to start using some of these sites in my classroom......it's like a whole new world of information geared towards educating young children (for me at least....I haven't heard of most of these sites). Thanks!
ReplyDeleteI really like this post a lot, it has many great resources that we can all use. students are already so well accustom to the internet they'll welcome it with open arms.
ReplyDeleteI haven't yet explored all of these links, but Ted talks have been a favorite of mine for a while now. Another great research resource is stumble upon. It is very customizable and you can search specific topics. I would highly recommend it. Also, check out rsa animate, there are several great informative lectures on all sorts of topics.
ReplyDeleteA great way to go against the grain of just the usual youtube; seemingly too disorganized and mainstream. Something to look into. I was wondering if teachers could create their own tube or a SASICtube...
ReplyDeleteThank you for the resources!! These will be very helpful and something ALL students can relate to. Using resources like these in the classroom is a great way to keep students engaged.
ReplyDelete