TeacherTube: A YouTube for Educators

A while back, I posted a blog entry titled "Online Interactivity for Educators: A Teacher's Tour of YouTube [1]." Many people replied with comments, questions, suggestions, and so on.

A new site for educators, TeacherTube [2], takes the sharing, production, and community-building aspects of YouTube and offers an educator's version. According to TeacherTube’s founders, "We seek to fill a need for a more educationally focused, safe venue for teachers, schools, and home learners."

The site officially launched in March 2007 and is slowly but surely gaining popularity. I've been sharing it and working with teachers in various districts to learn to take advantage of this kind of opportunity. What a great place for us to upload short instructional videos -- or long ones; there's no limit on size files or video length. Want to know, for example, how to use the new free office-software suite Zoho? Click here [3].

Some technology-resource leaders in Henrico County, Virginia, have uploaded several fun videos primarily for use with their own teachers. Check this one [4] out that parodies The Blair Witch Project.

Would you like to know how to make large posters for your classroom using Microsoft Excel? Here's a tutorial [5].

I don't think it's at all meant to be a replacement for YouTube. Rather, it's a place that takes advantage of what uploaded, shared video offers -- community, customization, sharing, creating, and learning from each other.

According to TeacherTube, community members can

• upload, tag, and share videos worldwide.
• upload support files to attach educational activities, assessments, lesson plans, notes, and other file formats to your video.
• browse hundreds of videos uploaded by community members.
• find, join, and create video groups to connect with people who have similar interests.
• customize the experience by subscribing to member videos, saving favorites, and creating playlists.
• integrate TeacherTube videos on Web sites using video embeds or application programming interfaces.
• make videos public or private; users can elect to broadcast their videos publicly or share them privately with those they invite.

Check TeacherTube out. Let us know what you think. Better yet, upload some of your own original work and post the links here. The site offers a great help section as well, even detailing how to download the videos for use offline. What a great way to share our resources and just have some fun.