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Viewings and Listen Up: Deciphered
Here's the scoop on Edutopia.org's new features -- how to use them, why you should make them a habit, and how you can contribute.
by Chris Colin
What's the story with the new directories -- first Viewings and now the latest, Listen Up?
The way we see it, the Web's as great a resource for teachers as it is a distraction for students. But there's a lot of digital debris to sift through. In addition to providing original content of our own, we want to help highlight the various online tools, resources, and even amusements that might prove useful to educators. Sometimes, for example, we'll showcase a video on assessment for teachers to watch on their own; other times, we may link to a classroom-ready audio recording -- say, Harry S. Truman discussing civil rights.
Viewings came about as first cousin of our Readings directory, a regularly updated cluster of noteworthy articles produced outside the GLEF tent. Given the astonishing variety of film and video footage on the Web, plus the explosion of user-driven sites such as YouTube, Google Video, Revver, and their ilk, we couldn't help but point at all the good video out there.
As for Listen Up, introduced just this week -- well, pictures aren't everything. We love a good movie, but there's something in the mental fill-in-the-blank quality of a terrific sound recording that makes it singularly vivid. What's more, the radio and podcasting universes have been cranking out a stunning body of wonderful new creations these past years. What with the opportunity to hear historic audio footage or, for instance, real-time broadcasts from a small village in Kenya, Listen Up struck us as an indispensable resource for teachers.
One last thing: We all make the Web. (OK, some of us bug the tech guy for help first, but still.) The recordings and videos we spotlight, then, aren't just random tidbits created by strangers with FireWire -- they're a mirror of what's going on in the educational community in the United States and across the globe. So we call on you to not only send us the URL of your favorite online audio or video clip but also to create your own, tell us where on the Web it can be found, and let us link to it. That's part of the idea here, after all: In showcasing all this material, we're not just passing along the occasional helpful lesson or idea. We're also trying to get the scholastic blood pumping -- to create a dynamic, vibrant community where teachers inspire one another onward and upward.
And, fine, we'll link to videos of break-dancing robots now and then -- the educational ones, naturally.
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