Q&A

1. Are all videos on TeacherTube suitable for children?
Yes.

2. How long does a video have to be on TeacherTube?
10 minutes.

3.  True or False. You can open your own account with YouTube or TeacherTube.
True.

4. Are all videos on YouTube acceptable for the classroom?
No.

5. Is it practical to use TeacherTube in the classroom?
Yes.

YouTube

This article briefly talks about YouTube in the classroom but does give good examples of actual classroom research done. The author makes valid points about how YouTube "provides limitless opportunities to enhance a multitude of lessons." This article also addresses how less time is wasted with YouTube, for example with videos that used to have to be found and reserved, then checked out by the students. The process is much simpler. The author does point out that many videos available on Youtube are not suitable for the classroom, but there are other ways such as TeacherTube if you want the students to perform searches.

Mullen, Rebecca, and Linda Wedwick. "Avoiding the Digital Abyss: Getting Started in the Classroom with YouTube, Digital Stories, and Blogs." The Clearing House 82.2 (2008): 66-9

TeacherTube

This article is an overview of what TeacherTube is and how it can/has helped in the classroom so far. TeacherTube is basically a YouTube, filtered out strictly for learning purposes. This is very helpful in the present day classroom because students are now very technologically inclined as opposed to the past. On TeacherTube, teachers can upload their own videos and link them to their own website. The videos you post must meet a certain criteria: your video must address specific learning objectives and/or provide professional development for educators, videos may not post advertisements or solicitations of business, TeacheTube previews all material and they will not allow any nudity or profanity, and your video should run 10 minutes or less. They can also communicate with other teachers through this site about other videos. Once you upload a video, the site also lets you upload Word documents to attach to your video if you need to. The only requirement to use this is that your internet connection be at least 500 Kbps. For easy searching, there are "Channels" on TeacherTube where videos are already group by content.

Lucking, Robert A., Mervyn J. Wighting, and Edwin P. Christmann. "TeacherTube for Science." Science Scope 32.8 (2009): 62-4