Tools for using YouTube safely in class!

For me, YouTube has become one of the first places I look to get a great "hook" to catch my students attention at the beginning of a new unit (and throughout). When I'm in the drivers seat, I can control what my students see.  However,  more and more my students are driving and this year I am offering an online course to my students,  therefore, I have been paying a lot more attention to the content on YouTube. Whether it be the comments at the bottom of the video, the video's that are available in the sidebar, the video's that show up after the video chosen is done, etc,  I am much more conscious of the video links I share with my students....until now!!!


After attending another fabulous Webinar organized by SimpleK12 (http://simplek12.com/tlc/webinars/),  I was introduced to some amazing tools that let you chop and purify those great videos!


1)  TubeChop allows you to easily chop a section from any YouTube video and share it. (You can also embed your chopped video into your website, wiki, blog, etc.)

http://www.tubechop.com/

2) Safe Viewing

• Safeshare: http://Safeshare.tv - Generate a link without the comments and related videos. (Ability to share the video via Facebook, Twitter, etc.)

• QuietTube http://quietube.com/ - This provides you with a button to put on your toolbar. When you open YouTube or other video sites, click on the button, and your video will be displayed without any ads, comments, etc.

• ViewPure http://viewpure.com/ - Very similar to QuietTube, however has a few more options.

Now I can share video's with my students without having to worry if something inappropriate or offensive will show up while they are viewing the video's links I have shared with them.

Did you also know that YouTube has a section for educators?

Check out : www.youtube.com/education

As well, for all the history teachers out there, this is really neat: YouTubeTimeMachine - http://yttm.tv - Where you can get videos from any year. Your students might really enjoy searching and watching video's of a certain time period!

For other additional resources visit: http://livebinders.com/play/present?id=172921 which also includes a list of YouTube alternatives.

Enjoy!