http://www.youtube.com/
It is a website with 25 million hits a day and has more than 40 million movie clips uploaded by its visitors. But what potential for the geography teacher?
I type in "geography" in the search engine:
Firstly I get extreme geography which was not as good as it sounds. The second video was a useful cartoon from the animaniacs, could be used to introduce world geography and possibly lead to some singing geography for places in the local area.
To be honest the next four movies I could not post here. However I did discover a good video made using windows movie maker by a pupil about the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve in Singapore. This could be used for modelling or as a starter, although I admit not many of us do this case study.
Then I come across a useful starter from Fox News and their attempt at UK Geography, you can not miss this. Spot the deliberate mistakes!
After a have to admit several movies of teachers, field trips and general madness I found again another example of pupil work, dealing with a number of geographical issues.
Finally a teacher has uploaded a Hurricane Katrina Video, of which many are available.
This is a random sample of youtube movies and you can sort by rating to find the highest rated movie which tends to be sensible. There are simply thousands to look through.
I have several ideas for teaching and learning after visiting youtube for the first time. The amount of videos about geography field trips made by kids really proves most do love geography!
Verdict
1. Youtube is without doubt popular with young people and it make sense therefore to incorporate its use in the classroom.
2. Without doubt there are some valuable teaching resources available. Made by professional organisations e.g. Greenpeace.
3. Youtube is growing at an alarming rate.
4. I must pay more attention when kids point mobile phones at me, who know what they are recording.
If one day you are stuck for inspiration maybe a starter to your lesson on deforestation. Search for "deforestation" on youtube and I believe you will find several things of use, on what is a fast growing resource base.
Coming soon......Using youtube in the classroom!
