This week, I had the opportunity to explore YouTube a bit further than I have before. While I had heard about YouTube for quite some time, the first time that I have ever contributed to the site was two years ago. During this time, I worked at a public library and we had the opportunity to enter a video contest to try to win a Children's Learning Station for the library. I was tasked with creating the video and positing it online for entry into the contest. While I am far from an expert film maker, I did manage to put together a video that I was quite proud of. Although the library did not win the contest, it was a great learning experience and with some more practice, I was able to create two more videos to post on YouTube to help educate our library patrons on the proper ways to return materials to the library.
Since I have had the experience of creating and posting a video, I spent this week taking time to look at the enormous variety of videos available for viewing on YouTube. I searched for videos on using Web 2.0 technologies in the classroom and found a great deal of information. There were videos on all different types of technologies, some that I knew about and some that I did not. I also learned a great deal about new Web 2.0 tools from discussion with my classmates. Some of the tools that I was introduced to that I really liked included Storyboardthat, Quizlet, Instagrok, Prezi and Glogster (and that is just a fraction of the tools available). In addition to finding out more about Web 2.0 technologies, I also search YouTube for videos on Wikispaces and found numerous resources that helped me to gain a better understanding of how wikis work. I was a bit apprehensive about the use of wikis before this course, but as I learn more about them, I am becoming more comfortable with the idea of wikis and possibly using them as a tool in my future classroom. We were tasked with also looking for videos that related to the content area where we currently work or hope to work in the future. I have always been interested in learning about and teaching History, so I searched for videos related to that field. While I did not have enough time to explore this as much as I wanted to (planning on looking at it more later), I did find a very interesting video that led me to information on Game-Based Learning. The concept is something that I was not very familiar with, but after watching a few videos and reading more information, I really like the concept and the students seem to really get excited about learning. The video,Game-Based Learning Brings the History of Civilization to Life, offered insight into one Social Studies classroom that has implemented a game-based learning curriculum entitled Historia. This video was quite interesting and informative and makes me want to continue learning more about Game-Based Learning.
This week, I also searched YouTube for informational videos about Twitter. I am gradually becoming more used to Twitter and there are quite a few tutorials and learning videos related to Twitter available. I am learning to search for various educational hashtags and thanks to the list posted this week, I have a large number of hashtags that I can search for and learn from. One of the things that I still struggle with when it comes to using Twitter is the idea of limiting my responses. I am making an effort to remember that it is simply a tool to initiate conversations and share information quickly, not to carry on lengthy conversations. I have tried the idea of using Twitter on my phone, but find it difficult due to the fact that I have an older phone and it does not run as smoothly as I am sure it would if I had a newer model phone.
I have learned a great deal this week through my exploration of YouTube and Twitter. I know that I still have further to go, but I am gradually becoming more and more comfortable with using both of these tools. In addition, I am learning more about how these tools can be used in an educational setting and have already begun to develop ideas as to how I can use them in my future classroom.
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