YouTube

I have been thinking of getting a netbook. While researching different options, I stumbled across a review of the Asus Eee PC T91 which sounded super cool. So, I signed on to YouTube and did a search and sure enough there were tons of videos about the T91. Some of the videos were of users demonstrating the highlights of the netbook, and others were tutorials on how to use the multi-touch software included with the T91. It was pretty cool to see all the snappy features of the T91 being used by actual people who own it. Made me want to run right out and get one myself!

Prior to this, I had only occasionally looked at YouTube - mostly to preview videos that my kids were interested in seeing, but sometimes to view videos that friends had recommended. It seemed of purely entertainment value. It was cool to see that there are other, more instructional videos out there. Unfortunately, YouTube is blocked in my district and I wouldn't have access to it at school. I suppose if there was a video that I wanted to share with students, I could download it to a thumb drive at home and then share it at school.

What I think would be really cool is if we could get students to create their own videos and then post them on line. I have two Flip cameras at school and I thought this year I might teach the fifth graders how to use them to create videos on a topic - could be a book share or something related to their curriculum, maybe their explorer's unit - and then we could edit them and post them on our web site or on line.