Education and YouTube

We have all fallen into the YouTube vortex. 

YouTube vortex- unexplainable large amounts of time spent on YouTube, watching video after video, promising that you will only allow yourself to watch one more. 

YouTube is used for a multitude of reasons; listening to people's opinions about certain topics, tutorials of all kinds, or videos about cats. YouTube has a variety of content, even content that you could use in your classroom! Content from animals, history, science, and even math. Say that you are a high school math teacher, you are teaching your students algebraic formulas. Something is just not clicking with your students. You have tried word problems, worksheets, the whole nine yard, and nothing. You decide to take the technology approach. You search algebraic formulas into the YouTube search bar, 155 videos pop up. A 155 potential different ways to teach your students algebraic functions. 

YouTube is a way to visually engage your students. Your students may even be using YouTube now to find tutorials on educational topics. I can recall, when I was in high school taking calculus. My teacher was a great instructor, but when it came time for tests, I found watching online tutorials of people performing calculus most helpful for preparing for the test. 

Want to take it a step further? Create a class YouTube channel! Educators could use their class YouTube Chanel as a vessel for a project. Each student/ group of student can be assigned a topic to " teach" to the class by making a YouTube video and uploading it to the class channel. This will give students the chance to review the material, then have to explain it to their classmates. 

Overall, I think that YouTube is a great resource to use in the classroom. YouTube provides visual instruction for students that are more visual learners and it could also provide a potential class project ideas. 

Visually Learning Through Instagram

It's time for teachers to jump on the social media band wagon! You know you catch your students scrolling through Instagram in class, and you wonder to yourself; How can I capture their attention as Instagram does? The answer is simple, incorporate Instagram into a classroom activity. Students will be curious see how one of the most popular forms of social media has a place in the classroom.

Recently, I sat down with one of my favorite professors to discuss what kinds of social media she likes to use in her classroom. She said that her favorite form of social media to use in the classroom is twitter, because of its user friendliness. I asked her if she ever considered using Instagram in her classroom. She responded by saying that Instagram confused her, and that she was unsure how she could use it in her classroom. It is important to  note that my professor was open to learning how to use Instagram. After a quick tutorial, about how to use Instagram, follow accounts, and use hashtags we were able to brainstorm some ways that Instagram could add variety to a lesson. 

Some ideas that we came up with were, using posts as a review tool, using posts as a reminder of when important assignments are due, and using posts to suggest books on topics that are discussed in class. You may be thinking, well these are the same sorts of things that I am already doing on ( insert social media outlet). That may very well be true, but by adding Instagram into the mix, you are adding variety into your lesson plan while keeping your students engaged via a platform that they are all surely using.

Some helpful hints when starting a class Instagram: 

• ensure students that the class Instagram will be used as a educational tool, and not a vessel for you to use as posting embarrassing pictures of students on the science field trip ( we have all been that student) 
• make the username something simple, but not so simple that a million and one other teachers have the same username. ( Suggestion: make it a homework assignment that students find the class Instagram) 
• reiterate that the class Instagram account can be a great study tool/ great way to communicate with other classmates.

Happy Teaching!