Education Tube Tie

I’m a sucker for online videos: From Michael Cera’s turn as Alexander Hamilton on Drunk History to break dancing babies, it doesn’t take much to amuse me—or the masses, for that matter, from the millions of individuals who view these videos. Thus, I must marvel at the gumption of the ed video spinoffs, SchoolTube and TeacherTube.

Both provide students and teachers with venues for video projects and, often unintentionally hilarious, lesson development. TeacherTube focuses more on instructional aides, but if I were a teacher I would use it in my classroom constantly. Check out “Mr. Duey’s Fraction Rap,” which practically made me spit out my coffee this morning and cleared out some cobwebs when it came to turning improper fractions into mixed numbers.

SchoolTube is more of a grab bag in terms of content, but it does provide students a safe forum to craft and share video on a number of different topics—a skill that only increase in importance in our interactive world. I certainly wish I had the opportunity to create and mix digital videos for school projects (other than a few failed 8mm attempts to reimagine “A Tale of Two Cities: Federal Way and Tacoma” with an Everclear soundtrack). Many of the videos come off as delightfully lo-fi Ken Burns documentaries with student narration. Check out this “Short Tale of Odysseus” by a middle school student.

What impresses me most about these sites is their fearless promotion of the use of technology in the classroom. In many of the ed meetings I attend, I often hear adults banter back and forth about the appropriateness of technology at all levels of education and all I can think to myself is, “People, let’s get with the times!” Outside of the classroom, students are using technology in incredibly creative ways that can easily translate to academic projects. Why not engage them on this level? Why not allow a savvy 7^th grade videographer who probably makes anime mash-ups in his spare time to capture the story of Odysseus on video? I can almost guarantee he won’t forget the story of the Trojan Horse for years to come.