Using Teacher Tube and You Tube in Your Classroom
Teacher Tube and You Tube are two really great resources you should integrate into your classroom curriculum. Unfortunately, I have often heard from teachers that they can not use either in their classrooms because it is blocked with a filter and this is just so backwards on the part of administrations to do this. Well, there is a work around and it is free called Zamzar http://www.zamzar.com/ which is a free file converter. The way it works is that you save the link to Zamzar to your Mozilla bookmark tool bar and then you can click on it after you have viewed a video and it will tell you if it allows for conversion. Next, if you find that conversion is available, you simply follow the 1,2,3, instructions and fill in your email address. You must wait for it to download and then when the file is complete and converted they will send it to your email address and you have a day to download it. I have used it recently and it works just fine.
I also found a great article in Edutopia on using these resources and it is definitely worth reading called Online Interactivity for Educators . The CoolCatTeacher Blog also have a great collection of Inspirational clips from You Tube and they are also worth viewing. And, within You Tubes there is a History Teachers Discussion Forum with tons of great clips gathered together. Below I have links to a number of clips I love. They are linked below.
John Adams and the Right Path http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=dea60cec264b23ad4d34
How to Cheat Using a Coke Bottle http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRgM9-n7K5E