I rely heavily on recordings and authentic performances to teach my students many of the concepts and standards in elementary music class. Granted, not everything in a music class needs to be a classical snooze fest, for that matter, I prefer that students get a wide variety of experiences rather than just classical. I want students to understand all types of music, mainly understanding the fundamentals behind the music, so even if they hear something they don't particularly like, they can appreciate something about it and listen to it critically and form and educated opinion about music.
That being said there is such value in students watching other performances, whether it is a professional recording, other students their own age, a local high school, or a famous singer. Unfortunately, youtube is blocked in our school system. While I understand the reasoning behind blocking youtube, it is a shame because there is a lot of great educational stuff there that would be beneficial for my students. Also, it is so easy to share videos that are on youtube so that students can comment, evaluate,and critique.
In an effort to find something else that could possibly be a good replacement for youtube, I have been looking at teachertube. Teachertube, although it has been around for a while, I haven't looked into it much. After looking up some topics on teachertube, I have to say I was unimpressed with what it had to offer. Not only did I not find it user friendly, there were commercials on every video. I researched some videos for music and was disappointed at what I found. There was little relevancy for music education with what I found. I found plenty of videos for multiplication rap and parodies on studying or the presidents, but not authentic music that will teach students actual musical concepts. I never felt like my searches got me where I wanted to go, and unfortunately found the website to be disappointing. Although youtube is filled with plenty of ridiculousness, it also has some authority and some relevancy as well, as long and you know what to look for. So, personally, I will need to visit some other avenues and will need to rely on CD's, podcasts, and videos that are accessible for now. More on this topic later.
Kristy-
ReplyDeleteI have found the same thing to be true about teachertube. I do not think that the site is anywhere near as good or useful as youtube. Luckily for us, youtube is not blocked in our county, and I am able to download files to use in my classroom. Do you have interactive whiteboards at your school? If so, there is a site called zamzar (www.zamzar.com) that converts youtube videos into WMV or other video files. You can then put these files directly into your flipchart on the interactive whiteboard. That way you don't have to go to the youtube site, and you could do this at home so that you can then access the files once you are in the classroom. Even if you don't have an interactive board, you could find the videos at home and save them on a thumb drive through zamzar to show at your school. Just a thought- it is a very easy to use website and might be helpful.
Kristy,
ReplyDeleteI have to say I have tried teachertube once, and I was also not impressed. I actually I was very frustrated. I couldn't get it to work at all. I eventually just gave up.
My school computer teacher has a site that is only meant for the company she works with. I will look it up and get the info for you. Anyway, this site has many different sites just like teachertube, but much better.
Brittany
I agree with all of you. It's a shame--Teacher Tube used to seem promising. It's probably because Google--who owns YouTube has so more money (or potential cash flow) than a "mere" teacher-sponsored video-sharing site. What a shame!
ReplyDeleteHowever, it's important to locate the best resources possible for your students. And I, too, have used Zamzar and recommended it to teachers whose schools block YouTube.
I'll share that site (Zamzar) with the class via Diigo. Thanks for mentioning it!
Dawn and group,
ReplyDeleteI am glad to hear that I was not the only one that was disappointed with teacher tube. How interesting, I didn't realize that google owned youtube. Thank you for sharing Zamzar. That is something that I will definitely want to look into since I rely so heavily on video and audio in my class. I have also had some luck finding stuff on discovery streaming, but it still lacks authentic performance quality, and you have to have a subscription.
Kristy,
ReplyDeleteI forgot to mention SchoolTube.com. Have you tried that. I am still not super impressed (and that might be bc of user error :) ) but much better than teachertube.
Brittany