There’s more to life than YouTube!
I remember that day in class when students had to submit a two-minute video for their oral production assessment. The task was to present a survival kit for Montreal winters.
I was really looking forward to seeing their work although the idea of viewing and evaluating 22 YouTube videos scared me.
When I opened my email inbox, I noticed that 6 students had sent me an email with a similar message, “I don’t want to put videos on YouTube, I don’t like the idea of my work being made public.”
It was a disaster scenario; I hadn’t offered them any alternatives…
I can understand that the idea of posting a video on YouTube can be distasteful to some people. Nevertheless, by recording their work as “unlisted” and adding the mention “education”, the student’s work ends up with only the link they share with the teacher.
Screen Capture of the template sent to students.
However, there are other alternatives to YouTube. The best thing to do when starting this type of activity is to remind students to protect their data and privacy when they are online.
The educational resources of Canada’s Centre for Digital and Media Literacy are a gold mine of popularized materials for raising awareness of the responsible use of digital tools and resources. I invite you to discover them on the Media Smarts website. In addition, it is important to propose a small list of video-sharing sites that will allow students to make their own choices. Indeed, placing learners in a position where they can choose encourages investment in their own learning. The list below will introduce you to more academic alternatives to YouTube:
Basically, the Vimeo application was not specifically created for educational purposes. Like YouTube, it contains a wide variety of content. The advantage of Vimeo is that it is a little more “serious” and it provides countless links that feed its database.
BoClips is an educational video site that was launched this year (January 2020). The site hosts more than 2 million videos from content creators and also many well-known YouTubers. This short overview of the site will allow you to explore it quickly.
Teacher Tube is also a very good alternative to YouTube. The site allows you to find a large number of video resources created solely by teachers or students. There is also a “classroom” section where teachers can access content specifically designed for use in the classroom.
Specifically designed for students and educators, SchoolTube is one of the largest moderated video sharing platforms. Teachers can use it to search for educational video content for use in any classroom from kindergarten to CEGEP. SchoolTube also allows you to create your own channel where you can upload videos to share with your students.
All the videos in NextVista’s regular collections are aimed at a student audience and showcase the creativity of students and teachers from all over the world. NextVista presents its main collections: Seeing Services (inspiring videos), Global Views (videos that foster intercultural understanding), and Light Bulb (video tutorials and practical guides).
Difference between Open-source platform and community-driven platform. Source: PeerTube
Peer Tube is an open-source video sharing platform. It is a decentralised peer-to-peer (P2P) software, just like BitTorrent, where everyone can host videos on their individual instance. The interface is simple, neat, and contains no advertising. It contains a “trend” section where you can explore new videos.
