Favorite Inspirational Youtube Clips and Youtube in Education

I know this is a promotion for the new Indiana Jones Movie, but I love the quote at the end:

Indiana Jones' son “You're a teacher.”

Indiana: “Part time.”

(hat tip to basler on twitter) The romanticized part of me wants to think that there are a lot of us out here who teach and then do really exciting things on the side. And I could talk about that.

But really, I'm just excited about a really cool movie! Actually, the Indiana Jones movies and Star Wars movies got me through college. When I would study for 18 hours a day, I would put these on my trusty VCR and play them in the background so I wouldn't have a pity party about having to study so much at Georgia Tech.

These movies are an anchor for me. They are part of who I am. Maybe this is why I love to use movie clips to teach. Some of my favorite clips are:

Samwise Gamgee's speech from Lord of the Rings –

Yoda and Luke Training

“Try not. Do or do not. There is no try.”

I tell this to my students. Often, some of them, when they miss a paper or forget homework, they say, “I'll try.” I've found that this is part of their excuse to not do something. “I'll try” usually means, “Mrs. Vicki, I'm saying this to get you off my back, I'll do it later when I feel like it.”

Goal Setting
I use this with my students. My boys particularly respond to this from LouHoltz. It is a little long, but it is amazing. I feel the same way as Lou. I've had some horribly low points as well. I usually just use the first 3 minutes, the audio is a bit off after the initial opening clip.

A Clip from the movie about Ghandi

We discuss freedom and the importance of speaking out for what is right. I love that movie!

Albert Einstein explaining E=mc(squared)

The point of this movie is that Einstein explained simply a very complex formula in a 57 second movie clip. If my students and I who pursue academics cannot explain things simply to someone not in our field, then we are limiting our effectiveness. The art of communications is paramount and being able to communicate and simplify is often the mark of those who are pivotal in their field and indeed break out of their field to influence all humanity.

Dr. Martin Luther King's “I have a dream speech” — the full version

A Call for Youtube to Do the Right Thing for Education

I have a point for this epic posting of video (and I could go on, I just pulled some of my favorites.)

1) Youtube has some great resources.

2) Youtube has valid educational uses.

3) With a rating system (G, PG, PG-13) or even an E rating for education, we could allow this great resource through our filters and filter by rating, not completely blocking the site. Now, we have no choice and many of you have to go home to read this blog post because you cannot see the videos.

4) Humans are deeply influenced by video, particularly those with an emotional anchor in their past. I used a disparate listing of video in the hopes that each of us would find one video that really pulls at our heart.

5) The effective use of video can give us breakthrough moments with our students. I most often find that the use of video has the greatest impact on my student writing of anything. If I can get them emotionally engaged, I can teach the importance of voice.

6) Youtube is something I use a lot in my classroom. Every 20 minutes I like to change the pace to keep attention and focus. (I find youtube second only to unitedstreaming — my favorite for educational videos and documentaries — however it is a pay service.)

Youtube will become Dead Tube for Educators if they don't wake up
Although youtube is one of my most useful tools, it is also one which I curse under my breath several times a week because it requires my visual attention to the screen of my students if they get off task.

Sometimes, I block youtube when it is a distraction and I just need to get my work done.

But youtube could solve this problem — they could allow people to self rate and then crowdsource the authenticity of those ratings.

Right now, youtube has the most videos and as much as I'd love to use teachertube.com. However, copyright issues and issues such as these continue to plague them. Since they have been bought by Google, they have not shown the responsiveness to these issues.

I agree with edutopia's take with youtube… right now

You get What you Look For.

And therein lies the problem with youtube, doesn't it?

Speak out!
Speak out about your thoughts on youtube in education. Perhaps if enough edubloggers say something about it, they will begin to listen.

I think that often once edubloggers talk about something that they feel that they've covered it. This is not true! Effective companies are perusing technorati and google to see what people are saying right now!

So, edubloggers. What do you think we should do about youtube in education?

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Vicki Davis

Vicki Davis

Vicki Davis is a full-time classroom teacher and IT Director in Georgia, USA. She is Mom of three, wife of one, and loves talking about the wise, transformational use of technology for teaching and doing good in the world. She hosts the 10 Minute Teacher Podcast which interviews teachers around the world about remarkable classroom practices to inspire and help teachers. Vicki focuses on what unites us -- a quest for truly remarkable life-changing teaching and learning. The goal of her work is to provide actionable, encouraging, relevant ideas for teachers that are grounded in the truth and shared with love. Vicki has been teaching since 2002 and blogging since 2005. Vicki has spoken around the world to inspire and help teachers reach their students. She is passionate about helping every child find purpose, passion, and meaning in life with a lifelong commitment to the joy and responsibility of learning. If you talk to Vicki for very long, she will encourage you to "Relate to Educate" or "innovate like a turtle" or to be "a remarkable teacher." She loves to talk to teachers who love their students and are trying to do their best. Twitter is her favorite place to share and she loves to make homemade sourdough bread and cinnamon rolls and enjoys running half marathons with her sisters. You can usually find her laughing with her students or digging into a book.

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6 comments

Anonymous February 18, 2008 - 1:13 pm

You make a great point, however when you ask youtube to wake-up. Remember youtube is not designed for education. It is people expressing themselves in the free world. So even though you use it for education and you want to do more with it. That is not what it is here for.

Vicki A. Davis February 18, 2008 - 3:04 pm

Anonymous-
No, youtube isn’t designed for education, however, with a ratings system it could easily corner the market. Parents and educators most constant complaint about youtube is that it is all or nothing. If youtube wants to make itself more accessible and plug the hole for future competition, this is its Achilles heel.

Mark Spahr February 18, 2008 - 3:11 pm

I can’t wait for the new Indiana Jones flick! I have often used the same Yoda quote with my students, and also “Always with you what cannot be done” in my best Yoda voice. I usually get some strange looks when I do that, maybe I should stick to showing it on Youtube.

I agree that you get what you look for on Youtube. My students do not have access to it, but I can bypass our firewall, which puts the responsibility squarely on my shoulders. A ratings system would be helpful, but even if one were implemented, I still would never show something to my students without watching it first by myself. Ratings and other filters can be useful tools, especially in a school with restrictive access policies, but they are not perfect. As always, the ultimate responsibility lies with the teacher.

ozymandias1 February 20, 2008 - 7:12 pm

I was thrilled to read this and couldn’t agree more. I honestly believe if teachers only knew what was out there in youtubeland for their subject area they would be making much more noise.

We have to start somewhere!

John Woodring February 21, 2008 - 2:47 am

I love using YouTube and have recommended it to other teachers. Regarding a rating system there are two things you should do.

First, you should review any video you plan on using for a class. I almost always plan some form of assessment and to create this assessment I have to preview the video. Plus, you should preview videos for content anyway.

Second, I embed videos I want to use on a wiki site I have created for my class. This should help keep students on tasks.

I agree with everyone who says YouTube is not designed for education but there are many resources used in education that are not designed for education. It just takes some planning and good preparation to make these resources work.

Willy June 11, 2008 - 9:23 am

Following up with your comment on my blog (not sure if you subscribed to the comments)…

Yes, customizable players are a relatively new feature. The feature enables users to display multiple videos from your favorites or playlists in a single player.

http://www.google.com/support/youtube/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=95812

You can also customize the look and feel of a single video- look for the “Customize” link above the embed code on any YouTube video page.

Comments are closed.

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