Thing 21: YouTube and more

I had used YouTube regularly until our use was discontinued by the District after spring break. . .I have commented on my YouTube in earlier posts. . .As for Teacher Tube, I checked out the channel: The American Institute for History Education. . .My first Teacher Tube video was "The Transcontinental Railroad" . . .The production values are predictably low, but the history is topflight. . .Unfortunately, the narrator is very amateurish, which serves to detract from the video. . .Adequate for the task. . .Next, I tried out "The Global Economy". . .Even though the "Global Economy" concentrates on post-World War II events, like the Transcontinental Railroad video, it relies entirely on still photographs, and once again is hamstrung by the same boring narrator. . .However, like the previous video, the historical information is excellent. . .Next, I clicked on the video: "A Fair(y) Use Tale" produced in collaboration with the Stanford University Law School to show "Fair Use Law''--an outstanding video and is much more interesting than my PowerPoint presentation on the same issue. . .Highly recommended. . .Teacher Tube is a new and growing phenomenon which hopefully will prosper while YouTube continues to be blacklisted from most classrooms across the United States. . .At "Yahoo! for Teachers", I read an interview with Dale Basler, a science teacher at Appleton East High School (WI) who is President of the Wisconsin Society of Science Teachers. . .Mr. Basler talked enthusiastically about his use of "RSS feeds" and "podcasts" in his work. . .Linked to his interview is a great video entitled "RSS in Plain English" taken from the website "commoncraft.com". . .Essentially, it is a tutorial for constructing an RSS using "Google Reader". . .Highly recommended. . .Finally, Basler puts in a plug for "STEM". . .drfaust