YouTube

YouTube is a great way to show students things that just can't be explained using photo's or texts. YouTube allows anybody to share online original videos via the worldwide Web. YouTube allows people to easily upload and share video clips across the Internet through websites, mobile devices, blogs, and email (YouTube, n.d.). The video I chose was a slide show on Australian Animals because my year one class is just about to start a unit on Australian Animals. I chose this video to engage the learners and get them to start thinking about the different types of Australian animals. Kearsley and Shneiderman's (1999) engagement theory suggests that although engagement can occur without the use of technology it does facilitate engagement in ways that would be otherwise difficult to achieve. I think this statement is very relevant to YouTube as students today are surrounded by technology so something that is technology based, such as a video, is going to be far more interesting than pictures of animals in a book. Secondly some subjects are more easy to explain by showing students exactly what your talking about.

I think YouTube is a fantastic tool to not only engage students but to also use through out learning experiences to explain different topics. Teachers would have to be careful how they displayed the video's and ensure that students didn't have access to other video's that may be inappropriate.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTUWbJ0tolI

References:

YouTube. (n.d.). YouTube company profile. Retrieved August 20, 2009, from http://www.crunchbase.com/company/youtube

Kearsley, G & Shneiderman, B (1999). Engagment Theory: A framework for technology-based teaching and learning. Retrieved July 29th, 2009, from CQUniversity e-courses, FAHE11001 Acitive learning & learning diversity.