In the history classroom, it can be hard for students to visualize anything historical, making it complicated for them to understand the information being presented to them. YouTube can be a great way for students to visualize history so they can understand that time period better. Not only is YouTube easy to access, but they have so many options to choose from. Before writing this blog, I went on to YouTube and simply typed in "virtual tour" and tons of options came up. Things like "virtual tour" of Rome, Ellis Island, the Statue of Liberty, and the Mayflower became available in the search box. When I saw these kinds of options I thought it would be a perfect way for students to visualize important historical topics without even leaving the classroom. Technology like YouTube has made it so much more convenient for both students and teachers to get information in all different forms so it becomes easier to learn and teach the information.
To get a better idea about these virtual tours that YouTube provides, I clicked on the Ellis Island and Rome tours. Even though both were very different from each other because different users created them, they both seemed to be so useful for students in a history class. Instead of the boring pictures in textbooks that barely give the students the idea of that time period, these videos would take the students through each part of Rome or Ellis Island. The Rome video had narration along with it to explain to students what they were flying over when seeing Rome from above. The Ellis Island video gave a tour of the area as well as an explanation of the process of going through Ellis Island. When I was in elementary school, I was lucky enough to go on a field trip to Ellis Island and experience what it was like for immigrants. For students that can not go on field trips or are not in a close proximity to Ellis Island to be able to go, this can be an excellent way for students to still get that same experience. Technology has transformed the way students learn and I think one of the biggest transformations has been in the history classes. Technology like YouTube allows students to jump into that time period and understand that perspective so much better than just reading through a textbook and listening to a lecture.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAgA6G75XsI (Virtual Tour of Rome)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rredHTyKaQ (Virtual Tour of Ellis Island)
Hey Keri,
ReplyDeleteWhat I like about using youtube as an educational resource is that it's already something students are familiar with. There is nothing else they have to learn in order to use it. I liked that you used virtual tours. Like you said, it can be hard to students to conceptualize the past. Youtube helps them understand what textbooks necessarily can't.
Keri, I found it extremely useful also to use a technology such as Youtube for the classroom. In my case, I have the opportunity to show students various important artist who made a significant difference in the art world. I wrote a blog on introducing a famous artist such as Rembrandt with use of Youtube. The video I used gave a unique prospective on the history of Rembrandt. I saw the virtual tour of Ellis Island and found it to be very interesting and helped me to visualize the time period. I can see how your students will easily understand important historical periods such as Ellis Island.
ReplyDeleteI can definitely appreciate this as a student. Most of my history teachers never showed YouTube videos that helped to give me a visual of the places we discussed. They just either had us read the textbook, which usually provided pictures or just describe it. However, I think YouTube is a great way to help students to spend less cognitive energy to try to get into the mood. However, you can also use technologies such as the video game MineCraft in order to give students a historical "Tour." I did a Blogpost about this. You can import entire areas that resemble a historical place. This is even more hands-on because they can explore as they please. YouTube manages to help us get a view of the world into the classroom, and for that, it is a very useful pedagogical tool. You should teach students how to find their own videos that might help supplement their understanding.
ReplyDeleteGreat Post! I also recently just talked about how much youtube can help with teaching physics. As a student I never liked history and always thought of it as something that was boring. However I always loved historical movies or documentaries being able to have the visuals really motivated me to understand history and got me interested in it.
ReplyDeleteI think you can tell this is a great post just from the number of people who have commented on this article, and I completely agree. Youtube can play a large role in a Social Studies classroom. Really, for all intents and purposes, Youtube is a massive database will thousands of resources. Now, of course the quality of some of those videos is not good, but many documentaries and films are on youtube. I think it's a resources that teachers often overlook.
ReplyDeleteI especially appreciate that Raymond pointed about that while he never was a big fan of history class, documentaries and movies made it interesting to him. I think that these types of educational videos can be used to make content stimulating even to students who don't generally enjoy studying history.
Great post once again, Keri.
I really love the idea of using YouTube in the classroom. You can find almost ANY kind of video there, and many of the educational videos are fantastic! The virtual tours of Rome and Ellis Island were awesome! It definitely helped me visualize. I want to teach English and I often find students dislike English because they, too, have a hard time visualizing, especially when it comes to complex texts written by Homer or Shakespeare. Being able to see videos of the words on the page literally brings them to life, clarifying the lesson and making it easy, enjoyable and fun! YouTube is a great resource that teachers should start utilizing.
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