From Clips to Classrooms: Harnessing YouTube’s Potential for Teaching

Tips for Teachers Using YouTube in Classroom

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

YouTube has not only provided an incredible source of entertainment for millions of people around the globe, but also it has opened up an avenue for great learning resources in the form of educational videos.

Teachers from all around the world can now create video lessons and share with their students not only in their respective learning institutions but also with other students located miles away in other countries.

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• Benefits for Using YouTube in Classroom
• Tips for Teachers Using YouTube in Classroom
• How to discover the best educational videos on YouTube

Benefits for Using YouTube in Classroom

The benefits of using YouTube in the classroom are immense and they include but are not limited to the following:

Global connection

YouTube makes it possible for teachers to share their lessons with millions of potential students located in different parts of the world, something which was unthinkable with the traditional modes of teaching a few years ago. Teachers can now collaborate, connect and innovate with a multitude of students in ways that were never imagined before by employing the power of YouTube.

Enhances the comprehension of complex topics

Certain subjects are technical in nature and teachers usually have a hard time explaining them to the students. By using YouTube in the classroom, teachers are an a better position to offer clear and easy to understand illustrations which will in turn demystify the tough concepts and make it easy for students to understand and comprehend complex topics.

Creates more engagement from students

Learning primarily comprises of audio and visual components. Unlike traditional modes of teaching where the teacher offered explanation and the students are expected to take notes, videos are more engaging and has the power to make students stay more alert, thus increase their chances of absorbing the lesions and getting most from the subjects.

Ideal for slow learners

When using YouTube in the classroom, the teacher has full control on the pace of learning and this is ideal for taking of both the fast and slow learners. In case a student finds a concept being explained too fast, they can simply request the part to be replayed or it can be slowed down to play at a pace that will be easy for them to grasp.

One teacher, multiple classrooms

The other benefit of using YouTube in the classroom is that after a teacher prepares his learning videos, they get the flexibility using the video in more than just one classroom. It also makes it easy for them when they are away and they need to attend classes. All they have to do is to use the prerecorded video lesions so that they don’t entirely miss out on classes.

Tips for Using YouTube in Classroom

For teachers and tutors, there are various ways of using YouTube in the classroom. These methods offer the flexibility to both the teachers and the students to give and understand lessons respectively. Here are some of the ways for teachers to use YouTube in classrooms-:

1. Trigger unique and interesting discussions– teachers using YouTube in the classrooms can trigger interesting and unique discussions amongst their students. The teachers can use relevant videos on news reports, documentaries, current affairs and much more to get the student opinions and gauge the impact of the learning on the students.
2. Access high quality education materials for free – using YouTube in classroom also makes it possible to teachers to access high quality learning materials for free. This is especially important when teaching on tough subjects or when reviewing for exams.
3. Short clips to put a topic in context – there are documentary channels such as National Geographic, BBC and Channel 4 amongst others where teachers can obtain and play short clips to put the subject matter into proper context for the students.
4. Archive your work– use videos to keep a clean and neat record of the various lessons thus making it easy for current and future students to access them with ease.
5. Review for exams – when exams are just about the corner, videos become very effective in helping the student to refresh their minds on tough topics that might require a lot of time to review during exams.
6. Flip lessons– flipped learning is taking strong roots in most of the learning institutions and it becomes easy and efficient when using videos in the classroom.
7. Teach when you are absent – instead of missing class or having a guest teacher to stand in for you, you can simply record the lesson on your YouTube channel or simply give out instructions for the students to follow when you are away.
8. Allow students to gain in-depth information– by using YouTube in classroom, teachers are essentially allowing their students to dig deeper and comprehend the lessons better.
9. Help the struggling students – videos are great for the slow learners since they can rewind or play it at their own pace.
10. Create a YouTube Channel – this is to contain all the videos relevant to a particular subject or lesion for current and future students.

How to discover the best educational videos on YouTube

YouTube is awash with millions of videos and it is imperative that you know how to search for and discover the best education videos. Below are a few tips to help you along the way-:

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• Look for videos not longer than 10 minutes – these are the most ideal since longer videos might make students lose their attention and miss out on the lesions.
• Search channels by subjects so that you end up with the most relevant videos.
• Before you show the videos to the students, be sure to watch them all through so that you gauge if it has the relevant materials you wanted the students to learn.
• Rather than doing a general search, concentrate on the channels from respectable sources since this wills save you a lot of time of going through the junk.
• Don’t search for videos to replace your lessons, but instead, search for video that will complement your lesions.

Conclusion

Using YouTube in the classroom has brought a lot of efficiency to both the teachers and the students. Teachers can now access millions of students around the globe by using YT videos and students can also get a lot of detailed information, some on technical topics that would normally take a long time to comprehend. Whereas it is a relatively new concept for most teachers, it can only be expected that it will be embraced by many people and enhance the learning process in our schools, provided that the right learning videos are recorded or accessed from the pool already present in YouTube.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

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