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Education is changing, and the way that we reach our students may need some transformation. When we were kids, the way we did our research consisted of going to the school library to read through the alphabetized encyclopedias. Now everything is often just a "Google" away. You can learn how to change a tire or master a video game on YouTube. There are a lot of ways to consume information now; it makes sense that we're all looking for ways to transform learning for our kids to use the information to create, solve problems, and ask their own questions. But the absolute statements in education---those generalized statements that tend to classify everything in one category ---make us wary. They are not the answer. Absolute statements tend to be used to attack all lectures, all textbooks, all worksheets, etc. These statements tend to get a lot of attention; some come with their own Twitter hashtag and maybe even a book. The trouble with these statements is that they tend to classify everything in the category it attacks as the same. "You should never use lectures." "You should never use textbooks." "You should always avoid all worksheets." Edu videos are not in these statements (yet), but they could be soon. Because just like all tools---it matters how edu videos are being used too. We find these absolute statements are just attacking a tool without asking, "How is it being used?" Simply adding technology does not make something innovative; we all know this. But we also shouldn't innovate for the sake of innovation. We should innovate when the way something is being used no longer serves our kids as effectively. There should be a reason for transforming something besides the fact that the "something" may be an older tool or strategy. We aren't big fans of lengthy, traditional lecture and notes. We find them time consuming, and I've found my students tune out of them after about fifteen minutes. Plus, I have a lot less time for the other things I want to do such as labs and discussions! We made our Unlectured Series with the intention of transforming traditional lecture. But you will never hear us make an absolute statement about lectures, because we know they cannot all be generalized like mine. What about storytelling? This can be such a memorable way to connect with students! Or the TED Talks we love so much? These are all ways that lecture can be used in a way that can reach students. A paper-based or online textbook can be used in a monotonous task of having students copy vocabulary words with definitions straight from the book. Not very effective. But you know what else textbooks can be? A paper-based or online textbook could also be used as a reference tool----a peer-reviewed reference tool---that students can find useful to cite when developing their own creations such as a blog entry, story, or comic. Peer-reviewed information in science is important. A worksheet can be used as a sheet of paper where students restate facts that involves very little learning. Such things are easily copied online or from a peer. Worksheets can be meaningless busywork. It doesn't matter if it's on paper or behind glass on a computer screen---if it's being used that same way, its potential is the same. But you know what else worksheets can be? They can be full of open ended questions. They can serve as quick exit tickets, where they can let the teacher see where his/her students may be confused. They can provide an opportunity for feedback as a formative assessment with no grade required! They can be used collaboratively: have students pair up to come up with their answers and justify with the class. P.S. On the topic of worksheets, check out these other great points on this blog post by The Nerdy Teacher! Overall, lumping all things into a tool and calling the tool "bad" without considering how it's being used doesn't seem to make much sense to us. Any tool that is being used to help kids with the best part of science---the whole "doing" part of science including hands-on labs, discussions, creating, etc---is a win in our minds.  Ever wish you had more control over the types of ads that show up on YouTube videos, Google searches, or many websites? Your Google ad settings allow you to make some changes to how ads are personalized- or even opt out of ad personalization. https://adssettings.google.com
For those of you that love edu YouTube videos, realize that the ads you see on YouTube are based on this ad personalization. Definitely worthwhile to check this out!
As you may know, we have multiple YouTube playlists that can be very useful for students. Playlists allow videos to be organized and easily linked on a class website or LMS. We have our popular "Amoeba Sisters Biology Playlist" which features all of our up to date biology videos. We have many playlists by category (example: "Cell Structure and Function"). We even have playlists organized by reporting category, which can be especially useful for Texas teachers.
But what if these playlists lack certain videos that you want your students to see? Or they include too much? Or you want the order of the videos to match your own course? Well, you can create your own YouTube playlists! Since these are online YouTube playlists that use our YouTube videos directly from our channel, it's not violating any of our terms of use when you create a YouTube playlist. 
Just click in the areas circle in red above to make your own playlist!
Once you create a YouTube playlist, it will ask you to title it. You can make it completely public (which would be searchable), unlisted (people need the link to see it), or private (just for you). You can continue to add videos to it (including any edu video---not just Amoeba Sisters videos) and reorder the videos in the playlist. On many websites and platforms, playlists can even be embedded where they will look nice such as this one below! Here are instructions for how to embed a YouTube playlist (a little different than embedding an individual YouTube video). Don't forget to encourage students to create their own study YouTube playlists for content that is challenging to them. Want some more YouTube tips? See our other post. We love learning from other educators on social media! For educators trying to transform their practice, what a great way to learn new ideas! Especially with educational technology, because we can learn new ways to engage our students and involve them as creators! But occasionally, we see posts from others that may or may not be in the classroom (perhaps they once were) posting an assignment a teacher has given- criticizing it in isolation without knowing context of how assignment is given. We don't like this for many reasons, but one is that "shaming" people or "shaming" assignments doesn't grow people. So it inspired this graphic...  ⚠ Note: This post is is no longer actively updated. Technology evolves quickly, and some of the tools or resources mentioned may have changed, been discontinued, or function differently today. On July 24th, we went into panic mode about the possibility of MS Paint being discontinued. Evidently, so did the whole MS Paint community. See, we have a special love for MS Paint as most of our images at first were made using it! (See our About Us page). Over time, we have used a growth mindset to continue to improve and we use different tools now in trying new projects. Still, Paint---with all its simplicity---is a great tool and also works well for creating in the classroom. While it turns out now that MS Paint is here to stay, we had been doing some exploring of alternatives that would work well in a classroom setting for creating back when we thought it might disappear. We LOVE AutoDraw, a Google project. Other than being able to use A.I. technology to guess what someone is drawing (especially helpful for Pinky as you see the suggestions for the bird in the screenshot below), this program also requires NO downloading and works on all device types. While we never want to focus just on a technology tool as tools come and go (with good pedagogy remaining), you will find that AutoDraw has the potential to be an awesome classroom tool for all kinds of creating. Vocab comics on a virtual word wall? Frames for a GIF? Yes, AutoDraw is fabulous for student classroom creators.  |
About This Page2025 UPDATE:
From our early days, this used to be a page where Pinky would share free edtech websites, apps, online resources, response systems, and other tools that she found free and useful at the time of the post for teachers. Technology evolves quickly, and some of the tools or resources mentioned may have changed, may no longer be free, may have been discontinued, or function differently from the date listed on the post. As we advise, always read the terms and privacy policy of any technology tool that you plan to use. Disclosure? This blog does not promote affiliate links. Any links to partners will be clearly disclosed within the post. |
