Back-To-School Shopping for Social Media Tools: Part Two
Part two in our series to help you find the right tools for your classroom
If using social media in the classroom is the new trend at your school, then you’ll need the right tools to fit in this year.
Last week, we introduced a new back-to-school shopping series to help you invest in the right social media tools for your classroom.
In the first part of our series, we compared two of the most popular social media tools for bookmarking, social networking, and blogging.
Now that you’re an expert shopper in those areas, we’ll compare two of the most popular video- and image-sharing tools to round out your social media toolkit for the new school year.
Social media isn’t your style? Visit our resources page where you can browse through dozens of tech tools to fit any lesson plan or activity.
Part Two: Video Sharing and Image Sharing
Video Sharing
Sharing videos in an educational setting is no easy task for teachers. Many schools have placed a ban on video-sharing sites like YouTube to prevent students from accessing inappropriate content in school. Fortunately, teachers can still share safe videos with TeacherTube and SchoolTube— two sites that allow teachers to find and share educational videos in an online community. When comparing the two, one standout feature of SchoolTube is that teachers moderate all of the videos. Students can even watch a YouTube video on SchoolTube, if moderators have approved that video. In terms of visual appeal, SchoolTube has a much more streamlined platform than its predecessor TeacherTube. But on the other hand, TeacherTube has been around since 2007 and has accumulated some really great instructional videos during that time. Check out Mrs. Burk’s math rap, for example. It’s worth noting that some teachers have complained about the number of advertisements on the TeacherTube website, whereas SchoolTube has a subscription model with less advertising. Ultimately, you’ll have to decide which features are the most important in a video-sharing tool.
Related Resource:
YouTube
Lesson Plan Inspiration:
Using Geogebra For Parameter Changes On A Function
Image Sharing
Photo-sharing sites are powerful tools for promoting visual literacy in education. Many teachers use image-sharing tools, like Pinterest and Flickr, to create visual activities for students. With Pinterest, teachers and students can share theme-based image collections in a “virtual pinboard” type setting. Not only can teachers use Pinterest to share meaningful images, they can share images or “pins” of interesting and useful resources for students. For a relatively new tool, Pinterest has certainly gained a lot of popularity among teachers. Just look at all the pins on the Education board on Pinterest. (You can also check out Educator Studio’s Pinterest here.) Flickr is a more traditional type of photo-sharing service that lets you upload and tag images in an online community. A unique feature of Flickr is geotagging– a process that links a Flickr photo to its geographical location. Teachers can use Flickr’s geotagging feature to create visual geography activities focusing on particular locations. Whether you choose to use Flickr, Pinterest, or both, keep in mind that some images may not be appropriate for schools. You’ll need to keep a close eye on your students as they search through literally thousands of images on Pinterest and Flickr.
Related Resource:
Instagram
Lesson Plan Inspiration:
Color Scheming, Bwahaha!
Did you miss the first part of our series? Read part one to shop for social networking, bookmarking, and blogging tools for your classroom.