Fliggo For Better Video Posting

YouTube can be awesome, but first and foremost, it's usually blocked in any school district. Even if it's not, there is a lot of junk out there, and teachers just KNOW that some students will wander around looking at rap videos or exploding mentos videos.

Fliggo is a great alternative. You can still embed and upload videos, and you can even link to YouTube videos. The difference is that you can control the site and customize it to what you need. You can change the appearance of the site, control the privacy of it, and best of all it doesn't take a lot of technical know how. I wish I had known about this earlier - I could have posted all the science videos my students made, without worrying about random strangers looking at it. What a great tool, especially if you are worried about your student's privacy!

Play movies in class!

I wrote earlier about how to play YouTube in the classroom even if it's blocked by district firewalls. I mention Miro which is a great player of videos, where you can search, subscribe to channels (I love Discovery Science!) and download videos to play later. Here is a "How To" to get you started:

How To Use Miro

YouTube in the classroom!

Wow, why did I not include this earlier! This trinket comes from one of my favorite websites ever, Lifehacker.com - a forum for, well everything. They published a post on the Top 10 YouTube Hacks which is a teacher's dream!

My biggest problem is showing YouTube videos in class, because my district blocks YouTube. One way is to use TeacherTube.com but they may not always have the video you need. Solution? I use Miro (get it at www.miro.com), which fetches the videos and downloads them (beginner) so it's a file instead of a webpage, but you can also subscribe to channels (advanced) and it will automatically download new videocasts for you! For instance, I subscribed to the Amazing Human Body channel, and anytime I needed to fill 3 minutes in class, I had a video ready to go on superhuman strength, bones, or muscles.

In conclusion, there are some GREAT Math, Science, and of course English and History videos, so use them in your class, even if you have a firewall :) Please please PLEASE use the comment section to link to your favorite videos, or talk about other YouTube hacks!