Favorite Inspirational Youtube Clips and Youtube in Education

I know this is a promotion for the new Indiana Jones Movie, but I love the quote at the end:

Indiana Jones' son "You're a teacher."

Indiana: "Part time."

(hat tip to basler on twitter) The romanticized part of me wants to think that there are a lot of us out here who teach and then do really exciting things on the side. And I could talk about that.

But really, I'm just excited about a really cool movie! Actually, the Indiana Jones movies and Star Wars movies got me through college. When I would study for 18 hours a day, I would put these on my trusty VCR and play them in the background so I wouldn't have a pity party about having to study so much at Georgia Tech.

These movies are an anchor for me. They are part of who I am. Maybe this is why I love to use movie clips to teach. Some of my favorite clips are:

Samwise Gamgee's speech from Lord of the Rings -


Yoda and Luke Training

"Try not. Do or do not. There is no try."

I tell this to my students. Often, some of them, when they miss a paper or forget homework, they say, "I'll try." I've found that this is part of their excuse to not do something. "I'll try" usually means, "Mrs. Vicki, I'm saying this to get you off my back, I'll do it later when I feel like it."

Goal Setting
I use this with my students. My boys particularly respond to this from LouHoltz. It is a little long, but it is amazing. I feel the same way as Lou. I've had some horribly low points as well. I usually just use the first 3 minutes, the audio is a bit off after the initial opening clip.



A Clip from the movie about Ghandi


We discuss freedom and the importance of speaking out for what is right. I love that movie!

Albert Einstein explaining E=mc(squared)



The point of this movie is that Einstein explained simply a very complex formula in a 57 second movie clip. If my students and I who pursue academics cannot explain things simply to someone not in our field, then we are limiting our effectiveness. The art of communications is paramount and being able to communicate and simplify is often the mark of those who are pivotal in their field and indeed break out of their field to influence all humanity.

Dr. Martin Luther King's "I have a dream speech" -- the full version



A Call for Youtube to Do the Right Thing for Education

I have a point for this epic posting of video (and I could go on, I just pulled some of my favorites.)

1) Youtube has some great resources.

2) Youtube has valid educational uses.

3) With a rating system (G, PG, PG-13) or even an E rating for education, we could allow this great resource through our filters and filter by rating, not completely blocking the site. Now, we have no choice and many of you have to go home to read this blog post because you cannot see the videos.

4) Humans are deeply influenced by video, particularly those with an emotional anchor in their past. I used a disparate listing of video in the hopes that each of us would find one video that really pulls at our heart.

5) The effective use of video can give us breakthrough moments with our students. I most often find that the use of video has the greatest impact on my student writing of anything. If I can get them emotionally engaged, I can teach the importance of voice.

6) Youtube is something I use a lot in my classroom. Every 20 minutes I like to change the pace to keep attention and focus. (I find youtube second only to unitedstreaming -- my favorite for educational videos and documentaries -- however it is a pay service.)

Youtube will become Dead Tube for Educators if they don't wake up
Although youtube is one of my most useful tools, it is also one which I curse under my breath several times a week because it requires my visual attention to the screen of my students if they get off task.

Sometimes, I block youtube when it is a distraction and I just need to get my work done.

But youtube could solve this problem -- they could allow people to self rate and then crowdsource the authenticity of those ratings.

Right now, youtube has the most videos and as much as I'd love to use teachertube.com. However, copyright issues and issues such as these continue to plague them. Since they have been bought by Google, they have not shown the responsiveness to these issues.

I agree with edutopia's take with youtube... right now

"You get What you Look For."

And therein lies the problem with youtube, doesn't it?

Speak out!
Speak out about your thoughts on youtube in education. Perhaps if enough edubloggers say something about it, they will begin to listen.

I think that often once edubloggers talk about something that they feel that they've covered it. This is not true! Effective companies are perusing technorati and google to see what people are saying right now!

So, edubloggers. What do you think we should do about youtube in education?

tag: youtube, education, learning