This morning, I was doing some more research on my EdTech inquiry project. I wanted to know how teachers are already using Youtube in schools. Well, I came across a section of Youtube that I’d never seen before! I guess to most people this is old news, but did you know Youtube has a section just for education? Here’s what it looks like:

Scrolling down further, I found sections about fear and psychology:

I love that Youtube is highlighting creators who make educational content and separating it out from other content. The article I read said that they specifically tried to filter educational content from distracting videos and potentially offensive content. They also turned off the recommended section so that students won’t just keep clicking and accidentally watch for longer than they intended. I’m sure everyone has had that experience where they’ve gone down a rabbithole and just kept watching entertaining videos for like an hour (or more)…

Another article talks about how students use Youtube on their own time. A survey conducted with German students found that 50% of them watch educational content, including concepts they were stuck on, information they needed to review, and tutorials such as music, art, and drama lessons. I just think it’s so awesome that students who are really curious can learn basically anything they want to know in about 15 minutes on Youtube. If students are already using these resources, then it’s so important for teachers to take advantage of that. Maybe we can curate playlists of suggested content, such as specific math concepts that they can look at if they get stuck while doing homework. For an English or French class, a teacher could ask students to watch a video at home for homework, and then discuss it the next day in class.

The content on Youtube is infinite, so the possibilities are endless!