Art Tech Task #4

The tool that I have chosen, for this weeks Art Tech Task, is YouTube. I decided to use this site because not only can you upload videos that you've made but you also have access to all of the great videos already on the site. YouTube has a series of different categories. These are listed on the left side of the website as "The Best of YouTube" These categories include: Music, Sports, Gaming, Movies, TV Shows, News, Live, Spotlight, and 360 Degrees Video. Just as well, there is a search bar at the top of the site. The feature allows you to search whichever top or video you would like. Once you've searched this the top pick is the most closely related to your search and as you scroll down it ventures farther and farther away from that exact search. I know that in order to upload videos you must subscribe to the site and have a login. It is free to do this.

This would be great for an early childhood setting because it allows you to show a multitude of different videos that pertain to a so many different topics, subjects, and differentiated levels of development. Just as well, this is a great way to assign tasks out of class or on their own time. Students can access these videos on their phones, tablets, iPads, and computers. Just as well, if they create a video of their own they can upload it where ever they would like. This makes for a major convenience factor when promoting this website. 

I would love to use this tool, in my classroom, as much as possible. I would like to use it for students to upload videos that they have made. This may be individually or within a group project. We could put them on a specific channel and they would play one after another. Just as well, I would like to use this website to enhance my instruction. I would like my students to have access to these different videos at anytime. I would search and find different videos that pertain to whatever we are working on at that particular time and then have these videos available to the children whenever they may need them. 

YouTube is very popular website, therefore, I find that many students already know how to use it. Just as well, as I am working through the site and looking for different videos, or features the site may contain, I find that it is very easy to navigate. However, depending on what grade I am teaching, operating this site may not be that easy to use. For example, if I were in a preschool setting this would not be an appropriate tool for them to use. However, I would say by the time students are in second grade or higher this site would be just fine for them to use. Even students in kindergarten and first grade may be able to use the site but not to its full extent. By this I mean that they would probably be able to watch videos and maybe even search them, however, uploading them on their own would not be something that I would strongly promote in that grade level.

Something I really like, that I have found on this site, is the multitude of different videos they have that pertain to story book readings. For example, here is a reading of the story The Polar Express. This is read by Liam Neeson and goes throughout the entire book. The pages change as the reader goes on. I really like these readings because there are so many different activities that we could do with books and now the children have access to a reading at any time. Just as well, I would love to have my students hear how different authors read a story out loud and then take the time to go through a story, that is well rehearsed to them, and record themselves reading it. You could even take this as far as to have them write their own story and then read it aloud.