Welcome to NCS-Tech!

Good morning all,

They say today’s students are the YouTube generation, and there’s plenty of evidence of that out on the Internet. According to the Digital Ethnography blog, over 200,000 new videos are created each day; 6% are tagged ‘education,’ and 2.2% categorized as ’science.’ With the arrival of sites like TeacherTube.com and SchoolTube.com (my current fave), it’s clear that interest in using video is growing among students and educators, and today’s featured site is further proof.

TestToob.com comes to us by way the Twitter feed belonging to Emma Haygood, a science teacher in Berrien Springs, Michigan. TestToob.com’s mashup equation is science video + youtube + social networking + cool prizes = engaging community of learners. Here’s a shot of the main screen:

Users must be 13 to register but teachers can do as I’ve done on similar sites and create student accounts for them, and then be sure the kids know not to divulge any personally identifying information. Parentsal releases are also a good idea if student faces will appear in any videos (which is sort of the point, eh?) Once you are through the logistics of setting up the account, you are brought to a main screen like this:

As you can see, all videos are approved by the site owners prior to publishing, a very nice feature, and one that will help ensure content remains 100% school safe. The examples are terrific and span middle through high school. There is a video contest ($150 in prizes) with five categories, and since the site is relatively new, so your chances of winning should be good. The ‘community’ section allows users to rate videos and enter comments (teachable moments, anyone?) Most importantly, integrating video into the science classroom could make a cool class even cooler, as kids apply their YouTube skillz (you know they have them) in the creation of academic content. Sites like this are the best hope we have of generating support for the use of video in the classroom.

Hope this helps!

-kj-