Using Youtube to Teach Math (or anything)

When my son went to his formal he wanted to know how to tie a tie. Solution Youtube.

We have started to use youtube videos at my secondary school (some we produce ourselves) to help students learn everything from podcasting to math concepts.

The article below entitled "Need Help With Class? YouTube Videos Await" discusses how Youtube math tutorials can help students.

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2008/12/11/208825bctecyoutubetutoring_ap.html

Google Apps Education Edition - a free spreadsheet for students

I implement Google Apps Education Edition in my school.

One of the best things about Google Apps is it gives any student with a gmail account a free spreadsheet. I polled students in math classes and only about 1/3 has spreadsheet software at home. Teachers now can assign math homework that requires the use of a spreadsheet - because now all students will have access to a spreadsheet at home. The spreadsheet also is very good at graphing and is used in both math and geography classes. The Google Apps spreadsheet can both export and import Microsoft Excel files.

Math teachers do not need Google Apps Education Edition to be set up for their students to access Google Docs spreadsheets. Math teachers only have to ask their students to get a free gmail account (they automatically get a free spreadsheet as part of the gmail service).

More on Google Apps education edition

For students without high speed Internet - podcasts could be placed on memory sticks which could be signed out of the school library.

As far as communication we have started to use Google Apps (education edition) in our school.
Google Apps is free for schools and has no ads. It allows students and teachers to create documents(Word, Excel, PowerPoint), share calendars, email, chat, create web pages and more. It is secure as everything stays within the registered domain and cannot be accessed by people who do not have a school login. It is an excellent tool to provide elearning. It works on any computer including Macs.

"Frantic troubleshooting by an overworked staff versus someone else fixing problems smoothly. A sliver of server space per person versus a five-gigabyte chunk. Half a million dollars versus free"
Chronicle of Higher Education 1/11/2008

Many schools are registered. See video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYPjJK6LZdM

See what it is
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJT3pagjd8s

See article
COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY PARTNERS WITH GOOGLE TO ENHANCE E-MAIL AND COLLABORATION SERVICES
http://newsinfo.colostate.edu/index.asp?url=news_item_display&news_item_id=979928202

Students opinion of Google Apps For Education

I installed Google Apps for Education in Feb. 2008. Here is what students think about it.

Videos about Youth Culture and Technology

Links

Some interesting videos on technology and youth culture.
Academia 2.0 video - Balanced video discussing how new technologies have changed students regarding learning.

A Vision of Students Today - Some interesting ideas - Even though some students do not seem to be able to tough it out - Life is a challenge.....

Did you know video - Great stats - A little over the top ....

Google Apps

Imagine using an Internet tool (with no ads) for free that can save a school district $10,000 of dollars. Google Apps is available for free to educational institutions. It was voted the number 1 product by PC Magazine for 2007. They said
"Google Apps (allows users to create) Documents (like MicroSoft Word) & Spreadsheets (like MicroSoft Excel) ...(soon to be joined by a PowerPointesque presentation application) already makes for an interesting alternative to Microsoft Office. Combine it with Gmail, Google Talk, and Google Calendar, and suddenly nearly all of your basic productivity programs and data can be available online.

How does a School District save $$$:

• by not having to purchase software licences for Microsoft products or install software on computers MS Word, Excel and PowerPoint type software runs efficiently over the Internet. The only software the student's computer requires is a browser.
• by not having to purchase and maintain a server to hold student files. Students are automatically given secure accounts from a simple text file of names. They are each given 6 GB of space which is typically 100 times larger that the space given to them on a school server. All this can be managed simply by an administrator at the school. All communication and files are secure and private from the public Internet. Files are automatically checked for viruses (do not have to purchase virus checking software)
• by cutting printing costs. Google Apps allows documents to be shared .. between students for group work and with the teacher for marking. No file is every lost and is automatically saved every minute.
• By allowing students to use their own computers (with wireless access) because they can access their Google Apps files without having to log onto a school server. Presently most schools will not allow students to hook their computers into the school server because of the fear of viruses. Allow students to use their own computers allows school to cut down on the purchase of computers in they want to keep the student/computer ration the same.

At my school I have started testing Google Apps with Classes click here. It looks very promising !