Since it was created in 2005, YouTube’s growth in importance and influence has been remarkable. In these past 15 years, YouTube has always been one of the top platforms for finding and sharing content of all kinds. And lately, some of its most popular videos are focused on education, with tutorials covering subjects as diverse as languages, mathematics, and chemistry.
Educational videos are everywhere to be found on YouTube, and many of them accumulate hundreds, thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of subscribers and views. This has made the platform a tool of great value for both teachers and students looking to deepen their understanding of topics and easily and quickly solve any doubts they have.
YouTube in education: Teachers 2.0
Throughout history, the ways in which we teach and learn have varied greatly. In recent years, a new mode of learning and study has emerged; one that responds directly to the digital age we live in. We are talking about the video tutorials that can be freely watched on YouTube.
There are tutorials to learn languages, to play instruments, or to develop study techniques, among many, many others
YouTube has become a fundamental tool when it comes to supporting traditional teaching and learning methods, especially in cases where the content is complex or where students have not 100% understood their teacher’s explanations.
It’s not about replacing one type of learning with another, it’s about using all the resources and tools that students have at their fingertips. Because of this, more and more teachers are turning to new technologies to enhance and update their teaching strategy. The use of audiovisual content often allows teachers to introduce and explain concepts in a clearer and more entertaining way. And, as we have seen over these past years, video is a powerful learning tool that should not be underestimated.
However, the use of YouTube in education presents a challenge for teachers, since they must guide students towards the best use of this resource, taking into account the breadth and variety of the videos out there. As you probably know, a lot of the content on YouTube will not always be the most appropriate for the classroom.
Tips for creating videos
Do you want to make the most of YouTube in education? Are you a teacher who wants to create their own videos? Follow these tips!
- Know your audience. Before you start recording your videos, consider who you want to reach with this content. You will need to be very clear about the age and educational level of those who will watch your videos.
- Be brief. This prevents audiences from losing interest and helps focus attention on a single topic, which will keep the spotlight on the information you want to convey.
- Take care of all the details. Make sure that both the script and the staging are correct before recording, and especially before uploading the video. A carefully-made video will be much more appealing and effective. You should also take into account the quality of the image and the sound.
- Keep your audience’s feedback in mind. Any feedback that you receive from your students, both in terms of views and comments, will help you correct any details that don’t work, and improve your videos.
- Be creative. YouTube offers great creative freedom to teachers. Taking advantage of the possibilities of the medium to offer engaging and entertaining content will help increase the number of views no matter how dense the content.
The 4 best educational channels on YouTube
This is a channel featuring illustrations that explain all kinds of content such as overpopulation, parasites, the universe, nuclear energy, and many more. In operation since 2013, it stands out for its quality in the editing and production of videos.
This channel’s 845,000 subscribers enjoy more than 85,000 reports, films, and documentaries that delve into history and its curiosities. The channel’s content is exclusively in English, so it is an extra opportunity to practice this language for non-native speakers. The videos are organized by themes: among others, you can watch documentaries about the Titanic, the history of feminism, or Hiroshima.
Without discussing the topics in depth, this channel offers short videos on topics as diverse as astronomy, politics, and intellectual property. They are organized in playlists and the channel provides an option to add subtitles in other languages.
Science is the protagonist of this channel. Here you can find explanatory content related to biology, physics or mathematics.
And you? What is your favorite educational channel on YouTube? Let us know in the comments!
