As educators, most of us  recognize the benefits of using video for learning and we also realize that exposing students to the wide array of content available on YouTube can be dangerous. Finally, it’s here… The YouTube.edu site!

Launched this week, the folks at YouTube appear to have been listening to teachers and edtech gurus. At first glance, I’m quite impressed with the new education site for many reasons. Here are the top three:

1. Teachers can now create their own YouTube channel on the education site for easy student access. They can organize and archive videos for future use, ensuring that the content is safe and educationally appropriate.
2. The site offers 10 ways to use YouTube in the classroom and they have hit upon many of the things I believe we should be doing to provide digital content to help all students succeed. My favorites include suggestions for differentiation, an example demonstrating how to solve math problems online to help students and their parents at home, and of course using video to facilitate The Flipped Classroom model. They’ve even created an instructional section on creating screencasts to help teachers get started.
3. The folks at YouTube are clearly well aware of the opportunities that exist for extending the walls of our classrooms and opening the doors 24/7 and they’ve done their homework to help teachers succeed.