As a YouTube potato, I have found this feature to be very useful. For almost 2 years now, I have been searching the site for material to use in the classroom and create activities for teflclips. One of the original intentions for the TEFLclips project was to create a bank of links to all the useful videos that I have found on YouTube or similar sites. Although this task was started, it has never really been worked on or maintained until now.
At the Clips Bank (see link at the top of the page), you will find 500 links to video clips, organized according to origin and content. Example categories include:
- Caught on camera
- Instructional videos
- Science and technology
The Clips
The primary task in creating the Clips Bank has been to build up a resource of videos that may be useful in some way or another to teachers, especially language teachers. All of the following have been included:
1. Clips that teachers can use for classroom activities
2. Clips that may be of interest to teachers (especially language teachers)
3. Representative clips: By this I mean clips which serve primarily to demonstrate what type of content can be found on YouTube. For example, there are thousands of adverts, film clips and TV comedy sketches on YouTube. I have linked to just a few in order to give an idea of what’s there.
4. Notable Viral Videos: Some of these such as the Dramatic Prairie Dog may seem quite silly to a lot of people. However, many have been included so that we can look at YouTube from an anthropological point of view and stay in touch with young culture. Good excuse?
5. YouTube culture: Similarly, some of this might seem a bit irrelevant or silly at times (people uploading clips to tell others about their favourite sandwiches, for example). But they have been included for the same reasons mentioned above.
6. YouTube Channels: The Clips Bank includes links to useful channels such as the Aardman channel, The Monty Python channel, and TEFLclips Channel.
7. Whenever additional or complemetary material has been necessary (an article, Wikipedia entry or blog posting, for example), this has also been provided.
Inevitable, most of the clips in the Clips Bank will be rooted in Western culture and media. Others may be considered as unsuitable for the language classroom (I have given explicit language warnings wherever necessary).
YouTube is an international medium which can be used to find videos that are relevant to learners’ backgrounds, cultures and tastes. The most engaging lessons will be the ones that we plan around the clips that students connect with most or actually choose themselves.
For these reasons, the Clips Bank would work best as a collaboration with other teachers and this is a possibility for the future.