Free Online Video Resources

Activity 10-69  (December 2011)

Part 1: 

There is a vast collection of free online video resources.  Some sites include videos that can be streamed online and others offer the option of downloading the videos to your own computer to play.  Content amount and topics can vary greatly among the sites, but I believe you'll find a wealth of educational videos available. This list is not meant to be exhaustive.  Instead, it is simply a collection of sites that I have found in my exploration of online video resources over the years.  

Part 1 Assignment: 

Explore the following online video resources.  Some of the links are categorized by subject areas.   

Respond to this blogpost (see "comment" link at the bottom of the post).  Include in your response:  your name, the title and link to a "favorite" site that you explored, a description of the content available on the site, and any additional information, if you wish, about how you might use the site.  If you have trouble posting your comment, let me know.  

Estimated time:  2-3 hours 

Multiple subject areas 

NC Live

http://media.nclive.org/

Includes over 250 documentary and educational video programs chosen by NC librarians.  Search for videos or by topics including science, US and world history, biography, current events, the arts, and other subjects.  Also includes several educational series for children.  You can access the videos from school (or at home with a password from your local library). 

Snag Films- free documentaries
http://www.snagfilms.com/

Choose from over 850 full-length documentary films to watch online (or embed in your blog) for free.  The films I’ve watched on this site include short commercials, but there are some great documentaries here.  Search by keyword or topics, including campus, environment, health, history, international, life and culture, music and arts, politics, religion and spirituality, science and nature, sports and hobbies, and women’s issues. 

Open Video
http://open-video.org/

This shared digital video collection includes thousands of clips/videos searchable by keyword as well as by genre and duration.  Collections include videos from NASA, National Archives, and more. 

PBS Video
http://video.pbs.org/

Find PBS video by program, topic, or collection.  You can also search by keyword.  If you can’t find a video you’re looking for, you can look in their “more videos” section http://video.pbs.org/morevideos.html 

PBS Kids Video
http://pbskids.org/go/video/

The kids video section of PBS includes hundreds of hours of full-length shows and clips of some of PBS kids programming, including Arthur, Maya & Miguel, WordGirl, and more. 

Academic Earth
http://academicearth.org/

Find full video courses and lectures from world scholars at universities such as Harvard, MIT, and Stanford.  Search by keyword, subject, university, or top rated instructors.  Subjects include biology, chemistry, history, literature, math, and much more.  Even though these are college level lectures, there is certain to be some content adaptable to high school level classes. 

BBC Learning Zone Clips
http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningzone/clips/

Most any search for educational resources online will lead me to a BBC website.  Looking for educational videos is no exception.  This BBC site included video clips for primary and secondary students in subjects such as art, history, foreign language, language arts, math, and more.  Find clips for subject area topics or search by keyword or clip number. 

TED
http://www.ted.com/

TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, and Design.  Each year, there is a TED conference in California and Oxford UK featuring speakers from all over the world who give a short (less than 18 minutes) talk on “Ideas Worth Spreading.”  Search by theme (technology, entertainment, design, business, science, culture, arts, and global issues), speakers, ratings, and more.  New talks are posted often.

Check out the Teaching With TED wiki at http://teachingwithted.pbworks.com/ to find resources and ideas for using TED talk videos in your classroom. 

Teachers Domain (requires free registration)
http://www.teachersdomain.org/

This website requires free registration, but has a wealth of materials including videos, professional development resources, and other digital media resources.  After logging in, you can bookmark your favorite sections of the site to create easy access to the content that is most relevant to you.  Browse by K-12 subject area, professional development topic, or special collection or search by keyword. 

SchoolTube
http://www.schooltube.com/

Videos and pictures on this site are student-produced and will be approved by moderators before being posted online.  Therefore, this site is a great resource for finding student created materials that are safe and appropriate.  Search by keyword, categories, or by channels. 

Teacher Tube
http://www.teachertube.com/index.php

Think of You Tube for education and you’ll understand the idea behind Teacher Tube.  You can find student and teacher created videos for the classroom as well as professional development content.  Search by keyword or browse the channels.  Content can be rated by users and inappropriate content can be flagged. 

YouTube
http://www.youtube.com

YouTube is a very popular video hosting site with a library of millions of videos posted by users all over the world.  Based on this fact alone, it is obvious that all of the content won’t be appropriate for your students.  In fact, in HPS, YouTube is blocked for students.  However, if you take some time to search and preview some videos, you’ll find there is also a lot of valuable educational content that you can use in the classroom.

YouTube also has an educational section: http://www.youtube.com/edu 

This short video from Edutopia- “How to Use YouTube in the Classroom”- is a great starting point to helping educators search and use YouTube for educational purposes. http://www.edutopia.org/digital-generation-youtube-teaching-video 

Additionally, there are online file conversion tools, like Zamzar (http://zamzar.com/) that enable you to download videos from YouTube, leaving behind the ads and links to other videos and allowing you to save the video offline. 

Research Channel
http://www.researchchannel.org/prog/

The Research Channel is available via satellite and cable television and was founded to share the work of researchers with the public.  The Research Channel website includes a video library containing over 3,500 titles in categories of arts and humanities, business and economics, computer science and engineering, health and medicine, K-12 and education, sciences, and social sciences.  You can browse by program title, series title and by university/institution.  Videos can be streamed or downloaded. 

Edublogs.tv
http://www.edublogs.tv/ 

A project from Edublogs, the online educational blogging platform, Edublogs.tv allows users to upload and view educational video content.  Search by keyword or category.  With free registration, you can save favorites and create playlists. 

Learner.org
http://www.watchknow.org/ 

Annenberg Media has created a site for professional development resources for teachers.  You can purchase content on DVD and in print, but you can also access streaming video online for free at Learner.org.  Browse by grade and/or subject area, including arts, foreign language, literature/language arts, math, science, and social studies/history.    Most video collections include additional resources.  (In addition to professional development video collections, learner.org includes an “interactives” section with interactive student activities for elementary, middle, and high.) 

Federal Resources for Educational Excellence
http://free.ed.gov/keywords.cfm?keyword_id=303&res_feature_request=1

There are tons of teaching and learning resources for free from the federal government.  This section of the site is specific to the free videos available.  Search by subject area: arts & music, health and PE, history & SS, language arts, math, and science. 

Glencoe Media Library
http://www.glencoe.com/sec/medialibrary/

Search for video resources by first choosing your state, subject, and level.  Then you can choose a specific textbook.  Even if you don’t use the same textbook in your class, you may find video resources that match objectives and topics you are covering in your class.  The subject areas include Literature, Math, Science, Social Studies, and World Languages.  Some subjects/levels/and books have more video content than others, but it’s worth a look! 

Archive.org
http://www.archive.org/details/movies

The Archive's Moving Images library of free movies, films, and videos. This library contains thousands of digital movies uploaded by Archive users which range from classic full-length films, to daily alternative news broadcasts, to cartoons and concerts. Many of these videos are available for free download. 

Open Culture: 125 Great Science Videos
http://www.openculture.com/science_videos

Browse various science-related videos by category: astronomy and space travel; physics; biology and chemistry; environment, geology, and ecology; psychology and neuroscience; science and religion; and tech and math. 

Open Culture: Intelligent YouTube
http://www.openculture.com/smartyoutube

This link includes a list of YouTube channels that may provide educational content for various topics and subject areas. 

Khan Academy
http://www.khanacademy.org/#browse

Explore over 2,700 videos covering these topics: algebra, developmental math, geometry, calculus, trigonometry, biology, chemistry, physics, astronomy, computer science, finance, history, art history, civics, and test prep.

Social Studies 

National Geographic Channel Videos
http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/videos/

Featured video categories include full episodes, animals and nature, exploration and adventure, history and events, people and places, science and technology, Nat Geo wild, preserve our planet, and dog whisperer. 

History Channel
http://www.history.com/video

The History Channel website includes a video section where you can search by keyword, view by show, or by topic.  Categories include American history, military history, mysteries and unexplained, science and technology, and society and culture. 

iCue
http://www.icue.com/

This interactive news and history portal from NBC is designed for students.

Description from the website: “iCue is a fun, innovative learning environment built around video from the NBC News Archives. Videos, games, and activities correlated to courses in U.S. History, U.S. Government and Politics, and English Language and Composition, and more.  A community of friends and learners engaged in discussion around academics, current events, and important issues.  A collection of Video Cue Cards, with thousands of video clips from the NBC News archives wrapped in a tradable, interactive virtual card.” 

Explore.org
http://explore.org/ 

Explore.org has documented the journeys of humanitarians from around the world, providing the public with films and photos of these lives on the explore.org website.  Here you’ll find many film “bites” for all ages in a wide variety of topics.  Search by places (continent/area) or by causes (animals, children, culture, disabilities, education, elderly, environment, human services, human rights, music, special features, and spirituality).

Travel Film Archive
http://www.travelfilmarchive.com/home.php

The Travel Film Archive is a collection of travelogues and educational and industrial films that show the world the way it was between 1900 and 1970. 

Teaching History
http://teachinghistory.org/history-content/website-reviews?keys=&tid=All&tid_1=All&tid_2=283

TeachingHistory.org has various history teaching materials available.  This section of the site is specific to history websites with videos.  Narrow the search results by keywords, topic, and time period. 

NC Public Schools: Distance Learning- Documentaries
http://www.ncpublicschools.org/distancelearning/classroom/documentaries.html

The Distance Learning section of the NC Public Schools site include North Carolina related documentaries.  View the full list of videos or browse the titles/descriptions. 

Critical Past
http://www.criticalpast.com/

This online archive includes thousands of hours of videos and millions of photos.  There are no license requirements or royalty fees for using the content from this site.  You can download the video/image content.  Search by keyword, by decade, or even by the week or your birthday. 

Culture Talk
http://langmedia.fivecolleges.edu/culturetalk.html

CultureTalk features video clips of interviews and discussions with people from many different countries and of many different ages and walks of life. Some interviews and discussions are in English; more are in the language(s) of the countries involved. Translations and/or transcripts are given for all non-English video clips. Topics include family, food, education, religious and cultural customs, work, art, sport, travel, and more. 

Folkstreams
http://www.folkstreams.net/?list=1

Folkstreams.net has two goals. One is to build a national preserve of hard-to-find documentary films about American folk or roots cultures. The other is to give them renewed life by streaming them on the internet. The films were produced by independent filmmakers in a golden age that began in the 1960s and was made possible by the development first of portable cameras and then capacity for synch sound. Their films focus on the culture, struggles, and arts of unnoticed Americans from many different regions and communities.

 

Science 

Arkive
http://www.arkive.org/

This site includes thousands of wildlife images, information, and videos.  You can search by keyword in the species, video, or images search box.  Arkive includes a special focus on threatened species. 

BioInteractive
http://www.hhmi.org/biointeractive/video/index.html

The Howard Hughes Medical Institute has a video collection with clips related to neuroscience, infectious diseases, DNA, and more.  The video search section includes lecture topics and video from the DNA Interactive section of the site http://www.hhmi.org/biointeractive/videosearch.html.  Videos from this site could be used in a high school classroom. 

Sixty Symbols
http://www.sixtysymbols.com/index.html

The University of Nottingham has collected sixty videos related to the symbols of physics and astronomy.  Click on a symbol to view a related video.  The site creators are working on adding sixty more videos.

Science House Foundation
http://sciencehousefoundation.org/videoscience/

Video Science is a collection of short videos of science demonstrations designed to serve as your digital colleague and science teaching companion. With over 80 videos currently, and more added every month, Video Science helps you find inexpensive lab tools and lots of experiments that are easy, effective, and hopefully fun to offer your students.

Math 

Countdown
http://countdown.luc.edu/

The Loyola University Chicago School of Education has posted over 300 math topic program clips from its cable television show Countdown.  You can find 4-7 minute clips in categories (number and operations, algebra, measurement, geometry, data analysis and probability, extended response, technology, and connections) for elementary grade levels.

Science/SS 

NOVA Teachers Video
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/teachers/video/

From PBS, the NOVA Teachers video section includes complete programs and shorter science clips.  Search the teachers site by keyword or view videos by subject (including chemistry, earth science, life science, social studies, and more). 

Smithsonian Channel
http://www.smithsonianchannel.com/site/smithsonian/video/

View video “sneak peeks” and some full-length videos from the video section of the Smithsonian Channel’s website.  Search by keyword or browse by category (air and space, history, more Smithsonian, nature and animals, pop culture, Smithsonian kids, America’s war stories, newest videos, full episodes, and series).

HippoCampus:
http://www.hippocampus.org

This site contains animations and interactives for high school math, science, and social studies.  You can browse by course and topic or by textbook correlation.

Specific links on Hippocampus to Sci/SS subjects:

• Biology  http://www.hippocampus.org/Biology
• American Government  http://www.hippocampus.org/American%20Government
• Physics  http://www.hippocampus.org/Physics
• US History  http://www.hippocampus.org/US%20History
• Environmental Science  http://www.hippocampus.org/Environmental%20Science

Educational Video Aggregators 

Some websites contain a collection of educational videos that are actually just links to other websites, possibly saving you time and energy as you search for relevant video content for your classroom.  Here are a couple of educational video aggregators: 

WatchKnow
http://www.watchknow.org/

Search by topics/subjects and filter by age.  Main categories include, language arts, literature, math, science, history, social studies, languages, PE/health, arts, computers/technology, practical skills, philosophy/religion/ethics, educational hobbies/crafts, for teachers and parents, and more.  All video content is hosted on other sites, but users can find and share educational videos here. 

NeoK12
http://www.neok12.com/

This site has links to tons of videos (and images) for preschool through high school.  Videos have been viewed to ensure they are safe, accurate, and appropriate for students. Search by keyword or by category. There are also Web 2.0 tools and lessons available on NeoK12. 

Kideos: Videos for Kids
http://www.kideos.com/

Kideos is created to be a safe place for kids to watch videos online.  Each video is screened by a video advisory council before adding it to the site.  Search by age or keyword. 

Educational Videos
http://www.educationalvideos.com/#

This search engine allows you to search for educational videos by keyword or category.

Other 

Karma Tube
http://www.karmatube.org/index.php

View “inspirational stories” that focus on character values like kindness and generosity.  Explore videos by category: everyday heroes, art & music, environment, business, science & tech, talks & interviews. 

Soul Biographies
http://soulbiographies.com/

Nic Askew, a film maker, musician, and poet, creates films about people.  These short, black and white videos give a deep observation into the lives of others.  They have been said to “shake the soul.”  Search for videos by keyword. 

Career Info Net
http://www.careerinfonet.org/videos/COS_Videos.asp?id=27&nodeid=27

Explore careers by exploring the videos on this site.  There are skill and ability videos, industry videos, and work option videos.  You can download videos and there are Spanish versions for over 300 videos. 

Teaching Channel Videos
http://www.teachingchannel.org/videos

Find teaching inspiration in the videos shared here from The Teaching Channel.  Explore videos by subject (English/LA, Math, Science, SS), grade, or topic (planning, class culture, behavior, engagement, differentiation, assessment, collaboration, common core, new teachers, and celebrating teachers.)

My Delicious links tagged with the keyword “video” can be found at http://delicious.com/murraygirl/videos