Sure, you have heard about the Khan Academy (and maybe even the response videos to Khan), but YouTube, the world’s largest archive of videos, has become the repository of choice for any organization to share videos to the masses. The result is an incredibly diverse collection of videos that could be used to enrich any classroom.
Chances are you don’t have the time to review many of newest uploads (and no wonder… 100 hours of video are uploaded every minute!), so here is a collection of 10 great channels that might not have heard about.
The National Archives
The National Archives is really a personification of the power of YouTube. The National Archives has untold numbers of videos that would be locked away in archives minus this amazing platform. The channel itself includes over 1,000 videos, including products by the National Archives that take you behind the scenes of their efforts to preserve our nation’s history, like this video that discusses the infamous 18 1/2 minute gap in the Watergate tapes:
The Clinton Presidential Library
Along the same lines, many presidential libraries, including Truman, Roosevelt, Kennedy and Clinton, have started the process of digitizing the videos in their archive and pushed the gems to YouTube. These are also public records that have great research value, but would be nearly impossible to share before the availability of archives like YouTube. Here is a great event from 1998 featuring President Clinton and leaders like Nelson Mandela:
The Open University
The Open University, one of the world’s largest institutions of higher education, has a very developed distance learning program that produces an incredible amount of educational media. As part of its mission, it has over 1,000 videos on its YouTube channel ranging from historical content to detailed information about structural and mechanical engineering. Here is a great example video, a well-produced video on the atomic bomb in popular culture:
Harvard University
Universities have been the leader in pushing out content to content channels like YouTube since the beginning. Many prominent universities have OER (“open educational resource”) initiatives that seek to push out content of all varieties via YouTube, iTunes U, and other media systems.
The Harvard University channel is a great example, sharing videos ranging from archives of great campus programs on diplomacy to videos like this, which explores a prototype of a brain scanner:
Dan Izzo
The Dan Izzo archive is an amazing collection of short videos, most of which last less than a minute. The collection is vast and isn’t particularly well-organized, but I have found dozens of interesting videos that could be used in a variety or teacher or student media projects, like this video of soup kitchens during the Depression:
The British Monarchy
I love the British Monarchy channel, the British Royal Family’s archive of videos related to the UK’s most famous family. Sure, you may not want to watch the Royal Wedding live on YouTube, don’t miss out on this excellent newsreel footage of the wedding between the Queen Mother and King George VI:
ASAP Science
ASAP Science is the work of biologists Mitchell Moffit and Gregory Brown and has tens of millions of plays to date. The videos are quick, informative and have a style you will find engaging and entertaining. Want to know about 3D printing? ASAP Science has you covered:
C.G.P. Grey
The C.G.P. Grey channel might only have 64 videos, but the collection is diverse and well-produced! Ranging from why the penny is dying to the the US-Canadian border (in two parts), each video is produced to be efficient and entertaining, like this video in 5 different historical misconceptions:
SmarterEveryDay
Destin has a mission of making science fun for its viewers. His SmarterEveryDay channel is funny, as evidenced by this cat physics video which explores why cats always land on their feet… by dropping cats in slow motion.
And… the NCCE Channel!
Sure… it is only 23 videos right now, but NCCE is expanding its media reach! Subscribe to us today to get first crack at interviews, how-to videos and other content to come. Did you miss our interview with Chelsie Jolley last week? Check it out here!