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Practical Ed Tech Tip of the Week – 4 Tips for Using YouTube Videos in Your Classroom

ByRichard Byrne

One of last week’s most popular posts on FreeTech4Teachers.com was 3 Tips for Using YouTube Videos in Your Classroom. After I published that post a handful of people correctly pointed out that I should have added, “always preview the video before showing it to your class.” Along that same line, try to refrain from conducting YouTube searches in front of your class. That was a lesson that I learned the hard way in 2006. My other tips of using YouTube videos in your classroom are included below.

Remove distractions by using ViewPure. 
ViewPure is a service that allows you to watch and project YouTube videos without seeing the related sidebar content typically seen on YouTube.com. ViewPure offers a free browser bookmarklet that you can use to clear the sidebar content while viewing a video on YouTube.

You can search for YouTube videos through the ViewPure website. When searching for videos through ViewPure you don’t see sidebar content, you only see videos. You can choose to use strict filtering while searching through ViewPure.

To be clear, ViewPure is not a filter work-around if your school blocks YouTube and it is not a tool for downloading YouTube videos. (Downloading YouTube videos is a violation of the YouTube terms of service).

Show just a portion of a video by using TubeChop.
TubeChop gives you the ability to clip a section from any YouTube video and share it with others via a link or via an embed code added to your own blog or website. TubeChop lets you select a start time and an end time for an video that you share.

Create a playlist of videos. 
Save yourself some classroom downtime by having a playlist of videos ready to go when you need them. You can create playlists directly in your YouTube account. A video on how to do that is embedded below.


Another way to create a playlist is to use Diigo. You can share videos within Diigo groups. Your students can watch the videos directly inside the Diigo group and don’t have to go to YouTube.com to see the videos.

Here are this week’s most popular posts on FreeTech4Teachers.com:
1. Three Helpful Google Docs Updates Released This Week
2. 3 Tips for Using YouTube Videos In Your Classroom
3. Literature Map Helps You Find Authors You Might Like
4. AC/DC and Other Lessons on Electricity
5. Cloudschool – Create & Distribute a Variety of Multimedia Courses
6. Three Google Slides Features New Users Often Ask About
7. PrepFactory Helps Students Prepare for the SAT & ACT

Professional Development Opportunities!
There will be two Practical Ed Tech Summer Camps this year. There will be one tailored to schools that have 1:1 Chromebook programs and one for everyone else. Both Practical Ed Tech Summer Camps will be held in July. You can learn more about them here. Discounted early registration is available now. The Practical Ed Tech Summer Camp has sold out every year for the last three years.

Would you like to have me speak at your school or conference?
Click here to learn about my professional development services.

Register for the Practical Ed Tech BYOD Camp by April 30th and you can save $50 off standard registration. Subscribers to the PracticalEdTech.com newsletter can save an additional $25 by entering the code “subscriber” at checkout.

Have a colleague or two who wants to join you? Special rates are available for two or more people registering from the same school district. Email me richardbyrne (at) freetech4teachers.com for details.