BP12_2009123_Tool#4WatchKnow
[Image 1. WatchKnow]
WatchKnow is my selected Web 2.0 tool of the week. Videos for kids to learn from.
WatchKnow is a collection of short, quality educational and informational videos, categorized according to subject and educational level. WatchKnow was created for teachers, parents, and students. The current count of the collection is at 13, 140 and growing.
Educators are encouraged to collect, create, and share these free video resources that explain every educational topic in any language. The committee’s goal is to offer more than 50,000 videos by the end of 2010. A media review panel reviews all videos before they are added to the WatchKnow.org collection.
WatchKnow combines educational videos from some well-known sites to educators, such as, TeacherTube, YouTube, SchoolTube, eHow, Howcast, Internet Archive, 5min Life Videopedia, Slideboom live presentations, Graspr, Google videos and National Geographic. While the YouTube selections may be blocked for elementary schools at your district, this tool allows viewers optional educational clips from the various other sources. This directory greatly reduces search time for teachers when searching for materials to reach the auditory and visual learners. What a wealth of information in a supplemental format to use as an extension of textbook. Parents can look to WatchKnow to provide a tutorial for homework help or even as a review for their own knowledge.
WatchKnow is a wiki, a new kind of wiki that allows users to drag and drop videos from category to category and can be logged and tracked like most other videos. Users can rate the videos, which is important and helpful when trying to select a video for your students or own children. Another valuable feature for teachers and parents is that these videos can be selected by various search options including an age filter option.
Users can feel confident this site was designed with the experience and expertise of Larry Sanger, who is the executive director of WatchKnow. If this name sounds familiar, Larry Sanger is an American Ph.D. philosopher, co-founder of Wikipedia and founder of Citizendium. Additionally, Mr. Sanger shares tutorial videos on the WatchKnow website for ease of site navigation and features.
I am pleased to direct my colleagues to this site for supplemental materials for their classroom. Budget cuts have limited purchases for many libraries and so WatchKnow couldn't have been released at a better time. I believe educators around the world will appreciate having this free library at their fingertips.
References
Current Site of the Week - Wikipedia co-founder launches YouTube-like web site for children. (n.d.). eSchool News. Retrieved December 12, 2009, from http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/site-of-the-week/current-site-of-the-week/index.cfm? i=61846
WatchKnow - Videos for kids to learn from. Organized. (2009). WatchKnow - Videos for kids to learn from. Organized. Retrieved December 12, 2009, from http://www.watchknow.org
Posted by Joan M Lourenco at 9:52 AM
1 comments:
Joy said...
Wow, Joan I can't wait to visit this site. I know what you mean about budget cuts. I love introducing new internet resources for the teachers and the few parents who have the internet ability to visit sites such as these. I know that the children to do visit the public library and while there they can take their list of sites to visit over the holidays and I will add this! I like the fact that the medias are reviewed by a board. Thanks Joan!
December 12, 2009 3:26 P
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