SMART Technologies Contest

Don't miss the deadline for entering SMART's Extraordinary Moments video contest. May 31 is the last day for entries. Find out more at http://teachertube.com/extraordinary.php.
To view current entries, go to the SMART Technologies Channel.

Contest for Teachers

Just got some info on a contest sponsored by Lands' End designed to recognize outstanding teachers:

Lands’ End is announcing the Teachers Light the Way Contest. The company will recognize outstanding teachers that have made a difference in the life of a student, a school or a community.

Forty-five (45) teachers will receive the coveted Lands’ End Lighthouse Award – representing the company’s 45-year history.

• Three (3) Grand Prize winners that will receive between $4,000-$10,000 for the teachers to split with the winning school.
• Forty-two (42) Honorable Mention winning teachers will receive a $100 Lands End gift card.

But that’s not all – readers who nominate a Grand Prize winning teacher will also receive a $250 Lands’ End gift card. Readers who nominate an Honorable Mention winning teacher will get a $25 Lands End gift card.

If your readers would like to recognize an extraordinary teacher or get more information, they can submit an essay up to 500 words and fill out the online entry form at www.landsend.com/teacheraward. The contest will end at midnight, April 17, 2008.

Two New Channels

TeacherTube is excited to have two new dedicated channels. Check out the Adora's Flying Fingers channel, which features videos of young author Adora Svitak. We're happy to support Adora's mission to teach and encourage other young writers. And don't miss the AIHE channel by the American Institute for History Education. In this channel you'll find videos on many people and events important in American history as well as video commentaries from U.S. History scholars.

Interwrite Learning/TeacherTube Video Contest Winners Announced

The final winners of the Interwrite Learning/TeacherTube video contest have been announced. Only three winning schools were selected from over 200 entries! Thanks to all of the TeacherTube community members for voting for your favorites.

K-5 Winner: Ain't Gonna Hold Us Back (D-I-G-I-T-A-L) by Canandaigua Primary School in Canandaigua, NY

6-8 Winner: Digital Child by Ilminster Intermediate in Gisborne, New Zealand

9-12 Winner: The Touch by J.M. Tate High School in Cantonment, FL

And check out the videos receiving Honorable Mention! My favorite: Malone High School's Crank that Interwrite for Best Use of Soulja Boy's "Crank That"

Do your students have a question for the candidates?

If your students have a burning question to ask the presidential candidates, then Participate in 10Questions by capturing their questions on video, then upload to TeacherTube and make sure to tag it "10questions" (without the quotes). Your questions will be added to the 10Questions "Student Voices" website. Go there to vote on the best questions; the top 10 get selected to be asked of the candidates. In turn, the candidates will post video responses and we can decide if they answered the questions. What a great way to get students involved in the democratic process!

From the 10Questions Blog:

"Teachers around the world have looked to the web to impress the values of civic participation upon their students, so what better platform to teach them about campaigns and elections than 10Questions, a forum in which their students’ questions just might be answered by the presidential candidates?

To address this, we've added a new section to the site called “Student Voices.” It's accessible via a new tab on right-hand side of 10Questions tab bar:
The tab takes you to a page featuring only videos uploaded by -- you guessed it -- students. It’s part of our new push to get high school students to participate on the site.

To help with this outreach, we’ve added the educational video sharing site TeacherTube to the list of video platforms you can use to upload your questions to 10Questions. TeacherTube is also now a co-sponsor of the project, and it will be encouraging its users to post videos to the site. We also hope to have teachers blog about their experiences making videos with their classes...
We’re really excited about this partnership and the chance it gives us to involve more students in the electoral process. Welcome TeacherTube!"

Time to Cast Your Vote!

Congratulations to the Finalists of the Interwrite Learning/TeacherTube video contest! Now your votes can help three teachers win a $15,000.00 Interwrite classroom makeover. To vote, click on the links below to view the finalists' videos. Log in (or register if you haven't registered to vote) and click the Vote for This button to vote for your favorite video in each of the three categories. The public votes count 30% of the finalists' score. Voting ends November 9th.

K-5 Finalists:

Interwrite Can Get Us What We Need
K-5
Hildebran Elementary School
Hildebran, NC
USA

Aint Gonna Hold Us Back (D-I-G-I-T-A-L)
K-5
Canandaigua Primary School
Canandaigua, NY
USA

Kiwi Kids Use ICT
k-5
Pt England School
Pt England,
NZ

Low Tech Life
K-5
Melissa Ridge Elementary
Melissa, TX
USA

Give Me More Technology
k-5
Fairfield Elementary
Fairfield, TX
USA

6-8 Grade Finalists:

SMG (Save My Grade)
6-8
Lourdes Central Catholic
Nebraska City, NE
USA

Use Ya Tech
6-8
Red Bank Middle School
Red Bank, NJ
USA

Digital Child
6-8
Ilminster Intermediate
Gisborne,
NZ

Techno-Integration
6-8
Valley View Middle School
Edina, MN
USA

interactive
6-8
The Franklin Academy
Wake Forest, NC
USA

9 - 12 Grade Finalists:

The Touch
9-12
J.M. Tate High School
Cantonment, FL
USA

Techno-Logic
9-12
Byron Center High School
Byron Center, MI
USA

Ain't No Teacher Fast Enough
9-12
Hubbard High School
Hubbard, OH
USA

Step Into Our Classroom
9-12
Elsik 9th Grade Center
Houston, TX
USA

Fight For Your Right/Classroom Science
9-12
Highland Central High School
Highland, NY
USA

Video Contest Moves to Finalists Stage

The Interwrite Learning/TeacherTube Video Contest has concluded accepting entries as of 3:59 PM (GMT) on October 22, 2007. There are a total of 213 entries! Check them out at the contest website. Finalists will be announced on Friday, October 26 and then you will have an opportunity to vote for your favorite in each category. The public votes will count for 30% of the finalists' scores to determine the grand prize winners. So between Friday, October 26 and Friday, Novemer 9, return to the contest site and vote for the classrooms you think are most deserving of a $15,000.00 classroom makeover.

Another Laptop Winner!

Congratulations to member Starcross42 for winning September's Laptop Contest! Starcross42, also known as Dr. Thomas Altman, has over 20 videos posted to TeacherTube. His speciality is science, and his videos show principles of math and physics in action in the real world -- including such areas as golf, drag racing, baseball, and music. One of our friends told me that he had been watching some of Dr. Altman's TeacherTube videos with his young daughter, after which she commented, "When I go to high school, I want Dr. Altman to be my teacher!" What a compliment!! Be sure to check out Starcross42's, aka Dr. Altman's, video album. I've embedded my favorite below.

Wikispaces Creates Video Widget for TeacherTube!

Wikispaces users will be glad to know about the new video widget that works with TeacherTube videos. The Wikispaces blog post explains just how easy the new widgits are to use. The new video widgit will make it even easier to embed TeacherTube videos for sharing in your wiki! Thanks Wikispaces!

Interwrite Learning & TeacherTube Partner for Contest

Recently Interwrite Learning and TeacherTube.com have partnered to bring teachers a video contest with the grand prize being a complete Interwrite classroom makeover worth $15,000! TeacherTube.com has added a green banner ad for the contest to the bottom of the video player to catch our teacher viewers' attention (if you click the X in the right corner, it will go away). What teacher wouldn't want a complete classroom makeover with some of the latest and greatest instructional technology tools? For contest details and prize descriptions, click on the banner in the player or go here.

August Laptop Winner!

Congratulations to jsdt4, our latest community member to win a shiny, new laptop. Thanks to jsdt4, many educators have been inspired by the Pay Attention video, which was added in April. And if you have been paying attention, you know that jsdt4 added a final cut version of Pay Attention in June. I appreciate the added reference which give viewers even more resources! If you didn't know about the final cut version, check it out here:

Checking Back In, Laptop Winner, and TeacherTube in Summer Staff Development

This summer was one of lots of stress for me. Not really the bad kind of stress, but it was enough stress that caused me to realize something had to give -- for a while. And that something was posting to this TeacherTube blog. But, I'm back at it now and will be posting on a more regular basis.

Congratulations to member jmill123 on winning the July Laptop Contest. We'll be selecting an August winner next week!

Recently we completed some technical upgrades to the TeacherTube site to improve member access. We're getting over 1 million hits a day now! I suspect much of the increased traffic is due to TeacherTube being included in schools' staff development over the summer. Please let us know if you shared TeacherTube with your staff or heard about TeacherTube in a workshop! We really appreciate teachers sharing the resource with other teachers!

Meeting Learners Where They Are

Live from NECC 2007...

I'm in the TeacherTube booth in the exhibit hall of the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta. This place is HUGE! So many exhibitors...how can one get through it all in just a few days? The place is filled with the sounds of forklifts driving around (and beeping when in reverse) and tools building elaborate exhibits. Tomorrow the hall will be filled with excited attendees looking at the latest and greatest in educational technology offerings.

At NECC, TeacherTube is announcing the launch of TeacherTube Onsite, a way for school systems to meet students where they are -- which is in the digital, read/write, web 2.0 environment. Follow the link for more details about TeacherTube Onsite.

If you haven't seen the When I Grow Up.... video posted by mjohnson, please check it by following the link or watch below. It really supports the same message TeacherTube is promoting. Member Dragon09 conveys the message with this comment to the video:

Posted by: Dragon09 : Videos(2) Favorites(0) Friends(3) (23 days ago)
This is another example of the power of Web 2.0 to fuel the ongoing debate as to why we, as educators need to step up to the plate, take our kids futures in OUR hands and help them prepare for in as best we are able. Thx

Another Winner!

TeacherTube's May laptop winner was studyzone. After receiving the new laptop studyzone sent an email saying:

"I received the laptop a few days ago and it has been working wonderfully. Thank you very much for this great prize. I will continue to use to use TeacherTube and spread the word about it."

You too have a chance to be a winner! June is coming to a close, and we'll soon be announcing the June winner. Increase your chances of winning by uploading videos and inviting friends!

NECC 2007

Like many of you fellow edtech folks, TeacherTube is preparing to travel to the National Educational Computing Conference (NECC) in Atlanta this month. The conference is scheduled for June 24-27 at the Georgia World Congress Center. This is the premiere edtech conference of the year and we are so excited to attend. For those of you also attending, please come by and visit us (Adam, Jason, & Jodie) at the TeacherTube booth 3457 in the exhibit hall. We won't have the most elaborate of booths -- remember we're just starting out -- but we'd love to meet TeacherTube community members. The conference speakers, workshops, and exhibits are all looking amazing. I so want to hear Dr. Tim Tyson's keynote about how Mabry Middle School in Cobb County, GA has harnessed technology to create content -- maybe the guys will let me sneak out of the booth to attend. Let us know if you're attending NECC and what you are most excited about.

Advertising on TeacherTube's Site

Members of the TeacherTube community have no doubt seen some advertising on the site. This helps keep this site for educators free of charge. TeacherTube is committed to keeping the advertising on the site to a minimum and keeping ads relevant to the education community. Those interested in advertising on the site can request information by completing the form on the Advertise page of the site.

Laptop Winner & Upload Fixes

I'm pleased to announce the April TeacherTube Laptop Contest winner for April is member marcbarcelona! The May contest is in full swing, so sign up today! If you are a member already, then increase your chances by uploading videos and using the invite friends feature!

Some of you have notified us that it's hard to tell when a videos is actually uploading. I know...I couldn't tell either and recently realized my last video was up there three times. When I thought the site had timed out, I just started uploading again but the video had actually uploaded and I didn't know it. Oops! So to help us out, Adam has added an "uploading" notification icon and page and a page notifying of successful uploading. Please let us know if this helps or not.

New Channels and Forum Available

Recently TeacherTube made four new channels to assist members in more specifically designating videos for audiences. Now when uploading a video, members can select channels for Elementary, Middle School, High School, or College/University. This will assist visitors and members when searching videos for instructional level. You can still select up to three channels, so for example if you upload a video on reading instruction for K-2, you could select both Reading and Elementary channels.

Also, now members have a forum for discussing TeacherTube questions, tips, problems, etc. It's located in the TeacherTube group. You must join the group to make posts or comments. To start a new topic, enter your topic into the Add New Topic window and click Add Topic. To comment on a previously posted topic, click on the Topic from the main group page and then enter your comments in the Add New Topic window on the topic page. (Maybe that needs to be worded as Add New Comment here instead of Add New Topic. I'll see if we can get that changed.) So please join the group and post your hints, tips, questions, comments, problems, etc.

Tech Fiesta 2007 & Copyright/Fair Use Info

We had a great time at Tech Fiesta 2007 in San Antonio, TX. The folks at Region 20 Educational Service Center were so hospitable. Special thanks to Harriet Jackson for helping us with exhibit questions, and welcome to all new TeacherTube community members from the Region 20 area. Also, thanks to Don Hawkins of ESC 20 for taking an interest in our TeacherTube vision, and to Miguel Guhlin for inviting us to be a part of a podcast on his blog Around the Corner.

While at the conference, I had the opportunity to talk with Luann Tomkinson, a sales representative and consultant with SoundzAbound. We discussed teachers using music in their video production. She reminded me about copyright issues and fair use and how educators should be aware of copyright regulations when making their videos. There is much mis-information out there regarding educational use of copyrighted material and what is known as “fair use” of such material. The US Copyright office informs us that “fair use” is not a law but a “doctrine.” There are, however, guidelines, which have been developed by the Conference on Fair Use (available on the University of Texas website). “Fair Use” has implications for instructional materials produced by students and teachers for classroom use, and web 2.0 technologies have created implications for “broadcasting” of such materials. At TeacherTube, we encourage members to follow copyright laws and fair use guidelines. (See our Copyright Tips page.) When using music, look for royalty free music for educators’ use – but be careful to check the licensing of any purchased product as some royalty free music still requires documentation in any material produced.

A Word about Student Product Videos and Support Files

First, let me say thank you to Mrs. Burk, The Rappin Math Teacher, for attaching her rap lyrics as support files to go along with her great videos. Now more kids than ever will be rappin about math and really remembering the facts and formulas! To access support files, look to the right of the video and right click on the file name and Save Target As to download; or you can click directly on the file name and it should open in a browser window.

The support files feature is a great tool for sharing the how and why of our videos. We encourage teachers to upload student product examples to the Student Products channel and to attach supporting files to help other teachers implement this or a similar project. We hope the Student Products channel will not become just a repository for online availability of students' work (TeacherTube has another product for that coming out later this year) but that it would evolve into a way for teachers to peer into each others' classrooms, see evidences of learning, and begin to incorporate some of these successful ideas into their own classrooms. Student Product videos should still meet the two criteria for TeacherTube videos: helping teachers grow professionally in content knowledge and/or instructional strategies, and/or helping students learn a concept or skill. So members, please consider uploading accompanying files to help fellow teachers. Supporting documents might be instructions, learning standards, a student handout, an explanation, or a short paragraph (or podcast) of reflection on the implementation of the lessons leading to the student product.

If you haven't seen this wonderful claymation video added recently by member craigr, then check it out below. (Hoping craigr will upload a support document giving a beginners' claymation how-to.)