How to Pick a Podcast

What: Picking the perfect video podcast.
Now What: This week I was instructed to pick a video from the vast sources on the Internet. I could from YouTube, Teacher Tube or another website. If I choose YouTube I will have to carefully wade through the sea of homemade videos with inaccuracies. I will also student appropriate videos. Then I need to see if the content matches the core curriculum I am teaching. All this while making sure that the video does not contain anything dangerous that the children might repeat at home. There is so much to think about when picking the right internet video for the classroom. Hopefully I will be able to find the right clips.
So What: When I think of using video of any kind I need to remember the danger of over uses. I can’t play videos from the history channel and say I’m teaching history. Whoever made the video is teaching my students. The children could be home watching television or on YouTube. I then become a babysitter not a teacher. The videos lose their novelty and therefore their educational power. I will use them in my classroom, but not let them takeover.
Video: Millennial Generation
This video is a good example of what not to show in the classroom. It is a thinly veiled commercial for Motorola Phones. I did not like how the students said their parents turned to them when they need help with computers or phones. Also how their parents did things the hard way. While this is sometimes true, the young adults will soon be parents and their children will think they are stupid too. They need to get a clue and start paying for their own phones. Then maybe they won’t want so many unnecessary gadgets. They said that they wanted to be able to take everything with them. I think what they need is to get unplugged. Then go camping or hiking with their parent and friend. If they go far enough up in the mountain their phones will not work and that is a good thing.