A couple of weeks ago I explained five features of YouTube that teachers should know how to use. Since then a bunch of people have asked me about ways to host and share their instructional videos without using YouTube.
Some people asked me for alternatives to YouTube because their schools block YouTube. Other people asked because they’re bothered by the automated “suggested videos” that YouTube displays at the end of videos. Whatever your reason is, here are five ways to host and share your instructional videos without having to use YouTube.
If your school uses either G Suite for Education or Microsoft 365 EDU, you have a built-in alternative to YouTube. You can upload your videos directly to either your Google Drive or OneDrive. From there you can share your videos in a variety of ways including giving students a direct link to your video and posting your video in the LMS (learning management system) of your choice. Here’s a video on how to share videos through OneDrive and here’s one on doing the same in Google Drive.
Vimeo is a freemium video hosting alternative to YouTube. The free plan will let you upload and share your videos and doesn’t have nearly the amount of “related” content and advertising as YouTube does. The paid plan ($7/month) gives you a ton of privacy options when it comes to hosting and sharing your videos. You can password-protect your videos, restrict where your videos can and can’t be displayed, and divide videos into hyperlinked chapters.
One of the things that I like about EDpuzzle compared to some of its competitors is that you can upload your own videos directly into your free account. After uploading your video to EDpuzzle you can use all its built-in tools for inserting questions and comments into your video. You can then distribute your video lesson through your EDpuzzle classroom or Google Classroom. Jump to the fifteen minute mark in this video to see how you can upload your own videos to EDpuzzle. I like EDpuzzle as a video host because I can quickly determine which students watched my video lessons in their entirety and which ones didn’t.
People tend to think about Flipgrid as just a tool for students to use to record video responses to a teacher’s prompts. Flipgrid is capable of much more than that. You can upload your own videos to share with your students. You can upload them either as a resource at the start of a topic or upload them as a part of a topic. Likewise, your students can upload videos rather than recording directly in Flipgrid. Here’s a short video on uploading to Flipgrid.
Last week I hosted the first session of the Practical Ed Tech Virtual Summer Camp. I’ll be hosting the same event again in July. You can register for the July sessions here.
In July I’ll be hosting Teaching History With Technology. This is a five part course designed to help you develop new ways to create engaging history lessons and projects. Register now and use the discount code THWT2020.
Some people asked me for alternatives to YouTube because their schools block YouTube. Other people asked because they’re bothered by the automated “suggested videos” that YouTube displays at the end of videos. Whatever your reason is, here are five ways to host and share your instructional videos without having to use YouTube.
OneDrive & Google Drive
If your school uses either G Suite for Education or Microsoft 365 EDU, you have a built-in alternative to YouTube. You can upload your videos directly to either your Google Drive or OneDrive. From there you can share your videos in a variety of ways including giving students a direct link to your video and posting your video in the LMS (learning management system) of your choice. Here’s a video on how to share videos through OneDrive and here’s one on doing the same in Google Drive.
Vimeo
Vimeo is a freemium video hosting alternative to YouTube. The free plan will let you upload and share your videos and doesn’t have nearly the amount of “related” content and advertising as YouTube does. The paid plan ($7/month) gives you a ton of privacy options when it comes to hosting and sharing your videos. You can password-protect your videos, restrict where your videos can and can’t be displayed, and divide videos into hyperlinked chapters.
EDpuzzle
One of the things that I like about EDpuzzle compared to some of its competitors is that you can upload your own videos directly into your free account. After uploading your video to EDpuzzle you can use all its built-in tools for inserting questions and comments into your video. You can then distribute your video lesson through your EDpuzzle classroom or Google Classroom. Jump to the fifteen minute mark in this video to see how you can upload your own videos to EDpuzzle. I like EDpuzzle as a video host because I can quickly determine which students watched my video lessons in their entirety and which ones didn’t.
Flipgrid
People tend to think about Flipgrid as just a tool for students to use to record video responses to a teacher’s prompts. Flipgrid is capable of much more than that. You can upload your own videos to share with your students. You can upload them either as a resource at the start of a topic or upload them as a part of a topic. Likewise, your students can upload videos rather than recording directly in Flipgrid. Here’s a short video on uploading to Flipgrid.
Online Professional Development
Last week I hosted the first session of the Practical Ed Tech Virtual Summer Camp. I’ll be hosting the same event again in July. You can register for the July sessions here.
In July I’ll be hosting Teaching History With Technology. This is a five part course designed to help you develop new ways to create engaging history lessons and projects. Register now and use the discount code THWT2020.