Many teachers use Youtube videos in class on a weekly, or even daily, basis. Finding and organizing those Youtube videos can sometimes be a challenge though. However, Youtube has a built-in tool for saving videos into playlists that you can create and use yourself and can share with others in many ways. This can be a terrific way to provide access to those movies you’d like to share with others quickly and easily. It’s also a perfect way to bookmark a video for future use, so you know you’re using the version of the video you’ve used in the past.
A playlist is a collection of videos. Anybody can make playlists and share them, and you can have multiple playlists on your account, so you can create one for each topic or subject are you teach. Want to put together a collection of read-aloud story books, or one with videos highlighting specific directions for your math class? How about sharing a common experience for your students, or providing background information for a new topic? Playlists are for you.
Make & find your playlists
- Start with a video you want in the playlist.
- Under the video, click Add to .
- Select Watch later, Faves, or a playlist you’ve already created, or click Create new playlist.
- If you create a new playlist, enter a playlist name.
- Use the dropdown box to select your playlist’s privacy setting. If it’s private, only you can view the playlist.
- Click Create.
To find your playlists, go to the Guide and click Library.
To edit or delete playlists:
- Go to the Guide and click Library.
- Click on the playlist you wish to edit or delete.
- Click Edit
- Choose “Edit settings” to change the name or privacy settings. Choose the three dots on the right to delete the playlist.
When it comes to using Youtube videos, there are a few other tricks that every teacher should know. Teachers can specify a starting point for a YouTube video by clicking on the little ‘share’ icon that is below the ‘subscribe’ button and a little section will expand below with a checkbox called ‘Start At.’ Here you can decide at what point you want the video to start for your students.
Or, insert your video into Edpuzzle (shown in a recent blog post of mine) and crop the video so that only the section you want students to view is available. This works really well if you’re having a sub play the video. Just direct them to the correct video in Edpuzzle, or insert the link into your lesson plans. It also works really well when inserted into Google Classroom.
An additional tool that I love, and that works with Youtube exceptionally well, is ViewPure, found at ViewPure.com. Using ViewPure, teachers can “purify” their video clip by removing potentially distracting add-ons, commercials or related videos. ViewPure also removes all comments allowing students to watch a video without the risk of inappropriate content. It’s a wonderful way to share a video with students! ViewPure also allows you to enter a start and stop time, so sharing the ViewPure weblink with subs would be a fantastic way to have them only share the portion of the video you want your students to see: no ads, no distractions.
Here is a quick video explaining how to use it: http://viewpure.com/viewpurevideo
And with a FREE ViewPure account you can create playlists within ViewPure (which you can also share, or keep private if you choose), as well as create your own personal URLs, such as the one I made above, to make it especially easy to locate the video.
Imagine creating a playlist for your sub, using the date for the playlist URLs! It would be amazingly easy to put together, and you could rest easy knowing that your students would view exactly what you had prepared. If you like sharing through QR Codes, this is another terrific way to share videos. Imagine taping the QR Code link to a read-aloud book, or a message from the author, in the back of your classroom books?
One more note: the FREE teacher resources area includes a huge collection of videos that other teachers have already purified. They’re all set for you to use immediately, without having to do additional YouTube searches!!
If you want some assistance working with ViewPure, with Edpuzzle, or with Youtube, please don’t hesitate to contact me! I’d love to help!
Laurie Conzemius LLC 