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Whose Pedagogy is it anyway?
I LOVE United Streaming from Discovery Education! There, I've said it. I think it is an awesome site for just about anything visual. A picture is worth a thousand words, and really, they offer a little bit of everything. First, they offer videos or video clips on every topic and covers every grade level- photographs as well. You can search in a myriad of ways, to narrow the field. You can even search by curriculum standard. They also have builder tools for quizzes, assignments, and writing prompts. United Streaming lets you save media to files and folders that you create. These can also be shared across your grade level, your building, or your district.
I've been using this resource for a while now, and for my third graders it's perfect. I can show a video clip to enhance my lesson about economics or light refraction. These are often difficult topics for third graders, and the short and snappy movie clip enables them to see visually what I've been trying to explain. United Streaming also offers a wide variety of popular children's books in video format. I have used these to introduce an author or genre, to reinforce reading fluency, or for short content "scavenger hunts." Lastly, I've been able to supplement my science and social studies textbooks with short video clips. For example, students can put on headphones and listen to a topic of interest regarding a certain big idea like pioneers or sound waves. They may take notes or fill in worksheets I've prepared. The individualized video clip is nice because students can pause, rewind, or stop the clip to take notes or ponder. Then can begin again when they are ready. The United Streaming videos or visual media do not take the place of my instruction, but they make a great enhancement to my lessons. It lets me move from being the only one talking in our classroom, and allows the students to have variety and choices in their learning. It also gives students with different learning styles the chance to be an active participant, while watching and listening to a media clip.
I've also watched a few of the videos or clips for professional development. For example, I've watched clips about professional authors presenting writing lessons to a class of students. United Streaming is a quality resource for educational videos/ visual media for any classroom.
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I wish I could share in your enthusiasm, I really do. I have tried to start a relationship with United Streaming a few times, but we always break up again. My problem is that they just don't have enough content for my age group and content. I'm always searching through all the great stuff you're talking about and then say, "argh, this is all for younger kids."
ReplyDeleteI think it works just like you say it does and they have made the site more user friendly. I like how you're using it in your classroom - it gets me excited all over again. I think I'll give United Streaming another call.