Evaluation

=Evaluating My Selection of Video Resources=

Each of the video sites found on this wiki were selected from a collection of video resources that I have been saving for the last several years. I searched through about 40 or so video sites and looked for subject area content. On each site I attempted to find material relevant to Math courses such as Algebra or Geometry, Science courses such as Earth Science or Chemistry, and Social Studies courses like Government or U.S. History. The English courses were the most difficult to search for. Those courses are often not broken down by a primary indicator of the field of English the students are studying. Most of the time its as simple as English 1,2,3,4 or English 9,10,11,or 12. So, I selected topics common to English courses in order to determine if a site had videos that were course appropriate.

Many of the sites I researched could not be easily incorporated into our school. Live streaming sites like [|Ustream] and [|BlogTv], although a valuable tool for educators, often did not have recorded videos that were applicable to this project. I attempted to only collect videos that online teachers at my school could embed in one of their courses or easily link to that a student could access 24 hours a day. In addition, I only focused on core courses under the Math, English, Social Studies, or Science umbrellas. I often had to eliminate sites because they only had modern relevance. Because so much of our school system is based on old ideas and old concepts, many videos did not apply since they were recorded about current events that were a stretch to tie into standard-based curriculums.

The video samples I chose were designed just to get the user started. I hope teachers use this wiki to get ideas for video sites they may not have incorporated into their courses before (even YouTube is still new to some teachers). They will open up the appropriate content area page on this wiki, read a short description of a resource, and look over to the example videos to find one that sounds interesting. Hopefully, they will click on the video and watch a little of it. The teacher might think to themself, "this might work for my lesson on _______ but its not quite right so let me search around and see if there is something better." At that point, they will begin navigating the website and getting ideas of how to use more videos in their courses. I included videos from many branches of a subject area. There are videos by a wide variety of creators like students, teachers, professors, and experts in the field. There are videos that are designed for lower level to upper level learners.

There were more sites that fit all of my criteria and I hope to add those later. However, since this project originated from a college course, I had to cut myself off due to time constraints and objectives achieved.