Videos to promote conversation …

These videos lend themselves to conversation starters for professional development, faculty meetings, and professional learning communities. We have also even seen teachers use them as discussion starters in the classroom. Students are able to demonstrate deep critical thinking when making connections to videos such as these that represent metaphorical realities. They help stimulate conversation and a desire to become more thoughtful.

They have been shared with us in educational settings as well to help us think about ourselves as learner rather than teacher. They have been used to infuse humor while at the same time create a platform for beginning hard conversations.

Teachers should want to inspire curiosity, and impose a “need to know” mindset, not just in their students, but in each other. Moving from an industrial economy to an information and services economy is changing the lens of education. It is changing the historical context and framework of instruction and learning.

“Don’t limit a child to your own learning, for he was born in another time.” ~ Rabindranath Tagore

Theses videos are also good leads to other “conversation starting” videos available via YouTube. We purposefully did not leave an analysis of any of them as they speak clearly for themselves. Pulling videos from YouTube can sometimes be risky, so we advise you to use www.safeshare.tv  when you deliver them to your teachers, colleagues and students. Not only does SafeShare.TV remove distracting and offensive elements around YouTube videos, but it also allows you to crop videos before sharing them. It is a terrific tool when showing videos to your students and teachers as both groups get distracted by sidebar videos and want to explore tangents. SafeShare.TV really helps the teacher/facilitator stay in control of what is being shown.

Enjoy watching.