By Ssekitto Henry, an ICT Teacher at Makindye Secondary school, Vienna High school – Kabowa, and Equator college school.
Due to COVID-19, our current education system has shifted from physical class to a remote and virtual class in which teachers are struggling to produce high-quality, engaging lessons and many parents are having to take on the additional role of their child’s teacher. This has been like a blessing in disguise because teachers have been opened not only to class but also to the outside world. Teachers have opened up YouTube channels to help their learners to continue with their lessons even in the pandemic, I myself is a testimony because i opened up my channel during the first lockdown in 2020 but it has created for me many opportunities like handling Teacher’s Digital Skills worship funded by Edify and facilitated by ICT Teachers’ Association Of Uganda (ITAU).
The largest benefit of YouTube is its ability to turn students into independent or self-reliant students. With the vast number of videos streamed on the site, such as instructional videos and documentaries, students can look for different sources of information and expand their knowledge over a topic.
My YouTube link channel – https://youtube.com/c/HenrytheComputerGuy
Here is a video on how a teacher can create a Gmail account and afterwards creating a YouTube channel
Reasons YouTube Should Be In Every Classroom
YouTube has incredible educational benefits for educators, parents, and students at every level. Because it is one of the largest search engines in the world. Below are few ways to incorporate YouTube into your classroom.
- To gain access to free, high-quality lecture content
- To share student work
- To make your content relevant
- To reinforce material
- To engage all types of learners
- To demonstrate labs and experiments
- To reward students
Relevance of YouTube to teachers
- Ease of Access
- Trade-Specific Training Videos
- Wealth Of Resources
- Study Aids For Classes
- Inspiration For Future Learning
- University Lectures
- Related Videos To Expand Your Net
- The Classroom Is Always Open
Student benefits to learning from YouTube
There are numerous ways by which YouTube has gained immense importance in learning, some of which are discussed below:
- It provides various teaching videos and helps the students learn anywhere
- The students will have easy access to the source of learning anytime that they want and that too it is free.
- YouTube has many videos that can help in improving skills that are required by the students.
Concluding Thoughts
Your continuing education is just as important as your formal education. With YouTube’s help, your post-university studies will take you down amazing learning pathways that enrich your life and aid your job skills.
