I was recently contacted by the good folks at Watch Know, a great alternative to YouTube, with some updates about their services. The first change I noticed was that Watch Know is now rebranded as Watch Know Learn.
Watch Know Learn is available in English, Spanish, and Mandarin. Watch Know Learn has aligned more than 6,000 videos to Common Core standards. And Watch Know Learn is open to editing of pages by registered users. As a confirmed register user you can add videos to grade level and subject area pages.
The most promising new aspect of Watch Know Learn is Watch Know Learn Classrooms. Watch Know Learn Classrooms will allow teachers to create their own classroom pages of videos. Teachers can pick their own subdomains for Watch Know Learn Classrooms. For example, I could create a Watch Know Learn Classroom at mrbyrne.watchknowlearn.org and send my students to that page to watch the educational videos I’ve selected for them. You can see an example of a Watch Know Learn Classroom here. Watch Know Learn Classrooms should be a great tool for teachers, however I was unable to create a classroom when I tried early this morning. I even resorted to following the directions in their tutorial video and I couldn’t get my classroom going. Hopefully, that issue is resolved quickly.
Learn more about Watch Know Learn in the video below.
Applications for Education
Watch Know Learn is already used by thousands of educators everyday. The best part of Watch Know Learn right now is the organization of the catalog of videos. Rather than randomly searching a video sharing site, you can quickly select a subject and grade level to find videos appropriate for your classroom. And many of the videos on Watch Know Learn are not from YouTube so if you work in a school that blocks YouTube, you can still access useful online videos.