As of September 1, 2010 SpellTube is offline as it searches for funding.

SpellTube is an interesting resource for teaching and learning to spell. Tom Barrett included Spell Tube in his recent post about video resources for spelling, maths, and science. SpellTube provides spelling lessons in the form of videos that feature child actors explaining spelling concepts and rules. For example, one lesson starts with the reminder from Egon to “drop the ‘e’ before adding vowel suffixes.”

SpellTube allows teachers to create their own customized list of words for their students to learn. Students get their own unique login credentials that are matched to their teacher’s word lists.

Applications for Education
SpellTube could be a good resource for students to use to learn independently. SpellTube allows students to progress at their own pace which helps teachers to differentiate their instruction within the classroom. One word of caution for US teachers, SpellTube is a UK based website so when selecting words for your spelling lists be sure to select words that are spelled the same in both countries. For example, words that contain the use of “z” like “customized” in the US, may be spelled with “s” by SpellTube.

If anyone is aware of version of SpellTube, please leave a comment for all of us.