YouTube and Picasa

This week I had a chance to explore different features that YouTube has to offer, as well as, Picasa.  I'm definitely excited to incorporate some of these into my classroom!

I frequently use YouTube to locate videos that I can use in my classroom, but I have been completely missing out on YouTube Education!  It can be a struggle to find a student-friendly video on YouTube given the sheer number of videos available.  Time is a very precious resource for most educators, so wading through thousands of videos is not always an option.  YouTube Education allows you to search for educational videos only, which can be a huge time saver!  Click here to check out YouTube Education.

I also had the opportunity to explore TubeSnack, a site that allows you to create custom playlists.  I found it to be very easy to use.  It allows you to search for videos using key words or phrases just like you would on YouTube.  You can also use the url from a YouTube video to find the video on TubeSnack.  A plus to using TubeSnack is that you don't need to create a separate account; you can log in using an existing Google account.  Check out my TubeSnack playlist here!  You can also click here for more information.  The only down fall I encountered while using TubeSnack is that you have to pay for a premium membership in order to download your playlist.

This week I also had a chance to explore Picasa.  I vaguely remember using Picasa in the past, but didn't stick with it.  It has some really great features that includes the ability to make photo collages, as well as, picture slide-shows.  Picasa can also be set to sync to your Google Photos.  One feature I did not like, however, is the automatic scan feature.  Upon downloading, Picasa scanned and uploaded all of my pictures files present on my computer.  You do still have control over which albums automatically sync with Google Photos; however, if you accidentally saved a picture file to the wrong folder on your computer, it could be automatically uploaded. I wasn't really a fan of this, because I like to be slightly more selective in what I do and do not share.  Even though, I'm not completely sold on Picasa, I do think it's worth checking out!  Check out the video below for more information.