In today’s post, I am highlighting some superb alternatives to YouTube, especially useful for educational settings where access to YouTube may be restricted due to its distracting or inappropriate content. Since its launch, YouTube has become a dominant force in digital media, offering a platform for millions of content creators to share their work globally.
However, the platform’s open nature sometimes leads to challenges in controlled environments like schools. To ensure educators and students still have access to quality video content, I’ve explored several other websites that provide educational videos without the pitfalls of YouTube.
YouTube Alternatives for School
These platforms can be excellent resources for enhancing classroom learning and offering students safe, educational content.
1. TED Talks
TED Talks is one of the best alternatives to YouTube especially for use in schools. It is my go to platform for quality educational video content. TED, which stands for Technology, Entertainment, and Design, is a not-for-profit organization that seeks to spread innovative ideas through short lectures and presentations by leading experts from different fields.
As of writing these lines, the site boasts over 4000 talks covering various topics including science, design, global issues, technology, social sciences, business, and many more. You can use the site’s search functionality to search for videos to use in your instruction. You can filter your search by topic, language, and duration.
The four most viewed TED talks to this day are : Do Schools kill Creativity by Sir Ken Robinson, Your Body Language May Shape Who You Are by Amy Cuddy, Inside the Mind of A Master Procrastinator by Tim Urban, and How Great Leaders Inspire Action by Simon Sinek.
2.TeacherTube
TeacherTube is another good alternative to YouTube. It provides a wide variety of educational videos created by teachers and students.Videos are organized into several categories such as Science, Math, History, Social Studies, Language Arts, and more. You can search for videos by school level (e.g., middle school, high school, elementary, college and university). The free TeacherTube version comes with ads. For an ad-free viewing experience you need to upgrade to one of the three premium plans: Monthly, Quarterly, or Yearly.
3. TED Ed
TED Ed is the educational version of TED. It celebrates ideas of teachers and students from all around the globe. TED Ed’s video lessons are short animated videos that cover ideas that spark the curiosity of learners from around the world. Since its introduction around the year 2012 TED Ed has grown in popularity and content and now boasts a network of over 650.000 teachers.
TED Ed signature content is its animations. These are professionally designed animations born out of the collaboration of various experts including designers, educators, animators, screenwriters, directors, science writers, historians, journalists, and editors.
TED Ed ls features a handy service called TED Ed Students Talk. This is a free curricular program for teachers and students of all grades interested in developing and presenting their ideas through TED-style talks. All grade-school students (K-12) can participate in TED Ed Student Talks. The purpose of the program is to help students: develop presentation literacy skills, learn how to give and receive feedback, learn public speaking skills, connect with international students in the program, and publish their talk on the TED Ed Students Talk YouTube channel.
4. Internet Archive
Internet Archive is a non-profit library where you can access a wide variety of (uncensored) materials including video content, movies, free books, music, and many more. The video content section offers access to a huge library of video footage spanning various topics and subject areas. You can search for video content by year, type, collection, language, media type, and many more.
Final thoughts
I hope you have found this list of YouTube alternatives helpful for your educational needs. Each platform offers unique resources that can enrich your teaching or learning experience, from TED Talks with their wealth of expert knowledge to the diverse and extensive archives of the Internet Archive. Whether you’re looking for professional development resources, educational animations, or historical footage, these sites provide valuable content in a more controlled and focused environment than YouTube.
