What are the long-term goals of the project?
Students will be able to consult the database for
"instant tutoring" on almost any topic
taught. This would help students who didn't
understand an in-class explanation of a topic, who
are studying for a test, who missed a class due to
illness, or who want to explore related topics that
aren't taught in class. By hosting multiple
video explanations of the same topics, we hope to
accommodate many different learning styles.
The project could also be a useful free resource for
unschoolers and home schoolers.
Teachers will be able to use the database to get fresh
ideas about how to approach material, and classes
could be assigned to watch certain videos. We
hope that teachers would examine the variety of
successful teaching styles and learn from the
models how to improve their own teaching.
Finally, we hope that, if the project is
successful, it might raise the public awareness of
good teacher training and technique, and help the
public to recognize and honor good teachers.
The strategy
Have you ever watched a YouTube video on a blog without going to the YouTube website?
The video was "embedded." On WatchKnow, we're going to make a big searchable database
that embeds and rates every educational video for children that we can find.
We'll encourage anybody, registered or not, to add the best educational videos online
to WatchKnow--so that they can all found and organized here, in one place.
We're also going to give people lots of incentives to create great new educational
videos, such as contests and cash prizes as well as peer recognition.
Why?
Like it or not, school children in developed countries get a lot of their information
from video and also from the Internet.
You can complain, or you can deliver knowledge to where they spend their time.
What if there were a free, huge, friendly video website where kids could go to find
a video explanation about anything taught in their classes?
The kids would love it. They would learn a lot. Teachers would get many ideas about
how to teach different topics, too. It could become a database of free tutoring
and winning teaching techniques.
This should exist. It's the sort of thing the Internet is for. Do you agree? If
we pool our efforts, we can create it.