35 Sources for Curated Educational Videos

Like explorers approaching an unfamiliar landscape, teachers who are ready to take the plunge into flipped classrooms and blended learning often approach the opportunity with a mix of excitement and trepidation.  Just dipping a toe into the virtual waters of online content can be overwhelming, and there’s a risk that even the most fearless educator can become paralyzed by the bottomless depths of content and endless pools of resources.
While many teachers begin by creating their own content and videos, most start by sifting through free online sources. The amount of available information out there is staggering.
YouTube users across the globe upload 48 hours of content every minute. And a google search for “science video” yields over 4 billion results!
Fortunately, there are some great websites and services that take the guesswork out of finding and sorting educational video content. Here is a list of some of the curated video sites we’ve come across in our work.

  1. Backpack TV: Backpack.tv pulls from various sources to create a highly curated library of education videos organized by academic subject and detailed topic. Many of the videos are linked to topics from popular textbooks, a real bonus for finding just the right video. Videos can be user-rated.
  2. Biography.Com: Over 6000 biographies are available here on famous people throughout history and across the globe.
  3. BrainPOP: Founded in 1999, BrainPOP is one of the original sources of online education video content and today includes a number of free resources in addition to its subscriptions.
  4. BrightStorm: BrightStorm currently targets high-school aged students with videos of great teachers presenting the content. Their more than 2500 math and science videos are free.
  5. Classroom Clips: Launched in September 2007, Classroom Clips allows users to search and explore a wide range of educational content which has been correlated to the Virginia Standards of Learning, although teachers in any state will be able to find what something of use.
  6. Cosmo Learning: Designed to work as a free homeschool, Cosmo Learning provides video lectures, documentaries, and more across a range of topics and levels.
  7. CSPAN Video Library: Offered as a public service, educators can share current events, briefings, legislative sessions and more from the nation’s capitol.
  8. Curriculum21: This comprehensive website is a little different, because it provides resources for teachers related to creating the classroom of the future such as webinars and podcasts in addition to videos.
  9. Curriki: With over 6.5 million users, Curriki is a non-profit that boasts over 40,000 peer-reviewed and classroom-tested K-12 learning resources. Users may access, contribute and publish content.
  10. Discovery Education: This site offers award-winning, standard-aligned digital content, interactive lessons and virtual experiences that aim to be immersive and engaging for students.
  11. EduTube: Launched in 2008, EduTube focuses on popular and high quality educational videos that are sorted by EduTube index – a measure of quality, popularity and educational value.
  12. Educational Videos: With videos on everything ranging from Dance to Marine Life, this site offers a wide range and user-friendly interface.
  13. Edutopia Video: Edutopia’s large video library is sortable by topic and by grade level.
  14. FORA.tv: This live and on-demand site provides coverage of events and conferences, including lectures and presentations will classroom applications.
  15. The Futures Channel: Based on the goal of using new media technologies to create a channel between scientists, enginners, explorers, visionaries and learners, The Future Channel partners with schools to provide these high-quality digital learning resources.
  16. Google Video: Follow the special instructions from the Cool Cat Teacher to use google video search to for specific educational content by topic.
  17. Gooru: Just launched in beta, Gooru Learning is a “search engine for learning” that harnesses the power of the web by organizing free, online education resources into searchable collections, accessible from any web or mobile platform. Using machine learning and human judgment, Gooru curates, auto-tags and contextualizes collections of web resources to accommodate personalized learning pathways. Gooru collections are aligned to US Common Core Standards for Math and to California Science Curriculum Standards.
  18. History Channel Online: Teachers can access full programs and videos by topic that have aired on The History Channel and its affiliate stations.
  19. KhanAcademy: While the 3,200+ videos on the Khan Academy site do not pull in educational content from outside sources, the growing content inside Khan Academy is nicely organized and searchable.
  20. Learner.Org: With support from the Annenberg Foundation, this site provides teacher resources across many content areas that is searchable by discipline and grade level.
  21. LearnersTV: This site provides free video and audio lectures of whole courses conducted by faculty from reputed universities around the world across many fields.
  22. MathTV: This site offers math video by topic and math videos that accompany textbooks in addition to coorinated homework and worksheets.
  23. MeFeedia: Now the largest independent video site on the web, this treasure chest is a resource many educators are just beginning to explore for educational applications.
  24. MentorMob: Educators and students can become their own curators using this resource to create their own learning playlists from sources all over the web, in addition to browsing the playlists of others.
  25. NeoK12: This site features free educational videos, games, lessons, puzzles and quizzes sorted by topic.
  26. NOVA Teachers: PBS’ full features and magazine-style shorter stories are available here for classrom use.
  27. SchoolTube: This site is set-up to serve students who wish to get ahead at home and at school, as well as teachers who want to access digital resources. Teachers can also create their own channels and upload their own videos.
  28. Sophia: With more than 25,000 tutorials from a range of expert teachers across many academic fields, Sophia is a first-of-its-kind social education platform created to reach 21st century students.
  29. SnagLearning: SnagLearning is a SnagFilms initiative dedicated to presenting high-quality documentary films as educational tools to ignite meaningful discussion within the learning community.
  30. SqoolTube: This site features educational videos, games, ebooks and printables for K-12 classrooms.
  31. TeacherTube: Launched in 2007 and none among fans as “the other tube,” TeacherTube allows teachers to access, upload and share educational videos.
  32. TedEd: The TED-Ed video library contains carefully curated educational videos, many of which represent collaborations between talented educators and animators nominated through the TED-ED platform. Videos can be “flipped” to create custom lessons based on the content.
  33. TeachingChannel (Tch): Teaching Channel is a video showcase of innovative and effective teaching practices in America’s schools. More than 35,000 members have registered to share ideas and inspiration on the site.
  34. WatchKnowLearn: This site organizes educational videos and for ages 3-18. WatchKnowLearn has indexed over 33,000+ educational videos, placing them into a directory of over 3,000 categories.Teachers can also add their own videos to the site.
  35. YouTube EDU: YouTube’s channel for education offers lessons, videos, lectures and more for teacher and student use on the familiar YouTube platform.

We’d love to hear how you are using these sources and more to bring high-quality digital content into your classrooms. Let us know your favorites and any sources we may have missed.

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10 Comments

Joe Wagner
7/3/2012

Thanks for including Backpack TV in your list. We are just getting started so would appreciate any feedback on how to make Backpack TV better for students and teachers.
-Joe Wagner
Founder, Backpack TV

Derek
7/3/2012

Great list - thanks for making this available. You may be interested in the following:
http:/www.edtalks.org
Another education-focused curated site featuring dozens of videos that can be used for professional development of teachers, illustrating effective practice and prompts for PD discussions among staff.

Carri Schneider
7/3/2012

Thanks Joe. Please keep us posted about your progress as you grow and develop. I think people are really interested in finding a one-stop shop for the best in educational content.

Jesse Cressman-Dickinson
7/4/2012

Great list! We're launching a new website this September www.vroc.ca. The site will showcase a new series of STEM based video podcasts and help teachers bring experts and innovators into the classroom via video conferencing.
Here is a link to the trailer for our new program 'Why Math?'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFLQdHLMKpM
Would love feed back from the experts on the list!

Carri Schneider
7/5/2012

Thanks Derek. I'll be working on an updated list with even more sources. Thanks for sharing edtalks!

Gayle Kolodny Cole
7/5/2012

Carri, I would encourage you to check out IWitness, available to educators and students (13+) at iwitness.usc.edu. IWitness is a transformative online application that gives educators and students access to interact with more than 1,000 video testimonies of Holocaust survivors and other witnesses. The transformation occurs when learners make an individual connection with any single voice among the 1,000+ testimonies. Using the embedded tools, students do more than just watch and listen; they research, explore, reflect, and respond with their own voices about why voices from the past matter today and tomorrow. IWitness activities cover a variety of topics, and are not limited to addressing the Holocaust; the activities not only meet a variety of curricular objectives, and integrate 21st century literacies, they help inspire a future without prejudice and intolerance. I hope you will consider sharing this resource with educators. Gayle Kolodny Cole, Associate Director of Online Education (@ghkcole on Twitter)

Replies

Carri Schneider
7/5/2012

Thanks Gayle. We will definitely check it out as we update our list to include even more great resources!

Amy Erin Borovoy (VideoAmy)
7/6/2012

(Just in case my last comment was lost in cyber-space, if not, sorry for duplicates!)
Thanks so much for including Edutopia on your list! I'm Edutopia's Digital Media Curator, and I wanted to share a link to my Five-Minute Film Fest blog, where I put together a list of videos for educators on a weekly theme: http://www.edutopia.org/spiralnotebook/amy-erin-borovoy
Fantastic post!

Ted Aloo
2/16/2013

Awesome! This is just what every educator should have access to.

Sathyanand
4/22/2015

Hi Carrie,
Thanks for great list of sites that offer curated videos for educators.
However most of the sites feature videos that can talk to children directly.
We may also need curated list of videos that talk to parents, teacher and/or educators who can then use it engage their children/ students.
Best,
Sathya
organizedmind.wordpress.com

David James
5/31/2016

It was an informative read.
I had written an article on how videos are helpful to classes and how you can create one.
~ http://goo.gl/y39CJ1
If you are interested fell free to go through and give me your suggestions on comment section. Thank you

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