So…who hasn’t heard of YouTube by now? As I found time to peruse and play on the web I got to wondering what other tubes exist in the Web 2.0 world. A little research helped me find a few fun and interesting additional tube-related products you might find useful (or fun). I also found a few X-rated tubes that I will not be sharing since this is a G-rated blog. At any rate, here are some of the neat apps, sites, and resources I found when I went tubin’ on the web today…

FilesTube.com – “a search engine designed to search files in various file sharing and uploading sites. As an file sharing search engine FilesTube.com finds files matching your search criteria among the files that has been seen recently in uploading sites by our search spider. This information is accumulated in a database. When you execute a FilesTube.com search it delivers results from the database.” While I do not categorize this search tool as X-rated please be aware that the search tool does show recent searches performed using the tool and some of the search criteria posted on the site was pretty colorful. This is not a site I would recommend for student use, but it did provide some interesting and relevant results when I tested it.

MixTube – “Create and share audio playlists made from YouTube videos.” Frankly, I have some concerns about copyright issues (and I noticed some of the playlists had music that had been removed due to copyright), but hey I had fun exploring and listening to various playlists and found creating my own playlist was pretty simple. Certainly, feel free to check it out thought you may have to play with it at home if your school currently blocks YouTube.

TubeGame – this site claims to be the largest games site on the web with over 12,000 Online Games. And… the games can be played full screen. Please check the games to assure they are appropriate in terms of content and language prior to sharing any of the games with your students.

ShoeTube – “Live life. Love shoes…A place on the web for shoe-lovers to GATHER and share the joy of shoes. You can WATCH our fun shoe videos, UPLOAD your own, add comments, join or start your own DISCUSSION. And be sure to check out our BLOGS, documenting the many daring adventures of women from all over, walking the walk and talking the talk… leading the shoe-centric life to the hilt.” So, I readily admit I do like shoes, but probably not as much as some of the people who access this site on a regular basis! And, I can guarantee my shoes are very boring (and practical) compared to most shoes featured on this site!

TrueTube – Now, this is a site that I definitely recommend for student use, particularly in the upper grades. “TrueTube is YOUR platform to make yourself heard.” Students can use the power of the web and streaming video technology to help them think, speak out, and act on important real-world issues. Information found on the site and addressed to the “now” generation: “TrueTube promotes moral and ethical discussion on the issues that matter for your generation, to inspire you to become involved in changing the world for the better. Don’t just talk about it, be about it…”

TrueTube Is:

• An interactive debating website
• Your place for using media and text to tell the world what you think
• Your opportunity to speak out in favour of or against something which you feel strongly about

TrueTube Is Not:

• An advertising site – please don’t try to post ads here
• A dating site – whilst we encourage you to chat about the issues, there are plenty of other sites out there if you just want to flirt or find love.

I consider this a site that can be used to empower students to voice their opinions in an appropriate manner. Several of the videos could also be used to open subjects for debate, etc. The site is moderated and even though it does contain a Love & Sex category the videos I previewed in that section were appropriate in nature and related to topics that are relevant in society. Still….I would suggest that you preview the site yourself…you know your students!

TubeChop – this is a really cool tool that makes it simple to edit a YouTube movie so that you can email or post a clip or portion of a YouTube video to your site, Facebook, Delicious, Twitter, etc. I have embedded a clip from one of my favorite viral videos below….

CaptionTube – use this YouTube-related tool to create captions for YouTube videos. It’s easy to use and it’s free. Captioning offers viewers a transcript to read and has been proven to improve reading skills. You can export captions and upload them to your YouTube account and signing up couldn’t be easier…use your Google account.

TubeRadio – similar in concept to MixTube, this site gives you an opportunity to stream radio based on music used in YouTube videos. “The quickest way to find music videos by your favourite artist and add them to your playlist is to use the Discography Search. Start by entering the artist name you want to search for into the search box and then click ‘Discography’. Click the albums to select the ones you would like to add. You can unselect an album by clicking it again. When you are happy with your selection, click ‘Add Albums to Playlist’.” I enjoyed using the site, but once again must question the issue of copyright…

ConvertMyTube – converts YouTube files to one of several formats: .AVI, .MOV, .MP4, or .WMV


And of course, how could I finish this post without including the following ‘tubes…

SchoolTube – this site “provides students and educators a safe, world class, and FREE media sharing website that is nationally endorsed by premier education associations. SchoolTube is the recognized leader for moderated, internet media sharing for teachers and students. All student created materials on SchoolTube must be approved by registered teachers, follow local school guidelines, and adhere to our high standards.”

TeacherTube – a video sharing website designed to allow those in the educational industry, particularly teachers, to share educational resources. The site contains a mixture of classroom teaching resources and others designed to aid teacher training. A number of students have also uploaded videos that they have made as part of K-12 and college courses.