Post Your Videos at Teacher Tube

Brothers, Adam & Jason Smith may not enjoy the notoriety or the fortunes of YouTube co-founders Chad Hurley and Steven Chen, but they have won the hearts of academicians everywhere with the launch of their new web site, TeacherTube.

Modeled after YouTube.com, the new video and social networking site overcomes some of the obstacles of the larger site by offering 11 customized channels for teachers to upload and share videos of best practices, tutorials and student projects in a content-controlled environment. Videos can be rated, shared with friends, or posted to blogs. Site users can post comments and converse with the video producer. There is a 100MB file limit for uploads. They must be 10 minutes in length or less (same policy as YouTube).

Launched barely three weeks ago, Teacher Tube is the brainchild of husband/wife teachers who understood the need for anytime, anywhere professional development and who wanted to make videos available in the classroom. Living in the “Tech-Beltway” of Texas, they assembled a talent team of colleagues, family, friends, legal and web specialists to help develop and launch the product.

Jason Smith (jsmith@teachertube.com), co-founder of TeacherTube, welcomes your ideas on how to make the site better for teachers and students. Private viewing options are already in place. Some school districts have created grade level, subject area and district group areas where teachers, students and parents can share videos internally. Want to create your own private group? A Teacher Tube tutorial will show you the way.

While you’re on the site, check out Walk-Throughs & Learning Objectives. A parody of the famed NexTel commercial, it’s one of the funniest admin videos you will find.

In addition, you’ll want to sign up for the Teacher Tube 2007 Laptop Give Away, which allows you to earn chances at winning a laptop with every video that you upload to the site.