A Simple Way to Create A Search Engine of Educational Videos for Your Class

May 2, 2014
While YouTube is a fundamentally important resource of educational videos to use in class, it is not the only one out there. There are actually several other powerful alternatives to YouTube which provide video content specifically deigned for educational purposes. I have already featured a wide variety of these alternatives in several instances here in Educational Technology and Mobile Learning. However, today I want to share with you a great way to create a video search engine that your students can use to search for educational videos from sources other than YouTube.

Having such a video search engine handy for students to use whenever needs be will not only solve the problem of YouTube ban in schools but will also secure a safe browsing environment for students. The good thing about creating a custom video search engine is that it allows you  to include any site you want. In this regard, I compiled a short list of great video sites to include in your search engine.

Here is how you can build your video search engine. This tutorial is based on a previous tutorial I created a few days ago on how to create a custom search engine for your class website.


1- Head over to Google Custom Search and click on create a new search engine:

2- Specify the websites you want to add to your search engine. Don't worry, you can always come back later and delete or add new websites. Here are some good suggestions to add to your search engine:

• Teacher Tube
• School Tube
• Next Vista
• National Geographic Kids Videos
• Teachers.tv

3- Click on control panel or on "edit search engine" to customize it. You can change its title, add a description to it, choose its language, add or delete websites.

5- Click on " look and feel" to customize how it would appear to others. Select the layout and theme you want.

6- There are two ways to share your search engine: the first one is through an embed HTML code which you can copy and post in your blog or website, and the second is through a public URL as a stand alone web page.

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