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NBC Learn

Vast video site offers current, historical content

Learning rating

Community rating

Based on 1 review

Privacy rating

Expert evaluation by Common Sense

Grades

K–12

Subjects & Topics

English Language Arts, Science, Social Studies

Price: Free to try
Platforms: Web

Pros: The archive is truly impressive. Teachers can create playlists or download videos. Integrates with Google Classroom.

Cons: Can't re-arrange videos in a playlist. Learning activities aren't integrated with viewing.

Bottom Line: This is a great source for video-based news, thanks to the huge archive, current events coverage, and teacher-friendly extra links to Newsela articles.

NBC Learn has some free content that teachers can browse and integrate with their lesson plans. Students might also find news clips that add to their research. However, the tool really shines with a paid subscription. With a paid account, teachers can create playlists to use with lessons and units and use any attached activities (via the Related Text section on videos) or the toolkit for additional materials. Teachers can play the videos on an interactive whiteboard for a whole-class experience, or students can view on shared or 1-to-1 mobile devices. Videos can also be downloaded for easy offline access. Combine the videos and the articles on Newsela to add a solid foundation to your lesson plans in science, history, English language arts, math, civics, culture, and many other topics. For secondary teachers, the media offers opportunities to add historical perspectives to world events as well as discuss aspects of journalism, news accuracy, and bias.

Thanks to the deep archive of videos on NBC Learn and the current events videos, teachers can turn to the site to help introduce trending topics or to find supplementary discussion starters for the day's lesson. A search for just about anything is likely to return something useful for sparking discussion and offering key context to other curricular materials and activities.

Editor's Note: NBC Learn now hosts all of their videos on a YouTube channel and doesn't maintain the website addressed in this review.

NBC Learn is a video-based educational news website for kindergarten through higher education. The website is free with a paid subscription option that includes many more videos as well as teacher support materials. The video library is vast, with current events videos as well as an archive of historical footage and news reports, original Learn Collections, and content from well-known shows such as NBC News and Meet the Press. It also includes media from NBC Sports, MSNBC, NBC Latino, and Spanish broadcasts from Telemundo. Archival photos from the Library of Congress, National Archives, and AP Images supplement the video media. The site is organized by topics that teachers and students can browse, or they can use the keyword search to find specific videos. There's also a section that recommends videos based on teacher profile.

Each video is linked to relevant state and national standards and offers closed captioning as well as transcripts. Teachers can use the playlist feature for lessons and units, but the feature does not support rearranging the video clips after adding them to the list, which makes it a bit clunky. Some videos also featured recommended activities. These, however, are just text in the Related Text field and aren't well-integrated with the videos. A new feature that takes the site up another notch, however, is the partnership with Newsela. Links to relevant articles on Newsela are now included with many of the videos, so teachers can use text sources with the multimedia to dive deeper into instructional content.  NBC Learn also has Google Classroom integration, so teachers can create an assignment linked to a video or playlist that already has the Newsela links embedded for easier lesson planning.

This is a highly useful site. NBC Learn stands out from the pack of other student-focused news sites by providing a large archive of current and historical news broadcasts to support classroom instruction. The Learn Collection videos have high-quality content and production values (although these videos are definitely more like traditional news than the YouTube-style explainers students may gravitate toward). Still, these videos offer students opportunities to develop their media literacy skills: analyzing and evaluating the information presented, and then doing further research or participating in discussion and debates. Students might also be inspired to do their own news reporting and informational video production. By design, the videos are accessible for learners who have reading challenges or vision disabilities, and closed captioning and transcripts support English language learners as well as students with hearing disabilities.

There's some room to grow, however. Not all videos have the same resources; some will feature Newsela articles and/or activities and some will not. Additionally, the activities included with some of the videos aren't integrated within the videos themselves, or interactive. There's also no way to assign videos or track progress. And yet, even without these features, NBC Learn offers a lot of utility for teachers who want to bring credible information into the classroom to fuel student inquiry.

Learning Rating

Overall Rating
Engagement

The videos have strong content, but tonally are more like traditional news than the YouTube videos kids may be used to. The newer videos help contextualize current events, and older videos offer historical insights.

Pedagogy

Huge library of videos, but they vary in terms of curricular supports. Some offer activities and/or links to leveled articles on the Newsela partner site. Learning activities could be better integrated.

Support

Videos feature captions, transcripts, a note-taking tool, and supporting materials for lesson planning. There are options to watch videos offline. No progress-tracking or built-in assessment.

Common Sense reviewer
Andrea M.
Andrea M. Instructional Facilitator of Technology

Community Rating

NBC Helps to Learn

It is a great tool when used wisely. Teachers looking for an easy fit for standards need to watch the videos and apply where necessary. It is a motivating tool for students, particular those not fond of reading, to find useful and applicable information.

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Privacy Rating

Data Safety How safe is this product?

  • Unclear whether this product supports interactions between trusted users.
  • Personal information can be displayed publicly.
  • Unclear whether user-created content is filtered for personal information before being made publicly visible.

Data Rights What rights do I have to the data?

  • Users can create or upload content.
  • Processes to access or review user data are available.
  • Processes to modify data are available for authorized users.

Ads & Tracking Are there advertisements or tracking?

  • Personal information is not shared for third-party marketing.
  • Unclear whether this product displays traditional or contextual advertisements.
  • Personalised advertising is displayed.

Continue reading about this tool's privacy practices, including data collection, sharing, and security.

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