Week 9, # 20 You Tube

To show my students a YouTube video, I logged into my account while the computer was projecting on the large classroom screen. One of my students said in astonishment, "You have a YouTube account?"

Duh. Did he think they set an age cutoff on YouTube? Probably. I can't say I upload my own videos but I will say I search YouTube for great tutorials. Sometimes I find better tutorials on YT than on Teacher Tube.

Here is one I found:

Students like YT videos because they are short and direct. They respect the videos (in that way we actually rightfully discourage) because YT is their technology.

I like to have the video independent from YouTube in the event of an Internet connection problem. I use TubeSucker and Lame Library (an FLV player)to pull the video from YT and have it work on my laptop. This allows me to use the video in any room in the school.

I also found a few good tutorials on Photostory 3 and a politically incorrect Mercedes ad called "Blonde in the Library." (I'm blonde and confident enough to think it's funny.)

What astounds me about YT however is the way students use YT as though it were a private site. They upload videos of themselves doing things they wouldn't want parents and school officials to see, sometimes illegal things. And then there are the incidents of young professionals not screening what they post, things potential employers can see. That's a discussion for a much longer blog.