According to an article in the New York Times, youtube has had 90 million visitors, which is ten times the amount of visitors of the next most popular video sharing site. These millions of viewers have created "youtube celebrities" of ordinary people. It is not just young people either, because it is so easy for anybody to post videos anyone can become "famous." Almost all of the videos on youtube were created by amateur video makers. While youtube is known for their amateur videos, they have signed an agreement to also provide television shows and movies to youtube audiences.
Youtube is widely popular, but there are some problems, which Michael Garrett Farrelly pointed out in his article "The possibilities of youtube." The quality of the videos are not always the greatest, both in the content and how they are viewed. The tags are created by users and can often be confusing or non-descript, such as "funny." Funny does not properly tell what a video is about. While these problems are annoying they are not easily fixed without stopping amateurs from creating videos. Since the appeal of youtube is that amateurs can post videos, I don't see these problems getting fixed anytime soon. These are more annoyances than fundamental problems of the system.
While youtube is the most commonly used video sharing website, there are others. Google and yahoo both have video sharing capabilities. While playing with google and yahoo video I realized that the videos on these sites are not limited to videos posted on the video sharing site itself. Since google and yahoo are internet search engines they retrieve videos from many video providers. This allows users to search many video sharing websites simultaneously, and is a feature that distinguishes google and yahoo from youtube. This feature is a great asset to the user, it is a good idea for users to search for a video through google or yahoo, since they are more likely to find what they need than by searching just one video sharing site.
Youtube and other video sharing sites have a great deal of information that can be used successfully in a classroom. The problem is trying to weed through the huge amounts of videos to find one that is relevant. This is what makes teacher tube so fantastic. Prior to this course I had not even heard of teacher tube. All of the videos posted on teacher tube are in some way relevant to teaching. This makes it a great place to start to look for videos for teaching. Not only does teacher tube offer videos, they also offer documents for teachers. Another feature that makes it a more desireable first stop for videos related to a curriculum is that teacher tube allows its users to upload longer videos than youtube, which places a cap on the size of the file and the time limit. After playing around on teacher tube I found that the videos were great for subjects such as science, math and common literature taught in the curriculum (such as To kill a mockingbird), but the site was lacking in Canadian content. I did a search for Louis Riel, who I think is a very important Canadian, and a Canadian figure commonly taught in schools, and it only came up with six hits. To compare I then did a search for Benjamin Franklin and there were over ten pages of videos. Overall, teacher tube was great, and would be a great asset to any classroom, but it may be difficult to find a relevant video on Canadian history.
There are other ways to implement videos, aside from viewing them in a classroom. Many students do not grasp the information in a lesson immediately, it may take a few times seeing a lesson before they understand the material taught. Teachers can video tape important lessons and post them so that students can revisit the lesson if there is material that they do not understand. Also major school functions can be video taped to help promote the school (Video blogging for teachers). While this is a fun activity there needs to be discretion about where the videos are posted. Also FOIP issues that relate to photosharing also apply to video sharing, so any teachers or librarians that want to use video sharing need to be aware of FOIP issues.
To encourage creativity, students can create their own videos and learn to edit them. A great place for them to post their videos is on a site called schooltube. Prior to researching video sharing I had not heard of it, but it is a really great resource. This site showcases videos created by students. Every video is moderated, follows local school guidelines and is approved by registered teachers so there are no innapropriate videos on the site. Schooltube is a safe way for students to create and share videos on the internet.
On the left side of this blog, under the heading Video Bar, you will find a library that I think has incorporated video sharing very well. Harper College library gives video instruction on how to use their library, which they post on youtube. My favourite of their videos is Tour the Library, which provides an entertaining introduction to their library services. Harper College library is using youtube to bring awareness to library services, and offer instruction on their use. This is a very good way to reach out to their library patrons since according to PEW/Internet and American life project 48% of people who use the internet have been to a video sharing site, and the number of people who visit video sharing sites has doubled in the past year. It is important for libraries to go to the people, instead of clinging to outdated technologies to reach out to patrons. According to statistics, video sharing makes a lot of sense for libraries to use.
Personally I enjoy using youtube regularly. I have an account with youtube and have a few channels that I subscribe to. The account was very easy to set up, and it makes following my favourite "youtube celebrities" much easier. Some people put a lot of time and effort into their videos, and they are very entertaining. I could spend hours on youtube, there is so much on the site to watch. While I greatly enjoy watching youtube, I have never felt the need to post videos. The lack of privacy settings is a huge deterrent. I do not feel comfortable with everyone being able to view the videos I post.
My user name on youtube is Yeehargh. My profile contains the channels that I subscribe to as well as videos I enjoy on a channel that I do not want to subscribe to. I find this feature of youtube very handy. It allows me to access my favourite videos as an entire channel, or just the video itself. This saves me from having to save an entire channel for one video.
The Possibilities of Youtube. Full Text Available By: Farrelly, Michael Garrett. Public Libraries, Sep/Oct2006, Vol. 45 Issue 5, p34-35, 2p;
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I had not even considered the lack of Canadian content! I wonder why that is? Is video sharing more popular in the US? Is it because they have a higher population and thus a higher population online? Has the trend just not caught on in Canada? Are Canadian teachers doing other things to supplement learning? Is the technology in Canadian classrooms behind?
ReplyDeleteWhen I was teaching in England (and remember this was years ago), every school I went to had interactive/smart whiteboards. Friends tell me that they are only now starting to be put in Canadian schools. Maybe the lack of the technology to display Canadian created videos has hindered the creation of them?
I wonder if the teachers in the other section have any thoughts about this?
It's strange but it's something I noticed right away. I think that teacher tube is great, but I wouldn't use it for Canadian history. I don't know why it is that there is less Canadian content. It is probably a combination of all those factors you mentioned.
ReplyDeleteI think that one reason there isn't a lot of Canadian content on Teacher Tube might be that many Canadian teachers are facing a lot of filtering situations in their schools which prevent teachers and students from accessing these sites in their classrooms and libraries. And many schools do not have video camera for their students and teachers to use regularly in order to create videos. Perhaps with small, inexpensive cameras like flip video, this will improve the access problems. The filtering issues might be harder to solve--as a library school student, how do you feel other kinds of libraries (e.g. public libraries) could/should help add Canadian content to sites like this? What responsibilities do librarians have for assisting teachers in this area?
ReplyDeleteI don't know if public libraries have time to create videos of their own, but I would encourage patrons to create videos with Canadian content to post on teacher tube. A video contest may be a good idea.
ReplyDeleteI think that libraries should do what they can to help teachers, but there is only so much that they can do. Teachers need to fight for these new technologies since their addition to a classroom can be highly beneficial. As for the filtering issue, that is much harder to get around.
I was not aware of the lacking Canadian content in Teacher Tube. Perhaps there will be more of a push to add some? Funding in order to purchase recording devices could definitely have something to do with it. Many schools simply don't have the money to buy videocameras and/or webcams. I agree about the filtering, Joanne. When I was completing one of my practicums, they had very limited access to websites on teacher computers. I was looking for exam questions one day at the school and it became so frustrating because great websites that I knew would be helpful were blocked. It's too bad that filtering also eliminates the decent resources along with the not-so-great ones.
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