Video sharing

I began this week thinking, "Oh great, I have to sign up for another thing on the internet", but then I remembered that I already have a YouTube account. I had to wade through the emails in my inbox to figure out my login and password, but eventually I made it onto the site, and was able to sign in unscathed. Seemingly I have been a member since 2011, and only have one random video to show for it.

Proof of my YouTube membership

After I recovered my YouTube account, I decided to read chapter 8 of "Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts..". I skipped the portions on podcasts knowing that we will be covering those later in the course, and headed straight for screencasting. This is something I have never done before, and I think that the educational opportunities are endless. You can create tutorials at home and make them available for students outside of classroom hours, how genius! I decided to try out Jing, the screencasting tool mentioned in the book and created the simple video below.

 

Using Jing was so incredibly easy, and the site has tons of "how to" videos to watch if you get stuck. My only issue with this program was that if you want to download the videos onto your desktop they save as swf files and are then seemingly impossible to upload into your blog. After lots of reading, trouble shooting and general frustration, I uploaded my video to screencast.com (the company that runs Jing) and then copied the html from that video into my blog, so that I could directly imbed the video rather than just posting a link. Uggh. I am getting annoyed again just writing that. Anyway, it seems that mp4 downloads are available through Jing, but for a small fee (which I am unwilling to pay at this time).

Jing is a great resource and one that I will definitely use in the future. I have actually heard of teachers (specifically within the Sciences and Maths) using similar programs to record their lectures. Students then watch the lectures for homework and are then able use class time to do the problems/questions/activities that are usually assigned for homework. This allows students to digest the lectures and then ask their teachers questions while they are actually doing their assignments. It seems to really make sense, though it is in theory, completely abolishing the typical classroom format.

Now, onto YouTube. Below is the video I uploaded to my account. It was created during my BEd and I edited it using IMovie. The song in the background is called "Plucky Daisy" by Kevin McDonald and is one of many free silent movie downloads available on the internet.

My You Tube Video

YouTube has long been my best friend in the classroom. I love to show videos to generate discussion, to teach students skills (specifically within drama) and on the smallest of occasions, just for fun. Now, I realize that some of what I have shown is copyright material, but this happens all the time in the classroom. Technically we aren't allowed to show movies of any kind to an "audience" the size of a classroom without paying royalties, yet movies are still shown.

Something I did struggle with in China in regards to YouTube videos was the fact that YouTube was blocked. This eliminated a major teaching resource for us educators, because some student's English language levels were so low, that instructing with videos was the best way for them to learn. What I ended up doing was downloading my YouTube videos with a website called http://www.keepvid.com I was a life saver and I was only able to access it/YouTube in China by using a VPN to change my computer's "location". This website also eliminates having uncomfortably inappropriate video links pop up along the side of the YouTube site, and also gets around the terrible internet speed/streaming which often exists in schools. This also helps if your school blocks YouTube, though it requires a level of preparation that not all of us are good at.

Something I am still wanting to check out is TeacherTube, a website I had not heard of until this class. From my brief visit earlier today, it seems relatively straight forward and an excellent resource, though I don't know how many of my own videos I would upload to it.

image c/o tumblr.com

Thoughts for the classroom:

Video sharing can be used in any classroom, but I can see myself using it largely in drama. I could get students to make and edit videos. I could teach them basic editing skills by creating my own Ping videos. We could then upload those videos to YouTube, or to our classroom blog for student/parent enjoyment (though I would make them private and disable commenting, for student protection purposes).

My only concern would be copyright infringement when students are making their own videos, should they use songs/clips/pictures from protected sources. It would also be nice to use a video sharing site to display scenes performed in drama class, but again, plays are protected and I am not sure if that would technically be breaking any laws.

As mentioned above, I like to use YouTube videos to teach certain dramatic skills such as mime, which I am terrible at. There is actually an instructional series on YouTube from a professional mime which I have used numerous times and find extremely effective. One of her videos is below.