YouTube For Education?


 To YouTube or not to YouTube? That could be the question for many educators who are trying to determine if the benefits of the website outweigh the distractions that come along with it. Parents and teachers alike are already aware of the pop culture obsession with YouTube. The students are all about YouTube Shorts these days and spend many hours of the month adding views and likes to video content. Being a "YouTuber" is many kids' dream, so when it comes to whether we should use YouTube for educational purposes, I believe the answer is clear: yes!

Why not help the kids out and show them how to create content that is educational and more likely to get views? Why not teach students how to create with an intended audience in mind? Why not help students use their critical thinking and higher order thinking skills without them realizing it? Making YouTube content will require planning, coordination, synthesis of information, reading, writing, and collaboration. 

When considering the creation side, YouTube can be used for just about any subject as the possibilities are endless. Creating content requires a user to decide on a topic and decide what they want to "say" about that topic. It parallels writing essays. What is "said" in a video is the same thing that would be "said" in an essay. The obvious difference would be that making a video requires a more creative element where the user can present their topic in person, through animation, through a video slideshow, or as a music video. That's not all. Students could present their reader's theater or they could role play a newscast in order to present facts learned from a history assignment. Students could record and present a lab experiment or create a podcast about any topic such as poetry or comments about literature readings. They could create movie previews to display genre, tone, and mood or they could write a song about math and share it with the class. 

YouTube obviously has many videos and not all of them are music. There are thousands of educational videos that teachers can use to support instruction in the classroom. Why reinvent the wheel? There are so many fantastically-designed videos that cover just about any topic you can think of that would be covered in today's classroom. 

Whether or not to use YouTube in the classroom is a no brainer. Of course, it would be wise to communicate to parents and administrators on how you will be using it in the classroom as every district and campus is different. Not everyone will understand the benefits of using YouTube. Not everyone understands the importance and reasons behind such as decision as they may not be familiar with multimodal education, social constructivism, and Bloom's Taxonomy. 

I will say teachers can use third party sites that are provided by their district and that are free on the internet to help them prevent issues with YouTube and students. For instance, YouTube videos can be embedded into slideshows or in lessons like Nearpod. When teachers do this, students can watch only the video being presented--they do not have free rein on the website. However, if teachers are wanting students to create content, they will need to create rules and expectations for students to follow. Students will need to be taught what is and isn't appropriate and the possible consequences of not following the rules. It is as important to communicate those expectations with students as it is to teach them how to use the video editing controls.

Lastly, I can't finish without pointing out how YouTube can be used to share ideas, collaborate and/or peer review. With commenting, liking, and sharing features, students can practice providing constructive criticism, peer feedback, and ideas for future creations. 

As long as students are mature enough to follow the rules and use proper etiquette, YouTube can be a super way of engaging students in core content. With proper implementation, it truly can be a useful educational Web 2.0 tool. 

This week I was to go on a YouTube adventure by creating a series of playlists adding a video about what I would like to learn on YouTube. The playlists that I was required to create as per my course instructor included ones that covered the following topics:

 Twitter (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmS-PcCXwNusQQ9PgnNGZ-27RnjPiNHiL)

Teaching and Learning with Technology (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmS-PcCXwNuunOShrfRy75f28116MW4_6)

Web 2.0 Tools for Learning (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmS-PcCXwNuusVLRyTfSIsCkpcIL-Mw0y)

Reading and Writing Skills (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmS-PcCXwNusWeSMXm-AiUH4XQ90KwZmy)

We also had to create a playlist about something we would like to learn from YouTube. Here is the link to that playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmS-PcCXwNuvyzIqWPjqBnx_g5ZXGiSs9.

Within that playlist, I have created a video in which I briefly discuss a topic of something I would like to learn. Here is the link to that video, called YouTube University Short: https://youtu.be/nxOd_P8HJz4. In the video, I mention how I want to learn how to sew and how to use a sewing machine. I think YouTube can help me do that.

Please excuse my hurriedness in making this video as I didn't realize that I had to do this until a few hours from its deadline. I am a bit of a procrastinator, so I have to monitor myself and make sure I pace my graduate school workload.  

So how did the YouTube adventure go? I learned that YouTube is not the easiest site to navigate. I had to try several different things in order to finally get my videos' privacy changed from private to public. Also, you can't just go to your playlists and click "Create a playlist". Nope. You have to start with the video you want to add to a playlist and then go to the three dots and then go to Save. Under Save, you are given the option to create a playlist. I already had music playlists saved in my YouTube, but I remember even in the past that moving videos around playlists and editing playlists is not the easier thing to do on YouTube. Once you can get past the finicky parts of the user interface, I think one can eventually learn to navigate the site and features like a pro. It would be nice, however, if shortcuts were embedded on the site, rather than requiring users to click several times between tabs and buttons. 

Overall, I've had a great experience this week learning about Web 2.0 tools. I've learned more about AI software from my coworkers, instructional software from my graduate classmates, and tips and tricks about assessment tools through professional development at work. With so much technology to learn, I have been feeling my age. None the less, I am doing my best to keep up with the changing times and advancing technologies.

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