If a picture is worth a thousand words, then what is the potential value of YouTube?

YOUTUBE

.......an amazing story written in just 5 short years.

Where will this incredible story take us???

REFLECTIONS ON LEARNING

"Hey finally something I know a bit about. YouTube you say? I already have an account and have actually used it to watch some videos. I know quite a bit about this."

These were my initial thoughts going into the week. I had used YouTube and even had an account set up. I recall that I set up an account some time ago. Perhaps it was last spring. Now what was the account name? I tried to remember but had to search my gmail to find the account details. If anyone is looking for me, my YouTube user name is evarj. I recall as I was setting up the account I knew very little about the site. I had heard people talking about it and my children had been watching videos from it but I knew very little. I recall that I so little about it that I spelled it u-tube when I was looking for it. I tried to recall when I had last used my account. It had been a very long time ago.

As I went into my YouTube account it became apparent that I actually had not explored its possibilities and features much at all. I had simply set up an account, accessed it a few times and watched the odd video. I had not examined any of the social networking capabilities it offers. I had not rated nor commented on any of the videos I had watched. I had not explored any of the account settings that are available to me. I had not even uploaded a video.

My greatest learning came from creating and uploading my very first video to YouTube. I dug out my webcam and set it up. I realized that I did not have the software for it anymore since I had changed computers and not used the webcam since the change. I had to download and install the webcam video software. That went fine and now time to create the video. What should I talk about? Where should I shoot it? What will I look and sound like? These were all the simple things I never realized would become so important to plan in advance. The answers to these questions can be found by playing my first video by clicking the link to it here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuGbfvljJKk or by playing the embedded video in the next section. Linking and embedding video are two things I learned to do as well and found them to be quite easy to do. I learned that there is a lot to think about in the creation, editing and uploading of a video but it is a very simple process. I also learned that there are a few simple things you can do to edit your videos within the YouTube site. You can add thought bubbles and comments right into the video. You can add titles, tags, and categories to help in searching for your videos. You can control who sees the video plus if and how they can comment on the video. There is a whole other side to YouTube that is opened up to you once you start to add video of your own and the best thing about it is that it is so easy to do. I suppose that is why it has become such a popular site.

Another part of my learning came from the readings and trailfire. I was completely captivated by the story of YouTube that was found on the trailfire : An anthropological introduction to YouTube This video is about an hour in length but I found it was so interesting that I had to watch the entire thing. It tells the story of YouTube from an anthropological point of view. If any of you have not watched it I highly recommend it.

Davies and Merchant (2009) note 10 things that can be done with YouTube.

1. Watch videos
2. Respond to videos in writing
3. Respond to videos by uploading another video
4. Report offensive videos
5. Embed videos into other sites and blogs
6. Upload videos and control access to them by others
7. Subscribe to users' video and receive alerts when new videos are added
8. Participate in Test Tube
9. Produce profiles of self and view others
10. Friend people and send email via YouTube.

I had tried out only one of these prior to this class (#1) and knew of another (#6). In the past week I was able to explore this tool a little bit more but still have a lot of work to do to feel like I know it well.

Davies and Merchant (2009) also point out that YouTube feels different than other Web 2.0 sites. I would agree with them in that you do not have the feeling that you are in your own private site when you log onto you YouTube account. I noticed this compared to the experience I had with sites such as Flickr, Facebook and Twitter. When logged into these sites you feel like you are in your own "private area" more so than in Youtube. I thought that to be an interesting note that they made.

PERSONAL LEARNINGS

To me the personal learnings from this site are a bit limited. I learned a lot about YouTube but do not think it will be something I get a lot of personal use from. My family does not have a video camera (no caveman comments please) so we do not create a lot of personal video. As such I think that I will be limited to creation of simple videos such as the one I created for this project and have embedded below.

As you can easily see from the video I lack star power. I am not at all like the Numa Numa guy. Our family has used YouTube to locate and watch our favorite parts of sitcoms or music videos. This, we will continue to use as long as they are allowed to be posted on YouTube. The whole copyright issue is present here as well. A personal use that I may get from this is the use of "how to" videos. I never thought of this as a resource when looking for a "how to". I have done a bit of looking and there are many good "how to" videos that could be used to help out around the house.

TEACHING AND LEARNING

Although I was not an expert in YouTube I was acutely aware of its value to teaching and learning. This is perhaps the Web 2.0 tool that is most widely used in our schools at this time. Along with our catalyst teachers I have put together a list of several ways that Youtube is being used in classrooms within our school division.

1. Sharing student-made videos.

2. Recording lessons for later use

3. Recording tutorials for later use (one of our distance learning teachers has most of his Math classes on YouTube)

4. Educational videos. While many videos are technically copyright, many holders don't care and allow them to be kept up on YouTube. Some are excellent professional educational videos.

5. Educational videos part 2: Hundreds of teachers and professors use YouTube for distributing their own lessons and these are accessible by others. For example, our distance learning teacher's videos can be viewed by anyone.

6. Educational videos part 3: Many students have made videos for courses that they've shared on YouTube.

7. Commercials for analyzing for media studies, or other courses.

8. Discussion starters. On YouTube, anyone can have an opinion and these can be used for class discussion.

9. Tutorials for difficult questions in math or any subject.

10. Before doing any kind of video work with students, one teacher uses youtube videos as examples and tries to de-construct what was done in the youtube video. For example, before having students create video ads, he always does an exercise he calls reverse storyboarding where they analyze the shots, how they were composed, and in what sequence they might have been shot.

11. He does a similar thing with stop-motion video. In order to broaden the students' notion of what the genre is, they first examine some quality examples on YouTube.

12. He has a Google Docs presentation which examines the various appeals used in Public Service Ads. It includes numerous links to youtube videos as examples of each method of appeal.

13. As a result of some of these projects, students have uploaded their Ads, PSAs, and stop motion videos to youtube. The great thing about most stop motion is that there aren't usually images of students involved, so there is little security risk.

14. For a social studies teacher, youtube is indispensable for discussing current events. The other day, when introducing a unit on earthquakes to grade 3's, we started out by discussing the earthquake in Haiti. He was able to punctuate that discussion with video footage taken by a security camera on the American Embassy.

15. All the video tutorials we do now are posted to YouTube.

16. For middle years science teachers, all the Bill Nye, the Science Guy videos are on YouTube.

17. When constructing a PAA unit on Geocaching, we were able to construct 80% of the course material on geocaching and the science behind GPS from existing youtube videos.

18. One particularly good use, is the demonstration of potentially dangerous experiments (chemistry, physics) that one would never be able to do in the classroom.

This is a list of some of the great things that are being done with the help of Youtube in our schools.

As for issues with it's use, there are some that we have experienced. The largest issue we find in our rural setting is bandwidth. Though YouTube is extremely good at streaming video, when you have an entire class downloading video streams, the network can grind to a halt.

Other issues usually spring from inadequate supervision or ignorance of the technology. An example would be when staff becomes upset because students they've allowed into a computer lab unsupervised at noon are watching inappropriate material. Another example would result when staff allow students to "listen" to music by playing youtube videos, but neither staff nor students make the connection to the subsequent degradation of Internet/bandwidth performance.

We also have encountered issues with our IT department using blocking software that makes YouTube difficult (if not impossible) to watch. They have a lack of understanding regarding the educational benefits we can achieve from using YouTube.

Perhaps the greatest issue related to the use of YouTube is privacy rights of students. Video involving students may get posted without students and parents permission being granted. This is extremely difficult to monitor and control when video posting is becoming so popular.

In spite of the issues YouTube continues to gain popularity in our schools. It is a wave like a tsunami that keeps gaining power and is overtaking us.

Until next time....

References

Davies, J & Merchant, G. (2009). Web 2.0 for schools learning and social participation, New York: Peter Lang Publishing.

http://trailfire.com/joannedegroot/marks/232909

Hey do you want to see my great pictures???

If a picture says a thousand words then Flickr speaks loud and clear.

What the heck is this Flickr thing all about anyway? There are only so many things that can be done with pictures, right? You can shoot them, edit them, store them, print them and show them to your friends and family, that's it, right? Hold on there is much much more!!! Flickr opened my eyes to a whole new world that I did not know even existed.

REFLECTIONS ON LEARNING

I went into this week not knowing anything about Flickr at all. I had heard the name but did not even know that it had anything to do with photos and certainly had no idea of its power and popularity. I read about it in Web 2.0 for Schools and in Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms. Hmm, interesting but what did it look like? I went online and signed up for an account. Since this was still all quite new to me I was a little nervous about the information I was about to share as I signed up. It was helpful to read similar concerns on our class blackboard system from other students and the response from Joanne helped ease my concerns. I jumped in and created an account for myself to try out. Now I had to upload some photos. I chose a folder of pictures that I had on my computer from a trip we had taken to Amsterdam. Again I was still cautious and chose these pictures because they did not have many people in them as I am still nervous about sharing those family pictures with the world.

Now that I had some pictures posted, (here is one of my favorites) what could I do with them that was different. Well, I could organize them in a variety of ways. They could be arranged in "photostreams", I could add tags or keywords to them to allow me to organize and search at a variety of levels. I could add notes and label people in photos (if I dared to publish them). There were so many features that I have not had enough time to explore them all but I will come back to this and use it for my personal pictures for sure.

The part that struck me most about the site was its similarity in many regards to the other social networking site (Facebook) that I had just signed up for. The ability to share the photos with friends, family and the entire world opened up tremendous opportunities. Not only could you share your photos but you could search for any topic and find photos from others. You could comment on photos and have comments made to yours. I have not had any comments posted yet but I did comment on one of my classmates postings.

What I found most interesting in my learning this week was that I did not have enough time to explore all of Flickr. I went into the week thinking this would be easy but there are so many things to try that one week is only enough to give you a small peak at some of the potential.

PERSONAL LEARNINGS

The whole concept of pictures has always been an enigma to me. We started out with volumes of photo albums that are in boxes under the stairs and rarely come out. We progressed to digital pictures that are at least more readily available but still seldom "come out" to be shared. What is their purpose if they are not to be looked at and shared with others.

What happens when disaster strikes? If we have a flood or fire the paper photos are destroyed and unless properly backed up digital photos can be lost and destroyed easily too. The use of Flickr as a media locker is a great idea even if that is all it is used for. I plan on adding my files here when I can make the time to upload them all. This will at least provide me with a backup of our important memories should we have a computer crash.

The ability to organize my photos by labeling and tagging them is truly amazing. One of the problems that I now have with my digital pictures is that I can never locate any of the pictures that I am looking for because there is no way of searching for things. With tags I will be able to find pictures of my kids, the trip we took to Disneyland, or pictures form 2007.

Probably the best use of the site will be in sharing with family members. Our family has spread out the internet will allow us to communicate effectively. Family pictures can now be shared with others and comments can be added by relatives and friends at a distance. The exchange of thoughts and laughs as we share our pictures will certainly add to the fun of viewing each others photos online.

TEACHING AND LEARNING

Is there potential for using Flickr in our classrooms? The answer is definitely yes but it will not be easy and will take time before it is used as a routine tool in our classes.

There are many, many potential uses of Flickr in the classroom. I have thought of a few ways that I may encourage teachers in my division to use the site. In math we are encouraging the use of digital photography as young students explore 3D objects yet often see 2D pictures of these in text books. By having students take their own pictures of the objects they are working with they develop a better understanding of the the relationships between 3D objects and 2D images. If these are then uploaded to Flickr they can be tagged and commented on by the students to extend their learning even more.

I was struck by the quality of the images that can be found on the site. Below is an example of a picture that I discovered on Flickr.

Pictures like this could be used in a variety of ways. Parts of the insect could be labelled with tags or students could be asked to do the labeling. Photos of plants and animals from around the world can easily be located, studied and discussed with students from around the world.

The applications to Geography are obvious as well. Pictures of landforms that are uncommon in our parts can be readily identified. You can find photos of places anywhere in the world that you are studying. Another powerful application is studying current events. The recent tragedy in Haiti was first described and released to the world with web 2.0 apps such as Facebook. Mainstream media such as CNN used Facebook for some of its earliest reporting and there are lots of pictures of the devastation on Flickr with groups formed around this topic that could be studied in a classroom.

Although the potential is great it will not be a quick and easy sell for teachers. Even most new teachers that I have worked with are not comfortable using these tools? If they are not familiar with Flickr they have a lack of time or opportunity to learn about them. Although they may have grown up with computers and internet they typically have not grow up with Flickr. They certainly did not experience it in their education and thus have difficulty seeing how it can be used in their classroom. There are still all sorts of concerns regarding privacy of students. Another roadblock and area that is not well understood is the concerns around copyright. I am not sure if I have broken any copyrights in this blog. I have tried to use pictures from the "Creative Commons" area of Flickr assuming that I can use these but I really am not certain.

There is a lot of work to do with teachers to show them these new tools and how they can be used. In our division we have a small team of technology catalyst teachers. They work with teachers and classes doing just that. I will be checking with them to determine if and how they have used Flickr with the teachers they have worked with.

Until next time....

The Journey Begins...

My name is Ed Varjassy. I am a student in the EDES 501 course from the University of Alberta. This course encourages students to explore various aspects of Web 2.0. Blogging is one of those features that is to be explored. This blog is the means of communicating our experiences with the various web features we explore.

This is the first blog post that I have created. I think that it could be a lot of fun and my first impression is that it seems to be quite easy to use. I have a lot of work to do in creating this site and I am really just getting started so I encourage you to return often and watch the progress that is made.

I have not really tried out any of the web 2.0 tools that we will be exploring so this will all be new to me. I have watched my wife and kids as they use Facebook but have never set up my own page there. I signed up for twitter last spring but did not spend any time exploring or using it so it is completely new.

I have always been interested and fascinated by the changing face of the internet. I used to teach computer applications and information processing in the high school where I taught and had to try to at least catch up with my students. I have not been in that role for about 4 years now and my knowledge and skills have fallen quite a bit. I saw this class as a means of getting caught. At the start of this school year I was given supervisory duties and responsibilities for our school division e-learning department. Our 4 technology catalyst teachers are all very knowledgeable in these applications and I see this as a way to gain some knowledge so that I can help them encourage appropriate use of these in our school division classrooms.