Visual Learner's Delight

Diving into Video Sharing

I hazard to guess that we’ve all been sent an e-mail (from that contact that forwards everything) containing a YouTube video. Whether it is the video of a baby hysterically laughing, Susan Boyle’s performance, or the “Chocolate Rain” video, we’ve ended up on www.YouTube.com. You, me, and millions of other people!

Unlike many of the tools we are exploring in EDES 501, I am at least a little familiar with video sharing, primarily through YouTube. Until now I had only viewed videos (usually sent to me by someone), but had never posted one.

I easily joined YouTube and set up an account. (“TheLilNorman” if you are looking!) I selected a video that I had taken last year of my son singing and began to upload it. I am not sure if it was due to my file or YouTube’s encoding, but it took approximately an hour and a half to load it, but eventually “Learning Letters” made it. (I did have a hard time deciding what “category” it should belong to… entertainment, comedy, etc.)

YouTube was relatively easy to navigate. I enjoyed the ability of the site to suggest other videos and, in the interest of time, had to resist the urge to become very sidetracked exploring entertaining videos.

But what is video sharing/video sharing social networks?

Lamb & Johnson explain that “some sites simply provide a place to upload and download video clips, whereas others are entire social networks incorporating options for user profiles, video ratings, a list of favorites, tagging, and comments”. (p. 55) YouTube, TeacherTube, and SchoolTube are examples of video sharing social networks.

Implications for Teaching & Library

A couple of months ago my potty-training toddler was rewarded for a momentous achievement in this department with the purchase of a play bowling set. He had been asking for this set for weeks and we’d been dangling it over his head, but now it was his! We’d wondered how our little boy knew about bowling, but since he somehow knew about other sports too, despite his very unathletic parents, we figured he really knew what he wanted. (He has demonstrated exceptional skill in many sports for his age. In particular, he has a keen interest and ability in baseball.) As soon as his new bowling set was out of the packaging I tried to set up the pins for him, but my son was becoming increasingly frustrated with me. He cried that it was not right and finally I let him show me. Without delay he picked up a pin and swung it hard at the ball! Adorable, but not bowling! I struggled to explain to him what bowling really was and how it was played. Then it hit me – YouTube! We quickly went to the computer where we watched a few different bowling videos and my son figured things out. (Although I still catch him whacking the ball with the pins from time to time!)

My example is the “implications for teaching” in a nut shell – YouTube is an incredibly useful tool for taking a concept that is abstract to someone and making it much more concrete. This would also be useful teaching English as an Additional Language (EAL) learners and learners with disabilities. It would also appeal to learners with a visual learning style.

Another way to use a popular video sharing site is to add a more personal “face” to research. For example, last year I participated in a pilot project for The Ladybug Foundation. They were developing learning tools for the Manitoba Social Studies curriculum and had several classrooms around Winnipeg pilot the program before full implementation. My Grade One students were fascinated by Hannah Taylor (founder) who was the same age as them when she first started to become passionate about the homeless. I wish I had thought to utilize YouTube for videos about Hannah and her work. We also could have used it to search for other related videos on homelessness and other groups working on this social issue in other cities. I think it would have added more depth to their learning. An excellent culminating activity for our learning would have been to create a video that documented our learning and the social action project they undertook to support The Ladybug Foundation. This video could have been shared through YouTube and the students could (potentially) have received feedback from around the world.

Libraries can also utilize video sharing sites for library promotion. Libraries need to strive to include technology or possibly stand to lose future generations.

The assigned article from the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL), YouTube and Libraries: It could be a beautiful relationship, includes many excellent ideas for library usage of YouTube, including using it as a storehouse for video collections, using it as a vehicle for introducing new resources, and for patrons to access tutorials.

In my video sharing learning exploration I came across a study conducted in Australia that was very interesting to me. Hoban, McDonald, and Ferry studied the effects of preservice teachers creating a “slowmation” (slow motion animation) to demonstrate a Science concept. It was felt that Science was being undertaught in the schools due to teachers’ low comfort level with the topics. As part of a university Science instruction course, the students created a slowmation to demonstrate a concept. The slowmations were posted on TeacherTube to receive feedback from their peers, primarily to clarify any misconceptions. Hoban et al documented the improvement of the preservice teachers’ knowledge and found that 66% experienced a major increase in Science knowledge and an additional 31% experienced a minor increase in Science knowledge. Hoban et al felt that TeacherTube “provides a vehicle for preservice teachers all over the world to share the content of their assignments” (p. 7).

Because I was curious about the slowmations, I joined TeacherTube. A search of TeacherTube turned up 27 slowmations videos on varying Science topics. These videos looked “doable”.

It is felt that students will achieve a greater level of learning from viewing animations if they have been created and designed by the learner (Chan &Black, 2005 as cited in Hoban et al). If students create a video to demonstrate their learning, a greater depth of understanding can be achieved. However, the learning doesn’t have to stop there. If that video is then shared with a larger audience, for example through TeacherTube, an even greater depth can be achieved through feedback and a form of peer consultation.

Other Information

I have determined that there are a lot of video sharing sites. Other than the aforementioned YouTube, some other video sharing sites include Yahoo Video, Liveleak, Metacafe, SchoolTube, and relative newcomer Snotr. Many of the sites that I had associated with photo sharing also host and share videos, such as Flickr and Photobucket and sites I had associated more explicitly with social networking, such as Facebook and MySpace also host and share videos.

As an aside, it seems that YouTube is definitely not a money-making venture for parent company, Google. Consultants have estimated current operating losses between 174 million and 470 million (Liedtke, M., 2009). Google can currently support the money losing YouTube, but it does make you wonder how secure the future of YouTube is and what, if anything, will be capable of replacing it with the same magnitude should it no longer exist?


What’s Next?

Baby Steps! First, I would like to experiment with my own creation of an actual video that linked directly with my curriculums. Just as detailed in the study, I would like to experiment with a slowmation video to assist instruction of Science concepts. I would also like to experiment with creating virtual fieldtrips for my students, likely as a link to community outcomes in Social Studies. I would post these videos on TeacherTube and/or YouTube in hopes of receiving constructive feedback and also to share the resources.

Next, I’d move to student-created video to demonstrate their learning that would also be posted on a sharing site to receive feedback and to make connections (hopefully) around the world.

I have only just begun…



References

Hoban, McDonald, Ferry. Improving Preservice Teachers’ Science Knowledge by Creating, Reviewing and Publishing Slowmations to TeacherTube. (University of Wollongong, Australia)

Lamb, A., & Johnson, L.. (2007). video and the Web, part 2: sharing and social networking. Teacher Librarian, 35(2), 55-58,69.

Liedtke, M (June 17, 2009) Guessing game: How much money is YouTube losing? Yahoo! Tech News. http://tech.yahoo.com/news/ap/20090617/ap_on_hi_te/us_tec_youtube_losses

Webb, P (2007) YouTube and Libraries: It could be a beautiful relationship. C&RL New, 68(6). Retrieved from http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/acrl/publications/crlnews/2007/jun/youtube.cfm