YouTube, I Tube, We all Tube

"The next medium, whatever it is - it may be the extension of consciousness - will include television as its content, not as its environment, and will transform television into an art form." (McLuhan, 1962)

Reflections on earning to use the tool.

Marshall McLuhan (born in Edmonton) was visionary in how he viewed the progress of media and how it would transform our world. YouTube from the moment it began, caught the imagination of people who wanted to share their truths with the world. While my own postings to YouTube have been minimal, due to a lack of a good (or bad for that matter) digital video camera, I have been using YouTube and Teacher Tube videos for a few years for instructional purposes. This, of course, has been hampered by district technology folks who don't want students to be able to access inappropriate videos. YouTube was blocked until this school year at my school. As a tool, YouTube is incredibly easy to use as a viewer. Put in a search term and you'll be able to pull up videos on almost any topic imaginable. It's also very easy to post videos to this site. You simply create an account and upload videos after you've determined what level of privacy you wish to maintain for viewing and comments. The site links to all social networks and videos can be uploaded from those sites as well as directly from your personal computer. Channels, which are videos linked by over-arching theme can be subscribed to as RSS feeds.

Personal Use and Learning

For the first year of using YouTube, I was a passive viewer. I surfed a little and watched pop culture mind candy. I can honestly say that I didn't use it for education at all (my own or students'). In the next year, I began to explore YouTube and Teacher Tube (which had been recommended to me as a way of getting around the block put in by techies) for useful education clips. Some were good and very useful, some were hokey and useless. I found myself more frustrated by TeacherTube and didn't use it much, but recommended it to math teachers as most of the useful clips seemed to be aimed at that department. YouTube seemed much better for finding things for Social Studies and English which could be great discussion starters or clips related to readings in those departments. I heard my colleagues more frequently discussing the need for short videos rather than the longger DVD's which made up the bulk of our video collection. The search for a good streaming video service was on!

At this time, I also realized that I needed to learn how to post videos and ran smack into two controversies. The first was the issue of privacy. After posting videos of my darling daughter in her Christmas concert, I was asked to take the video down as it showed other children who were being protected from possibly abusive parents. I simply made the video settings more private so that they could only be shared by me with specific people. The next problem I encountered was copyright around music. I knew that YouTube was getting much more careful about copyright infringement, but I was very surprised (again, at Christmas), when after posting a video of a dance lesson, YouTube posted a link to the performer's iTunes account and gave information about the song. (see below) I was surprised by this because I hadn't considered that posting a video where a tune was used for teaching purposes would constitute a breach of copyright. I had guessed it would be considered "Fair Use."



Because my daughter has Down syndrome, I've had the opportunity to see some pretty horrific posts in public settings about children and adults with Ds. Privacy settings are pretty important to me, so while I may allow a video to be public, I am very careful to disallow comments. I may miss out on the positive comments that could be shared, but I also stop the trolls out there from causing pain for me or my family.

I enjoy my YouTube account and have used it to organize videos for presentations (Anti-Hate Week at my school). I have my favourites and have videos queued for viewing when I have time to watch. I also like that I can RSS certain channels or creators to my Google Reader. I suppose that my next level of usage will be to create instructional videos for sharing or to encourage student creation of class content related videos. Now that things can be viewed without blockage, perhaps we can even create our own school channel!


Video sharing and creation sites are arguably both the most controversial and most useful tool educators and students can use in the learning environment.  In 21st century skills: Rethinking how students learn, Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey write "We need to change Internet-access policies (as well). Consider the greatest collection of free video content ever created - YouTube - and the fact that it is banned in most schools." This simple issue affects almost every school I know, yet the ability to easily access materials that make both teaching and learning more effective is denied to most of the education community of North America. It can be argued that Teacher Tube allows educators to get around this problem by providing videos that are created for (and by) educators, are ad-free and don't include videos that are inappropriate for the education setting. (Berger & Drexler, 2010.) This is true, but the breadth of the collection on Teacher Tube isn't sufficiently wide enough or of high enough quality to match the value of YouTube, in my opinion. Nor is Teacher Tube as user friendly and intuitive as YouTube. Ultimately, students need to be taught to deal with inappropriate content in the same way that we would hopefully educate them on how to deal with inappropriate content on the web. Richardson's anecdote about the student who came across a web page that was too mature for school, then simply backed up and made note of the page to pass on to the teacher was a model for how we should be teaching basic courtesy and appropriate use at school, rather than simply banning a tool because it may be used incorrectly. (Richardson, 2006.)








The value of sharing and creating video in the education setting is immense. Not only does it support visual learning and literacy, it encourages creative methods of expressing what has been learned. By being able to comment, viewers can encourage each other, question and extend concepts or link to other related videos or ideas.On Sunday, I took my family to visit Adams River, the home of one of the largest sockeye salmon spawning runs in the world. This year's run is estimated to be the largest in 100 years, something that couldn't have been imagined last year when there was fear that the sockeye runs may be in danger of collapse. The video taken yesterday is not only a great jumping off point for discussion in elementary and secondary classes in my province, it becomes a historical document as well. The video was easily taken with a Flip camera (borrowed from my school), and edited using the software that supports a Flip camera. With ease of use like this, movie making becomes something students can easily accomplish as well. Now if they can view what they've created during school time, then learning conversations can truly be enriched.

The Trailees - Vote for your favourite book trailer through SLJ

Photo license:AttributionShare Alike Attribution, Share Alike (jsawkins from Flickr)

If you've discovered the fun of creating video book trailers using Vimeo or Animoto (or any other video editing tool, then you'll appreciate the School Library Journal's nominees for the best book trailer. The award, called the Trailee, recognizes excellence in building excitement around a book with video technologies that are easy to use. Check out the link and vote for your favourite. Maybe next year, I'll get nominated!

http://reg.accelacomm.com/servlet/Frs.frs?Script=/LP/51148056/reg&Context=STARTNominees for Trailees

Gary Wolf: The quantified self | Video on TED.com

Here's some of the latest gadgets for observing biometric data. Given the easy access to these kinds of apps, what use will be for educators. Do these kinds of devices have a place in our classrooms? How might teachers help students use these devices? One possible use occured to me and that was to determine when optimal learning takes place for students. What is their body setting? Does movement assist students in retaining knowledge?

Gary Wolf: The quantified self | Video on TED.com

Buffy Hamilton, Slide Share, Photos & Libraries

I only got half-way through Buffy Hamilton's Slidedeck called "Beyond Balance: Participatory Librarianship for Creating,Connecting, Conversing and Contributing." I stopped when I had overwhelming contrary urges. The first urge was to want to throw something at the laptop screen. The second urge was wanting to dance and read something techy simultaneously. I attribute both urges to the fact that it's late on a Friday night and it's been a hellish week, both personally and in my library.

My first urge deals with the thought that has been running through my head for the last 48 hours. I'm flat-out exhausted and frankly frightened that I may be headed for a case of depression. I sat in my car yesterday and realized I didn't want to go home because going home was even more exhausting than being at work. (Our dryer went kaput and we've had 2 different plumbers in to deal with a septic system back up in our basement and my daughter is fighting a virus that I'm afraid will land her in the hospital with chest issues - again.) Balance sounds positively heavenly right now, because my life is completely unbalanced. I am certain that I am not the only person in the field going through something similar right now. I'm sure there are many t-l's who are wondering if they're going to be able to breathe anytime before Christmas. And yet.......

The second urge speaks directly to my love of my job and my passion for making the library at my school a relevant conversation! I've always believed that libraries are conversations and that learning is so central to what we do that we must be experts in all the different ways to draw people into the conversation and explore this amazing world of ideas. I get so excited thinking about the possibilities, particularly the use of technology to expand the conversation beyond the walls of the building. Buffy's use of Slide Share and the images she chose speak so powerfully to my own values, that I was bouncing in my seat...Okay, bouncing in my head. My body is too tired to bounce much right now. I envy the Minnesota teacher librarians who will get to discuss and share these images and thoughts. How energized they will be after this session. If it could be bottled and sold - I'd buy a bottle of it immediately, but I'll have to make do. I'll be sharing this with my district colleagues when we meet for the first of our monthly meetings next week. Perhaps the images will inspire me to try a few more photos at school to show the possibilities of student use of technology to my staff.

The Learning Curve

Photo by Vernon Swanpoel. Creative Commons Copyright.

It's funny how serendipitous reading can be sometimes. A friend of mine, who was trying to get me involved in her home-based business, told me that "we draw things to us that are the object of our personal focus." Universal magnetism is an interesting concept, but this week (and today particularly) have proven to be the week of "the learning curve."
In reading Scott McLeod's latest blog post, I was struck with the similarities in posts I've read from Doug Johnson and Buffy Hamilton. Everyone seems to be talking about why there is a gap between the blogosphere and the average classroom teacher (and perhaps teacher librarian). Scott's comment that "the majority of the voices in the EdTech Community are so far ahead of the curve that it doesn’t even seem like their on the same road anymore." really struck a chord with me.
On Monday, my school hosted Tracy Poelzer for a Pro-D presentation on IWB's and Web 2.0 tools. (Tracy Poelzer is our district's new Technology Coordinator.) Tracy freely admitted that the topics we had chosen were huge and way too much to cover adequately in one day. In the afternoon, as we began to address Web 2.0 tools, Tracy asked how many people had an i-Google page (or barring that - a personalized start up page that showed weather, RSS feeds and personal interest info. Only a handful of the 40 or so people present had something like that. Only 15 of the staff had Facebook pages. Everyone was relatively comfortable with email and liked the district's new Zimbra program. It was clear that all the tools Tracy was about to present were new to 90% of the staff: Voicethread, iGoogle, blogs and wikis. I knew that encouraging staff to use new tools was going to be an uphill battle - we've started a new timetable this year, so everyone is busily revamping their course outlines and lessons to align with shorter blocks. Although I would look at this as an opportunity to introduce many new tools, my colleagues clearly are in the same space that Steve Dembo is talking about: they don't know there are different coloured pills to be able to choose one or the other. The other issue will be finding the time to play with the technology.

The Curve in Tech Awareness

The amazing U of A Masters in T.L. grad, Tracy Poelzer, is the presenter at my school's Professional Development day today. Interestingly, most staff do not have a home page that their computer defaults to which contains RSS feeds. Most don't have a Yahoo or i-Google page. Well over 80% didn't seem to know what an RSS feed was. Is it any surprise that students are frustrated with a general lack of use of technology in our classrooms? Tracy is doing a great job, but as she says, this is an immense topic and we only have a short day to cover it.
The other observation is that Tracy is here in her new district position as Tech Coordinator. It's only a half time position. In this day and age, to have a half time tech coordinator to help teaching staff improve their use of technology in instruction explains where our district is at.

Photosharing and other fun media

I'm fortunate to have accounts in 3 different photosharing sites, although I primarily use Google's Picasa for personal photos. Professionally, I'm a huge fan of Flickr and its wide selection of Creative Commons licensed photos for school use. Last school year, I made a point of introducing students to the advanced search in Google images to ensure that they were searching for images that could be altered or used without going through the lengthy permission-seeking process. (Having spent the summer negotiating this process with Cirque du Soleil for a 3 minute segment of a song, I have a new appreciation for Creative Commons.) Students were frustrated by the limited number of images that would be returned, but when introduced to Flickr and other sources, the number of hits returned widened.
Although I've used Flickr and photo sites for sharing family photos and videos, the features of tagging definitely present the most amazing opportunities to create visual dictionaries. For children with stronger visual learning tendencies (FASD, Down syndrome, Autism Spectrum) the use of tagging can allow for a more focused viewing of a picture and enhancing of vocabulary development, as well as improving visual tracking skills.
The tools are simple enough for most learners to master, although steps must be broken down for learners with cognitive delays.
As I'm currently attending a National Youth Leadership conference in Montreal, the photos my students have uploaded to my laptop will be loaded up to a specific and private account (family & friends only access)so that they can see the fun we're having. Students will also be working with me on the flight home on the presentation we will give to our school to share our experience. Tagging for locations, sections of a plate of traditional food, and people will be part of the process and will be part of a special blog that I'll create when I have more than 15 minutes at a computer. (That will probably be on Monday!)