Group 2: You Tube; Is it a useful tool?

Looking into multimedia technologies such as, picture, video, and audio programs and website was so interesting and exciting for me. The variety of tools available is amazing; it could include the Flickr website which allows you to edit, manipulate, and crop a picture online. Voki is a great multimedia tool, which I did explore with and added onto this blog; Voki is where you create an avatar to talk for you and to speak any information or words that you wish. I don't think that Voki will be of great use to me a secondary education environment, because I lay importance on creating real life experiences and meaningful information. Why would I create a creature or make believe person to say something when maybe I could get a real (important) person to communicate with the students?

YouTube: Broadcast Yourself.

http://www.coolpctips.com/2011/04/stop-youtube-video-to-restart-on-fullscreen/

YouTube is a video-sharing website that uses the technologies of Adobe Flash Player and HTML5. It provides / displays a huge variety of visual stimulants, including movies, tv episodes, and music videos. It also allows amateur content to be uploaded by individuals, such as, funny videos, records, video blogging, and much, much more. YouTube is an open book for multimedia articles.

YouTube is a tool that I am fairly familiar with because it is a heavily used technology in high schools in the 21st century. I have seen innumerable different YouTube clips ranging from educational to humorous outrages.
Educational (using an activboard: specific to English):



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGxTCZ665vs&feature=related
I utilised the benefits of YouTube and shared this clip with fellow teachers; they found it to be useful and an activity that they will use in future lessons.

Humerous (Year 8's will die with laughter after watching this):




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZN5PoW7_kdA
My year 8 class found watching this to be a great reward at the end of the class for their good behaviour that they demonstrated all lesson!

I have already implemented a YouTube clip into my Week 1 blog posting that was specific to the topic that I explored: behaviourism. The topic of behaviourism was actually something that I was to add information to a wiki page for.

From exploring YouTube further I discovered that anyone can view the clips, however only registered users can upload videos on to the website. I am already a registered user and it was so simple years ago when I signed that I decided to see if much had changed... It hasn't; the directions that the site gives you are precise and easy to follow that anyone could become a member (although you do need to be over 18). Previous to E-Learning I had uploaded multiple videos to the website of my four wheel driving experiences however, I will not present them on this blog page for privacy reasons.

YouTube has been a very useful tool for me and my mentor teachers throughout my prac experiences. I even found on the site clips for teachers / learning managers to help us keep up to date and motivate us:



 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNLTBpFDjag&feature=related
Engaging with the learners is a very important factor for teachers and YouTube assists with it. YouTube presents so many positives that I am not sure that I can put even half of them in to dot point. Here goes:

Strengths:
- Immediately attractive to students
- Can create or show real life experiences / situations to the the students
- Easy to use / user friendly
- Easy to navigate / search
- Free source of media
- Can be educational
- It can be replayed several times for students to see critical points again
- They can be paused for the students to take notes or to have discussion
- Clips can generate all kinds of different emotions; they can motivate, educate, inform etc.
- You can find anything that you need!!!

Weaknesses:
- You do need Internet
- The clips may not always be trustworthy / reliable
- The clips are not interactive
- The speed of the downloading can be slow at times

Opportunities:
- The teacher could create a class account on YouTube and allow the students access to submit videos in relation to assessment
- The teacher could use clips to introduce new topics
- The teacher could use clips to engage with the students
- The teacher could use the clips to generate interest for the students
- Etc

Threats:
- Legal safely / copyright
- The rating / content of the clip needs to checked by the teacher in case there is anything inappropriate

So, when YouTube clips are used correctly and safely they are extremely useful in classrooms and education.

YouTube as an E-learning tool will support and enhance what students learn simply for the fact that it can supply real life situations and examples, it can create meaning out of topics, and the majority of the time it is an authentic source of information and media. It's an immediately attractive technology for the students and it is current with the 21st century learner :


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DTUDczwtyc&feature=related