Web 2.0 and Emerging Learning Technologies/Online Video

YouTube
It is a video sharing website where users can upload, view and share video clips. YouTube was created in February 2005 by three former PayPal employees. This service uses Adobe Flash technology to display a wide variety of user-generated video content, including movie clips, TV clips and music videos, as well as amateur content such as short original videos videoblogging (which combine embedded video or a video link with supporting text, images or comments).

Unregistered users can watch most videos on the site, while registered users are permitted to upload an unlimited number of videos. Some videos are available only to users of age 18 or older (e.g. videos containing potentially offensive content). The uploading of videos containing pornography, nudity, defamation, harassment and material encouraging criminal conduct is prohibited. Related videos, determined by title and tags, appear on screen to the right of a given video.

Social Impact: With its easy to use interface, YouTube made it possible for anyone who could use a computer to post a video that millions of people could watch within a few minutes. The wide range of topics covered by YouTube has turned video sharing into one of the most important parts of Internet culture.

Features


 * Video format

When you upload a video to YouTube, it is decoded into Flash Video (an application player developed by Macromedia and now distributed by Adobe) format. This decoding is what is going on in between the time you complete your upload and the moment that the video is finally available for viewing. The quality of the videos is as effective as the one that the most established video playback technologies offer (such as Windows Media Player, QuickTime and RealPlayer). These in general require the user to download and install a web browser (an application that enables a user to interact with images, music, text, etc located on a web page) plug in order to view videos. Users can view videos in windowed mode or full screen mode.

Videos uploaded to YouTube are limited to ten minutes in length, and a file size of 1GB. One video at a time can be uploaded through the standard interface, and multiple videos can be uploaded with a Windows based plug in (an auxiliary computer program). YouTube accepts videos uploaded in most formats, including .WMV,.AVI,.MOV,.MPEG,.MP4, DivX, .FLV and .OGG. It also supports 3GP, allowing videos to be uploaded directly from a mobile phone.

Standard quality YouTube videos contain an MP3 audio stream.
 * Audio format


 * Content accessibility:
 * Outside YouTube

Each YouTube video is accompanied by a piece of HTML (HyperText Markup Language, the predominant markup language for Web pages) which can be used to link to the video or embed it on a page outside the YouTube website, unless the submitter of a video chooses to disable the feature. A small addition to the markup allows the video to play automatically when the webpage loads. These options are especially popular with users of social networking sites (online community such as Facebook or MySpace).


 * Video rankings

YouTube awards videos with honors, the most popular of which are most viewed (which are divided into four categories: today, this week, this month and all time) and most discussed. Honors also include:
 * Top Rated
 * Rising Videos
 * Recently Featured
 * Most responded

TeacherTube
It is a video sharing website similar to, and based on, YouTube. It is designed to allow those in the educational industry, particularly teachers, to share educational resources. The site contains a mixture of classroom teaching resources and others designed to aid teaching training. A number of students have also uploaded videos that they have made as part of college courses. As of July 2008, the website contains over 26,000 videos. It has found favour with educators who find that YouTube content is barred from educational networks by content filtering systems.

History

TeacherTube was launched on March 6, 2007 and was initiated by Jason Smith, a teacher from McKinney, Texas and his wife and brother.

The site now gains more than a million page views per month. It has run a number of creative educational competitions, in association with companies such as Texas Instruments and Interwrite. Institutions such as major libraries are using the service to disseminate information.

Features


 * Upload, tag and share videos worldwide.
 * Upload Support Files to attach your educational Activities, Assessments, Lesson Plans, Notes, and other file formats to your video.
 * Browse hundreds of videos uploaded by community members.
 * Find, join, and create video groups to connect with people who have similar interests.
 * Customize the experience by subscribing to member videos, saving favorites, and creating playlists.
 * Make videos public or private-users can elect to broadcast their videos publicly or share them privately with those they invite.
 * TeacherTube has 11 channels for teachers to upload videos about best teaching practices, student projects and tutorials. The channels include technology, professional development and subject areas.
 * Like YouTube, videos can be rated, shared or embedded on other sites. Users can also post comments.
 * Unlike YouTube, there isn’t any offensive material. And of course, TeacherTube isn’t blocked at schools.

Teaching and learning possibilities

You Tube can be used as a new tool to assess students’ language skills, especially listening skills. The real advantage, from the learning point of view, is that this tool offer authentic examples of language in a natural context. Not only is this by exposing the students to real people, but to real situations too. Teachers can really focus on the content, without losing students’ concentration. Through the videos, they can open up their eyes to different cultures and lifestyles.

As students are surrounded by technology (Facebook, MySpace, etc.) using this kind of tool make them feel motivated and they prefer these instead of using the old traditional material.

Teachers should bear in mind that although students may enjoy watching videos, poor sound quality, pronunciation and slang can make them even more difficult to understand. Apart from that, the length of the video is an important feature: the shorter the better. A possible problem is that when a longer video is used, attention may sway, especially if we are dealing with a difficult script, and students may end up feeling demotivated as they are struggling to keep up with the language (especially with lower level groups).

Regarding the selection of the video, there are two possibilities:


 * The teacher chooses the appropriate video according to what she wants to teach or revise, the aims and students’ needs.
 * The students: they will be more interested to watch it.

As a conclusion, we can say that including this tool in the classroom would make the students engage in the lesson while having fun and the teacher would feel updated by using the new trends in technology.

Examples

EDUCATION WORLD COLUMNISTS
 * http://www.education-world.com/a_tech/columnists/dyck/dyck016.shtml

BRENDA´S BLOG This is an article that describes the advantages of using You tube (and teacher tube also) as a tool for ELT. The author, Brenda Bryck, includes some examples of videos for teaching. They caught our attention because they deal with current topics such as the environmental issues. Besides, there are other videos which are useful for teaching little children. Although we know that this page seems to be only appropriate for English speaking communities, we decided to add this to the list because it contains lots of good examples of the appliance of You Tube for ELT purposes.

CLASSROOM 2.0 100 BEST YOU TUBE VIDEOS FOR TEACHERS
 * http://www.classroom20.com/profiles/blog/show?id=649749%3ABlogPost%3A177332

In this page we found many examples of different videos from YouTube for teaching not only English but also other areas of education, such as History, Science, Arts, etc.

AINT GONNA HOLD US BACK D-I-G-I-T-A-L
 * http://es.youtube.com/watch?v=XhzRSGVBWh4

This video shows that girls are as capable of dealing with technology as boys. It is a very well known song which has the lyrics changed. They refer to the new possibilities that children have with these new tools in the future. We highly recommend you to watch the video because it is interesting, easy to follow and it made us think that we should start using videos for teaching.

TEACHING ENGLISH IN PRIMARY SCHOOL This blog contains a piece of information about the relation between teaching and YouTube. It was published on the 21st February this year. We found many examples of videos, divided in three categories: stories, songs and games. There are traditional songs as Old Mc Donald had a farm as well as new material that we, as teachers, can use.
 * http://irunenglish.blogspot.com/2008/02/youtube.html

VideoJug
Videojug is a free resource where different videos about "how to do" anything that you may imagine are provided. Everyone willing to participate can join in, contribute with other videos, add information, or take part on their forum. In addition to this, Videojug has a professional team which is always working to provide new videos.

Main characteristics of VideoJug

This page shows you intermittently some of the videos available and also invites you to stroll around the 'channels', that are the general themes or topics under which you may narrow your search. You may use the 'Search' bar above as in any search engine as well. There is also a 'Take a tour' link available, which helps you understand better the web dynamics.

In addition, there is a window in which you can see 'People are getting good at,' that rates the most seen videos at the time, and a posts window with people' s latest questions, called 'People are asking.' 'Videojug loves' shows the favourite videos. Under 'What's going on today' you can appreciate the most seen videos at the moment.

At the top, you have other links to navigate through Videojug resources: Videos and Articles (most seen videos) Q&A (questions and answers members post), Community (information of videojug members and the possibility to join in) and Contribute (here you can upload your own video, create a slideshow, write and article or get and explanation of how to use your webcam)

In the top right corner of all the windows on this resource, you can see the 'Sign Up', 'Login', and 'Help' links, together with a 'World' one which displays the UK, the US, and the global banner, so as to indicate where you are connecting from.

Teaching and learning possibilities

Inside TBL (Task based learning) framework, this website can be considered a helpful tool. TBL implies involving the students in a concrete task through which they learn language naturally by accomplishing the task's outcome. Videojug provides students with the opportunity of having videos as models of a given task. For teachers, it is useful for getting students involved into a discussion about the content of the video seen. The task outcome may be the very thing that Videojug is explaining through its video, but fulfilled by the students unique way which may differ from the way presented in Videojug, in which case a discussion between the students can be promoted to decide which is the best way of fulfilling the task, providing in this way with a real, purposeful, communication in the second language. Or the task outcome may be producing a new ´How to do´ activity, but following the steps presented in Videojug, and chosing a topic they like, which may be related to previous topics seen in class. You can also use this resource in order to round off a lesson by making your students produce their own videos.

Not only Speaking and Listening skills are fostered by the use of Videojug, but also Reading skill may be developed, as text can be introduced into the videos.

Example Links

OLLIE BRAY: Creativity and Innovation in Education

http://olliebray.typepad.com/olliebraycom/2006/12/video_jug_and_t_1.html

Ollie Bray is a qualified headteacher currently seconded to work as National Adviser for Learning and Technology Futures at Learning and Teaching Scotland. In this page she cites Videojug as a useful place where to find didactic videos to use in class.

INSTRUCTIFY: Blog Archive

http://instructify.com/2007/09/10/learn-how-at-videojug/

This is is a site where teachers can stock their toolboxes with practical, time-saving classroom ideas and cutting edge methods of instruction. It’s where to find useful, free technology to use in the classroom, like the use of Videojug.

CAMPAIGN FOR LIBERTY

http://www.campaignforliberty.com/blog.php?view=22758

In this site, where its authors aim at promote and defend the ´great´ American way of life, Videojug is cited to explain what Jury Duty is about, in order to educate their fellow countrymen.

OCEPS.CO.UK The Home of Primary School Resource Links

http://www.oceps.co.uk/educational_video_resource_links.htm

This is a site where teachers can find useful links of resources to use in the classroom.

ECONOMICS NETWORK The Higher Education Academy

http://www.economicsnetwork.ac.uk/tips/

In this educational site, we can see how Videojug is used even to learn about the idiosyncrasies of Economics.