There was no "I" in YouTube

Before this class, I did not use YouTube. I am a stubborn person and when I make up my mind about something, there is no changing it. Vegetables? Didn't eat them until I was 18. I just didn't want to, so it didn't happen. YouTube was only good for seeing animals riding on other animals and funny baby videos.

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Since I had absolutely no experience with video sharing, I was really nervous going into this week. It took me way more than the predicted 12 hours to complete my weekly learning. 

In Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms (2010), Will Richardson identifies that there are questions about YouTube's content and its application for education. I feel that since YouTube is a social media tool that our students are using, I should  focus my learning this week on using YouTube. 

I started reading and viewing a lot! Strickland's (n.d.) simple but comprehensive explanation of YouTube allowed me to understand, not just how to use YouTube, but also a general overview of the company's history and business practices (an important component when you want to understand the educational appropriateness of a program).

To fully experience YouTube, I had to become a creator of YouTube content. In the recesses of my hard drive I had footage of my dog attacking my parents' sprinklers last summer. I have always wanted to be able to share the video with my friends and family, so, even though the content is not educational, it is personally applicable to my life (and teachers know that the best type of learning is personally relevant learning).

Then it was time. I could no longer remain a videohogger. I had to become a videosharer. Creating a YouTube account was relatively easy and before I knew it, my video (created on Windows Live Movie Maker) was up and ready for viewing. I initially chose to make my video private and embedded it into my blog.
This gave me my next lesson! When you embed video, you end up with an advertisement on the top. This was an unexpected snaffu. Thankfully I know about Splicd.com where you can create a new url for a YouTube video, devoid of unfortunate advertising. However, in order to use these programs, the video needs to be made public. Argh.

This caused me to reflect on how important it is to talk to kids about video privacy.  It would be beneficial for the teacher to have information letters and a parent information night on the topic, especially if many Web 2.0 programs are going to be used throughout the year. Internet safety and privacy settings would need to be a decision made by the students and their parents after discussion. 

One YouTube function full of educational possibilities is video annotation. Text boxes, speech bubbles and highlights can enable students explain their work. YouTube Help provides clear and easy instructions to help you add, edit and publish annotations (http://www.google.com/support/youtube/bin/answer.py?answer=92710&topic=14354). Or, for fun, at the end of video creation, students could create a "Making Of" version where they explain the process for the viewer. Here is my annotated YouTube video:

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Once students are comfortable with annotations, they can learn to make interactive YouTube videos (like a Choose Your Own Adventure book!). It is more complex because it needs extra planning, multiple video clips and linked annotations. It takes significantly more work than a regular video but it would be a great extension for students who need an extra challenge. (Below is an informative introduction to creating an interactive video.)

        

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While doing research, I fell in love with this video of a kitten riding on a turtle (how can you not?!).





Upon reflection, I realized that I loved the music just as much as the video, so I set out to learn how to add music to my production. According to Stephanie Damm (http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/youtube/thread?tid=0d926d562cc9e88b&hl=en), once potentially copyrighted music is added, or once you make use of YouTube's AudioSwap program, your video will automatically have ads attached. That is the last thing teachers want attached to anything to that students produce! Since I want to use YouTube in an educational setting, I had to find another way to add my audio.

I researched Creative Commons music and found quite a few sites that support and offer usable music (ccMixter, Jamendo, Magnatune, Simuze, BeatPick, CASH Music, SectionZ, Opsound, Podsafe Audio, AudioFarm, Internet Archive’s Netlabels Collection; list from Legal Music for Videos). Using AudioFarm, I found a song called Funky House (Samples Remix) by FunkyVibe that was licensed for use. By signing in with my Twitter account I could download the audio to my computer. Perfect! To avoid having  advertising added to my video, I went back to Windows Live Movie Maker, added the music and adjusting the timing and volume level.

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After some more research I found another way to use YouTube in our school. This year I have been working to update the video collection in our high school library. One of the teachers is in love with a mitosis VHS but the video has finally called it quits. I am on the hunt for a suitable replacement, but in the meantime I thought she could use YouTube videos. But I remember being a full-time teacher and barely having enough time to photocopy, you could forget searching all over YouTube for the perfect videos and then trying to open each one on the computer. Following the instructions provided by Lowensohn (2009), I created a YouTube playlist of mitosis videos. The teacher can access one link and have four videos to teach with.

I also spent time this week looking at TeacherTube.com and SchoolTube.com and these would definitely be my vehicle of choice for my own learning about educational processes and for sharing student videos. Below is a video that I am using to learn about a successful screencast and Glogster use.


SchoolTube Educator Resources are something that I will have in my back pocket for my next opportunity to use video creation in a classroom.

This has been busy week, so, to relax, here's a video from the Top 20 YouTube and Video Memes of All Time (Parr, 2009). Enjoy. 

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PS - My reference list is in the first comment on this post. My html code got a little messed up and they weren't being posted properly.

Here we go

I have a confession to make. I am a privacy freak. This leads me to wonder why I signed up for a class about Web 2.0 when I knew that I would have to put my name, information and work out into the cloud and into other people's hands. I'm not as extreme as some people that I know about. For example, I have a friend whose uncle has a farm. On his farm he has taken himself off the grid. He has stockpiled food and supplies in case the world end. He only pays for things with cash and he is a privacy freak. However, I only have enough food and water to last 72 hours in the event of an earthquake and I am still on the grid, using credit cards, a library card and flashing my driver's license to buy a bottle of wine. So here I go, throwing myself into cyberspace, embarking on a slightly overwhelming, slightly frightening, potentially exciting learning journey.

Hello, Photo

Amanda's 

Slightly Overwhelming, 

Slightly Frightening,

Potentially Exciting

Learning Journey 

into Photo Sharing Sites

In the past, I have only used Facebook to share photos. I know how to upload them, crop them and turn them so that they are not displayed sideways (and I only learned how to do this because my sister messaged me and expressed her frustration at having to turn her laptop in order to view half of my photos). Lately, I have opted not to share photos online since I am my own worst critic. I know someone who Photoshops every one of her photos before she shares them on Facebook and, while I have seriously considered this option, who has the time for that?!?

While reading Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms by Will Richardson (2010), I was inspired to use Flickr. I went in to explore Flickr with the best intentions, but I finally had to admit that I just don't jive with the site.

I feel like there are many ways that Flickr can be introduced to the classroom environment. For example, creative commons photos could be used to create trading cards for historical figures or literary characters. This is a lesson that I have commonly used in classrooms and I know that some students feel that they are at a disadvantage because of their artistic abilities. Using Flickr or another site such as Big Huge Labs could provide students with an alternative way to complete this project. While I appreciate the sharing and possibility of connecting students with experts in their current area of study, I think that many of the reasons I would use Flickr can be addressed by Big Huge Labs without the concern for privacy or appropriateness. 

Richardson (2010) mentions that Flickr can be used as a searchable visual resource for students; however, he does raise concerns about the lack of regulation and the onus on uploaders to tag their own photos, which can make searching for specific images very easy or very difficult depending on the owner's tags. Agnus, Stuart and Thelwall (2010) confirm that image searchability and subsequent use in educational settings can be difficult due to image applicability, educational quality and number of available, high quality images in different subject areas. Flickr searches for items related to Language Arts, Art and Education are the most successful (Agnus, Stuart & Thelwall, 2010). In the library right now, I am trying to develop the online math and science resources available to teachers in our high school so Flickr may not be the best resource for this.

In the end, I could see myself possibly using Flickr for current events work, sharing class photos or searching groups that I am interested in, but I likely won't be using it extensively in my private life. 

And then I found Picasa. For me, Picasa was like a breath of fresh air compared to the previous two photosharing sites! When cleaning my house the other day I realized that, while my husband and I have albums for our wedding and engagement photos, we have nothing to display our honeymoon photos. Picasa has remedied that - we now have a honeymoon slideshow!

I like that, unlike with Flickr, photo editing can occur right in Picasa and then the edited images can simply be uploaded to the web. Picasa's editing capabilities are easy to use and intuitive. Many of the photos in our honeymoon folder were overexposed and had harsh shadows (see photo on left) but after dedicating some time to editing using Picasa, and Picnik, a linked photoediting service, I have a series of photos that are a great reminder of the time that my husband and I shared (see much improved photo on right).

Once uploaded to the web, a group of photos can be changed into a slideshow, posted to Blogger, made into a collage, made into a movie, emailed to friends, printed, purchased or further edited. How do you do all of those things? For someone like myself, who sometimes has difficulty understanding "computer-speak," Picasa provides slides and detailed instructions with many of its program options. Using the prompts and instructions that Picasa provides, I have collaged some wedding photos that were "saved" with editing that I was able to do on Picasa. These photos no longer need to be hidden in my digital files; they are now good enough to display proudly!

From Wedding

My mind is brimming with ways to use Picasa in our high school. For classroom applications, Picasa would be a quick and easy way to document a classroom activity as a slideshow, create a collage for a special event or make a movie at the end of the term to document the moments and memories. In a high school biology or chemistry class, students could take photos of a lab as it progresses and create a captioned movie of what took place at each step. This would be a great way to have students demonstrate an understanding of the process and details of a lab. Picnik has a section in their Help pages called Picnik for Educators that provides ideas for how educators could incorporate Picnik into the classroom (and I see that they have a lab dissection listed there but I guess that great minds think alike because I had that brainstorm well before I found this resource). I used the lesson "Creating a Website Header" for myself and created the new blog header that now appears at the top of my blog (insert squeal of delight here!).

I am so excited to have found Picasa! It makes my photos look beautiful, allows me to share them easily and makes me proud of what I am able to create. My photos may not be PhotoshoppedFacebook the next time I log on!

References

Angus, E., Stuart, D., & Thelwall, M. (2010). Flickr's potential as an academic image resource: An exploratory study. Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, 42, 268-278.

Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms (3^rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

Just one more...

P.S. Another photo sharing site to check out is http://www.smilebox.com/. This site allows you to display your photos in virtual scrapbook albums. It has both pre-made templates and customizable templates to allow people to quickly make virtual flip page books. Here is a book that my mom made of her grandpuppy.

Free digital scrapbook made with Smilebox

 (The fact that she has made a whole online album dedicated to my dog makes me think that I really need to start having babies so she can have grandchildren to photograph!)

Where to begin?

This is my first year as a librarian, my first year in a high school and my first year in a Web 2.0 course. Up until now I have felt a bit like one of the hippos from Fantasia as I lumber through the internet, believing that I am doing beautiful and wonderful things, but really a bit out of place and not quite as graceful as I would like to believe.

I have learned so much since the start of the school year and I'm starting to feel comfortable with where I am in the school library which makes me think that this might be the perfect time to mix things up and push myself again.

I'm nervous about taking this new course. There are so many things on the internet that it can be overwhelming but I'm excited that this course will force me to learn more about so many of them. Hopefully my attempts will, in the end, come across as graceful and not look like a lumbering behemoth floundering around in cyberspace. Only time will tell.