I have oft wondered what was going on upstairs when my husband disappeared for hours. One day, I discovered his YouTube addiction. He is a fan of Chad Vader and several others and I have been forced to watch whatever his latest fascination is, though sometimes it is hamsters so that's okay. Needless to say, I did not bring a terribly open mind to this discovery exercise. Imagine my surprise to find that there might be something useful about this tool.
Hmmm ... what did I dislike about YouTube? I found the sound in many of the videos to be of poor quality and the camera work often jerky which is anathema to someone who gets motion sick in a rocking chair (aka "me") A good number of the library videos contained language that I was not comfortable with. Call me a censor, or even a hypocrite, but I can't upload something with inappropriate language or situations. (Is my "elementary" status showing?)
What I did like, was the immensity of YouTube's collection - meaning I could find things that were funny or informative without being offensive. Yahoo Video pales by comparison as does Google Video, but they had many, many more than poor Yahoo. I really liked YouTube's Video Toolbox with advice from the pros on correcting those sound and shake issues I had.
I found a very cute School Library Media Specialist video on YouTube that runs just about a minute and a half. I was drawn to the Sam Spade-like aspect of the film - done in black and white, a solemn voice-over, and 40's type music. Very cool.
My favorite tool was TeacherTube (how predictable!) where I found a spiffy video on information resources that spoofs "American Idol." I can see linking this video to any library web-page where I think it would be really appealing to our young patrons. This video is just over six minutes long, but was funny, informative and very worth it.
TeacherTube is what got some ideas running around in my head. Could we record and upload "Reading Rainbow" type book reviews done by our students? Could we link to short videos that cover a curricular concept for a "Homework Help" page? What about a video that gave a "tour" of the library web-page? I have found the videos that have been included in our discovery resources have been the thing that I have gone to first in learning about something new. Surely our students - who are even more tuned in to this media - would find this an exciting way to learn - without knowing they are learning.
Finally, I love the help feature on Blogger which gave me simple directions on embedding these videos and now that I have finally discovered it - I love the spell check. Yep, it took me 'til tonight to find it.
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