Schutt 1 Neal Schutt Dr.

Erin ietel-McLaughlin WR 13300 14 November 2011 Professor YouTube Our newest generations are different than any generation before them; they have been submersed in this technology and emerged as an entirely new species of student. The difference can be easily understood when todays students media usage is considered. Marc Prensky estimates that an average college student has sent 250,000 e-mail messages, spent nearly 30 weeks playing video games, clocked up almost 60 weeks on their mobile phone and spent 21 weeks online. In sharp contrast, he also estimates that they spend less than 26 weeks actually reading any books! (qtd. in Ashraf 3). It only figures that this generation has an instinctive knowledge of how to use a computer, cell-phone, television, and gaming system with ease since they literally grew up with them. Similar to how young children learn the language of their parents easier than any of us could now, the newest generation has an almost natural affinity for technology. Dreon, Kerper, Landis affirm that Growing up with unprecedented access to technology has changed the way young people, digital natives, communicate, interact, process information, and learn. Hansard agrees, bringing up the phenomenon in which our brains are formed by the environment to which they are most exposed: It is hard to see how living this way on a daily basis will not result in brains, or rather minds, different from those of previous generations. We know that the human brain is exquisitely sensitive to the outside world. This so-called plasticity has been most famously illustrated by London taxi drivers, who as we know need to remember all the

streets of the city, and whose brain scans correspondingly revealed in one study that the part of the brain related to memory is bigger in them than it is in the rest of us (qtd. in Ashraf 4). With minds that have literally adapted to technology use, the next generation of students is craving new, tech-based methods of education. Old methods, even those that were effective for previous generations, are no longer enough to get the point across to todays students. Luckily, technology brings not only problems but solutions. In 2005 Steve Chen, Chad Hurley and Jawed Karim created a website under the domain name YouTube.com. YouTube became an instant hit, allowing users to upload videos in flash format to be stored with no loss of quality in relative ease. Users can also search for videos others upload and view them instantly. The site is classified as a social networking site because of the ability of users to comment on others videos and post response videos. (Mullen, Wedwick, and Mayora qtd in Jones 3) Recognizing the potential the site held, Google purchased YouTube in 2006, and since then website has grown rapidly to become a well known and loved part of modern society. In fact, YouTube has become so popular that over ten hours of video is uploaded every minute to the site (Ashraf 2). As it continues to grow, YouTube continues to develop the reputation of having a video for everything. This unique characteristic has obvious potential when applied to the world of education. A quick and easy way to learn how to do anything from odd jobs around the home to songs on the guitar is to find a video on YouTube. In fact, the quantity of videos that aim to teach others is astounding. This wealth of knowledge is truly an invaluable resource, not only to the individual, but institutions of higher education as well. In light of its astounding fortune of information, this essay will argue that YouTube is a learning tool that promotes higher level education by providing an instructional method that modern day students can relate to more

easily, despite the common belief that spoken lecture is the only valid teaching method in the setting of higher education. YouTube provides teachers easy access to an alternate, effective resource in which to present material to students, video. And as educators are realizing more and more that listening to a purely oral lecture might not be the most effective way for students to learn material, access to an alternative method is exactly what some teachers need. Laurillard even speculates that if we forget the eight hundred years of university tradition that legitimizes them, and imagine starting afresh with the problem of how best to enable a large percentage of the population to understand difficult and complex ideas, I doubt that lectures will immediately spring to mind as the obvious solution (qtd. in Ashraf 3). But video is not a new addition to the classroom. In fact, teachers have used videos in classrooms since the early days of filmstrips to the current trend of digital video (Jones 4). The benefit of YouTube, then, is not the invention of a new media, but instead the ease of access to a useful one. It appears that it is an incredibly useful one too, as research on video learning is examined: The value of a video clip as a teaching tool lies in its potential to do the following: (a) tap the core intelligences of verbal/linguistic, visual/spatial, musical/rhythmic, and emotional (interpersonal and intrapersonal), (b) engage both the left and right hemispheres, (c) appeal to the reptilian, limbic, and neocortex layers of the brain to sense the nature of sounds, react to scenes and music emotionally, and appreciate it intellectually, and (d) manipulate students Alpha and Beta brain waves to relax or alert them for learning when theyre not sleeping in Delta or Theta waveland (Berk). Jones agrees, concluding that the brains use of both hemispheres and the activation of all of the core intelligences create the ideal learning situation (5). It is clear, then, that video has potential

to offer a large benefit to professors and their students, especially when combined with the text and dialogue of a lecture. Teachers making use of both lecture and video allow students to benefit from every way that the human brain learns and therefore create the ultimate learning tool (Jones 5) for their students. That being said, not all film is created equally. YouTube videos have undeniably created their own genre of film: short, created by amateurs, and not always made with quality as the ultimate goal. This can naturally have good and bad implications. However, some qualities make YouTube videos especially useful for teaching. Christy Desmet found first hand teaching a class on Shakespeare that the necessarily brief YouTube videos are perfect for introducing key concepts to be used in hands-on classroom activities of both an analytic and creative nature (3). But the value of YouTube as a teaching tool is not limited to only one subject. A short video can also easily be incorporated into any lecture to augment it. In fact, Professors can use YouTube to improve their lectures in seemingly limitless ways. Drawing from several outside sources, Jones gives examples of the ways that teachers can use YouTube; locating and airing historical video in African American studies classes (White qtd in Jones 3), posting videos of students performing science experiments to be shared with other students (Park qtd in Jones 3) and using old comedy clip routines to point out flaws in logical mathematical thinking (Niess & Walker qtd in Jones 3). Lectures that incorporate video elements can keep students interested and provide another way to learn the material. YouTube also adds a sense of realism and importance to a lesson because students are able to actually see what they discuss in class happen before their eyes, whether it be a natural science phenomenon, critical point in history, or behavioral patterns of a group of animals. YouTube is an easy, accessible way for educators to enhance their teaching methods to more accurately meet the needs of their students.

Another teaching method that educators can use is assigning students to create their own videos as projects. According to Dreon, Kerper and Landis, while creating their own videos, or digital stories, students are engaged in an activity that requires them to learn and develop a wide variety of cognitive, interpersonal, organizational and technical skills (Dreon, Kerper, Landis). With the increased availability of technology and ease of creating digital videos, this sort of project work is really becoming feasible on a large scale for the first time. The use of YouTube as a learning tool in this way contributes to the development of a students multimedia literacy. The most effective way for students to gain a mastery of multimedia and digital literacy is to create their own digital stories. Dreon, Kerper and Landis define digital storytelling as the art of combining narrative with digital media such as images, sound, and video to create a short story (1). When creating their own digital stories in the form of YouTube videos students not only gain a mastery of the content but become more digitally literate. In fact, creating digital stories invites students to employ old and new literacies, and through the process of creating a movie they erect, explore, and exhibit other literacies (Sylvester 1). And digital literacy is as an important of a life skill in todays modern society as any. Megan Poore draws upon Levys claim that wealth depends on the ability to navigate the knowledge space(qtd in Poore 3) to determine that for our purposes, we may read this as stating that literacy is key to wealth and not just an economic wealth, either, but a wealth of the mind. In the context of Lvys work, this means giving people the tools to become digitally literate so that they can successfully journey through cyberspace.(3) In todays world, every person is expected to have a full understanding of how to use a computer for a plethora of common tasks. A person that has little to no experience with computers or digital literacy will be at a huge disadvantage in tomorrows job market, which will be even more competitive than

todays. Hobbs goes as far as to say that for people to achieve the personal, professional, and social benefits of thriving in a digital age, these skills are not just optional or desirablethey are the essential elements of digital citizenship.(3) The use of technology has become such an integral part of almost everything that we do on a day to day basis that for it to not play a leading role in our educational system is unacceptable. Integrating YouTube into lectures and class time is an easy way to develop digital literacy and as a result improve education. Another benefit of this type of learning is that the social networking aspect of YouTube allows students to receive feedback on videos that they create from their peers. Jones points out that YouTube can be used both as a tool to inform and display and as a forum for critical analysis and commentary (3). This critical analysis ultimately allows students to gain a mastery of the subject matter they might not have been able to otherwise. For instance, if the students make errors in their videos, they will receive comments back telling them what was wrong in the video and how to fix it. Alternatively, even if there are no errors a viewer might instead post a link that relates to the video and the students who created it would be able to learn more on related topics. This extra step in the learning process not only helps students learn the material but also about related subjects that might catch their excitement and gain a sense of the broader field of study in the topic that they are learning. This works to eliminate the attitude that the material covered in class has no real world applications and enhances the learning experience for the students. Universities are taking advantage of YouTubes social networking feature as well. In fact, Gilroy assures us that The idea of adding social networks as educational tools in the academic landscape is catching on fast as colleges recognize the potential to use the networks as both marketing and learning tools (4). In order to get their name out, many institutions of higher

education have created profiles on YouTube and uploaded professional quality videos of lectures, experiments and research. In response to this, YouTubeEdu, an arm of YouTube that accepts videos only from accredited two to four year programs was created. Although many people were skeptical that a closed-sourced YouTube could be successful, even YouTube was surprised by how popular the colleges' content has been, says Adam Hochman, a product manager at Berkeley's Learning Systems Group. Lectures are long, but most popular YouTube videos run just a few minutes (Young 2). Its popularity shows that there is a true demand for the amalgamation of YouTube and education. YouTubeEdu benefits professors who can use the site to find lectures on topics that they themselves are teaching and use them to supplement their own lectures. And the amount of content that teachers have to choose from is enough to almost guarantee that there is a video available that can be applied to the subject they are teaching. The website itself promises an environment in which any qualified teacher can contribute and absolutely anyone can learn.(Gilroy 1). It already features lectures and other materials from hundreds of colleges and universities, including Stanford, Harvard, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Gilroy 1). YouTubeEdu and sites like it benefit the entire community of higher education because through it information and lectures from the best programs in the country are made available to everyone. Not only do institutions with fewer resources benefit from the better programs, but even the best universities can benefit from a fresh viewpoint. Ultimately, more minds are better than less and every learning system will benefit from this sharing of knowledge. The utility of YouTube to share projects, lectures and other learning materials promotes higher education as a whole. A common and respectable counter-argument to the implementation of YouTube in higher level education is that it is an open-source database and that the videos supplied are

therefore less credible and prone to inaccuracy. Naaemah Clark describes how inaccuracy problems can occur in an open-source database in his review of the online encyclopedia Wikipedia: This open-editing process means that the information on the site is reviewed and regulated by other users and not by a constant presence, such as a webmaster. For this reason, its entries have been known to contain intentional or unintentional errors. For instance, John Seigenthaler, Jr., an assistant to Robert E Kennedy, was improperly linked on Wikipedia to both Kennedy assassinations (1). However, although it is true that its open-source nature can lead to inaccuracies, YouTube can still be used effectively by teachers as a learning tool for students. In fact errors in the videos can actually be useful. Niess and Walker, professors at Oregon State University and Indiana University of Pennsylvania respectively found that [use of] video can enhance mathematics instruction by showing old video clips with mathematical errors contained in them. Students were able to point out errors in video clips, and the errors were used to provide correct instruction (Niess and Walker qtd. in Jones 5). This sort of teaching provides an excellent way for teachers to address challenges that students might experience while working through problems on their own before they come up, providing them with a more complete understanding of the material and less frustration with homework sets. Jones also argues that if teachers question the credibility of a video, they have the opportunity to view such video without students being present to check their own understanding or to ensure accuracy (Jones 6). Because YouTube is open-source, the responsibility is placed on the teacher to determine whether a source will benefit their students. There are many inaccurate and poorly made videos on YouTube, but that should not inhibit teachers from making use of the good ones. A simple

way for teachers to examine the quality of a source is to consider the credibility, accuracy, reasonableness and support (Harris). Although Harris cautions that few sources will meet every criterion in the list, and even those that do may not possess the highest level of quality possible, he also concludes that if you learn to use the criteria in this list, you will be much more likely to separate the high quality information from the poor quality information (Harris). Although YouTube has many inaccuracies and questionable credibility due to it open-source nature, teachers can locate quality sources ahead of time to avoid teaching students incorrect material or they can even use inaccurate videos intentionally as an educational activity. In an age where almost any known fact can be found in seconds, educators have unique opportunities and challenges. While on one hand they have more access to learning resources than the educators before them, they also must manage a completely new type of student. Educators now teach a group that is no longer at home with a pen and pencil but rather a keyboard and mouse. Traditional methods of learning are simply no longer the most effective. Educators must evolve in order to provide their students with the best and most efficient methods for passing information possible. Tomorrows lecture halls will not be filled with only a professors voice, but the sights and sounds of WWII, chemical engineering, and Shakespeare. Video is a tool that truly unlocks the learning potential and excitement of the students. Educators making use of video in their lectures are finding that YouTube is the best source of video as it holds an abundance of videos on almost every subject. Not only does each individual benefit, but the higher education as a whole gains from the implementation of YouTube into the classroom. YouTube is a tool for both educators and students that positively impacts higher level education by providing a more effective method of instruction for students of the digital era.

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Works Cited Ashraf, Bill. "Teaching the Google-eyed YouTube Generation." Education & Training, 51.5-6 (2009): 343. Berk, R. A. (2009). Multimedia teaching with video clips: TV, movies, YouTube, and mtvU in the college classroom. International Journal of Technology in Teaching and Learning, 5(1), 121. Clark, Naeemah. "Trust Me! Wikipedia's Credibility Among College Students." International Journal Of Instructional Media 38.1 (2011): 27-36. Academic Search Premier. Web. 14 Nov. 2011. Desmet, Christy. "Teaching Shakespeare With Youtube." English Journal 99.1 (2009): 65-70. Academic Search Premier. Web. 7 Nov. 2011. Dreon, Oliver, Richard Kerper, and Jon Landis. "Digital Storytelling: A Tool for Teaching and Learning in the YouTube Generation." Middle School Journal V. 42 No. 5 (May 2011) P. 4-10, 42.5 (2011): 4-10. Gilroy, Marilyn. "Higher Education Migrates to YouTube and Social Networks." Education Digest 75.7 (2010): 18-22. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 27 Oct. 2011. Harris, Robert. "Evaluating Internet Research Sources." VirtualSalt. VirtualSalt, 22 Nov. 2010. Web. 13 Nov. 2011. <http://www.virtualsalt.com/evalu8it.htm>. JONES, TROY, and KRISTEN CUTHRELL. "YouTube: Educational Potentials and Pitfalls." Computers in the Schools, 28.1 (2011): 75-85. Poore, Megan. "Digital Literacy: Human Flourishing And Collective Intelligence In A Knowledge Society." Australian Journal Of Language & Literacy 34.2 (2011): 20-26. Academic Search Premier. Web. 7 Nov. 2011.

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Sylvester, Ruth, and Wendy-lou Greenidge. "Digital Storytelling: Extending The Potential For Struggling Writers." Reading Teacher 63.4 (2009): 384-395. Academic Search Premier. Web. 7 Nov. 2011. Young, Jeffrey R. "You Tube Professors: Scholars As Online Video Stars." Education Digest 73.9 (2008): 14-16. Academic Search Premier. Web. 3 Nov. 2011.