Did you know it is possible to make 1.65 billion dollars in 1 year and 7 months? I was amazed to read the wikipedia entry about YouTube that says the three creators of YouTube did just that. Now I was thinking, why would Google pay so much money for this free service? The answer is simple, they saw the potential to make a killing on advertising!
Further on in the wikipedia entry we learn that an ad on the home page of YouTube costs...drum roll please...$175,000 PER DAY! Two days would pay off my mortgage!
I am very impressed with the ease of finding videos (i.e. took me 6 minutes tonight to find a suitable video to show my Grade 4s about the water cycle) but I am not impressed with the amount of advertising I see all over each page I visit! It is distracting and annoying. I cannot imagine showing my students a YouTube video in class with all the ads flashing and running down the page. I did however discover that if you click the small red square in the bottom right hand corner of the video you can watch the video in full screen. This would eliminate the advertising when viewing as a class.
Another feature I like about YouTube is that it is available in 12 languages! This has great implications for teachers and teacher librarians who are working with ESL students. Wouldn't it be great to find a video in a students first language (i.e. French, Spanish, Hindi, Chinese, Japanese) that would help them learn to measure angles for math or explain the life cycle of frogs for science? In the library, I could see using this tool to help students learn a variety of information literacy skills, library procedures and motive their recreational reading too!
Also from the wikipedia entry, I learned that YouTube has a 'Canadian edition'. Click here if you haven't see this yet. I love that there is Canadian content videos. I will definitely be making use of this site more than the US version.
I also really like the contests that are posted under community. I could see students being very motivated to create videos to submit to contests. Teachers would check out a contest that would match their curriculum goals (i.e. pollution awareness) and assign their students a group project of submitting a video to the contest "Calling All Earthkeepers". Students could watch already submitted videos, explore the topic, create the video and submit it. Talk about a genuine audience!
In saying this, even thought YouTube has rules about the content of videos, it would be essential that any video shown to a class is watched in its entirety by the teacher who is showing it. No surprise endings wanted! Teachers asking their students to use this tool for publishing would need to discuss safety (i.e. no names or other personal info), acquire parent permission and again watch the entirety of any video students are posting.
Despite the potential risks, I see great potential of YouTube as a teachers' resource as well as a tool that can be used to display and develop students learning. I only wish I was in school when YouTube was around...oh wait...I am!
YouTube is a fabulous contribution to the read/write web in a watch/create way.
Andrea
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5 comments:
Andrea,
I agree with you that video sharing is a great learning tool but there is just way too much advertising and questionable material on YouTube that I think I wouldn't be using it in my school any time soon. I'll think I'll keep searching for an alternative.
Thanks for pointing out the Canadian edition. I hadn't noticed that.
Despite all the money they rake in on advertising, I found it hard to believe in the Wikepedia article that YouTube does not make money for Google. How could that be at $175,000 an ad?
Jo-Anne
Hi,
I love how you engaged the reader into your post. I also learned lots from reading your post about youtube. Thanks for telling us about the Canadian youtube.
The advertising on youtube can be overwhelming and i agree with Joanne, that i am going to look for an alternative. Perhaps using keepvid.com, would be one way to stay clear of the advertising, and still being able to use it in the classroom.
Thanks, Andrea. You raise some good points about the advertising on the YouTube site--to be honest, as a 'consumer' of these videos I hadn't even really noticed the ads...guess that means I am not as critical as I should be! Does TeacherTube have ads? I think you could still use Youtube videos in classrooms by embedding the videos into blogs or wikis so that the students only see the video and not the actual YouTube site. That would be a way of getting around part of the problem, although it doesn't help when kids are searching the site themselves in schools.
Andrea,
It would be interesting to take an online poll asking YouTube viewers their thoughts on whether the overabundance of advertising bothers them...or not??
Hi Andrea,
Did you also notice on Michael Wesch's video, Joanne's Trailfire link 3, that one lady offers clips to place in the exact midpoint of your video, as that is what YouTube uses for the clip to display the movie? Too funny.
I think that in terms of internet advertising, such as that on YouTube, our students are inured to it. Unlike TV ads, which you sit through to get back to the "main event", the ads on YouTube are more passive and we ignore them as we hunt for the "real meal deal". I know that my students are much more focused on the content on YouTube than the advertising. That said, I teach Middle and High School. Elementary might be different.
I show YouTube in class using the fullscreen. Times I forget to click the button, my students remind me!
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