week 9--online videos

YouTube Anchors and Enders: The Use of Shared Online Video Content as a Macrocontext for Learning

This paper, written by our own Dr. Bonk, details how he came up with the idea of Cool Resource Provider, which I happen to be for this week.  I did not read the entire article, rather just skipped to the parts that specifically spoke about shared online videos since that is the topic for the week.  Originally, he and Dr. Lee created this to be a motivating factor for their students.  He has used research from this study to determine that the majority of the videos used were best if they remained between 1-4 minutes—minimizing distractions or the chance to lose interest. 

This paper tends to focus on the uses of shared online videos in higher education.  However, I spoke to many of my colleagues after reading this and have found that almost all of the teachers that are comfortable with technology use shared videos with at least half of all their lessons.  That number rises higher depending on the subject, like science, history, and computers, a little lower in things like English and literature.

Places to Go: YouTube

“YouTube has grown in only a few short years to become the most popular site on the web.” This article focuses on why YouTube has had the massive growth seen since its inception.  It mainly focuses ont eh technical aspects, such as Flash and how content is displayed, but still offers great insight into how it became, what has happened since it started, and where it is going. 

I downloaded this article onto my Kindle, so I’m not sure of the actual page numbers, but it comes out to 4 pages on my Kindle.  Out of those 4 pages, 2 are references, so there isn’t much actual content here.  It was interesting to see the timeline that has gone with YouTube, but by the title of the article I was expecting more of a hits list for the popular website instead of a history lesson.

The Audience for Online Video-Sharing Sites Shoots Up

This article focuses on the amount of people using online video sites on a daily or near daily basis, comparing it to how it used to be just a couple years ago.  This trend is way over 50% or all demographics below 35.  They have a graph in this study that shows there are actually more people watching shared video sites than using social networking, like Facebook. 

The findings that more people use shared video sites than Facebook was amazing to me.  I could name off the top of my head the select few people I know that don’t use some type of social network site.  However, I “see” those people on a daily basis.  Maybe the numbers wouldn’t surprise me so much if I had a status feed for YouTube as well to show me what my friends had been watching on YouTube as well. 

Video Use in Higher Education: Options for the Future

In a study completed by NYU and Intelligent Television, educational use of videos in classrooms has grow exponentially in all areas of study.  One downfall many have with it right now is that it is not online content—many times not even DVD content, but old VHS tapes, which many cannot play now.  There is a push in most schools to move to digitally delivered information so that it can be enjoyed by more people more easily.

This study didn’t tell anything that any normal library patron doesn’t already know.  Yes, we all want to see videos and such and we want to do it the easiest possible way. We would prefer to be able to take it with us when we go somewhere, and we would prefer to not have an actual piece of media we have to keep track of—most of us don’t even own a VCR anymore! It would be great to be able to access what we want when we want it.  It will happen sooner rather than later.  I saw a movie the other day and one of the previews was for Sony motion pictures and it was saying how all movies sold will now come with a digital copy of the movie—both in an effort to meet consumer demands and to cut down on piracy.  This is all the same concept—make it easier to get to so I can use it more often.

Quote of the week from YouTube Anchors and Enders: The Use of Shared Online Video Content as a Macrocontext for Learning:  “Finally, they can be created, watched, shared, or commented on; hence they link to the emerging culture of participatory learning.”