Unless you've been living under a rock, you're probably familiar with YouTube videos. Who hasn’t clicked on a link to see Susan Boyle singing, or to see the latest “viral” video? Right now in "LibraryLand" it is Librarians do Gaga. With the advent of YouTube, everyone can be a star of the online community. YouTube is one of many sites that let you watch and upload videos for free. You can search for clips from your favorite tv show, favorite music videos from the 80s, famous political speeches and almost anything else you can imagine or dream up! To understand where youtube comes from, how it works and why it is so powerful, watch this video (on youtube!) of a talk that Professer Michael Wesch gave to the Library of Congress, An Anthropological Introduction to YouTube.
There are millions of YouTube contributors and it is generally a self-policing site, but if you’re concerned about security, you should know that children can run into questionable content on youtube. There are many other sites, that allow sharing of videos including Vimeo, Totlol, TeacherTube, and Hulu. Some of these offer safer content alternatives for viewing for young children. There are lots of resources about online safety, specifically about video-networking like this pdf from wiredsafety.org and surfnetkids.com. Google now owns YouTube and has posted some safety tips for parents in partnership with Common Sense Media.
Children can also create their own content - and have a BLAST doing it! Flip Video Cameras are cheap and easy to use and you and the kids in your library can create and share book trailers, promotional videos for your programs or really...anything! This is one of my favorite kid-made videos:
But don't be fooled into thinking that the videos have to be professional quality films. These video sharing sites can also allow you to share screencasts with your community like this on Darien Library's online presence:
The uses for these sites are endless! This can be a great tool for teachers and classrooms, as well as parents. You can teach parents to upload videos to share with family and friends. Family with relatives living far away or serving in the military would appreciate the chance to watch a videos of their young family growing up - their dance recitals, baseball games, or sharing books at the library's storytime!
Librarians can teach parents and kids how to create privacy screenings so that only your family and friends can log in and see the videos they've posted. Now smart phones make it even easier to record and upload video, all with the click of a button, all on the same device. Sites like Speekabos are great for the younger set; featuring digital storytelling, and there is a feature where you can also create and upload your own digital stories. Readeo is another great example of a site using video to connect people and children's books.
Explore YouTube and some of the other video sharing sites and find a video to embed in your blog. Can you think of some ways that you can use these sites to communicate with friends and relatives or for educational purposes? Can you see how it is considered a web 2.0 tool? If you need a little help embedding, check out this page for a tutorial.
No comments:
Post a Comment