Class Videos On YouTube – Again!

(2 part post – This is Part 2. Here is Part 1)

As mentioned, I have been working on videos for Dr. Smith in her Spanish conversation class to upload presentations to YouTube (for grading, sharing, reference, etc.). Considering I have worked with YouTube and have already done this for Dr. Smith, this session was going to be a breeze. That's what I'd thought.

I had this marked on my calendar and was 'ready'. I had the Canon miniDV Camcorder loaded on a tripod and connected to the same Sony Microphone (ECM – MS957) that I had used successfully before. Once again, the whole taping session was smooth sailing. That's what I'd thought.

I came back to my office and plugged the camera into my Mac (via Firewire) and was ready to do some quick editing in iMovie 08. Dead silence! I mean dead.....dead silence. It took me some fumbling around and David Lynch moments of emptiness to realize that the taping session had NO sound. None at all!

Half a day later I realized that the microphone was the culprit (I like to blame things on inanimate objects!). The microphone had enough juice for a test, but that was it. So the rest of the session had NO audio. Lesson learned - test your batteries; do not hesitate to use new(er) batteries. Luckily, Dr, Smith was nice enough to ask the class to redo the entire set of presentations. I had to re-tape everything, edit them again, and then only upload them to YouTube. Everything went well. Thats what I'd thought!

One Saturday morning at 1:30AM, I received an email from a student mentioning that the group videos were actually NOT private and that others could see them as well. Sheeesssshhh! All that group levels, members, uploading and then (only) adding to the group, was all a waste of time. So here I am at 2:00 in the morning making the videos 'private' and allowing just the class (Youtube allows 25 people) to view the videos.


Technologies: YouTube, iMovie, Video Taping, mini DV Camcorder, Video Editing, Video-sharing.

Contact me:
Sujan Manandhar
Technology Integration Specialist,
Foreign Language Center
Ohio State University

Class Videos On YouTube – A Good Mix?

(2 part post – This is Part 1)

The last few weeks have been busy with videos, videos, and more videos. Hence the slight delay in the posts.

I have been working on videos for Dr. Smith in her Spanish conversation class to videotape the students during the presentations and uploading these to YouTube. This is neat since we can have an archive of the presentations that students and faculty can watch (again) for various reasons (grading, sharing, reference, etc.)

Planning, as I mention often is quite important. The first session I had this quite figured out. I had the (easy-to-use) Canon miniDV Camcorder loaded on a tripod and connected to a studio Sony Microphone (ECM – MS957) also on a professional stand. Extra tapes. Good background. The whole taping session was smooth sailing.

YouTube was another story! One would think loading the videos on YouTube would be the easier part of this project, but it was real tricky. The catch was this had to be in a YouTube ‘group’ (like ‘folder’) so that only the class could see the videos. Editing the movies was also quite easy on iMovie 08 since the edits were quite basic. iMovie also has this neat feature with you can upload videos directly to YouTube with 2 clicks (SHARE).

But of course, if things were that easy…First of all, edits were trickier than I’d thought they would be. The 2-click upload to YouTube did not work for me, since I needed the videos to be in a group within my account. (This feature only permits videos uploaded to your account – not into groups/folders). So something I was hoping would take minutes o edit and upload was now taking 3 times the work, since I had to put the movies into my computer, upload them into the group, and then make them private (another feature in YouTube).

All in all, the project was a success since the students enjoyed the videos, and Dr. Smith was able to view them when desired and assign more accurate grades.

Technologies: YouTube, iMovie, Video Taping, mini DV Camcorder, Video Editing, Video-sharing.

Contact me:
Sujan Manandhar
Technology Integration Specialist,
Foreign Language Center
Ohio State University