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