I love Youtube as an educational tool. It offers so much and I can always find what I am looking for; and whats more it is free!
In my professional practice of catering and agriculture, it offers how- to instructional videos which I can embed in my VLE to give students the insight into how things are done…..for example my VLE is about The Care of the Newborn Calf, so Youtube instructional videos allows me to put a point across visually rather than plain text. As a student myself, sometimes a video explaining a point offers more of an educational understanding than plain text and it offers the student a bit of variety in their learning.
I found Youtube videos very useful in explaining the process of downloading and operating the VLE platforms I have used in my VLE.
For example; I used Wizer.me to insert a quiz but I understood the procedure for doing this by following a Youtube video. I would follow the video and then pause it at a certain point, then I would go to my download and execute the procedures I had been instructed to do; then I would return to the Youtube Wizer.me instructional video and follow the next step and so on. It was an enormous help in aiding me to set up my VLE.
Using Youtube videos with Edpuzzle allows editing of the videos at strategic points which allows assessment questions to be included in the video. This allows for differentiation of learning because students can always return and replay the video to aid a deeper learning.
I discovered that there were some farming videos in Welsh language and if I had time I would have inserted these into my VLE to embed Welsh language into my VLE.
Using Youtube videos as a learning tool offers the students a number of learning styles like for example visual and aural, logical and also offers students social or solitary learning. Students can work in pairs to discuss a video or action the assessment questions or they can work independently and at their own pace.
As a footnote, I must say that I find instructional videos presented by American’s most irritating. A whiny, nasal American accent combined with the fact that the host doesn’t stop talking is most infuriating. I try and find instructional video’s where the presenter is English whom I know will give a concise account of the instruction and not discuss all and sundry.
Elearning Journey 