In a recent issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education Jeffery Young has an interesting article about the role of YouTube in making some college professors popular. Click here to see Mr. Young’s article. Mr. Young makes the point that even though many college professors have their lectures posted on university websites and Apple’s Itunes store, but YouTube may be a more effective means of broadening audiences because so many people are already browsing YouTube. Mr. Young does put in a disclaimer about YouTube’s education channel warning that simply searching the term “education” will bring a mix of relevant and irrelevant results.

Applications/ Implications for Educators
As I wrote in a previous post and as Mr. Young implies in his article, it is important to meet and engage students with technology they are already using. Speaking the language of technology with your students will increase their engagement in your class. Uploading to Youtube clips of your class notes or lectures may be one way to increase engagement. Create a blog and include short video clips related to your class to increase student engagement. Click here to see a blog I’m currently using with one of my classes.
YouTube is by no means the end all and be all for finding video clips related to your classes. Apple’s Itunes store has thousands of free video podcasts that you can play on your computer or Ipod. I wrote about the free video podcasts for education in “Podcasts, Debunking a Myth.”