YouTubers,video,YouTube,skills education YouTubers do it on video: YouTube = skills = opportunity for

Translation jobs are undertaken by professional translators who are well versed with at least two languages.Translation can work at two levels: inter-state or regional language translation and inter-national or foreign language translation. Some forms of parent involvement with the school such as communications with school, volunteering, attending school events and parent--parent connections appeared to have little effect on student achievement, especially in high school. Helpi

To many in the 30-something and beyondgenerations, YouTube is a strange phenomenon and a somewhat confusingbusiness concept. Older generations do not fully understand whatYouTube is about and generally avoid it. 'Kids' spending hour afterhour on the computer making & sending silly video clips to eachother What is that all about? In my day...Well YouTube ishere to stay and that is that. And if it is here to stay, can it beused in the field of education? Can the skills young people havedeveloped in making and publishing YouTube videos be utilized ineducation?  Can the making of educational videosby students be used in the classroom and how beneficial might this bein improving student understand a topic? Would a 'hands-on' approach to makea video essay allow students to better retain what they are learning?This article will argue that the shortanswer to each of these questions is 'yes'. The key is how is it tobe done and what resources are out there to help. Where did this idea come from?Thank Ozzie. The genesis of this idea started whileI was standing under the North Face of the Eiger in Switzerland. I was traveling on my own as I have recently been let go from my job(redundant in UK parlance) and decided to visit several places on my'to see before I die' list.While the Swiss mountains arebreathtaking, I only had Ozzie to share it with and he wasn't muchgood. Ozzie is a 3 inch tall blue and white soft-toy mouse which Ifound while working in the Australian Outback in Kalgoorlie-Boulder,Western Australia some 13 years ago.I suggested to a teacher friend of minethat I could photograph Ozzie in various exotic locations for herclass of 5 year olds (who gave the 'mascot-with-no-name' his currenttitle by the way). I took many photos in Switzerland, Prague andAmsterdam but more importantly ended up producing a series of videoclips of his escapades abroad ('Ozzieon Tour' YouTube clips here).I saw the enjoyment these 5 years hadin seeing Ozzie on his travels and this morphed into an idea ofshowing older students places of interest and then maybe making basicvideo documentaries of historical places without the razzmatazz seenin television documentaries. My thinking was quite simple: whenstudents visit a site on a school trip they see what is there today,not some high tech computer generated image. The reality soon dawned on me that Iwas not particularly good at making these mini-documentaries myself.But 'Why notlet the students make the video documentaries themselves?'This thought eventually led to my website, VideoHistory Today. My thinking was quite simple. Kidstoday love making videos and sharing them via YouTube. Surely theseinterests and skills could (and should) be harnessed? If you canprovide them with the basic raw video clips, a computer and a concisetopic they could use their YouTubing skills to create an essay youcan see and hear rather then an essay you can read. This is the aim of Video HistoryToday: a library of downloadable video clips accessible via theinternet. Students can choose from a range of video clips recordedin Europe and the United States which can then be brought together to create a videoessay.  The main topics covered include the Holocaust, D-Day & Normandy 1944, The American Civil War and the Cold War. Think about it for a moment.To write an essay, you need to be givena topic; do some research; read a little; take notes; produce a 1000word essay.What about if the end product was not awritten report but one you produced as a video documentary? Tell thestory you would previously have written down using visuals. Make acommentary using your notes. Tell the story. Bring in your own video.Bring in your own photographs.In short:DON'T WRITE AN ESSAYSEE AN ESSAYCurrent state of video (and use ofYouTube) in educationMy first realization in 2006 stillapplies today (September 2008): this idea is ahead of its time.Today, simply using YouTube as a toolfor education is seen as radical: in a popular web site and forum forhistory teachers in the UK (www.schoolhistory.co.uk),a recent popular talking point was a short segment on the BBC newschannel where this 'radical' idea was aired (YouTubeclip here). What I found most interesting about this interviewand the general comments on the forum afterwards is the thought thatthese videos have to be made by the teacher community. 'Lets makevideos for students and share them', is the current thinking. Nodiscussion of LETTING THE STUDENTS MAKE THE VIDEO.The BBC introduced an annual 'SchoolReport' project whereby school students spend a day making newreports for broadcast on television (although mainly aimed at schoolweb sites). The main point here is that students are encouraged tothink about what goes into a news broadcast as well as the technicalaspects of making the news report. I recently had a new subscriber to myYouTube Channel based in the United States. She was behind thedevelopment of a new degree course this year: "YouTube forEducators" through the Boise State University Department ofEducational Technology. A short introduction to the course wasgiven, 'This is an academic course for students in an advancededucational technology program. It is my belief that YouTube, andvideo-sharing in general, cannot be ignored within a field ofemergent technologies for learning. YouTube is having an impact onsociety, politics, and the lives of individuals from all walks oflife.' (YouTubelink)In other words, the video essay idea isa step ahead of the current thinking.Clearly there are hurdles to beovercome. I am not a teacher. My ethos in the video essay idea is toallow the students to benefit from the entire process of producing avideo essay, not just in watching one prepared by somebody else.There are many hurdles I cannotaddress:How would they physically make thesevideos: in the classroom? At home? Both?How would schools and colleges go aboutusing this approach to education? Group projects? And which subjects?History? Sociology? Geography? Politics? All the above and more?Do schools and colleges have the staffproficient and confident enough with this new communication medium toteach the youth of today?The Future?Someone somewhere may be writing a4,000 word dissertation on this very subject (or might consider itworthwhile after reading this). I have merely brushed the surface ofthe topic. The whole point of this article is toraise the idea of using the inherent new skills the young people oftoday have developed in using YouTube and putting them to aneducational use.I have raised this idea many times tofriends, family and on educational forums. The general response,through glazed eyes, has been, 'I don't get it.' The result, from abusiness point of view has therefore been disappointing so far. Ifthe people I want to purchase my video clips do not understand or'see' how it might be used, the business idea fails. I plan to stick to it however. Ipredict that within 5 years students will use raw video, provided byweb sites like mine, to 'write' essays using video. I recently sawthis YouTube video aimed at the teachers of today...ShiftHappens.  The future isn't only here, it has gone.And after all, when I was a student inthe late 1980's, a word processor (pre-Windows, Apple, PC's and the'net'), was some sort of alien contraption only found in classroomsbelonging to long-haired hippie types who said 'man' a lot. Withhindsight, it looks like I did the wrong course.