Let’s YouTube…again!
The last tool we were introduced to is paradoxically the one that we all probably know the best, YouTube. Who has never wasted hours surfing through funny videos, bits of show that we like, etc.? We probably all have, am I right?
On the other hand, YouTube as we can see, can be used in totally different ways. Lot of people would at this point think of the incidents that have been repeatedly occurring on the news… Nevertheless as Enrico has already written about this fact on his blog, I won’t ruin my Sunday with all this ‘crap’ that is happening around the world and rather concentrate on the positive factors of this popular tool.
As I have said most of us use this technological device only for amusement. However I don’t want to seem that I’m looking at YouTube as something that just wastes our time, I’ve just never really thought or taken it in this benefiting way before. So what I’m looking at are the educational assets of using YouTube - the ways which teachers can spice up their lessons and students can experience the new side of learning. I have noticed that this tool has already soaked through into the normal everyday lessons here in Padova, which is amazing. For example, the other day in my Italian class we watched an YouTube video explaining Italian gestures☺. It was funny but definitely useful for all of us freaks from foreign cultures.
So let’s use this last tool, as we used the others, in a benefiting way that can help us and other students improve our language skills or learn something useful in a new, alternative way , while having fun :)!
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7 comments:
Hi Nina!
The impression I get every time I read your posts is that your way of writing in English is slightly different from ours (Italians). And in a positive way! You sound fluent, clear, as you were talking and not writing! I find this fantastic! As I don't find any mistake to point out, I'm going to talk about the content.
Like you, I've spent hours on YouTube, alone or with my friends, watching at funny videos and pieces of my favourite Tv shows. It's real fun! As in your case, I've never thought about its potential instructive side. I didn't even know about the existence of TeacherTube. I found it very interesting! (Regarding this fact, I found myself feeling a little bit ignorant in the last weeks, because of all this tools and programs I've never heard of! :-P )
Anyway, I think YouTube can represent a very useful source of material, but more for teacher than for students like us.
I defitively agree with you when you say we should use it in a benefiting way.
Byee
Anna
Hi Nina!
I’ve just finished to read your post and I found it very clear and well-written. And, of course, I perfectly agree with Anna as far as your way of writing is concerned.
I think you managed to pull the strings of the whole discussion but, at the same time, you also gave us a good example of how YouTube can be exploited for “more serious matters” by mentioning your own class experience with this tool. I would have enjoyed a video about Italian gestures, by the way… Italians will be Italians…Here we go again!:-)
I particularly appreciated the fact that you even put a link to Enrico’s blog to check his post out.. It is a good method to avoid repetitions of what has already been said.
See you in class ;-)
Bye Bye
Ale
Hi Nina!
You are right, this time I am sure none of us could say that he/she had never heard this tool before! : ) It cannot be something new to anybody of us! I guess we are all quite familiar with it, but probably most of us have always surfed through YouTube just for fun or entertainment.
As I wrote on my blog, I have been visiting this website regularly lately but I have never thought about the role it could play in the learning process; but after this “e-tivity” I have realized that YouTube is another great tool which can help us improve our language skills. Of course it is not always easy to find interesting material there since hundreds and hundreds of videos are posted on this page everyday…And unfortunately not all of them are good. We must be critical, as always! Anyway, I also agree with you when you say that we should concentrate more on the positive aspects of this tool rather than on the negative ones.
I had no idea that YouTube was becoming so popular in lectures here at university…Personally, this was the first time I used this website for academic purposes; you know, I would really like to watch the video about Italian gestures…I think there is nothing better than a video to explain this typical Italian feature : ) By the way, I hope you enjoyed it! And I am also sure that little by little you are getting used to this way of communicating, aren’t you? ;-)
BYE!
Hi Nina,
thanks you for putting up a link to my blog directly within your post! I'm pretty surprised to see myself quoted, yet I must say it feels somehow flattering ;) Needless to say, your support and your insights are definitely appreciated. I was struck by how (in your comment) you perceived I still have a lot on my mind about the topic, because I really do!...
Just for once I had the chance to write something a bit more personal and, well, deep than the usual flat report on the technology exploration we do as a task for the e-tivity (which, by and large, is pretty much the same thing for everyone... Something on the lines of: 'Yeah, cool, I didn't know this tool and now I do and yeah it's kinda nice') Of course we you go into the 'personal' you have take your chances: criticism and misinterpretation come easy, and it may be pretty bad because you actually put yourself in what you wrote. But that's ok. I'd rather have that (not that I got it, mind you, but I was prepared to get it, just in case..!) rather than a list of cute plastic empty comments to a cute plastic empty post.
To me, the interesting thing about Sarah's classes and e-tivities is the process of creating a written text that YOU KNOW will have readers! So, more than the technology and tools, I'm interested in the approach to our own blogs, the things we say. It'd be lame if we just wrote the same old things over and over again, but I concede it'd be the safest way to get through.
The problem is, to me it sounds so freaking dull. That's why I choose to put (at my own risk) something more of myself in what I write, when the topic inspires me.
I realise I'm totally out of the YouTube topic here, but I felt I owed you something more than a ok-nice-post-there kind of reply.
BTW, could you give me the link to that video about italian gestures? I guess I could use a bit of refreshing/updating in that field myself!! ;)
See you in class
Hi Nina!
I would like have that link concerning Italian gestures, too. Once I found a book in Berlin that deals with Italian gestures and its translation into English and German. I think I should go and buy it next time I will be home, or maybe I don't have to buy it if the youtube video is as nice as the book.
I've spent hours on YouTube, too. It's a lot of fun actually. By the way, you're right, sometimes it's just more appropriate just to see the positive facts of the topics we discuss on. (Even if Enrico's point of view is definitely right, as well.)
However, I've never had a professor at this university who used YouTube in the lesson. You're lucky you're attending that Italian course. Is it for Erasmus students only?
See you soon.
Caroline
Hi Nina!
I've just red your comment in my blog!Don't worry..do I klnow appear in your group?:-)
I like your post about Youtube!
Of course there are some problems becausese it is free and there's no control and so everyone can upload every sort of video,but as Sarha has suggested us it can also be used for instructive purposes, let's watch again the video about Italian gestures je je:-)
I don't wnat to repeat what I've alòready wrote in the other comments..what I would say is...let's carry on surfing in Yuotube and remember to find out some intersting and educational videos that maybe can open opur mind to other languages and cultures!
See you next week!
Chiara
Hi Nina!
I red your comments about the video I put in my blog!
Don't worry,I'm not supposed to be seen in that video!I just found it out and I liked it becaus eit reminds me Alicante!Soon I'll upload a video of my Erasmus in Youtube..I'll give you the name:-)
See you in class on Monday!
Chiara
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