In which YouTube killed the videotape
Posted By Kevin Gaugler on November 6, 2008
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I remember when videotapes “revolutionized” language education by bringing authentic films and quotidian scenes of the host culture into the classroom. Well, just the other day, JVC, the last company to make stand alone VCRs, announced that the company will no longer produce this former staple of the foreign language classroom. In spite of this sad news, many educators of world languages and cultures have already moved beyond multi-standard VHS machines and have discovered region free DVD players. Some have even been so bold as to turn to solutions such as installing the free VLC media player on computers in order to turn them into region free DVD players. Even with these modern marvels of the classroom, incorporating foreign video into lesson plans often involved overseas travel or expensive purchases from specialized catalogs.
In contrast, however, I have found that useful video is becoming increasingly easier to find and integrate into my lessons. When I teach culture now on any given day, I inevitably will turn to a clip from YouTube to illustrate a point. YouTube videos are typically under ten minutes, and ideal for classroom use without usurping a session and turning it into “movie time”. What’s more, the treasures I find on YouTube surprise me each day. For example, a student last semester told me that the Emmy award-winning Spanish short film from 1972, La cabina, was available on YouTube in four parts. I’m sure that Antonio Mercero, the director who created the film for Spanish television at the end of Francisco Franco’s regime, never imagined that years later an undergraduate student in the United States would stumble across his work online and write a senior thesis on it. I could give countless examples like that of my student’s La cabina discovery. One can even find tutorials on how to learn a second language on YouTube.
In a previous post, I wrote about how I customize FireFox to enhance my multilingual browsing. I didn’t mention in the post, however, that I use the CoolIris plugin for Firefox every single day in class. With CoolIris I can search for a term and, like magic, thousands of photos and videos fly into view on my screen. I can then peruse the floating images, zoom in and out on the collection, and play any of the videos. If, for example, I am leading a discussion in class on the end of francoism in Spain, giving historical context to La cabina, I can simultaneously call up a 30-second clip of the King, Juan Carlos I, assuming the throne.
I know for some of you Internet connectivity might still be an issue in a particular classroom. In this case, I would highly recommend Miro, a program that lets you easily download online video. In addition, Miro allows you to narrow your search by language. If you aspire to be a collector of online videos like me, Miro even lets you create your own channels around a given subject. We would love for you to share with us your favorite online video sites or the most useful online videos you have found to teach a language. Leave a written comment or video comment to this post.
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