The anthropology of YouTube

Today I watched a video in one of my education classes about this guy, Mike Wesch, who teaches Anthropology at Kansas State University. He teaches a class about the anthropology of YouTube and (see link in the title) used some of those conclusions as well as his own in an address at the Library of Congress. The video itself is phenomenally done; the balance between text frames, video of his speech, and the videos he showed during the speech really enriched the viewing experience for me. If you don't have an hour to watch his speech, please at least take a look at some of his other videos on YouTube. Search for "mwesch" and watch "A Vision of Students Today" and "Web 2.0."

Ten minutes after this video finished, I still sat in my chair trying to figure out 1) what I think about what he said and 2) what the impact of those statements, whether true or not, will be on my students. I like chronological order (I am a History major...) so I guess I'll start with #1. This video really hit me on that front; really the only thing I've ever used YouTube for is looking up hilarious parodies of the ShamWow infomercial to show my friends and family. Dr. Wesch showed me a completely different side to YouTube - the vlogosphere. I'd heard of vlogging before, but I never watched any. They really didn't interest me. The man at the end of the video (linked by the title) used vlogging to cope with the sudden death of his infant son. How powerful is that?! I was really touched by that because in the montage shown while the man was speaking, he seemed like a normal guy, happy with his life. But he was speaking about how the YouTube community helped him find himself again after his son's death. I am still blown away, 4 days after watching the video.

So how can I use what I learned from this video to relate to my students? Well, here's the most obvious answer - I'll make my students do a YouTube video! According to Wesch, thousands of Americans post on YouTube every day. By using YouTube in the classroom I can make a (hopefully) valuable real-life connection in the classroom. But I want to do something a little more meaningful than just a single assignment. I might have my students start their own vlogs, and give them a topic every week to vlog about. I would really like for my students to keep up with current events and I think vlogging might be the way to incorporate it into my class.