Webwatcher: YouTube

YouTube is undoubtedly the most popular teaching resource on the internet. I frequently send out questionnaires to find out which tools teachers are using and, quite often, 100 percent of the teachers I survey say they use YouTube. What surprises me, though, is that many teachers are not aware of a whole range of advanced features that YouTube offers, including different ways to search for content, accessing transcripts, controlling the speed of a video and organising collections of videos into playlists.

Searching for content

There are billions of videos available on YouTube, so when we search for a video we are only actually seeing a miniscule percentage of what is available. It is like picking up a grain of sand from a beach. There are a number of tricks that teachers can use that will really help target their searches more effectively. Probably the most useful is the ‘Filter’ button, which appears above the results when you search for anything on YouTube. You can click on this and very effectively filter your searches. So, for example, you can filter for short videos (ie less than four minutes) and you can filter for those with subtitles, which is something I do all the time. You can filter for videos in terms of their popularity (view count) and even the date when the videos were uploaded. You will be surprised how much these filters can concentrate your search and help you to find exactly what you are looking for.

Transcripts

Not every video comes with a transcript, but many do, and there are three categories of transcript. Category 1 transcripts are actually part of the video, and with these you are not able to copy the text. Category 2 transcripts have been posted alongside the video as a text file. The good thing about these transcripts is that you can open them up in a separate window and use them to navigate through the video; you can also copy and paste them, and use them to create activities. The same goes for Category 3 transcripts, which are automatically generated by YouTube. Not all videos have automatically-generated transcripts; it depends on whether the person who uploaded the video included that setting. To access the transcripts, look for three dots on the right-hand side underneath the video. If you click on these dots, you may see a link that says ‘Transcript’. Click on it and the transcript will open on the right-hand side. If you play the video, you will see that the transcript is highlighted as the video plays. If you click on any part of the transcript, you will jump to that part of the video.

Controlling the speed

I find this feature quite useful, and in my own studies of Polish I use it quite often, especially when I am working with native-speaker content. When you play a video, click on the settings cog, which is situated along with the video controls under the video. One of the features offered is to control the speed of the video. This is a great feature to point out to students.

Playlists

Playlists are simply collections of videos; I use them all the time and I have hundreds. The benefit of creating playlists is that you can organise your favourite videos on particular topics all together in separate lists, and you can then share these with your students or colleagues. My playlists include ‘Grammar lessons’, ‘Good stories in ELT’ and ‘Pronunciation videos’. I use playlists in my personal life, too, so I have collections of my favourite songs, good material for studying Polish, useful guitar exercises, etc. YouTube actually creates a number of default playlists for you. So, for example, every video you have ever ‘liked’ is saved in your ‘Liked videos’ playlist. Every video you have recently watched will be in your ‘History’ playlist.

To create a new playlist, simply click on ‘Save’ and then on ‘Create new playlist’. Give your playlist a name. From now on, any time you find a video that should go into that playlist, click on ‘Save’ and then select the appropriate playlist.

To access your playlists, click on the icon on the top right-hand side. This icon will either be a small picture of you or possibly the initials of your Google account if you have not uploaded a picture. When you click on the icon, you will see the option ‘Your channel’. Click on this and your playlists will appear on the left-hand side. If you have a lot of these, they may not all show, but you will be able to expand the list to find the one you want. Just click on a list and it will open to show you the videos in it. You can share the link to the list or play the videos. You can also edit the list and delete items if you wish.

One of the default lists is called ‘Watch later’. I use this all the time, as it is a great way to save something you find interesting but don’t have time to watch now. Just click on ‘Save’ and add the video to your ‘Watch later’. My trouble is, I currently have about 70 videos in my ‘Watch later’ list!