Week 6: Youtube

• The numbers vary from study to study and demographic to demographic, but, give or take, 65% of the US population is comprised of visual learners. A recent NIH sponsored study at the University of Pennsylvania revealed that visual learners actually convert words to images as they learn. So, why not use the perfect clip from last week's new episode of a popular TV show to infuse the content of your training session with meaning? One word: copyright. Unlike public school institutions which enjoy some copyright exceptions, for-profit institutions such as a corporate university must play by the rules--that is, obtain permission prior to use.
  
  User-generated content (UGC) sites such as youtube may provide material appropriate for use. The key is to stay within the definition of UGC: work published for public access, work that was created entirely or significantly constructed from existing work by the user and work that was created outside of professional routines or practices. So, while it might be tempting to suggest that if someone else posted that TV episode on youtube it becomes free game for fair use, it doesn't fit the definition of UGC.
  
  This week:
  
• Explore UGC video sites. Some of the best known are youtube, google videos, and yahoo videos.
  
• Post on your blog. What topics do you think would lend themselves particularly well to video? What challenges would you anticipate in using video during training sessions and how would you overcome those challenges?