Hank [BS/MSEE,
MSM $$$, Ph.D. Mgmt] teaches YouTube Course
This month, Pitzer College started offering a course about YouTube. Students watch YouTube videos and post com
ments. Alexandra Juhasz, media studies professor is teaching the class ”Learning from YouTube.”[1] You can link to her YouTube group site here: and view input to her class group on YouTube here:
I find this to be very interesting. What would a computer-based content analysis of YouTube reveal? It certainly is an extremely large data base [millions of videos] that reflect emerging social norms. We don’t have tools to analyze video data bases! Yes, we have meta tags and even deep tagging [Some companies involved in deep tagging include: CastTV
, MotionBox, JumpCut , Viddler ,Click.tv., Google recently added a captioning feature to video, as well as the ability to permanently link to any time spot in a clip, and Veotag] but these are provided by humans and probably don’t even come close to reflecting the nuances captured in the videos. [Big opportunity for entrepreneurs just in this one area!] TechCrunch commented [9/15/07] ”But this may still be just about the most ridiculous class the school, or any school, has ever offered.” But is it? Looking beyond the surface of YouTube, into what the content portends, is a most interesting and untapped area of research.
There is a new book on the streets (September 2007) titled Super Crunchers:Why Thinking-by-the Numbers Is The New Way To Be Smart, by Ian Ayres. In his new book, Ian touts the power of applying linear regression to large data sets to obtain here-to-fore unrecognized relationships that may be taken advantage of for business purposes (and others). While his entire premise is
based on data mining 101, it bears repeating here: YouTube contains information that when ferreted out by nascent entrepreneurs, will result in cash flow that makes Google look like a pimple on progress’s face. Video search is a vexing problem that computer scientists are feverishly working on. While I don’t expect any Purdue students to run right out and develop ground-breaking algorithms to extract embedded information from video data banks such as YouTube, if you are allowed to dream, so am I - go for it. Hank
I think this might just be one of the weirdest things I’ve heard for a class before. It would be fun but where is the education in watching videos and peoples stupid tricks and all? I don’t understand why they would offer this as a class. Yes, it can be educational by the fact you are learning how the mind processes the images its seeing but at thesame time I mean why woul you even mess with this? The class seems to be pointless for everyone and I think they should stop offering it
This class is about how people make media about things that are important to them. This is mentioned in the video. I believe this good because the teacher is willing to learn about youtube and how this can be used to send and see messages. This class is good to learn about rights when things get posted. If you do not know or want to learn about how people learn this class is for them. I believe entrepreneurs can use this class to learn how to send messages that get the maximine effects.
This is a non-traditional idea of educating, but I wonder why such an accredited college as Pitzer is only focusing on youtube. From what I have learned in my entr200 is that there are other sites that are more innovative than youtube that focuses on different target users. If I was taking this class, I would want to learn more about other sites similar to youtube, and learn what youtube’s competition is. I would also like to know the long-term value of this class also.
In addition to learning how the mind processes images, it can also help to learn what people find important. By watching the videos and what the subject matter is, one can learn what the public is passionate about. This helps in marketing when advertisers are trying to figure out what they should use as an attention getter or theme for their commercials.
I agree with Eric that the course should also incorporate other video/video blog sites as well. YouTube is very broad and covers just about every genre of thinking possible. You can learn something general from YouTube, but you can probably go to a video site that is specifically for a group of people who believe thus-and-so and get a much more detailed look at the public’s ideas and perspectives because everyone on that site cares for that one specific thing and they’re more apt to share their thoughts.
I dont think this feature will be used very much. Most people that watch YouTube videos are simply looking for entertainment. It’s unlikely that someone watching YouTube will click on a lecture and enjoy watching it instead of watching some home made video which is probably pointless. I could see the feature being used as an on-line course to earn credit in a class, but other than that I personally would not have any interest in being lectured about how I can learn through YouTube.
I don’t think Pitzer was creating a “blow-off” class when they created the study of Youtube. Yes people are acting like fools and doing ridiculous stunts. But one aspect that youtube cannot hide is that, the site deals entirely with the psychology of people. Youtube provides and awesome study of how people respond to various stimuli in an environment. Whether Pitzer created this class to study psychology or not, I`m not certain. But I do know that studying people and their actions would help an entrepeneur gain a better understanding of who to market and how to market them.
It’s ridiculous to think that watching Youtube clips is a class, and my respect for Pitzer College, wherever that may be, is now extremely low. With that said, the idea that entrepreneurs can tap into a market that has been hardly touched is very intriguing and worth a second look. The video streaming industry has become a huge player with internet traffic and any time a new feature can be added or made better to improve videos, someone is going to become very wealthy. That’s just one reason why students shouldn’t be just watching Youtube clips and making stupid posts; rather, they should try and learn the science behind Youtube because that is where they, and all entrepreneurs, will have the greatest chance of succeeding.
I agree with Tyler’s comment in a way. I also wouldn’t consider this class over youtube to be a blow off class necessarily. I guess it all depends what videos you are required to watch, what information you are supposed to gather from watching whatever videos they make you watch, and how it is taught. I imagine I would have to actually have to take the course in order to come up with a meaningful opinion about the matter.
I don’t think this class is about youtube. It is not the history of you tube or how it works, it is the online culture that is behind you tube. This new generation of internet users which must be understood if these students are to survive in the real world.
The idea that this can’t be a real class is ridiculous. Of course it can’t be a major, but it could be an elective just like like this class is. This class doesn’t directly help my major or minor, but it feel that there is value in me learning about small business. It is classes like this that really teach the students how to survive in the real world, not history or literature.
Hank,
I think that it might be mutually beneficial if our class participates in the youtube class’ assignments. Both of our classes are flexible enough to make this work. On the other hand, I like you class how it is, so, lets try not to follow them too much.
I think Media Literacy is one of the most important topics NOT addressed in most schools. With sites like YouTube, I think it is even more important. The way ideas (good and bad) spread has completely changed. It is important that people understand the dynamics behind this ever changing social web. Those that do understand will be on the front lines of creating the next revolution (and money
I am not surprised that Pitzer is offering YouTube as a course because YouTube attracts so many people onto its site to post and view videos. I think it will be interesting to analyze why people feel so comfortable posting extremely personal videos of themselves on a site that is viewed by millions of people daily. The false sense of anonymity YouTubers get when they are alone in their room in front of their cameras is very ironic because viewers can easily identify them by face through these videos. There is also an emerging trend in people who post daily/weekly videologs on YouTube that viewers religiously follow. It is almost like a new strain in reality TV!
Personally, I find myself on YouTube all the time to retrieve clips of old movies or old music videos. And I also enjoy the slapstick comedy featured on the site
I’m not really sure how this course is going to work out, on one hand YouTube has become SUCH a powerful media tool that even CNN used it for it’s presidential debates. Students can learn how to analyze videos and such especially if they’re communication majors. It’s great to know how the people feel and youtube is not polls but it’s real people saying how they feel about something with emotion. This way you get to really understand your target demographies and well basically it’s like going on the streets and asking people what they think about something, however as Dharma pointed out, people feel a lot more comfortable posting extremely personal videos of themselves on a site.
On the other hand the instructor said that the class will decide together what they will learn. So of course if you have all immature people who only joined this class to be entertained (which I guess is the case with most people who registered for this class) they’ll probably only watch music clips and stuff. Of course if the instructor helps out a bit with assignments like find a emotionally touching movie clip and explain what you learnt from it, the class might be quite a success
So these students have the opportunity to really learn how people behave and what they want (which is really interesting for our class) but how much they learn really depends on themselves.
I think that the whole idea is a good concept. Having the videos being educational it may be true that not many people are going to be trying to watch these videos on YouTube. It is a good way to learn for the people who need the videos, but I think the people who are going to watch these videos will mostly be the ones who are taking the course which requires the views.
Technology is changing and the people with it. I think a class like this is needed to show that we recognize these changes, and instead of running from them were embracing them. To see this finally recognized on the collegiate level is almost refreshing in a way because once it becomes recognized as a social norm then itll be used in ways other then simply entertainment. Some of these methods have already begun to unfold while other ideas are still untapped.
I think it was mentioned in class earlier today, but I see a real potential in data mining sites like youtube if we can get the algorithms there. We already have them to scour the web gleaming countless facts and correlations from text and databases. Imagine what can be done once one can analyze video and sound. Tracking all the information on trends that would come out of youtube, not to mention the subtle social shifts could be invaluable as a resource to researchers or business.