Downloading from YouTube

 

YouTube is a powerful learning tool but I can understand why it is blocked in some schools. However, wouldn’t it be great to be able to download YouTube videos to insert into your PowerPoint presentations to use with your classes?

There are a number of options available to help you do this. Neil Winton has recommended iTube for the PC or Tubesock for the Mac to help you download the videos. The problem with Itube seems to be the huge loss of quality, the video looks fine on your video IPod but rubbish on the big screen.

Noal has suggested a solution to this by getting you to do the following, ‘go to the download link at the top of the You Tube page to get the video, and rename the downloaded file with a .flv extension. Next, get the free FLV Player from here’ The problem with this is that you still have to install the FLV Player onto your computer.

The best solution I have found so far comes from Tony Cassidy. It’s a little more fiddly but allows you to download your YouTube Movie and then convert it into a Windows Media Player File or AVI file. You can easily embed both of these into PowerPoint. Tony has put together an excellent instruction animation together on how to do this in Firefox using a package called Wink.

I’ve just used Tony’s method to download a few Movies including Bebo: The Movie and some of the recently blogged about global warming videos. I will be using Bebo the Movie for in-service training after Christmas.

Anyone found any better ways to download this material.

Comments

[Lynne]

I've just started using iTube and it is easy to use as well.

[M Tennant]

Could you not have posted this a day earlier - it would have saved me having to work it all out myself!

On a serious note, I wonder how many people actually realise the copyright implications of doing this. As a computing teacher, I am beginning to become concerned at the complete lack of understanding the pupils have of this issue. Pupils in my classes are genuinely shocked and disbelieving when I tell them that downloading music and videos via limewire, youtube, etc may be illegal. I certainly think it's because it has just became the 'norm'.

I wonder how an education authority would react if a teacher was sued for breach of copyright just because the, say, downloaded a video from YouTube that had been illegally posted there? Thankfully unlikely, but possible.

On a lighter note, (I am not admitting to using this software, ho-hum!) Feneris's "YouTube Downloader" (http://www.feneris.com/) is also (cough, cough) allegedly a good tool also, though it still doesn't do the conversion from flv to avi or mpg for you.

Just my $0.02!

Mark.

[OllieBray]

Lynne – have you had any problems with the quality of your downloads from Itube?

Mark - I agree with you. Copyright (including digital copyright) needs to part of any schools curriculum. It’s a fundamental part of information literacy. Is there any way you could build it into your S1 course?

[M Tennant]

Ollie,

Good idea! We already cover it in Standard Grade Computing, and in much more depth in Higher Information Systems. Indeed, legal and social implications of ICT are an integral thread of all our courses at SG and Higher Still level, though what about the pupils who do not pass through our department at some point after S2?

[OllieBray]

This sounds like one of the things we should be trying to push to get into the compulsory curriculum. I wonder if there is room to squeeze it into the Social Education Programme at some point?

[Tony Cassidy]

I'm shocked that such a use of technology has been posted under my name and voice. :(

I completely understand the points of view though, I expect that it hasn't done the record sales any harm after it has been screened in hundreds of classrooms across the country.

[OllieBray]

How much were you getting on commission Tony? 

[Lynne]

As far I can see the quality and sound are fine. I haven't played them to class yet, but I think they'll be great and as it's the only way we'll get to see the fantastic flash version of "Ça plane pour moi" I could live with a little quality loss, but actually it seems just fine.