Integrating Technology in the Foreign Language Classroom

These days many teachers are accessing authentic videos made by native speakers and shared online via free services such as YouTube and Google Video. Some videos found here may represent copyright issues. These sites can contain objectionable material, so be careful if providing access to students. Please be sure to use your common sense.

One potential problem that individual teachers might encounter is that many schools now block video sharing sites such as YouTube or Google Video to control bandwidth and to prevent potential student viewing of objectionable material. It is possible for a teacher to download one of these videos in FLV format (Flash Video), bring it into class using a USB flash drive, and play it on your computer using a special FLV video player. Remember that the author of the video is the copyright holder, so be sure to follow guidelines for fair use.

Here are the steps:

1. Find your video on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/ or Google Video http://video.google.com/ or other online video sites. The video will have an address (URL), for example, this is link to a shared video of the Eiffel tower
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTeyCYqPIdI
and another of the running of the bulls in Pamplona
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qPk5xk7ea0.
You'll need to copy this URL and use a web site or software utility that will help you download the video.

The URL is in the URL textbox. The Embed textbox contains the code for embedding the video in your own web page. You can copy & paste into your web page source.

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/mTeyCYqPIdI&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/mTeyCYqPIdI&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

Note that this embedded video gets the actual video file from the Youtube web site, so you do not have to download the video and store it in your own web server space. However, if Youtube is blocked, this will certainly be blocked as well.

2. If you do want to download the video, go to one of the YouTube, Google Video, or other social media download sites. There are many of these, and they tend to change (if one doesn't work, try another).

http://keepvid.com/
http://www.downloadyoutubevideos.com/
http://keep-tube.com/
http://www.videodownloadx.com/
http://www.videodl.org/
http://www.dvdvideosoft.com/online-YouTube-video-download.htm/

The web site will have a textbox where you will paste your YouTube video address (URL). Remember that these look something like the one listed : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTeyCYqPIdI

Follow the directions to download or get the video and be sure to give the video a meaningful name and save it to a location where you will be able to find it later (perhaps under My Videos). The video needs to be saved on your computer or flash drive as a file with the flv extension (Flash Video Player). For example: eiffel.flv (Don't forget that hiding file extensions in Windows Explorer can lead to confusion.)

For some uses (on an iPod or for some software or display environments, you may need to have the video converted from FLV to some other format (AVI DivX, MOV for Mac, MP4 for iPod, etc.). Some sites perform both downloading and conversion for you:

http://www.zamzar.com/
http://vixy.net/
http://www.gazzump.com/

 

3. Once you have saved your video as a FLV file, you may need a special media player to play it on your computer. Here are links for several free FLV Players

http://www.martijndevisser.com/blog/flv-player/ (PC)
http://www.flvplayer.com/
http://www.wimpyplayer.com/products/wimpy_standalone_flv_player.html (for PC or Mac)
http://www.rivavx.com/index.php?id=422&L=3
http://mac.eltima.com/freeflashplayer.html (SWF and FLV for Mac)
http://mac.softpedia.com/get/Multimedia/FLV-Viewer.shtml (FLV Viewer for Mac)

Install the FLV Player software and play your downloaded YouTube video.

If you prefer to play video in Windows Media Player, current versions should play FLV files, but you may need to install the CODEC (decoder):
http://www.mediacollege.com/adobe/flash/video/windows-media-player/

My favorite video player is VLC : http://www.videolan.org/vlc/
It has lots of great options for teachers inclusding bookmarks and slowing the video.

Software

You can find software utilities that can download FLV videos but can also do much more. For instance, Orbit Downloader works with Internet Explorer to grab video or audio streams in many other formats.

http://www.orbitdownloader.com/

This program is very flexible and can work in a variety of different ways :
http://www.orbitdownloader.com/features.htm

Check out the site for details about the current version and the various modes of operation. If you are having trouble getting a video using the download sites or if you are grabbing a lot of videos for use in class, Orbit (or something similar) might be a better way to go.

Firefox has a Video DownloadHelper plug-in that makes downloading videos even easier.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3006

Make your own

Be creative! You can also make your own videos and upload them to Youtube:

http://www.google.com/support/youtube/bin/topic.py?hl=en&topic=16561

You don't need much in the way of special equipment or skills. Although you could use sophisticate video equipment and software, you could also just use a webcam and any microphone to record your video directly on your computer. You can save your video in a file and then upload it or you can use your webcam to record directly in Youtube. Youtube will convert your video to FLV format. Youtube is currently recommending MPEG4 (Divx, Xvid) format at 640x480 resolution with MP3 audio, though lower resolution formats will work (e.g. 320x240) and Quicktime MOV is also ok. In order to uplaod a video, you need a Youtube account.

It's one more way to make your materials available to your students vie the Internet. You can put videos there and take them down when you wish.

Here is an overview of uploading video:
http://www.webvideozone.com/public/308.cfm

Many video editors (such as Windows Live Movie Maker) will have an option for directly uploading your video to Youtube or other sites.

Here is an article with suggestions for making better quality videos:
http://www.videomaker.com/youtube/

Digital Video Update: YouTube, Flash, High-Definition by Robert Godwin-Jones (Emerging Technologies column in Language Learning and Technology)

Here is a site that provides a very simple overview of the whole download process: http://www.savevideodownload.com/