YouTube is one of the most popular sites on the web today.  It's popular with all kinds of people and as a teacher you should be wary about using and recommending it.  Having said that, however, I invite you to use this amazing media format to enhance your English classroom lessons.

YouTube.com has all kinds of goof-ball video available from around the world, but as an English teacher you can find many instructional videos and many videos that will enhance the work you are doing in class.  For example, if you are teaching Shakespeare's Hamlet you will find dozens of video clips related to the play.  Some are instructional and some are just entertaining and bring to life the words of the Bard.

The only problem with YouTube is that it is an unreliable source.  One day that gem you used in class was there, the next day it's gone.  The best way to avoid losing a clip you might want to show in class is to SAVE that video clip on your computer.  Make a folder on your Windows desktop and store these clips for future use.  After you have accumulated a good set of clips, burn them to a DVD, and you will always have them available for use in your classes.

In this lesson I will assume you are already familiar with YouTube.com and can watch a video once you have found it using the search option on the site.  Our goal here is to show you how save these video clips and then play them on your computer.

Step 1 --  Getting A Good Video Clip Viewer

Using the method I'm going to present here will allow you to save your video clips as .flv files, as opposed to .mpg, .wmv, or .avi files.  .FLV files a compact files that will allow you to do some manipulation using a proper view, if need be.

The viewer I would ask you to consider downloading to your computer(s) is called the GOM player.  It is a FREE player and has lots of nice features and it doesn't carry any of the baggage of a lot of the other players available.  Also, using the method I am going to show you will not require that you convert the .flv file to another format.  You can use it as is.  It looks like the image displayed here. The link to download this viewer is www.gomplayer.com.  Go to the page to read more details on how to install the player on your Windows PC and learn what you can do with this player once you have it working.  (I have no connection with this player or site, but only recommend it for use with this lesson.)

Step 2 -- Saving An .FLV Video File From YouTube.com

Ok, now that you have your GOM player up and running, let's go get a video file from YouTube.com.

First create a New Folder on your desktop so you can save your FLV files in it.  If you don't know how to do this, go to our Video Lessons Page to learn how to do this.

Next, go to YouTube.com to find a video you want to save.

For illustrative purposes here I used the search box at the top of the page to seek out some scenes from Laurence Olivier's film of Hamlet.  I use Olivier Hamlet as the keywords and found the famous To Be or Not To Be scene.
Now you can view this while on the internet, but as I said before, whoever placed this clip could just as easily remove it and leave you high and dry. 

So, to avoid this we'll save the clip as an FLV file using the following method.











Next, notice that there is a URL box next to the video you are watching, with a long detailed link in the box.  This is the link to the video, but you can't just save this and expect to actually be saving the video you want.  You will have to use a special program available on a website called KeepVid and it is located at http://keepvid.com/


First, you will have to copy the link from the URL box.  Using the mouse cursor, click on the link in the YouTube URL box and the link will become highlighted.  RIGHT CLICK on the highlighted link and then LEFT CLICK on the COPY option on the popup menu.  You have now copied the link to the computer's save buffer.

Next, go to http://keepvid.com/  and PASTE the link you copied into the Download box within the green area of the KeepVid header.  Then click the DOWNLOAD button on KeepVid.  Immediately after doing this you should see another DOWNLOAD window area open with a Download Link for the FLV file. 

Next, Click the new Download Link to the FLV file.  You will then get the standard SAVE dialog that will allow you to save the FLV file of the Hamlet clip to any location you want.  You should choose the New Folder you set up on your Windows desktop to store the file.


Now that you have saved the FLV file to your folder, you can go to that folder and double click the file saved and it should open for viewing in the GOME PLAYER.  Alternately  you can simply open the GOME PLAYER and then use the file open option to locate the file and play it.

That's all there is to saving a file from YouTube.  Over a period of time you can have enough video lessons for just about any subject you want to present.

Al Baggetta
Baggetta_Ware
Teacher Tech
www.baggetta.com
 

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