ICT Tip: Is YouTube still blocked in your center? Here’s a new and improved solution!

12 Oct

Quick overview: A website that allows you to download videos directly from YouTube. Almost instant. There’s no waiting for e-mails or loss of quality!

How can this be used in the classroom? Do you often encounter YouTube videos that you’d love to show your class but YouTube is blocked by your school board’s IT department? The Keepvid website (www.keepvid.com) allows you to plug in a YouTube video address and download the video, even if you can’t access YouTube at your school.

Chicken and the egg: There’s always a catch, isn’t there? How do find the YouTube video that you’d like to download, if you can’t get to YouTube in your school in the first place?

Solution: As a solution, I’d recommend accessing Keepvid on your home computer (see tutorial video below) and then bringing the video file to your school’s computer on a USB drive. At the end of the day, Keepvid is still not a perfect workaround, but currently my favorite.

Technical stuff: You need to have Java installed on your home computer or the Keepvid website won’t work. Java can be downloaded from this link. I also recommend you ask to have Quicktime or VLC installed on your school’s computer in order to play back the downloaded video files in your classroom. Why? Keepvid’s video files may not play with the standard Windows Media player.

Video Tutorial: To see a two minute video tutorial of how to use the Keepvid website, click the large play button below: