Is YouTube Educational?

Google - YouTube

YouTube was online five years ago in February 15, 2005. The site was designed by young and energetic programmers who sold it to Googlefor $1.6 billion after one year. YouTube platform had about 100 million videos and 72 million visitors daily when it was sold to Google. Now, about 350 million visitors view 5 billion pages every day. The latest internet site ranking according to Alexa are: 1- Google, 2- Facebook, 3- Yahoo, 4- YouTube and 5- Windows Live. The site host mixed videos that rage for plain stupid to scientific and educational videos. I have discussed this subject with my friends and they claim that YouTube is addictive because the moment you finish watching an interesting video you would be presented with two similar videos to watch. Since YouTube has advantages and disadvantage, the Question here is: Can YouTube be educational?

YouTube Headquarters in California

The researchers, Fralinger and Owens(2009),  selected 61 graduate students and 20 non graduate students to test the effectiveness of educational material made by the students and uploaded in YouTube. The qualitative study, which was published in a peer-reviewed journal two months ago, showed statistical significance on the benefits of using YouTube as an educational method. Students responded “Everything was very helpful for the exams and very good to view and use in a school classroom.” So next time you are caught watching YouTube at work or while studying you can argue that YouTube is entertaining and educational!

Reference:

Fralinger, B., & Owens, R. (2009). You tube as a learning tool. [Article]. Journal of College Teaching & Learning, 6(8), 15-28.