Listen and learn: Ed talk 
Recorded Session
PURPOSE: To provide participants with classroom-ready strategies to engage their students with a theme (YouTube) with which lots of students are well-acquainted and interested. To equip participants with ideas that will bring joy to learning that are also rooted in sound pedagogy and the science of learning.
OBJECTIVES: Participants will be able to identify a variety of genres of YouTube videos that can be repurposed into meaningful learning activities. Participants will be able to implement several of the example activities shown in their own grade level or content area (or repurpose those activities to fit their unique needs). Participants will be empowered to find more ideas like these on their own.
CHALLENGE: It can be difficult to engage students in meaningful learning, especially after pandemic-induced remote learning. Student attention is harder and harder to come by. Students are finding it harder to make connections to traditional themes and teaching practices with their lives and futures.
TECHNOLOGY INTERVENTION: We can follow YouTube -- popular and trending videos -- and other video platforms to get insight into the types of videos students might be interested in. Students can use video creation platforms like Flipgrid, Screencastify, Loom, Adobe Express, Canva, and others to create demonstrations of learning that feel like the YouTube videos they love. They can use Google Slides, PowerPoint, Canva, Adobe Express, and other graphic design platforms to complete graphic organizers, story boards, or visual representations of videos they could create.
INTRO (10 MINS): Welcome, quick context of session, link to resources, audience discussion question: What do you like to watch on YouTube? YouTubers, channels, content? Share answers with the group. Justify session (students spend lots of time on YouTube and other video platforms, growth of YouTube and TikTok, using what students love to connect them to learning is backed by the science of learning (reticular activating system, limbic system, connection between emotion and memory).
UNBOXING VIDEO (20 MINS): Introduce this genre of YouTube video as an example we can use as a model for other activities inspired by YouTube videos. Briefly describe unboxing videos. Demonstrate a two-minute unboxing video live for participants. Lead group discussion about how unboxing videos could be used in a variety of classes (grade levels, content areas) as a gateway to meaningful learning. Share planning protocols (questions, guides they can use). Share products students could create (videos, graphic organizers, story boards, essays, etc.). Ask for participant suggestions.
TOP 10 VIDEO (20 MINS): Introduce the top 10 genre of YouTube videos and its variations (top 20, top 100, top 5, top 3, etc.) and the higher-level thinking that goes into them (selecting topic, selecting criteria, choosing selections, ranking selections and justifying them, explaining why non-selections didn't make the cut, etc.). Have participants fill out a top 3 video graphic organizer as if they were students (topic: top 3 favorite classroom supplies) on their devices in a shared Google Slide presentation (so they can see each other's slides when finished). Connect top 10 videos to student products (as discussed prior). Share planning protocols (planning guides, questions for students to answer, etc.). Ask for participant suggestions.
OTHER YOUTUBE GENRES (10 MINS): After doing deep dives into two types of YouTube videos, introduce several other YouTube genres (i.e. product reviews, makeup tutorials, tour videos, etc.). Share connections to learning and classroom content. Ask participants for suggestions. Share session resources and close.
Reticular activating system (via University of Minnesota Extension): https://extension.umn.edu/two-you-video-series/ras
Student engagement using video: Tech Like a Pirate, book by Matt Miller
Limbic system and its impacts on learning: https://www.simplypsychology.org/limbic-system.html
Effect of emotions on long-term learning: LaBar, K. S., & Cabeza, R. (2006). Cognitive neuroscience of emotional memory. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 7(1), 54. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16371950
Return
Trips and Tours