"You Tube Studies"

Few people have heard about the small Pitzer College in Claremont, CA yet one professor is gaining attention for the intimate, private college by breaking ground for a new way classes are taught. Professor Alexandra Juhasz, from the media studies department, was not satisfied with the content found on YouTube and is now teaching a class based solely on and about the site. The idea is to film every class and post them online so other students and other people can watch the video and possibly post their own video responses.

I can not remember what we, as students, did without YouTube. In everyone of my classes it is used by teachers and students with lectures and presentations. As this is the case, no one can choose to ignore the site. Professor Juhasz is wanting her students to "think about cultural references, what makes a great work of art and how to define a truly democratic medium."

I think this idea of online video teaching was bound to happen at one point and through YouTube it has become possible. I personally think it is a great innovative idea. The professor makes a great point by saying we are living in the YouTube generation. She sees the importance of recognizing the limitations and taking in the culture of research. Not only should students learn to use the site they should learn how to make their own videos. This will allow people to actively participate in creative media production that could be beneficial in their future careers.

Since the class is being taught for the first time, it is being taught as a trial and error run. If the students don't like it towards half of the semester then the last half of the semester will be set in a more traditional classroom setting without the video cameras.

Professor Weisgerber said that there was a proposal to have a similar course taught here at St. Edward's University but it was rejected due to privacy issues. I can only predict that other colleges, depending on the success Pitzer has, will want to jump on board and add similar classes to their curriculum. Only time will tell...

How do you all feel about it?

If you would like to read the article the link is below as well as the University's homepage.

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2007/09/06/youtube

http://www.pitzer.edu/
http://www.youtube.com/MediaPraxisme