Twenty-First Century Learning Skills


Learn 2.0 teaches internet skills using a variety of popular and useful Web 2.0 tools. Learning to use these tools online helps you to navigate the internet and develop the skills you need to succeed in today's classroom or workplace.

This blog is based on the work of Helene Blowers. Her 23 Things has been used and adapted by hundreds of libraries, schools, businesses and non-profits. Thank you Helene for changing the world!


Lesson 12: Embed Videos

In our lesson on Flickr and other photo editing services, we learned the importance of crediting photographers for their work when you post one of their photos on your blog or elsewhere on the internet.
You can also post YouTube videos on your blog, personal website, or on your Facebook account.  This is called "embedding" a video, and when done properly, the video links back to the creator's account on YouTube.  This means you can use the video to show your friends and readers while still giving credit and linking back to the creator so you do not violate any copyright laws.

 Photo courtesy of JodiGreen at Flickr.com.

   
What Does Embedding Mean?

All websites and webpages are created using different types of code called programming languages.  Services like Google Blogger do the hard work for you by taking your instructions and turning them into the code necessary to design the blog.  The most common programming language is HTML, or HyperText Markup Language.  You don't have to learn this new language to embed videos because YouTube will give you the right piece of code to make the video appear and play on your own page.

We learned about gadgets earlier in Learn 2.0.  Gadgets work by taking pieces of code and plugging them in to your blog.  Embedding works in the same way.  YouTube gives you a piece of code that already includes all of the instructions to show the video and link it back to the original YouTube page.


Video Embedding Activity

Go to http://www.youtube.com/ and sign in to your account using the login you created in Lesson 11.

In this activity, you are going to embed one of the videos you added to your YouTube favorites into your blog and write a short post about why it is meaningful to you.
  1. Open your Favorites list by clicking on your username in the top right corner of the page and choosing "Favorites" from the dropdown menu.
  2. Open a new tab in your web browser and sign in to your Blogger account.  Create a new post.
  3. On the YouTube video page, just below the video display, click on "Embed" to open the embedding menu.  See the  picture below for an example of what the embed menu should look like once it is open.
  4. Click the checkbox to include a border and choose the colour of your border.
  5. Copy the piece of HTML code from the YouTube page. 
  6. Go back to your new blog post.  Click the "Edit HTML" tab at the top of the text box.  Paste the piece of code into the HTML box.  Then click "Compose" to go back to the regular blog posting view.  You should see a shaded grey box; this is where the video will appear after you publish the post.
  7. Below the video, write 2-3 paragraphs about the video and how it relates to your learning or employment goals.

Publish the blog post and view your blog to make sure the video is working properly.  If it is not, ask your instructor to help you embed the video.

Send us an email at adult.learning@gmail.com to let us know you have completed Lesson 12. Click on the form at the bottom of the page and fill it out to be able to enter the monthly draw.

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