The many uses of YouTube

I remember when YouTube first came out. Back then, I mainly associated it with music and silly videos that people created to spark a frenzy. Since then I have been exposed to a myriad of ways in which YouTube is useful. More specifically, with classroom lectures, I have noticed how my professors have incorporated YouTube into lessons to further elaborate on a given topic of discussion. Being that I am a visual learner, I have found this incorporation to be very helpful in grasping certain ideas and concepts. It also just makes lessons more interesting; being able to take a break from the books to watch a brief clip.

Aside from school, YouTube has been useful in finding tutorials and how-tos for things that I am interested in. The most common thing for me to research online is healthy natural hair and different types of hairstyles. The Southern Tease is one hairstyle in particular in which I am still trying to work out. The following video is one that I refer to when experimenting with this hairstyle:

This video and similar videos help me to actually see the process of creating hairstyles instead of just reading about how to create hairstyles. Other than hair tutorials, I find YouTube useful for listening to music and studying how artists perform different songs. Being a music minor (voice) for a time in undergraduate school, I would often look up videos of performers who I admired, such as Denyce Graves. Her performance of The Lord’s Prayer is one in particular that I was strongly drawn to.

YouTube has proven to be a resourceful tool for both educational and personal uses. It has found its way into my daily life on occasion, as I have used it as a search engine when looking for specific information. I’ve also noticed that when I conduct Google searches, some of the first few results that pop up are YouTube videos. This just goes to shoe the resourcefulness of YouTube. Even when you don’t think you need it, it shows up to be useful anyhow.

Two Peas in a Podcast

Please click on the link below to enter into my new world of podcasting.

Podcasting

Posted using ShareThis

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Forums don’t have to be a bore

Until my presentation on forums last week, my perception of forums was mainly associated with entertainment. When I think of physical forums that people hold, I think of “experts” sitting in a conference room talking about complicated matters. Therefore, I was initially uninterested in online forums. They sounded boring to me.

It was only recently that I delved into the world of forums by accident. I was doing a web search last year on Black hair care, and one of the links that popped up connected to an online hair care forum; Long Hair Care Forum.

Here is a video that describes the value of this forum and others that are similar. (The music is catchy too!)

I didn’t realize at the time that it was a forum because the link went straight to the page that I was interested in. After lurking around some, I found that there were several topics related to my interests with hair care. The forum also contained pictures that users have uploaded to show hair growth progress.

Hair Chart

Although the forum participants are not “experts,” the information that they provide is very useful because they are real people who are using real hair care products and sharing their experiences; good or bad.  I also found topics within the forum related to skin care and general health. It got to the point that I could type in ANYTHING to the search function of this forum, and it was highly likely that someone had started a thread on that topic or at least mentioned the topic somewhere in the forum.

Now, before I purchase any new products, I refer to this online forum because I know that I will get the real scoop.