We’re heading over to the YouTubes with Thing 18 of 23 Things on a Stick. As you can tell by the way I’ve pluralized YouTube (like President Bush pluralized the internets), I’ve had some experience with the site. Much of my experience comes from my children and my husband saying, “Hey, you’ve gotta see this!” and then we watch a video together.
My youngest child prefers videos that display sophomoric humor. He also has a friend who creates and uploads videos and has even been know to help with the production of those videos. I, along with my husband and daughter, prefer music videos. My husband and I are especially keen to find music videos from when we were kids. We are of the generation that remembers MTV going on the air (August 1, 1981 – First video: Video Killed the Radio Star by the Buggles).
Our eldest son likes to watch gaming-related videos on YouTube. When I typed “museum” into YouTube’s search feature, the first video on the list was one that my eldest son originally showed me. It is a commercial that was created for the release of the game Halo 3. What I love about this video is that the folks who made it chose to depict someone who had been in combat in Halo 3 as a war hero who is remembering a battle by going to a museum. It’s a brilliant wedding of old-school learning (through museums) with new-school technology (gaming). It also indicates that museums are not obsolete, that the younger generation appreciates and trusts what museums do. Here’s the video: