As educators, we realize the value of Youtube and Google Videos.  However, if you teach at a school like mine, most video sharing sites are blocked due to the potential danger of exposing our students to content that is inappropriate.  There is so much wonderful content that gets thrown out with the “bath water” so to speak.  How can you harness the value of these videos if you can’t even access them at school?

I suppose you could try to find your video on school friendly sites such as TeacherTube or SchoolTube, but to be honest, there is better content on Youtube and Google Videos.  This does not mean there isn’t good material on these websites, but it just means they are not the most popular platform for sharing videos online.

There is a solution though, which allows you to download Youtube videos while at school.  The internet is full of online converters that will take a Youtube link or other video link and convert it to a format which you can download and view from any computer.  Some of these services are free, while others will charge you a fee.  Many of these converters will not work though while you are at school (trust me, I’ve tried at my school).  They will work just fine at home, but not at school (see this link for some of the better online video, document, and image converters on the internet).

In my searching, I have found three services that can be used while at school.  (Disclaimer:  Your school may block these websites or prevent them from working at your school.)  The three services I have found to work are:  Zamzar.com, YouConvertIt.com, and FLVto.com.  Zamzar will support Youtube and Google Video downloads.  YouConvertIt and FLVto only support Youtube videos.  Occassionally I have had issues with these two choices though.  Because of this, the rest of the article will focus on using Zamzar’s free service.

Zamzar is a FREE online file conversion service.  They can convert between various image, music, document, and video types.  Any of these files that are saved on your computer can be converted using this service (ex. Word Document to PDF or vice versa).  It also allows you to download and convert online videos.  I know for sure it works with Youtube and Google Video, but it might work with other video services as well.

In order to download a video from Youtube (or Google), you will need to know the Youtube video link.  This will generally require you to have found the Youtube video at home and emailing the link to yourself.  If you know the name of a particular video though, you could possibly search for it in Google or some other search engine and be able to find the video link you are searching for.

1. Once you know the video link, go to Zamzar.com.
2. Next, in the middle of the page you should see a boxed area with tabs.  The tabs read:  Convert Files, Download Videos, and Manage Files.  You will want to click Download Videos.
3. You will then want to copy and paste the video link into Step 1.  Make sure your link includes “http://” or it won’t work.  It also will not work if you have “http://http://www…..”.
4. In Step 2, you will choose the file format you wish to play.  Windows PCs typically work best with WMV file formats for videos.  You will need to select this file format.  Other common video formats that should work on PCs include MPG and AVI.  You will need to make sure you have the right codec installed on the computer for these to work properly though.  If you are using a Mac computer I would recommend selecting the MOV file format.
5. Step 3 requires you to enter a valid email address.  The download link will be emailed to you once the file has been converted to the format you selected in Step 2.
6. Click “Convert” in Step 4.
7. Zamzar will then download the video from Youtube (or Google).  This may take a few minutes depending on the size of the video file and your internet connection speed.  Once it is downloaded, Zamzar will notify you that you will be emailed the link to the video file once it has been converted.
8. I have discovered it generally takes 5-15 minutes for this process to occur.
9. Once the email is sent to you, click the link in the email.  This will open up your default web browser, which will then show the link to download the video that was just converted.  Click “Download Now”.
10. You will probably be asked if you want to “Open” or “Save” the file.  I always select Save so I can choose where it is saved on my computer.  Your browser might have an automatic download location though.  I generally save the file to My Desktop so I can quickly and easily find the file.  I will then transfer it to a Flash Drive or some other device for later viewing though.
11. Once it is downloaded, you can open the file and play it to make sure it works.

Some things to remember:

• The free version is limited to 100 MB file sizes
• The download link is valid for only 24 hours
• If you can’t find where the video was saved on your computer, you can always search for the video name (found in the email containing the link).  DO NOT include the “.flv” in the search though.
• If Zamzar or the other websites do not work at school, you can always use these services at home and download the video files there.
• You Tech Coordinator might be able to unblock individual videos on Youtube if you give them enough heads up and a valid explanation for unblocking the video.

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