At a meeting recently there was a question about saving useful Youtube videos. Many local authorities do not allow access to Youtube as some of the content is unsuitable for schools but there are also many videos that would be useful for a teacher to access for use in school. In the Spring 09 New in CALL newsletter there was an article about how to do this. It had been found that the easiest way to do this was to use KickYoutube.

In order to use this the word 'kick' is typed in after the 'www' and before 'youtube' in the adress line eg http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNdijknRxfU&feature=related becomes http://www.kickyoutube.com/watch/?v=sNdijknRxfU&feature=related. This particular link is to a video about a couple of chemical reactions that help illustrate the reaction of alkaline metals in water. As these experiments may get done only once in class (and with less reactive metals due to safety issues) a Youtube video could be used for illustration, for revision, for pupils absent on the day, for pupils in hospital or at home due to health or social issues.

Once a suitable video has been found and opened in KickYoutube you will now have a series of rectangular buttons across the top of the video with a number of different alternative formats. Probably the most appropriate one to use will be MP4.

To convert the video :

1. check that MP4 is selected
2. click on the green 'Go' button - button then changes to a blue 'Down' button
3. on a PC - right click on the blue 'Down' button
4. on a Mac - control click on the blue 'Down' button
5. on a PC  - select Save target as ...
6. on a Mac - select Save linked file as ....
7. .... and locate where to save the file eg pen drive if wanting to use on a different computer
8. give file an appropriate name and save
9. the saved file can be played using iTunes or QuickTime, both free and available for PC and Mac.

NB On a Mac works in Safari but not Firefox