June 30th, 2021
David Peachment
How I Use YouTube for Learning
YouTube is a powerful and robust host for literally billions of videos. With endless choices to pick from, it can be pretty daunting to sit down to watch some educational videos. Using YouTube to learn can get messy and full of distractions if you don’t have some of the right strategies. So I put together this little blog post with a few things I found helpful for using YouTube to learn.
Subscribing to Educational Channels Only
The first step to having a good educational YouTube experience is to only subscribe to educational channels. This starts with anything that doesn’t help grow you as a person. I unsubscribed from gaming channels, movie channels, and any other channel that didn’t teach me something valuable. Whenever I logged onto YouTube, I would only be faced with videos that could develop my mind and skills. No fluff, only what would help my educational journey. No subject is off-limits with YouTube as well! You will find channels dedicated to every facet of learning. History, science, technology, engineering, it’s all on there! One channel I really enjoy is CrashCourse for teaching a medley of subjects in quick, bite-sized episodes. Another great one is History Matters for fun, illustrated discussions on events of history. Whatever you choose, YouTube has it and can help you learn it! Try searching up your favourite subject and spend some time finding the right channel for you!
Daily Viewing
Next, I made daily viewing of videos a habit. Every day at select times that would become a strong habit, I would sit down to learn something new that YouTube had to offer. By making my watching at a regular time, it became an ingrained habit, and I didn’t have to think about taking the time to sit down and watch a new subject. And by watching daily, I was able to develop my skills and ideas faster than ever before! Set a regular time that you know you can watch videos regularly during it. This could be first thing in the morning or at some point after supper.
Commit to watching every weekday and try it for a few weeks. See how your knowledge and skills grow over that time.
Avoid Clicking on Suggested Videos
The final step is to avoid clicking on suggested videos. These are the little thumbnails that pop up once you finish a video with suggestions for other videos. Sometimes they can be beneficial and helpful to what you are learning, but oftentimes they can be completely unrelated and just an unnecessary distraction. Avoiding the temptation to click on these will keep you much more focused on the subject at hand. If you start clicking, there’s a good chance you’ll keep clicking and clicking. Eventually, you might not be learning anything useful and going down the YouTube rabbit hole. There are several different pieces of software you can install on your computer that can help you stay more focused while on YouTube and only see what you search for. One I like to use is called Distraction Free YouTube. It’s a google chrome plug-in that will disable things such as suggested videos and other options to keep you on track more. If that one isn’t to your liking, I encourage you to do some research and find software that will work for you!
Final Thoughts
YouTube can be great for looking at all sorts of random videos. But it is also great for learning and education. So follow these steps, and you’ll be well on your way to having a super beneficial educational YouTube experience! Let me know in the comments if these tips worked for you or of any tips you think I missed that are useful!
David Peachment