Education Through Youtube (Part 1)

Getting With The Times

On a recent episode of Brashcast; the podcast I host with my good friend Liam, we were discussing the recent "PewDiePie" racism scandal. This brought us around to the topic of whether or not we are simply too old to watch these youtube "personalities", as we both expressed the opinion that neither of us were fans of PewDiePie, but being guys who enjoy gaming and with an ear to the ground for gaming news, we were both aware of him and his particular schtick. The issue of his credibility as an entertainer came up, and while I acknowledged that his latest scandal was made worse by his inarticulate attempt at "being real for a second, guys", I did appreciate that it must be tough to evolve his channel from the sort of loud, whacky, pandering nonsense that made him a multi-millionaire to something that really tries to say something important. The tonal shift between what his fans expect from him and the stunt that he pulled (which I won't go into, as it's not strictly relevant) is more than most people were ready for, and he's paid the price for it. He has lost sponsors, who were happy for him to shout into his microphone while playing bad games, with a fanbase of tweens looking on in adulation.

PewDiePie misjudged his audience and how his sponsors would react to his change in content.

The whole conversation on Brashcast caused me to consider the evolution of Youtube as an entertainment and educational medium. Every once in a while, youtube celebrates its milestones by recounting its most famous videos. Sneezing pandas, Charlie biting his brother's finger and every iteration of the bunker scene from "Downfall" with misspelled comedy subtitles have been entertaining us in short chunks for over a decade now. While I am still as prone to watching cat videos or shows about videogame news, I have in recent years started to accumulate a catalogue of youtube creators who are dedicated to improving the world, one viewer at a time. These people are scattered throughout youtube, and regardless of what your chosen passions may be, there's almost certainly a professional that has decided to start a channel where you can learn how to improve yourself.

I've heard people speak about how they would have killed for the free information that circulates on the internet these days, and that "kids these days" don't realise the resources that they have now. There are channels dedicated to fitness, yoga, composing and performing music, make-up tutorials and even some candid discussions on mental health from people who are going through or have gone through tough times. Personally, I have used youtube tutorials and a bit of "google-fu" to perform the following tasks:

Build a Raspberry Pi emulation machine
Fix my bike when it was broken
Build a PC
Start a blog
Record a podcast
Make chiptunes
Create very simple games in Unity
Figure out where to go on Holiday, and what to do when I'm there
Work out what backpack to buy

And the list goes on. I feel like many people don't give youtube the acknowledgement it deserves as an educational tool, and while guides to performing relatively simple tasks like burying your waterlogged phone in rice are useful for some, I'd like to take the time to acknowledge the youtube creators who are committing themselves to educating people. These are the men and women who have redeemed youtube in my eyes, raising it above a casual source for videos of dogs greeting their estranged owners, cats being rescued from highway embankments and short comedic skits (all styles that I have personally enjoyed).

Being the colossal nerd that I am, I have chosen some shows that follow the theme of dissecting pop-culture and teaching us about why we enjoy the movies, books and of course; the video games that we love so much. I've also chosen some shows that are straight-up educational tools to assist an aspiring writer and game designer. This will read a little bit like my blog about the podcasts that I love, and hopefully it will inspire some people to check them out. Many of you have probably already figured out that youtube is an awesome resource for self-improvement, but I felt like after bashing PewDiePie and by extension, youtube "personalities", I should acknowledge that there's way more to it than that. Here is a list of the Youtube channels that have been inspiring me lately. Please note that each title header comes with a link to the relevant creator's Patreon Page, where you can support them in their work and even get rewards.

Crash Course

Hank and John Green are internet superstars at this point, having started the "Brotherhood 2.0" project back in 2007, with the ambition of forming a tighter bond between two brothers who live in different parts of the USA. As someone who is soon to be living in a different country from both of his brothers, I can understand the calling to maintain regular contact. John is an accomplished author, who has given TED talks and is at this point, if not an authority; then at least a competent conversationalist on the topic of almost everything. Hank is a trained Biochemist, climate change activist and entrepreneur who also speaks across a huge range of subjects.

The two brothers created the channel "Crash Course" in 2012. This channel was designed as a primer of sorts, for the different subjects that were available on the American High School curriculum. While the show is child-friendly, it teaches about subjects that I knew little or nothing about. I don't recall how I stumbled across it, but I have thoroughly enjoyed learning about a range of subjects thanks to the Green brothers. Subjects such as:

Literature
Computer Science
Physics
World History
American History
"Big" History (History of the Universe, etc)
Psychology
Anatomy & Physiology
Economics
Philosophy and even more...

While the brothers used to host the shows, when they started getting increasingly busy, they reached out to specialists to help them. They are always interesting, even if the subject itself isn't your cup of tea, and they always have cute little interstitial videos that are sprinkled throughout the shows. The Green brothers created the group "Nerd-fighters" with the slogan "Don't Forget To Be Awesome!" (or DFTBA) and they are seemingly one of the internet age's true forces for good. It's just lucky that they're entertaining as well.

Recommended Videos:

Crash Course US History #1
Crash Course World History #1 (yes, I am a history nerd)
Crash Course Literature: The Odyssey

The Nerdwriter

The Nerdwriter channel is essentially a series of short video essays, dissecting elements of modern society, with a particular emphasis on movies and TV. Its creator Evan Puschak is a former film student and has been making videos as the Nerdwriter since 2011. He describes the channel's aim as "cultivating worldview", and while his Patreon blurb comes across as a little bit high-minded and pretentious, his videos are genuinely insightful and intelligently written essays on whatever he wants to discuss. As mentioned, he has a particular predeliction for cinema, but he has also covered topics such as social media, video games and even political discourse. His breakdown of how Trump speaks has left me unable to un-hear it.

His dissection of films cover the full range of disciplines, from acknowledgement of the pacing of a particular scene, what makes an actor like Anthony Hopkins special and why he believes that "Passable Movies" need to become a thing of the past if innovation is to have its place. While not explicitly educational, his videos offer insight into not only the imaginary worlds of movies and TV, but also the way human beings are manipulated by what they see.

History Buffs

Nick Hodges' "History Buffs" is a show for those of us who can't help but feel uncomfortable watching a movie, knowing that it's rife with historical inaccuracies. Maybe it's part of being Scottish and having sat through Braveheart on multiple occasions, but it's always troubling for a history nerd like me to watch a movie without the opportunity to express my frustration at the seemingly simple mistakes that studios make in the name of mass-market appeal, simplification or simple ignorance.

In the show, Nick dissects a well known movie that is based on true historical events. He doesn't pay specific attention to a particular era, and so his shows cover World War 2 (Saving Private Ryan) to Ancient Rome and Greece (Gladiator & 300). Maybe it's because I myself am an insufferable know-it-all, but I really enjoy learning little bits of history as I see movies (some being good, others not so much) being discussed on screen.

His shows do vary in length, though. I quite like the 10-25 minute long episodes, but I can understand if some people wouldn't want to sit and watch his episodes on Apollo 13 or Dances With Wolves, which are almost an hour long. If nothing else, his show might inspire you to go back and watch a favourite old movie with an eye for the little things you might have missed.

Knowledge Hub/Alternate History Hub

So this channel isn't strictly educational, as much as it is an artful use of geography, history and anthropology to create science-fiction stories of the "what if?" varieties. From the now cliche question of "what if the Nazis had won?" to the somewhat ironic "what if YouTube destroyed us all?", Cody has steered his channel in a way that crosses fan-service with genuine research and goes some ways to settling those geeky arguments that friends have about both real-life history and their favourite movies and TV shows.

The show always points out that this is just speculation, and that realistically, it's almost impossible to predict what would have happened had things gone differently. He does always back up his ideas with well researched study of the subject, often projecting the ramifications of these alternate timelines outwards to their final conclusions. The result is really a series of short-form sci-fi stories that are well presented and professionally made. Eat your heart out, Phillip K. Dick!

Coming in Part 2

So that's it for part 1. I hope that anyone reading might be inspired to try out one or maybe more of these channels. Their creators are constantly working to make the world a better place, and to spread a message that it's cool and fun to learn. I know that makes me sound like a high school school teacher who's just "trying to reach the keedz" but I think that these shows are doing a good job of supplanting a lot of the crap that America passes off as "documentaries". While the "History Channel" and "Discovery" take the 4 minutes between adverts to show us obese racists who made a fortune on duck whistles, or people raking through defaulted storage lockers, this content is educating and entertaining us at the same time. (Although I did have to sit through a short advert about car insurance that had James Corden in it, which was a trial).

In part 2, I will focus my beam of praise on the video creators who are educating me in my career as a videogame developer and helping me to understand what makes a videogame worth playing, and how the industry can push forwards. I know this is a more niche topic, which is why I covered my more "pop culture" themed shows in part 1. The next part will cover videos about game design, storytelling and narrative design, game development as a business, AI & behaviour models, as well as some slightly drier lectures from the legends of the games industry.

Until then, thanks for reading!

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