Learning How-To from YouTube

I like to learn new things. Most recently, I've been learning how to restore wood furniture. I've completed two dressers, a bookcase, a few coffee tables, and a sofa table. I've also refinished a few other pieces that aren't as easy to define--a one-drawer farm-ish side table and a media cabinet-type unit I use as a liquor cabinet. This summer, I'm going to tackle my biggest project yet: a pedestal table with five chairs.  

When I decided I wanted to learn how to restore furniture, I didn't consult a book, a manual, or a person. Instead, I turned to YouTube. With over 77,000 videos returned when searching for "how to refinish furniture," it would seem I'm not alone.

Refinishing furniture is hardly the only skill one can learn from YouTube. From how to roast pumpkin seeds to how to make a PDF, the user-generated content on YouTube explains it all. According to YouTube, over 6 billion hours of video are watched each month—almost an hour for every person on Earth (2014). While not all of these hours are spent watching how-to videos, the rise of YouTube as a resource for building knowledge and understanding across multiple content areas creates a variety of questions. What does it mean, for example, to understand a process laid out in an instructional YouTube video? How does it differ from understanding the process itself? What exactly is the relationship between viewing a YouTube video about roasting a pumpkin seed and understanding how to roast a pumpkin seed?

Still more questions occur when one considers the relationship between YouTube instructional videos and literacy (broadly defined). The types of knowledge and understanding required to make sense of what viewers encounter on YouTube extends beyond mere content--users must assess the accuracy of video content, determine the trustworthiness of the source, and align new knowledge with previous knowledge. These and other issues would seem to be contained within the idea of literacy 2.0, which represents the multiple ways of making meaning in the modern world. How literacy 2.0 affects school-aged children is of particular interest here. Indeed, scholarly attention to children's viewing digital media, like YouTube, is prolific. Thus far, however, focus on the relationship between YouTube instructional videos and children is less so. (I'm no expert, but after some digging on Google Scholar, I feel confident making this assertion. Please, feel free to correct me!)

One can imagine a number of questions related to YouTube instructional videos and children worth investigating. We know new media present children with multiple entry points for learning--what is the role of instructional videos in this context? How exactly do children use instructional videos? What does engagement with instructional videos look like?

Based on my own experience with YouTube instructional videos, I cannot help but wonder how I might incorporate them into my teaching. I learned how to refinish furniture. What might my students be able to learn?