Hi Dick, I can understand Dave's and the other YouTubers' position but the way I see this project it is more akin to sites like Pluralsight or LinkedIn Learning (formerly Lynda.com) rather than YouTube. YouTube is good for killing time and learning in a non-structured manner. Pluralsight or LinkedIn are more structured like a class curriculum where you can set a goal and achieve a result such as passing a certification exam or do focused, step by step learning on a particular skill. I am a past and current user of these learning sites for my professional needs. Our company sponsors membership, and employees get to train for free on their own time. My previous employer used Lynda.com and my current one offers Pluralsight. What YouTube doesn't offer that these sites do: Structure and curriculum Ability to add learning exercises Skill assessments etc. In essence, YouTubers tend to produce single videos about specific subjects or may produce a series. A Pluralsight or LinkedIn Learning course will instead do videos and live, interactive demos in chapters that address one of the biggest barriers to learning - short (and growing shorter by the minute) attention spans. Not to knock Dave Cassler and the rest of great ham YouTube creators, but I've seen some of the content and sometimes it goes rather long and rambling. What would happen is someone may start, then lose interest and leave. Some people have the patience to sit through and watch a whole video. Many do not. This is a limitation of the YouTube system. YouTube was not really designed for learning. It was originally designed for sharing home videos and videos that proved something happened (it was exactly that in the early days pre-Google, and it was actually inspired in part by Janet Jackson's now famous Superb Owl wardrobe malfunction). Eventually it morphed into a place where people could learn and entertain themselves. A learning system on the other hand allows one to take a lesson, or two, or three then take a break and resume later, tomorrow or next week. You do pace yourself but the system should remind you and guide you so that you set a good pace and that your recent lessons (which later lessons build on) is not lost, and is instead reinforced. Reprehensions about cost aside, I am actually quite happy that the league is choosing to do something like this. I feel that if we encourage hams to learn in a structured manner that they could gain a lot more. What I would like to see eventually as well is an entry level license course for techs, provided free of charge. This I feel will have a good effect of bringing in new amateurs and getting them in at the ground level with the league. They will hopefully view the league as having invested in them and they will then be more tempted to stick with us. And I would hope that the league is reaching out to creators such as Dave Cassler, Hoshnasi and others. If we can contract them to do a course curriculum and interactive learning, I feel that their "star power" would be a win. Let them help with designing curricula and also doing the videos. They have engagement as measured by subscribers and they already are doing ham learning videos. On a side note, I am also still hoping that the inclusivity and diversity question that I brought up at the M+H presentation is suitably addressed. I am really not happy about this at all. The excuse I got from the M+H person that they were studying current trends and targeting to that to me seems like a recipe for certain failure. We need to ensure that we are broad in our reach and welcoming to all, rather than just targeting who already naturally comes to join the league and amateur radio. The fact that there was not even one person of color or female in the presentation strikes me as alarming. Yes, we exist in Amateur radio and at greater numbers than many realize. There are even entire national organizations run by hams who are persons of color and/or female hams. While we may not have the numbers as white, male, older aged hams, we need to feel that we are welcomed as equals, or the league will most certainly lose us. 73 Ria, N2RJ On Tue, 5 Feb 2019 at 13:28, Richard J. Norton <richardjnorton@gmail.com> wrote:
At the recent Quartzfest ARRL Forum, I mentioned that the Board had approved a contract to build the framework for a "Lifelong Learning" web-site that is intended to educate newcomers to Amateur Radio and eventually result in a higher percentage of newly licensed hams becoming and continuing to be ARRL members. I commented that, at present, content for the site had not been specifically identified or produced.
The first audience member responded positively, stating that that was a desirable step for the League to undertake.
The second respondent sarcastically asked if I was aware of a site called YouTube.
The third was more specific. He introduced himself as Dave Casler, KE0OG. He has more than 400 free ham radio videos on his YouTube site, with over 47,000 subscribers. I found his site at https://www.youtube.com/user/davecasler .
Casler didn't seem impressed with the creation of a new ham radio framework for a web-site with no content, and seemed somewhat miffed that no attention was paid to existing web-sites and material that appeared to match ARRL's future goals. Casler even expressed possible interest in having his material accessed through the League.
He also added that K7AGE, who was also at Quartzfest, also has a web-site with videos. I found that K7AGE's site has over 31,000 subscribers. K7AGE's site, https://www.youtube.com/user/K7AGE?feature=mhee , then lists another 10 ham radio related web-sites.
W2AEW - 101,000 subscribers Steve WG0AT - 5,000 subscribers HamRadioNow - 11,000 subscribers KN4AQ - 1,700 subscribers EEVblog - 621,000 subscribers HamRadioConcepts - 43,000 subscribers Jim W6LG - 17,000 subscribers Kevin Loughlin - 15,000 subscribers Dave Tadlock - 20,000 subscribers DX Commander - 9,000 subscribers
I would have hoped that all these 12 and any other competitive resources would have been researched, their capabilities and user statistics summarized, and potential impact on the proposed new web-site made clear, before we proceeded with funding. Apparently I was the only Board member with this view.
Note that there are many other non-video ham-radio related web-sites with text and charts.
I still don't understand how the League expects viewers to pay for most content, given the free competition. I still remember the sample initial page shown at the Thursday night presentation where there was a box at the top labeled something like "Free Trial." Possibly someone here can explain the rationale.
Even at this stage, I still think it would be valuable for the staff to put together a compilation of competitive resources, and any planned approach to their presence.
73,
Dick Norton, N6AA _______________________________________________ arrl-odv mailing list arrl-odv@reflector.arrl.org https://reflector.arrl.org/mailman/listinfo/arrl-odv