W3V2

It amazes me how a little video created by an average person can suddenly, with the phenomenon that is YouTube, go “viral” and be seen by thousands (sometimes even millions) of people. The TV channel VH1 even has a “top 10 viral videos” show. If you have not heard of the “dramatic chipmunk” or “rickrolling” then you are missing out on some funny-wierd internet pop culture (or maybe I need to spend less time on the computer).

When Karl Fisch, the Director of Technology at Arapahoe High School in Littleton, CO created his “Did You Know” Powerpoint presentation for a faculty meeting and then posted it on YouTube, it went viral. This means that it was viewed and reposted by many different people. The original YouTube video was posted on 1/19/07, has had 966,462 views. It was edited by Scott Mcleod to remove references to the high school and reposted on 2/08/2007. This version has had 3,802,451 views and has been reposted about 131 times.

After the original video became so well known, a professional visual communications company named XPLANE offered to create new graphics for the video and, with some different information, new music and a new look, “Did You Know 2.0″ was created. This is the video that was shown at PLCMC’s Staff Day 2007. This version has been on YouTube since June 22, 2007 and has been viewed 1,782,889 times and has been reposted 12 times.

On Karl’s blog The Fischbowl http://thefischbowl.blogspot.com (”a staff development blog for Arapahoe High School teachers exploring constructivism and 21st century learning skills”) you can read all about his sources for this video and download both videos.

I think that this video is successful because it is as surprising as it is thought-provoking. Every time it runs on the TVs in Virtual people stop and watch. Even though it is really just a simple Powerpoint presentation, it’s power is in the information it communicates.

Here is both the original Did You Know and Did You Know 2.0 (they are also sometimes called “Shift Happens”)

Did You Know

Did You Know 2.0