YouTube 101

"You'll never get anywhere by watching TV all day." That has been a popular refrain uttered by mothers for generations upon generations. Today's mothers may even be saying the same thing about the Internet's version of television, YouTube. Only, this time, they're wrong. You can get somewhere by watching YouTube.

Well, if you attend Pitzer College, that is.

Pitzer has added a new course to its curriculum. The subject: YouTube. (Source: yahoo.com)

"The class is a lot of fun but it is also meant to be serious," stated the course's instructor, Professor Alexandra Juhasz. "It's a serious class where we think critically about the daily culture and questions about a variety of issues as well as aspects of community and debate."

Just as YouTube users control the content of the site, Juhasz's students will do the same for the content of the course. That similarity is by design. The class is purposely structured to parallel the site it's based on.

Juhasz even admits that the students actually know more about YouTube than she does. "One thing that I've learned in teaching," she revealed, "is that it's okay for students to teach me, too."

"I think [the class] should have already happened by now," said one of Juhasz's students, Dan Allen. "Colleges are very good at dealing with what is academically relevant but not always at what impacts lives. YouTube is something that people do daily."

Each class is videotaped, and the footage is posted to -- you guessed it -- YouTube. (Source: claremont-courier.com)

To see "Learning From YouTube" in session, click here: youtube.com/group/learningfromyoutube