When YouTube is blocked (nine ways around it) Off Campus

1. Check out a wide variety of alternate video portals.  You may find that the same videos (or decent alternates) have been uploaded to sites less likely to be blocked, for instance TeacherTube, SchoolTube.

2. TechCrunch recently shared a YouTube download tool.  Enter the YouTube URL for the video in the search box and the video will be downloaded and converted to flv format.  Download and use VLC, a cross-platform media player to view it.

3. Zamzar is one of my go-to tools for any type of file conversion, and it also allows you to download media. Enter the URL of the YouTube video you need and your email address.  Zamzar will convert the video to the format you selected and send you an email with a link that allows you to download the converted file.  The video file can now live on your desktop or flash drive. 

4. KickYouTube is kind of amazing. It works like this:
Load the URL for the YouTube video in your browser (I chose My Hope, one of my favorite videos, an original song by sweetafton23 about digital footprints): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avxpn_MsPYs

Insert the word "kick" between the www. and the youtube.com section of the URL:
http://www.kickyoutube.com/watch?v=avxpn_MsPYs

The page will reload with the KickYouTube toolbar. You will be prompted to choose a video format--FLV, MPG, MP3, HD MP4, AVI, iPhone, etc.  MOV does not seem to be an option.

Note--The KickYouTube site offers a video demonstration in English and Spanish on how to use the service. You actually need to begin in the address line in YouTube to initiate the kicking process. 

5. The Googlesystem blog offers instructions for downloading YouTube videos as MP4 files. (In fact they link to a Google search with a variety of result options listing other possible strategies.)

6. A strategy for including YouTube (and other Flash) videos in PowerPoint presentations and along the way introduced the Wikihow. It's gone kinda viral as an alternate to linking or to downloading and converting videos to WMVs using Zamzar.

7. And finally, similar to KickYouTube, Wikihow also suggests How to Download YouTube Videos Using Voobys.  There's also a YouTube explanation.

8.  Fast Video Download is a Firefox add-on that works well with its accompanying FLV player tool (for PCs).  It works for me, on my MacBook, in combination with old favorite Zamzar for converting those FLV files to MOVs.

9. The latest version of Real Player now has an easy to use media converter.


Adopted from Joyce Valenza’ SLJ blog. December 19, 2008