A Turn to Learn

Ed Tech Integration in the Elementary Classroom

How to Download Videos Off YouTube

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Time flies when you’re having fun… and it flew all the way to Tuesday again!  Thank you for all of your votes again!  The winner for this week’s tutorial is: How to Download Videos off YouTube.

How to Download Videos from YouTube

 

Note: Most “YouTubers” make their money from views off of advertisements, so if you can watch the video directly on YouTube, that would support the video creator who shared the video at no cost in the first place!  Also, please note that this tutorial is strictly for educational use.  By no means can you sell or redistribute the videos you download.

I primarily download YouTube videos for:

  • Organization!  How nice would it be to have that subtraction song in the “Subtraction” folder on your computer, along with all of the other subtraction resources you have?
  • Saving Time!  When you’re teaching every second is key!  The time you spent searching online for a video during class is not as productive as it could be!  Redistribute those seconds/minutes to asking higher-order thinking questions about the video!
  • Reliability!  Even if your internet goes down at work (or even if your work blocks YouTube), you’ll still have access to that great video that you wanted to show the class!

There are so many ways to download YouTube Videos, but I’m just going to detail my two favorites:  one doesn’t require you to install any software onto your computer.  The other is quicker and more streamline, but requires you to use Firefox.

Now, for the first option: How to download YouTube videos without installing any software. This tutorial uses the website Save Media.

Option Two: The easier way to download YouTube videos (this tutorial only applies to Mozilla Firefox users!  This tutorial uses the add-on Flash Got All.)

Enjoy!

Comments

  5. smamaya says

    This is incredible! My district has YouTube blocked and I've always wondered how I could get access to the literally hundreds of great clips/videos out there to use in my classroom. I am going to spend so much time doing this over summer break! Can't thank you enough!

    • TurntoLearn says

      I can't even imagine that! I use YouTube for everything! We listen to songs (for math, science, and ELA), watch nursery rhymes, and compare and contrast the movie to the book with fairy tales. I'm so glad that you'll finally be able to access these at school!

    • onewoman365 says

      Our district blocks it too. This is awesome, I've always wondered how I could just download the videos I wanted and play them! Thanks!!

  6. Mary Beth says

    Good morning! I'm so impressed. I've done a whole blog post on my blog sending teachers and friends to your blog! Your post is so well done and I can't wait to receive feedback from teachers that go to your blog. I'm a TIS in my district and have two elementaries, one intermediate and one middle school. All will appreciate this post. Additionally, they are going to love that you are posting great Smart Board lessons. YOU ROCK!!! Thanks for sharing. 🙂 Mary Beth – http://skooltechie.blogspot.com/

    • TurntoLearn says

      I hadn't heard of that one. KeepVid is another. I happen to like YouConvertIt since the ads are pretty minimal. Zamzar seems to have minimal ads also, so I'll have keep that one in mind also! Thanks for the tip!

    • TurntoLearn says

      There really are a TON of great educational resources on there! I'm so excited that you'll now be able to use them in your classroom!

  11. Kristy says

    Hello Jessica,

    I love the tips for helping teachers use online videos in class more easily. My district blocks YouTube also. I am having a problem with both ways though. My computer continues to shut down the youconvertit webpage after I paste in the url and hit download. I also tried the Firefox method and the file downloads, but when I click it to play, there is no program on my computer to play the file. It is saving as a webm file and I'm not sure how to change it to an extension that will play. Any help will be appreciated. I would love to start building a collection of videos to play. Thanks for all your great ideas!

    Kristy
    http://firstgradebubblesandtails.blogspot.com/

    • TurntoLearn says

      That's bizarre. Try this alterative:

      If the youtube address is

      add the word save just before youtube.com, like this:

      http://www.saveyoutube.com/watch?v=JHO1aJyxWIE

      You may have install Java if you don't have it installed already, but it will give you a lot of different file options so you can play around to find one that loads on your computer!

      Let me know if that helps!

  12. Ms. Julie aka Southern Teacher says

    Just wanted to put out there that Zamzar, which someone mentioned in an earlier comment, doesn't allow you to convert YouTube videos anymore. I tried to do that today and there was a message that Google made them remove the ability to do that.

    Julie aka Southern Teacher
    southernteacherwbt.blogspot.com

    • TurntoLearn says

      Thanks for the heads up! It seems that the same is happening with a lot of download websites. I am having intermittent luck with youconvertit lately, though FlashGotAll still seems to work very well. I may have to update this post!

  13. Becki says

    OK, this question will definitely show my technology illiteracy. When I download the video to my home computer, how then do I get it to school to use? I totally appreciate any and all help. (And obviously, the easier the steps, the better.)

    • TurntoLearn says

      If you have a USB drive you can copy it onto there and then u it on your work computer. Thats probably the easiest if you don't have Dropbox set up… But if you use Dropbox that might be easier! I'll have to add doing a post about Dropbox onto my tutorial list!

  15. Katie P. says

    Thanks so much!! I love showing videos from Harry Kindergarten and other YouTube channels, but hate waiting for them to load on my slooow school computer!! I'm off to download a few videos now and hope they work on Monday in my classroom! 🙂 Thanks again!

  16. Debbie Gutowski says

    Pinned this a while ago and just used it to save some videos for school tomorrow – thank you so much for the tutorial! Until administration realizes that we can use YouTube for good, this will be SO helpful!

  17. Teresa Smith says

    I agree with Debbie. I had looked at this earlier and just had time to play with it. Until my administration realizes how useful YouTube is for Kindergarten, I will have to download these and take them to school. Thank you so much for the tutorial.

  18. Katie P. says

    Any ideas for when my computer won't play the .flv files?? Is there a way to covert them to another format? I can get them to download, but then they won't play… 🙁

    • TurntoLearn says

      Are you on Mac or PC? On Mac, you can download Wimpy Player or Perian, which is an add-on for QuickTime. On PC, you can use Wimpy Player or DivX. Let me know if that helps!

    • Katie P. says

      I found a free program called Jaksta and it's been working great! It converts the videos into my iTunes and then I upload them onto my district server. We've been loving watching our HarryKindergarten videos with no buffering!!

      Thanks!

  19. Mercedes Hutchens says

    I pinned this post a long time ago. Last week the internet at school was really slow and I promised myself to finally get around to doing this. Thanks for the tips. I love your blog and how clear you are with your tutorials. Thanks.

    Mercedes
    Surfing to Success

  20. Amanda says

    Hi there!

    I need a little help…I used your Option 2 and downloaded Firefox. I was able to get through all the sets just fine except for at the very end when it was time to actually play the downloaded video. My computer didn't know what program to open it in. I chose one from the list, Windows Media Center and that didn't work. Now I can't get back to that list to try a different program…
    Any suggestions??
    Thank you!! -Amanda fsu0819@gmail.com

    • TurntoLearn says

      Right click on the video and do "Open With…" then click "Choose Default Program." Instead of doing Windows Media Center, try Windows Media Player. If that's not listed in the top section of programs, click the arrow next to "Other Programs" and you should find it in that list. At the bottom of that pop-up box, select "Always use the selected program to open this kind of file" then click "OK."

      Let me know if that fixes the problem!

  21. Elizka Markowska says

    Hello, I have also tried the option through Mozilla and encountered the same problem. I tried choosing Windows Media Player but it still does not play the videos. It tells me that the video can not be played due to the way it was coded. Any ideas? Please help.
    Thank you

  23. Stephanie @ 3rd Grade Thoughts says

    This is wonderful! I have a post here that features a lot of YouTube videos and several teachers mentioned their districts block YouTube in classrooms (I would die!). I was so glad to find this and I immediately added a link at the bottom of my post so they could come here and learn these great tips! Thanks so much:) 🙂

    ~Stephanie
    3rd Grade Thoughts

  24. Sara says

    Thank you for sharing. I wish I would've found this a few months ago. My 2-year-old's favorite You Tube version of Chicka Chicka Boom Boom is no longer available. Now I will know for the next time we find something we love! 🙂

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