Genius Hour Update #7

Today in class, I continued on my research. I think that I've learnt a lot more this class, I think that some transferable knowledge is the three factors that make up success on youtube. The article I read that really helped me was written by Freddie Wong, a fellow youtuber, who makes skits and short films. He mentioned in the article that there aren't any secrets behind the success on youtube, it's about defining your goals, listening to your audience and making quality content. This led me to further learning, and it helped connect the dots of what actually helped with success on youtube. It helped me come up with some sort of answer to my driving question. What makes a successful youtuber has many factors to it, by making high quality content with good lighting and a good quality camera, will attract viewers to watch your videos. By keeping a consistent schedule with your content, and making youtube videos that you enjoy making, this will make viewers want to come back to your channel, soon building your fan base and support, getting more views and doing something you love will bring you success.

Genius Hour Blog Entry #6

By using Eva, from the youtube channel Mylifeaseva, I received a lot of credible and interesting information which made my research easier and stronger. Before this project, I had been watching her youtube videos for a while, and knew that she had been making high quality youtube videos for years. I found her video on starting a successful youtube channel, by searching youtube using my driving question. When I searched it up, the results showed her video, her video talked about tips and tricks on starting youtube. This video was a credible source because the information being given about was coming from a reliable source. Eva Gutowski, has over 1.9 million subscribers on youtube, making videos such as hauls, diys, vlogs, etc. I knew that Eva was a reliable source, due to the fact that she, herself has made successful youtube videos, and she continues on maintaining a successful youtube channel. As said before, I had seen many of her other videos, and looking at the views she has, she makes high quality content. The information that she mentions in this video talks about having a high quality camera, having a fan base, having good lighting, etc really shines through because she herself uses those things. I knew that the information that she gave to the viewers, were some of the things that she, herself have experienced and she decided to share it with others. Though she doesn't mention as many statistics, by telling the audience her own experiences and what she does to get to where she is now seems quite credible. After watching this video, the information being provided helped me understand and research my topic by leading me to a different focus//area, I knew that having a fan base or people who supported your channel was a big factor of being successful on youtube. But after watching this video and hearing about all the factors of cameras and making higher quality content. It led my research to an area of how youtubers make their content successful, and how it attracted a fan base. Overall, I thought that this video by Eva was a very credible source which helped with my research and helping the process of answering my driving question.

Genius Hour Update

Today's class period, I continued to watch videos on the making of a successful youtube channel. One new piece on information that I have received from the youtube channel, youtube.com/drawwithjazza is that when you first get started you should be finding a way to be different from the other channels who are trying to do the same thing as you. I think that this piece of information really helped my research, because it makes me think of the youtubers that are currently very big on youtube, what makes them different from the other channels that are doing the same exact thing. I think that one thing that really makes them different is their personality, but I think that I still need to continue to research about this situation/question. I think that I'm planning on making my own youtube video as my final project, but I'm not quite sure what my video should be about. I think that I will continue to do more research to help me support my question and the definite answer to the question.

Passion Hour Update

Today, I continued on my research by watching youtubers and other youtube channels. At the beginning of this class, I had the thought of using one specific youtuber as a mentor. I thought that if I was able to direct message them, maybe I would be able to have more of the questions I have answered by them. I know that she may not answer them, but I decided to go for it. I asked the questions, "How do you maintain a successful youtube channel? What factors make up a successful youtube account? And do you think that having connections on youtube affect your success?" Another thing that I did today was answering many different surveys that were sent by other students in the class. I think that I will continue to plan on researching, and to think of ideas for my final project.

Genius Hour Update

At the beginning of the class, I wasn't quite sure how I wanted to interpret my question. I was confused on whether I would be focusing on how youtubers were becoming successful in earning money. Or whether I was focusing on how youtubers were becoming successful in a way that attracted viewers to watch their videos leading them to earning more subscribers. I continued to think about it and began to realise that both of those things mentioned above were factors to success for a youtuber. And that's when I began to organise my research and information. I began to search up videos on youtube about how some of the youtubers began a successful YouTube channel, and how they maintained to keep it successful. I started off watching a few videos from some of the youtubers that I had watched before, I could say that I used them as a mentor. What I had realised was how both of them had mentioned a few factors about good quality videos and how to built up a successful youtube channel. They talked a lot about lenses, cameras, lighting, backgrounds, etc and how these little things could make a video look professional and put together. Another factor would be fanbase and networking, but I had realised that if someone just started off making videos they wouldn't instantly have a fanbase. So I thought that having better quality videos would attract subscribers and viewers, soon building a network. I think that with a bit more research, I'll be able to see how I want to make my project. I had an idea of making my own youtube video, but I wasn't too sure. I'm looking forward to continuing my research and to starting my project.

Genius Hour Entry #2

As mentioned in the previous blog post, we have just started a new project called the Passion Project or also known as the Genius Hour. The first step of this project was to create a driving question to lead us and to use during this project. So today in class, we began deciding on our driving questions. In the beginning of class today, I was mostly worried because I had no idea what my passions was. I had an idea of what my passions were, but I wasn't sure how to make my passion into a driving question. I think that after discussing with others, it really helped me decide which passion to pick and what question I could ask. At the beginning of the discussion, I was a bit frustrated. I began to feel frustrated because no matter how many times I repeated the question, I couldn't make it into a deeper driving question. After minutes and minutes of deciding which passion to follow for this project, I had decided to do something on video content and video makers like YouTubers. I think that after finally deciding which passion to decide on, I thought that, that made the process easier. Almost at the end of the hour, I had finally decided on a question. The question was, "What is it that makes a YouTuber successful (or not)?" Overall, I'm looking forward to beginning this project.

Genius Project Blog Entry #1

Recently in RLA we've been introduced to a project called the Genius Hour or the Passion Project. This project allows students to follow their passions, students are allowed as much freedom to create a project that reflects on their passions. I think that one thing that excites me about this project is how much freedom we get. We're allowed to pick a driving questions that pushes us to create a project that we like, so long it's built on our passions. I think that having freedom in this project excites me because usually we don't have much say in the type of project. Usually in our RLA class, we are given a topic to find research about, and to create something specific like a video or a story. I think that with this project, the possibilities are endless, we are able to follow our passions and we're allowed to be different from others. And in this case, being different and doing something different from others is a good thing.

Although this project does seem fun and is a great way for us, the students to follow our passions. There are a few things that do frighten me about it. I think that one thing about this project that frightens me is how much freedom we get and how many passions I have. I think that having many passions may be a bit frighting because since we have many passions that we are passionate about it's difficult to decide which passions to do the project on. For me, I'm not quite sure what passions I have. It frightens me because without knowing what passions we have it gives me more of a difficulty to decide what I want to do the project on. I think that having way too much freedom in this also frightens me because since I'm so used to having been told what to do I think that with too much freedom I would get stuck and may get confused in the middle. I think that at the moment what frightens me the most is what I decide to do my project on. Overall, I think that I'm quite excited about this project.