On April 2nd my 8 year old son posted a video to Youtube to showcase a rollercoaster he built. We shared it on this blog as a blog post. I was not sure what to expect and just wanted him to have the chance to do something that interested him. My only rule was that he speak and explain his thoughts(the teacher in me).
About a week later he has over 50 views. I know that is not a lot in the YouTube sense, but it is a lot for an 8 year old testing out the waters of social media. I showed him how to look at the views and to check for comments. He was so happy to see that people actually watched his video. It was like he was testing out the waters himself to see if it was worthwhile.
A few days after posting he had a comment left on the YouTube site by the infamous Jo Kay who is a staple in the Minecraft world. Jo had challenged Aiden to build a better rollercoaster and gave him a place to start with learning and viewing. This was all that was needed for him to continue his self learning. Over the last few days he had been working hard to meet that challenge for Jo.
Here is what is cool about this whole process. He wanted to record again, but this time it was different. He is stuck. He has watched I don't know how many videos, but he just cannot grasp what he wants to do. This time around he asked me to leave the room so he could record by himself. I let him do that, but I did edit the video because there were some long pauses of nothing going on. As I condensed the video I realized I have another chance to teach him about presentation skills, tips, and ideas.
To make things even cooler he had a comment left for him on the blog by another 8 year old who lives in China and likes his rollercoaster. I have never seen a smile so big when he found out another kid his age left a comment. He feels so special to have these two comments. Now he is working on connecting to these people online to learn and to teach others. It is a rather remarkable journey that we are embarking on together.
So, here is a link to this latest video where you can see his two attempts at making a Pez Dispenser rollercoaster from the challenge and some other ideas he has.
http://youtu.be/LjPLwUV4-Nw
Like a typical 8 year old who is excited and working through the process he skips around so bare with him. He laid out his plans for his Minecraft video series last night so they will only get better and I think he has plans to show the Ender dragon and all that jazz.
Let the journey continue.........
And if you have any suggestions or ideas for him leave a comment here or on YouTube.
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