YouTube and Generation Z Learning

YouTube isn’t just for funny cat videos. As members of Generation Z began to enter law schools across the country, legal educators must be prepared to leverage this ubiquitous platform to engage the newest generation of law students. One article from Pearson, an educational technology company, points out that YouTube is Generation’s Z top learning method, and that 47% of Gen Z members spend three or more hours a day on the service. The same article claims that 55% of Generation Z members say that YouTube has contributed to their education or personal learning in the last year.

A search on YouTube shows that law schools and law students are posting videos to YouTube at a brisk pace. There are probably hundreds of videos of student experiences at law school. And many colleges of law use YouTube to post marketing materials and videos from talks or conferences. But what is much less apparent is the use of YouTube for actual law learning. With Generation Z’s strong preference for YouTube, or video learning in general, perhaps into the future we will be seeing more substantive law videos that can really contribute to law student learning.