2025 McMurtry Lecture: "Click, Watch, Learn: What YouTube Teaches Us About Teaching"
Date & Time: December 11, 2025 from 12:00 PM - 01:30 PM
Location: Westgate Building E202
The 2025 McMurtry Lecture is presented by Megan Costello, associate teaching professor of human-centered computing and social informatics.
"Click, Watch, Learn: What YouTube Teaches Us About Teaching"
What can instructors learn from YouTube? While classrooms and video platforms may seem worlds apart, the rise of YouTube as the largest video sharing platform in the world offers powerful lessons for education. By drawing on over a decade of teaching practice, the session distills lessons from the strategies of YouTube creators and reflects on how such practices can inspire more dynamic and inclusive approaches to learning. This talk highlights patterns that invite instructors to explore how iteration, resilience, and authenticity can help them not only engage learners but also navigate the evolving complexities of life in the teaching profession.
About the Speaker
Megan Costello is an associate teaching professor at Penn State, where she focuses on the intersection of technology and policy. Prior to pursuing a career in higher education, Costello worked as a lawyer and has since been pushing the boundaries of innovative technology in the classroom. Costello has over a decade of experience with speaking in various settings, including national continuing education conferences, teaching development presentations, local EdTech symposiums, and her own classes at Penn State. Her enthusiasm for teaching and innovative technology has fueled her desire to continue bridging the gap between these two fields.
About the McMurtry Lecture
The George J. McMurtry Faculty Excellence in Teaching and Learning Award is named for the former associate dean of the College of Engineering who was instrumental in the founding of the College of IST. The award highlights recipients’ innovative teaching, commitment to learning and creative interface in the classroom or in online courses they teach.
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