R-JENERATION: Deft YouTube use makes teacher a regular Captain Video

Nick Pavlides (or as he is referred to in the classroom, Mr. Pavlides) is a bespectacled, barbigerous man of an amiable deportment and an eclectic taste in music.

See him; situated anterior to the class, his laptop resting upon a podium of wood.

Pavlides and his laptop are a kind of dynamic duo. He wields the thing like a Jedi Master does the Force, and with this kind of control, he firmly grasps the class’ attention.

His teaching style integrates technology into a classroom setting.

He implements an array of germane YouTube videos into his teaching of history, psychology and advanced placement psychology at Silverado High School.

The videos are so ubiquitous in his teaching that a couple of students began to bet on how many videos he would show in one period. He started using them five years ago and, over time, has accumulated what he estimates to be 100 gigabytes of videos stored on a 500 gigabyte drive he keeps in his desk.

“I discovered there’s lots of junk on YouTube, but there are also a lot of educational things there,” Pavlides says.

His favorite video of the educational variety is “Inattentional Blindness,” in which a man in a gorilla suit walks onto a busy basketball court. Some viewers of the video do not see the gorilla because they were instructed to pay attention to the basketball game.

Pavlides sometimes will show videos that are solely for humor if there is enough class time, his favorite being the MADtv skit “Can I Have Your Number?” Also among his classroom technologies are a psychology CD-ROM, an abundance of PowerPoint presentations and he’s “getting into apps.”

But Pavlides is not just a figure behind a lit screen.

He is able to relate to his students during lectures with his warm sense of wit and relay all sorts of concepts clearly.

“It’s my favorite class! It’s hecka gnar!” exclaims Sebi Del Rio, junior.

Pavlides works to form a connection with the class before him.

“I try to use a lot of examples students are familiar with,” he says. “I try to relate it to what they understand: pop culture, movies and things. I try to tell jokes; sometimes they’re not so funny,” he says, laughing.

Before class, one can hear him bumping all sorts of different music.

“I enjoy a little old-school country, hip-hop, electronic music, lots of punk, lots of ska, lots of rock,” he says. “I’ve been listening to a lot of ’80s music lately.”

He is particularly excited for the Atoms for Peace album coming out next year.

Pavlides began teaching 10 years ago, and despite his high-tech leanings, his main aim is decidedly less elaborate.

“The most important thing is to just try to teach the subject and make the students interested,” he says.