Grab the url address of any YouTube video, paste it into the Artistifier, type in your name and title, and the site will “artistify” the video in the manner of the Oscar-nominated silent movie “The Artist.” As the video plays — with no sound other than the music provided by The Artistifier — you can type in captions at appropriate times. Once you’re done, click save and the captions will show up during the movie in the manner of an old silent movie.

For English language learners, it’s similar to Bombay TV (and its “sister channels”), which lets you choose a scene from a B movie from Bollywood and have fun creating subtitles for the clip. With the Artistifier, though, you can choose any YouTube you want.

Of course, that also points to the major problem with using it in the classroom — YouTube is blocked for most students. However, I’m wondering if by pasting the url address into the Artistifier that “cleans” it in the eyes of the content filter. If that is the case, then teachers could choose a variety of appropriate YouTube clips and then have students choose from that selection. I’ll try it out on Monday.