When people of my generation, under 30, have a question we turn to the Internet. Not in the same way a 40+ might find the answer. We rather discuss than listen. We rather see than read. This is why youtube.com is the answer to millions of questions. This summer when I wanted to install a pre-hung door, who did I ask for help? Youtube, because to see how something is done is simply better. Youtube can show you how to use any piece of software, swim faster, figure out trinomials, type better, filet a fish, fix a loud muffler, introduce you to the constitution, teach you how to speak another language, and just about anything you can think of.
I am in the opinion that youtube.com should be unblocked because of the numerous educational benefits it provides. Including access to documentaries, tutorials, and the ability to upload and view student work. Yes there is teachertube.com and schooltube.com, however their content is limited. For example I have students who ask me how to do something in Google Sketchup. Instead of me sitting with one student for 5 minutes showing them how to do it I could just send them a link to a video that will show them how to do it.
I realize that youtube.com has thousands of videos that are inappropriate for school. However, students know of dozens of other video hosting sites that have the same type of content we are trying to block. Many of these copycat sites will copy all of the popular videos from youtube.com and post them on their site to attract users. They typically do not copy educational videos to their site since they get less traffic. So by blocking youtube.com students are channeled to other sites with worse content with little to no educational value.
I am not opposed to blocking particular websites. But it does not make sense to block youtube.com.
Youtube was unblocked the next week.
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I have a video editing/broadcasting club at my school and I really like Youtube to jump start ideas for the kids. My best Youtube story comes from a 30 year plus English Language Arts who came walking through my media center one day and spoke of this wonderful resource that her daughter in college told her about. She then went on to say how she spent a number of hours over the weekend finding great things she was going to use with her students studying "To Kill a Mockingbird." She had figured out how to set up her Youtube account and save her video favorites.....I didn't have the heart to tell her that our district blocks Youtube....she found out soon enough. Hopefully in the near future we can upgrade our filtering software to allow differentiated access so that Mrs. Sharp can use her new found teaching aid.
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About two or three years ago my distric blocked google. After a few months of complaining we were able to get it unblocked. Plus they upgraded the filtering sofware.
ReplyDeleteBlocked Google!!?? What was there reasoning? That is crazy!
ReplyDeleteUmmm... can I copy and paste that and send it to my tech. director and some other people, crediting a classmate who wrote it to their principal in another district?
ReplyDeleteI am not kidding! That is an excellently-stated message! That is awesome how this helped you guys get it unblocked!
I wish people in Grand Ledge who make those decisions would pause to think about the potential value of You Tube in the classroom!
We teachers used to be able to access it from school, but lately I have tried and it does not even work when I put in my password for our Barracuda filtering system. :(
Absolutely use the message.
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