YouTube in the classroom, a good idea?
Now I know this presentation was made last week, but that doesn’t mean I can’t make my entry about it now. I actually have three presentations to comment upon now, which I shall stagger across the next couple of days to make sure my fingers get some rest, what with all the other assignments I have on the go right now… (It’s a fun time of year, what can I say?)
First of all, I must send my congratulations to Simon and Matthieu for a well developed and delivered presentation. It is always a brave and sometimes hard thing to be first cab of the rank in a string of presentations, and the two of you flew the flag very well. Be proud guys.
And now to the chewy caramel centre of the post:
YouTube is certainly an ever-growing and popularity-climbing innovation with uses beyond uses. But how far into the classroom does it extend? For me, I don’t believe it should go that far. One issue that I have with internet use in classrooms shall come up throughout all of these presentations, and even exists later within my own: Privacy and Security. The fact is that no matter what anyone tries to tell you, the internet is not a safe environment and this extends to YouTube without question. In fact, this was well-addressed within the presentation given and I’m glad that it was.
YouTube is a very powerful tool, and care must be taken, as was duly pointed out, that material shown originating from it does not conflict with copyright law. I was actually unaware that it was legal to download and use video clips from YouTube or other websites for educational purposes, nor was I aware of the website used to download video content from streaming sites (Keepvid). This was, to me, the most valuable piece of information I received from the presentation, especially in regards to using YouTube media in the classroom.
I do not think I would be comfortable allowing my students to freely access YouTube, although perhaps through a class account videos could be made and posted about experiences, or a class vlog set up under the watchful eye of the teacher. The ability however to download appropriate video content and use other multimedia avenues to present such information is a very handy tool.
The other innovation introduced by Simon and Matthieu was the website Teachers.tv. More of a teacher’s resource than a tool that can be used with students, I greatly appreciated being made aware of this website’s existence. The plethora of teacher resources on this website is well worth exploring by any teacher, pre-service or current and I have only just begun to scratch the surface of available material since starting to check it out. Everything is there from behaviour management to subject-related content and even content which is developmental-stage specific. It’s just fantastic. And the short tutorial of its features by Matthieu was well done, quick, concise and reasonably comprehensive for the time.
Overall, this was a great presentation and I learnt a lot of new and useful things throughout. But, I’m still left trying to decide just how YouTube can best be put to work in a classroom setting, or if this is really a good idea. I think there is potential, but I still have plenty to explore before I make use of it in my own teaching. Fortunately for me though, I still have a couple of years before I’m set loose properly. We’ll see where this technology has evolved to then.
