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.
September 19, 2008 @ 8:03 am
Interesting statement “The fact is that no matter what anyone tries to tell you, the internet is not a safe environment .” Life holds lots of dangers and isn’t it part of our jobs as educators to teach safe use? We teach young students safety like how to cross the road and issues relating to drugs, alcoholic etc. Isn’t it better that we teach our students the appropriate use of the Internet rather than letting them learn outside the school environment where they are more likely to get into trouble because gained the appropriate skills?
Video is a powerful tool not just for locating material that you can show your students within a classroom but it’s greater power is when your students use it for creating their own videos. There are so many amazing projects that you can create this way and there are video sharing website that are set up specifically for students. Through the process students learn collaboration, team work, information about creative commons, video creation and editing etc.
September 19, 2008 @ 9:07 am
Well said, Sue. I feel the internet can be as safe as you want it to be with your students. As teachers, who often know more about the internet than parents, it is our job to show students how to work safely in the WWW environment whether it be audio, video or written.
We MUST teach them to be internet savvy every year, as there are always new websites available that might sound OK but are not.
I feel as teachers, we should also be explaining to parents how we are using the WWW and perhaps run some sessions for them so they can at least try to keep up with some areas of their child’s life, especially in those teenage years.
September 19, 2008 @ 11:10 am
I agree totally with the comments made by Sue and tasteach. Educating our students to enable them to use the Internet safely and ethically is the top priority.
Having said that, I also agree that YouTube is problematic for teachers because of the copyright issues. For younger students in particular, my preference would be to download the target video and provide that directly to students. That is in direct contravention of the copyright agreement contained in the terms of use for YouTube.
Classroom management and educating students can still support the use of YouTube, but place a larger burden of care on a teacher who may already be stretched in the classroom.
Who knows what developments will happen though, and the time frame in which they may occur. The one guarantee is that the web and the tools to access its bounty will look different in a short period of time.
September 19, 2008 @ 12:45 pm
As teachers we are caught between a rock and a hard place with this issue. Youtube is most often the Web2.0 tool of choice for people who create and upload wonderful and inspiring videos that would be appropriate to be used to engage and inspire learning in the classroom. We do have other alternatives such as teachertube, google video and teachertv but they pale into comparison with the range and quality (not all of course) of content that is available. But for many of us Youtube is blocked at school and for good reason of course ; there is a lot of content that we really don’t want our students to access. So what we do is seek out the good stuff that is available to use. Then, as has already been mentioned if we use Keepvid or any other the other downloading apps that are available to us, we are actually breaking the law. And if we want to be good role models to our students in the appropriate and lawful use of the internet then we shouldn’t do it. See what I mean about a rock and a hard place. I actually think it’s really all about education. It’s about us as teachers realising that we have a responsibility to use and teach the use of the internet in a safe and lawful way. And I think we have another role and that is to question, advocate and champion issues such as this as problematic. So that one day someone might see the light and work with us and not against us.
September 19, 2008 @ 2:45 pm
HARD issue to resolve and one I’m not sure education will ever address fully.
As a drama teacher the ability to share performances and get feedback through a site like YouTube is quite a powerful potential of the web – it goes ways beyond the sharing videos, it becomes about critiquing and refining our work. However, at this stage we can’t access that potentially SAFELY and I acknowledge that. But that doesn’t stop me, as Anne said, from taking on my other role in schools as an educator – as an advocate to try and help others see that there is more potential to the internet in classrooms than many are acknowledging.
The sad truth is that you’re right in many ways. The internet is not a “safe” environment. And privacy and security need to be in the forefront of every net users mind.
Reality is though that kids are using the web and there’s very little teachers (or parents) can do to stop them. If they’re not allowed to use it at home, they’ll find another way – we can’t police them 100% of the time. And nor should we.
I’m with Sue, we need to be helping our students become savy net users – show them the issues and teach them safe practise.
October 1, 2008 @ 8:27 am
[...] know their presentation was excellent from reading Kate’s, Sarah’s, Lauren’s, Justin’s, Denise’s and Lina’s posts. While all these posts discussed locating videos to use in [...]
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November 6, 2008 @ 12:28 pm
[...] know their presentation was excellent from reading Kate’s, Sarah’s, Lauren’s, Justin’s, Denise’s and Lina’s posts. While all these posts discussed locating videos to use in [...]