YouTube is great!
I can (seemingly) find anything I want to on YouTube! I find myself searching YouTube for things that come up in general conversation the same way I do with the Internet Movie Database (IMDB).
Having "primary source" information when having a discussion about old television shows, segments on Sesame Street that one remembers, or old footage of a favorite rock band is great! (And this is in addition to the huge number of educational videos to be found there, too.)
Here is today's sequence of events that led to YouTube and continued to amaze me as to its breadth....
1. Talking about the NCAA Final Four championship game with two colleagues.
2. Continued the discussion about the women's Final Four game tonight.
(My son is a UConn student and a rabid fan and is in St. Louis for the game.)
3. He had told me, if UConn men had made the Final Four, that Dale, the "blue and white" guy, was going to try to get back and forth between the women's and the men's games.
4. My colleagues and I then moved on to conversations about other famous "painted" people, most notably the Tin Man and Wicked Witch in the Wizard of Oz.
5. We discussed how scared we were when Margaret Hamilton would come out as the witch, and one colleague remembered watching an interview with her on Mr. Rogers. She remembered how kind and gentle Ms. Hamilton was during the interview, and how she tried to humanize the witch to make the character less scary for children.
YouTube rocks! (And why is it blocked in so many schools?)
Labels: Kathy Schrock, YouTube
posted by Kathy Schrock at 7:08 AM
16 Comments:
Well, in my system, the blocking of YouTube actually has more to do with bandwidth issues than anything. We just can't afford much more than what we have! Of course, I think there is also something about some people having issues with the content available on the site.
We do allow access to TeacherTube, however. And I believe that is because the videos tend to be more geared toward education.
I agree that YouTube is great. I find all kinds of videos to share with my students. I use a Google Chrome script to download the video, and then convert it with WM Converter to show using Windows Media Player. Of course, I have to do this all at home since YouTube is blocked at school. I wonder if there is a way to selectively block videos with bad content?
Here! Here! I can attest to the same thing Kathy!
My everyday ''anything'' research tools:
answers.com (consults wikipedia and many other resources at the same time)
google
youtube
IMDB
Mark Miller from Quebec City
Kathy,
I couldn't agree more. YouTube is an amazing resource. I often short video clips in it that I then include in units I develop. These units focus on core subject matter using Web 2.0 technologies. I think that much of Web 2.0 has made it easy to find the kind of information that you are writing about.
I've never really understood that either, except that schools fear kids will look at inappropriate or content not related to school. At schools here, there is also an issue with sound. Most of the computers are without speakers. If something must be heard as well as seen, a teacher either brings in his/her own set of computer speakers, or the student brings headphones.
Katie
www.studenthandouts.com
I agree that schools should allow YouTube. There are so many lectures and educational videos on YouTube that could be an excellent resource.
For administrators who think it will distract students from learning...there was actually a recent study that found that office workers who used Twitter and YouTube were 9% more productive!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1166634/Twittering-watching-YouTube-videos-makes-workers-productive.html
Can it stay blocked long when the President and the Pope both have YouTube channels???
Dear Kath...
Not only do I use YouTube in school to introduce a lesson but also when the grand children arrive..."The Wheels on the Bus" with Cullen's ABCs is a favorite...
Happy Bunny and All...
JAB
There are some very vulgar things on Youtube.com but they can be avoided with the lesson planning stage. The time span of the clips are perfect for lessons. I wish there was a tool to block the XX videos/posts but until then I'll be trying out Google Chrome.
Thanks for the tip.
I am a new YouTube subscriber primarily because my father wanted to add some movie clips of planes into an educational talk he was doing. I was amazed at the number of clips I came up with and he was too.
I had never thought of using YouTube as an educational tool until I read this blog. I had always thought that it was geared more towards an adult audience-apparently I need to do some more investigationa dn research. I teach 3rd graders and so I did not think I would be able to find anything of use to enrich their learning. I have been using Discovery Education's United Streaming, which does not play as much havoc with bandwith usage as YouTube seems to.
Katie W. I will look out for TeacherTube, it sounds like something I could use next year with my class.
Minty
Right on! I know what you mean! I teach in a catholic school out side of Philadelphia. I have to convert the files at home (zamzar.com)then burn them on to a disk to play them in school. Our blocking software is so strong that the textbook sites were blocked beacuse they have games on them.
Web tools can be a great asset when people trust you to use them in the classroom!
MrsC.
Kathy, I enjoyed reading your blog entry on YouTube. I've found that site to be a wonderful source of everything from the ridiculous (Sandra Lee's Kwaanza Cake) to the sublime (Frasier Crane singing "Buttons and Bows). As others have commented, YouTube is usually blocked in the school setting, so I was delighted to read about "TeacherTube." I'm looking forward to browsing that site. Thank you.
I love YouTube also but I work in a system where it is blocked. YouTube being blocked has only happened recently though (to the surprise of several teachers I work with..oops!). I just download the videos I want to use to my laptop so I can still share them with my students. Are there any great YouTube channels you would recommend to use with younger elementary students? I am always looking for new resources :)
I do not advocate to teachers to download YouTube videos locally. That violates their usage agreement which allows embedding on pages and viewing on the site, but not downloading.
Rumor is that YouTube may soon allow uploaders to decide if they want to allow their content to be downloaded, and they may even be able to charge for that.
Remember, the content on YouTube belongs to the creator, and it is easy enough to contact the creator and ask about alternate ways to use it in the classroom. We recently ran a forum at NECC, and contacted the video creators who sent us the original footage to use in our workshop. This was great since the quality is better and we did not have to depend on streaming bandwidth at a conference.
In my school system You Tube is also blocked. Some kids are still able to get around it though. Those kids are usually looking at something inappropriate.
Consider SchoolTube.com as a safe, FREE. moderated alternative to YouTube.com
We use it exclusively for all student video projects and school newscasts daily. Visit AmherstTechTV.org for examples of our uses.
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