YouTube

[Deborah Lazar]

We have been asked by I.T. to help develop a rationale and explanation for the faculty and staff about allowing YouTube for students (staff can currently access the site). Some of our neighboring high schools are relaxing their filters. Our I.T. has just added bandwidth. If you have some thoughts that would help to clearly "argue" for this change, I would love to hear from you.

Thanks,
Deborah Lazar, Librarian
New Trier High School

[Pam Harland]

We opened up YouTube for students this year. The Library staff brought the request to our Technology Committee (a representative from each department)- and we collectively agreed that it made sense to allow students access to it. We thought it more important to teach our students to responsibly use such a popular tool filled with relevant content rather than blocking all of that information. It is a resource that students access inside and outside of school. I think that blocking YouTube shows students how out of touch schools have become. Good luck!

[Martha Hickson]

In December, I attended a seminar conducted by Alan November, who offered some compelling arguments for YouTube. In brief, November noted that outside of school students routinely use five basic "containers" for managing content and communicating with the world -- blogs, iPods, IM, YouTube, and video games. In school, however, educators (or more typically, administrators) have decided that these tools are inappropriate for learning, thereby demotivating students and depriving them of an opportunity to learn how to use these tools appropriately in an educational context. By marginalizing YouTube, November claims that educators are sending the message that it is useful only for entertainment, and many students do not realize that it contains a wealth of educational content. You can read more of November's thoughts on this at: http://novemberlearning.com/resources/archive-of-articles/banning-s...

Another November idea about YouTube appears in his essay on new roles for students -- contributors in a digital learning farm: http://novemberlearning.com/resources/archive-of-articles/digital-l.... YouTube could be the ideal tool for students to use in their roles as tutorial designers, scribes, researchers, collaboration coordinators, and contributors to society, all of which are described in his essay.

[Catherine Lee]

Thanks for these comments -- we have YouTube blocked for students (by the ICT dept) & I've often felt uneasy about it. Some excellent arguments for change!
Catherine Lee
Teacher Librarian
Epsom Girls Grammar School
Auckland, NZ

[Patty McClune]

Once administrators see some of the fabulously useful, free resources available on YouTube, i.e. Khan Academy it's hard to imagine they won't be on board.