YouTube

YouTube is a popular technology that I have been familiar with for many years now. YouTube is one of the ten most popular web sites on the internet. (Fieldman, 2007) YouTube is a web video sharing site founded in late 2005. YouTube is a venue for sharing videos amongst friends, family and can shown to millions of people around the globe; people who subscribe to YouTube can also comment on any video and receive information showing videos that may be of interest to them. (Ziff, 2009)
I think YouTube is an excellent technology to bring into the classroom environment for there are millions of excellent educational videos that can hook and engage learners.

From experience in high school I know that I would love to have used YouTube as an educational tool for assignments across most subjects.
Though due to the issues of internet safety YouTube was banned at my school and not only my school but all schools across Australia.
An article from The Australian explains how all schools have banned YouTube because “The website was considered unsafe because it was impossible to determine what sort of video material might be accessed by students” says Queensland Education and Training Minister Rod Welford (2007). Also a spokesman for the state's Department of Education and Training says, “There's no educational value to it and the content of the material on the site.” (2007)

I personally think that there are inappropriate videos on YouTube but it is a different matter to say that there “is no educational value to it.” I believe that there are many educational uses for YouTube when used appropriately. For example I chose an appropriate YouTube clip for the topic Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. This clip will be used as a friendly and fun clip to engage learners into this strand of SOSE and should result in a positive learning outcome for all students.
There are many other eductional videos I have found when looking through YouTube for example: Maths- Learning your times tables or English- examples of shakespeare. YouTube should not be recognised as a negative site and portrayed as completely harmful to all students because behind all the negative media you hear of a couple of mischievous boys looking up rude or racial things on YouTube (as stated by Andrew Colley, 2007) there are videos on YouTube that are decent for the educational environment.
I am not saying it is acceptable for students to be exposed to such crude videos but YouTube videos should be acceptable under certain curcumstances for students to gain appropriate learning opportunities with proper teacher supervision.

Have a look at this cool little hook for Reduce Reuse and Recycle.


Reference:
Colley, A. (2007), States still hold out on YouTube, http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,21330109-15306,00.html (18/08/09)

Fieldman, B. (2007), What is it and why us it? http://www.surfnetkids.com/safety/youtube_what_is_it_and_why_use_it-19026.htm (18/08/09)

Ziff, D (2009), YouTube http://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia_term/0,2542,t=YouTube&i=57119,00.asp (18/08/09)