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YouTube for Schools – pass or fail?

December 23, 2011 in tools

Only for you

There’s quite a bit of debate going on surrounding Google’s recent release YouTube for Schools and I just have to dip my toes in and make my own views known. Will it be good for schools? Or will it constrict access to a wealth of educational material not deemed educational? Pass of fail?

YouTube for schools is described as being ‘comprehensive, school-appropriate, customisable and teacher-friendly’ and after trying it out with my own school’s Google Apps YouTube domain I have to say that it is all of those. The ‘comprehensive’ tag is what seems to be causing the most negativity. Why? The videos that form part of YouTube for Schools are selected, from the many millions available on YouTube, by Google and a select group of organisations such as Stanford, TED and the Khan Academy. This at first caused me some concern as it meant I could have access to a very limited form of YouTube video content deemed suitable by others. I’ve been fighting against such restrictions for the last 15 years of my teaching career and my initial reaction was not to sign up to something so limiting. Fail.

But I consider myself a teacher that tries out new technologies, for better or worse, so that others can learn from my adventures. Let’s go back to the descriptive tags. ‘School-appropriate’ gives schools access to material they deem suitable which means any video a school thinks is educational can be added to that school’s YouTube for Schools site. As a teacher or admin, you have access to the complete wealth of material that is available on YouTube which you can then decide for yourself whether it is school appropriate or not. YouTube for Schools requires signing up for a school account, the creation of one admin account and then changes having to be made in the school network configurations. Additional video content can then be added to a school playlist which can be accessed by all users within the school’s YouTube site. Admins can also grant unrestricted access to any user in the school site. Pass.

Is YouTube for Schools nothing more than a walled garden? Not quite. It’s a walled garden with a large gate. You can restrict content to a water shed of predefined videos which contain quite a few chalk and talk presentations. Not very inspiring at all. But the gate can be opened and you have access to any video you as the admin or staff deem appropriate. You will still be able to search for that one moment that perfectly enhances the learning in your classroom and then mark on the playlist for the school to access. Students will be able to access YouTube at school with no worries that they will view unsuitable material, especially important in Primary schools. Pass.

It’s too early to say whether YouTube for Schools will be successful or not but it’s definitely not the closed garden that is being suggested. I’m not passing or failing it, yet.

What do you think, pass or fail?

Edit

After going over this post I have reconsidered one particular option, ‘admins can also grant unrestricted access to any user in the school site’ in the school-appropriate description. As the school ICT coordinator/Lead Technology Teacher I would consider myself as the holder of the school admin account and use it to set up other teachers with additional features to add content they too deem suitable. However, what if the school admin account is held by a member of staff that doesn’t want additional content to be added? What if the admin account is held by technical staff that wish to keep access to YouTube content locked down? That’s one too many ifs for me and therefore is a big FAIL.

Tags: classroom tech, discussion, google, learning, resource, teaching, web 2.0, youtube
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Hanging out on Google+

December 16, 2011 in Resources in the classroom

Classroom hangouts

Google+ has vamped up its Hangout feature so that you can share documents, presentations, a drawing board and, if needs must, block a user. These extra features are not part of the regular Hangout but can be accessed very easily before you initiate a hangout. I’m certain that these features will become standard and after using them with a wide variety of users I am certain that they will add impact to classroom teaching and learning.

My aim is to gather together educators and teachers from all over the world so that they can use Google Hangout in their classrooms. There are various uses such as

discussions based on country origin
worldwide discussions
debates
sharing ideas
one teacher teaching to 9 connected classes
collaborating on project based learning
finding out about another country
story telling
peer to peer learning opportunities

Google+ is not available to under 13′s but as an educator we have access to every available feature, so why not consider using it in your own classroom? If you want to get involved leave a comment, share the post with others or/and fill in the form.

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Tags: activities, classroom, classroom tech, creativity, discussion, e-learning, google, ideas, inspiration, learning, presentation, resource, sharing, teaching, technology, web 2.0
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Deadly 60 in the classroom

September 10, 2011 in learning, lesson ideas, thoughts

It’s a known fact that the BBC produces some of the best television in the world and the Deadly 60 series is no exception. What makes this series different is that its target audience is children. And it’s given me a great idea for the classroom.

Deadly 60 is a wildlife show whose presenter, Steve Backshall, tracks down the world’s 60 deadliest animals. His ‘Deadly 60′ lists include top ten fastest, top ten toxic, top ten lethal weapons, six top tens that go on to make the Deadly 60. The show is a stunning example of how to take an already favourite learning topic of children and turn it into something awesome, something that gets everyone talking. It’s a simple idea and one that is being used in the classroom today; we have all asked children for top ten lists of some description. But why stop there? Why not try to involve the whole school, schools further afield, schools all over the world?

Are you talking about creating some sort of huge top ten collection site?
That’s one of my ideas. Creating a ‘Classroom 60′ site where children from schools anywhere in the world can visit and vote on top ten lists created by other children and teachers. Lists can be created in the classroom and uploaded to the site where others can vote for their favourites. Does a site like this already exist? I think it could be incredibly powerful and it would involve children of any age being able to participate.

Why not use social media?
Well, many schools, like my own, have no access to social media tools due to strict web filtering measures but a website ‘should’ be a lot easier to get through filters and be accessible by many.

What else could a teacher do with this?
Well, creating lists is always going to be a classroom favourite but it could be extended, developed, pulled apart further so that it becomes much more than just a simple list. Here are a few ideas.

Create a short film of your top ten list
Upload presentation slides of your top ten onto Animoto, and let it create a short animated film for you
Design posters using online tools such as Glogster Edu (free for 50 students)
Create an online presentation using Google Docs and share with the rest of the world
Build a wiki of your own classroom 60′s so that you can include rich media with your lists

What about copyright of images, isn’t that going to be a problem?
It’s the perfect opportunity to teach your class about copyright and the use of images found online. Use image search set up to search only for images labelled for reuse. You can also use Flickr Creative Commons, Creative Commons Search and MorgueFile for starters. It’s also a great opportunity for your class to be creative with their lists so that they can take their own photos which bypasses copyrighted images completed.

Sounds like a great idea, I think I might try it out.
If you do give this a go then I’d be grateful to hear how it went and what type of lists your class created. If you are on Twitter then use #classroom60 to let me and others know. As for the Classroom 60 website, I’ll need a bit of time to create that