YouTube, TeacherTube, etc...

I had seen the Did You Know videos previously on YouTube – pretty amazing stuff! I really like the remix he did – I think it improved with every version. He started with a lot of text and added more visuals each time. There are so many of “us” that like to see the picture of what the text represents!!

There are so many good things that take place on YouTube that would be terrific to use in the educational setting. Of course, there is a lot of inappropriate content on it as well, so discretion has to be of the utmost importance. Students run across inappropriate content in books and have to make that judgment call so why shouldn’t it happen on the internet, too? Students self censor when reading text in books – they will have to become quick to censor their internet use, too. Of course, parents will be concerned – I would be, too. Our district firewall will protect them while at school and parents have to help them when at home.

There is definite value in TeacherTube due to it being created specifically for an educational setting. The speed will be an issue, but the fact that it is geared to students is huge. It would be fun to post some of the library How To documents and send the teachers and students there! Then we wouldn’t sound like a broken record all the time! :>)

I would love to have students create a video on what the library means to them – then post it on TeacherTube. That would be a great tool to have running during specific times to peak student interest!!

I would definitely tell the parent that I understand their concern and would be totally up front about the student AUP and that they share in the responsibility of content used at school.