With the goal of providing quality, in-class educational video for schools, Google’s new YouTube site appears to have everything a teacher could ask for. Many educators, however, will not be able to take advantage of this resource until their schools broaden Internet access.
The debate over how much of the Internet’s almost infinite content should be available in schools has been raging for some time. Google’s new site sparks that debate anew because under many schools’ current filtering guidelines, YouTube falls in the social media category and is therefore blocked.
“Schools are scared about this stuff,” said Elliot Soloway, Arthur F. Thurnau Professor at the University of Michigan. “Whatever they do, parents will be upset, money will be inappropriately spent, they will drawthe ire of the public. They're scared of all of this, so there is anextra layer ofconservative-ism to protect the kids. But we can’t let it paralyze us from taking steps into the new.”
Those new steps include access to sites like the new YouTube EDU. YouTube for Schools gives teachers access to hundreds of thousands of educational videos. This includes short lessons from top teachers around the world, full courses from the world’s best universities, professional development from fellow educators, and inspiring videos from leaders in various walks of life.
The new YouTube site offers schools control over content accessibility. Every school that registers an account receives access to all of the YouTube EDU content, but teachers and administrators can also log in and create limited playlists of videos that will be available. This way, students can only watch school-approved videos. Additionally, the comments field and related video features are disabled, and the search function is limited to YouTube EDU videos.
Despite all of the controls offered by Google, schools will not be able to take advantage of the site without changes to their filtering systems.
Access Denied: Web Site Blocking in Schools
Article by Jason Tomaszewski, EducationWorld Associate Editor
Education World®
Copyright © 2011 Education World
|
Sign up for our free weekly newsletter and receive
top education news, lesson ideas, teaching tips and more!
No thanks, I don't need to stay current on what works in education!
COPYRIGHT 1996-2016 BY EDUCATION WORLD, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
COPYRIGHT 1996 - 2024 BY EDUCATION WORLD, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.