Thing 9

What do you like or dislike about YouTube? Did you find videos that would be useful for teaching and learning? Is YouTube banned in your building?


I like the timeliness of YouTube. For example, when Tina Fey was doing Sarah Palin skits on Saturday Night Live, you could catch them on YouTube if you missed them. I've used it before to play music that sets a mood or informs about the culture and environment of certain times in history. Last year I found some old love songs on Valentine's Day (in a high school Mythology elective)that contained references to characters from Greek or Roman mythology. I sometimes teach Film Literature and YouTube is great for finding clips or trailers of classic films. I have also used Taylor Mali's routine on proofreading in Expository Writing, though I stopped it before he came to the end of the routine which conains slightly questionable material. In fact, that's what I dislike about YouTube -- it has much content that is vulgar and inappropriate. Some of its videos also make fun of school and teachers which makes teenagers open to that negative thinking. It's not that teachers would use this in their classrooms, but teens can tune in on their own and find plenty of this kind of material.

I was surprised to find such a variety of subjects when I searched for terms having to do with the English classes I teach. For example, there were tons of videos about grammar, of all things. I'm sure I could find one that would give a great explanation of a grammar skill -- and my students would appreciate the fresh approach, a new voice, and effective visuals and images.
I looked up "literature" and found some promising topics. Looking up specific titles was frui tful too .I also like to use YouTube to find something amusing to introduce a concept. Students appreciate the change of pace especially if the video is entertaining or funny.

I checked out the two school video sites. I like that these sites are school appropriate. It seems to be a place where student made videos can be housed and shared. I'm sure I'll check these out from time to time now that I know they exist.

I do not have trouble using YouTube at my school, though I don't believe the students can access the site at school. They cannot use Google Images (or Wikipedia), for example, while teachers can bypass the filter. This poses problems when students are trying to make presentations at school. Last week I assigned my Mythology students a presentation of a myth. Some chose to use Power Point, but had to go home to search for images to use on the slides. I understand why this filter is necessary, but it does prevent students from getting thier hands on the good stuff out there.