Do U U Tube?

I hear this question, well-stated in a recent e-mail, quite a lot:

We have been debating about unblocking YouTube at school.  Have you had any experience with this?  And what is your take on this situation?  My principal and myself are totally for it but we have a lot of teachers with resistance.  They cannot see the educational benefits or uses of YouTube.  We have a staff meeting on Friday and I am sure it will turn into a heated debate.  I am contacting a few "experts" to get your take.  :)

My response:

We have never blocked YouTube in our district. I think at this point I might be lynched by teachers if I tried - even if I did want to.

There are two factors to consider when deciding to block or not block YouTube.

First is content. While plenty of YouTube content is worthless and/or tasteless, my understanding is that none is pornographic or in violation of copyright. (Some bad language, granted.) So none of YouTube falls under the CIPA requirements that sites that are "obscene, child pornography, or harmful to minors" be blocked. Nor does a teacher or student violate any copyright laws by using YouTube materials. Oh, and YouTube really does have a lot of material that our teachers use for class purposes - especially materials on popular culture and current events.

Second is bandwidth. When you have a lot of people streaming video via YouTube (or any other  video site like TeacherTube), it may slow down your network. This is a standard reason that a lot of tech people give for blocking YouTube. Our solution to this problem has been to employ a packetshaper on the network that will prioritize traffic and gives YouTube a low bandwidth priority. Users will only get video as bandwidth is available.

Personally, I think a lot of teachers see YouTube as an annoyance and would prefer the district block it rather than have to monitor student use and tell kids to stay on task.

OK, Blue Skunk readers, YouTube: Block or not. And why. And if YouTube was once blocked and now it isn't, how and why did the change come about?

Let's hear it.

 

Comments

[Alice Barr]

I work in a 1:1 laptop school. It's our 7th year, students take them home. We used to block You Tube, but now we don't.
Our AUP states that students can't watch movies in school, so BYT (Before You Tube), this meant that they weren't supposed to bring DVD's in from home and watch them. Then You Tube came along. We knew if we opened up streaming, we would have a bandwidth issue, which was a great excuse for saying no, but the students actually understood that one. Occasionally we would hear a student say to another, "it's a bandwidth issue, we probably shouldn't watch movies in school anyway...". However, everyone was coming in to get a filter override (teachers included) because of all the great content available.The kids figured out if they loaded the movie into their browser at home and put the computer to sleep, they could then use the movie once inside school. Then we created a filter override for the teachers, but they either couldn't remember the password, or couldn't figure out how to use it. Now we have more bandwidth, so we just took the filter off. That was 4 weeks ago. Almost nothing happened. No earth shattering anything. I finally heard a few freshman saying, "Yeah, I think it's Ok, I mean it's not blocked!" So today we issued a statement: "Multimedia streaming is no longer blocked on the network so students and teachers may now go to streaming sites ... Will we have to continue our work on digital citizenship skills? Of course. But I am so happy to see how well teachers and kids use streaming media in their classes, that it's worth speaking to the handful that are catching up on episodes of Gossip Girls during study hall. And oh yeah, we're rewriting our Netiquette document to reflect the change. Open it up, ask the students to help you write the guidelines, and watch the change in engagement and creativity in classrooms.

[nano]

I can say that Youtube is my best friend, this is pretty amazing in so many ways and put a really big smile on my face. it is a very good site to share something that is forbidden in some countries because of the laws and regulations.

[Doug Johnson]

Hi June,

Thanks for the comments. Very pragmatic approach!

Doug

HI Brad,

I like your comment that "engaging work" will keep kids from distractions - regardless of kindQ

Thanks for writing,

Doug

Hi Barry,

Your talking points are fantastic. I encourage everyone to read them. Good luck with your plan. I'm thinking you've give lots of people not only good ideas, but hope as well.

Doug

Hi Tom.

The packetshaper comes in handy during testing and other times when bandwidth for certain applications is critical. Can't imagine how much bandwidth we'd need without one.

All the best,

Doug

Hi Ninja,

You comments point out how blocking such sites at school (Wikipedia!!!) exacerbates the digital divide as well. Not every daughter or son is as fortunate as yours to have home Internet access and a parent who can use it.

Doug

Hi Allison,

Interesting observation about students using YouTube the second year for academics instead of entertainment. Can you explain the change?

Doug

Hi Dottie,

A block/unblock committee is essential in any school district when it comes to making these decisions. We long had "reconsideration" committees when books or videos are challenged. Why not websites as well?

Thanks for the observations,

Doug

Hi John,

Our network is a little like the freeway system in the Twin Cities. At certain times a day, you couldn't build enough lanes; at other times, a dirt road would do. It's all about finding a happy medium, I guess, and using tools like packetshapers to make the most of what you have.

No comment about our telcom overlords. They're probably reading this as I write it.

Doug

Hi Jennifer,

I'm hoping our younger teachers will continue to drive the kinds of changes you described. Thanks for comment!

Doug

HI AM,

That's a great advice to give kids and is an easy way to determine whether something appropriate or inappropriate. (Although given some parents' tastes and values...!)

Downloading is great advice too.

All the best,

Doug

Hi Judi,

Good article. Thanks for the link. I believe it will take many voices to move schools toward more open Internet access. Alan's always been a great thinker and writer!

All the best,

Doug

Hi Jen,

Always good to hear from another "enlightened" tech director ;-) We're so few and far between!

Doug

So Anna, how is the unilateral decision by your Headmaster to block YouTube and other resources any different from censoring a book from your library without it going to a reconsideration committee?

All the best,

Doug

Hi Alice,

My only question about your AUP stating kids can't watch videos is do you also have a policy that kids shouldn't be reading recreational novels or personal interest magazines? Why do we discriminate based on format of information and content?

Doug

[Alice Barr]

Doug: You raise a great point about content, hence our ever changing need to revisit our guidelines for use. I was just commenting about the original post about You Tube. As I said when we wrote the guidelines, students wanted to watch DVDs. We did it because students were bringing full length movies in to watch. Our guidelines have not caught up to the new forms of media. Our goal would be to NOT discriminate against any kind of appropriate information and content.

[Shannon]

Hi Doug,

My district went with access to YouTube for teachers last spring, with teacher and administrator sign-off on a separate YouTube use agreement. The agreement form language has many teachers backing away, especially as we'd already figured out download work-arounds (let's not talk about violating YouTube's TOS). My principal actually said, "better you than me" when she signed off on my access form. So, we can say we have access, without really promoting it. A win for tech services, but not necessarily for teachers and students.

What would you suggest I say to tech services when they say packet shaping is not possible in our district? (We've been asking since planning for the Presidential Inauguration. Here bandwidth is always an issue between 11:30-1:30 - the high school has increased usage during lunches- just when National events are broadcast). What are the real technical issues involved? Can you help me make a case for it?

[Sean Nash]

We do NOT block YouTube. However, we only systematically block Facebook & MySpace (besides truly awful stuff). And really... if a good case for FB and MS was ever made, we embrace that as well.

My students make much use of YT on our classroom network: http://mwsu-bio101.ning.com
They use it to gather resources, post original creations, etc.

YT iS where the conversation iS.

[Doug Johnson]

HI Anna and Musings,

So my question would be - do you provide any non-curricular reading materials - Hot Rod, Gamer, Seventeen, adolescent fiction, graphic novels? Why ban one form of recreation library use and not others?

I just think blocking for the convenience of teachers is not a very viable reason.

Difference of opinions that make horse races, I guess.

Thanks for responding and asking me to think harder as well,

Doug

[Paul McKenzie]

If we blocked Youtube at our school, we would have an uprising, and it wouldn't be student led. We use Moodle as our learning management system and teachers have put in a lot of work embedding highly relevant video into their courses. By far the majority of these videos are hosted by Youtube. There are a large number of education-focused sites that source free video on the web, and more are popping up every week. I point teachers toward them and they eat these sites right up.

Yes, some students goof off and abuse this privilege, but it's not really a privilege is it? It's a right of access to education. Let's not use blocking to avoid our responsibility in developing 21C-relevant classroom management skills and behavioral expectations. Our students are not going to learn to be responsible digital citizens if we don't give them the opportunity.

[Nancy Kahrimanis]

At my 5/6 Middle school, the teachers have access to Youtube, but student access is blocked. I think that this is the appropriate approach for the grade level as we can use the resources as a teaching tool, but students can't just browse inappropriate (whatever that definition may be) material. I think that high school students should be allowed access as long as general teacher supervision is provided.

[Musings]

Hi Doug
You are right we have plenty of recreational reading in our Library. What we do have is generally geared towards that population. I think the issue with You Tube and many other web 2.0 componets is two fold. One being that there is no filter, no "age appropriate" part of You Tube or Twitter et. The other problem (and this is from my tech person) is viruses. According to the powers that be, any interactive tool is subject to these vicious malware and viruses that are constantly invading networks. We had an incident over the summer that almost distroyed our network. I have no answers, but I have been around a long time and have come to a place in my life that I know slow, steady and caution wins the race.

[Doug Johnson]

Hi Paul,
I suspect we have some students "abuse the priviledge" of reading in our schools by indulging in YA novels, the sports pages and other non-educational materials as well ;-)

All the best,
Doug

Hi Musings,
I would like to see a credible source of a report of a computer getting a virus or malware from YouTube. I am guessing this is total BS on the part of your tech staff.

Doug

[Paul McKenzie]

Fair comment, Doug. It reminds me of the whole Facebook debate too. When students are caught chatting to each other during "self study" we tell them to be quiet, when they are caught on Facebook, it gets blocked. Our art teacher is livid as she was using Facebook to host her Art History course. On the other had though, a group of students asked for it to be blocked as it was too much of a temptation. I guess we aren't teaching them much in the way of self-regulation.

[Charlie A. Roy]

@ Doug
We allow youtube. It used to be blocked but then a new administrator came. The tech decisions began to be based on teacher input. Seeing as there are a myriad of productive uses of youtube for classrooms we had to ask if banning the world's most popular video service was really in the best interest of student learning? We argue it isn't. Being afraid of what's out there is not a healthy attitude. Fear and learning hardly go hand in hand. I know every day I am terrified by the office fax machine. Anyone could fax us anything at anytime and there is no filter. Be afraid, be very afraid.

[beth]

teachers should be able to use the best quality instructional videos out there. I feel it should be unblocked for teachers and blocked for students.

[Ben St. James]

We managed to Unblock Youtube and it works like a charm.