Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Another Argument for Opening the Internet

Open the Internet. I do not think the internet should be 100% open at school, however, some sites should be open. YouTube and Vimeo are two sites that need to be open and left open. The arguement for keeping YouTube closed is that kids mess around too often on YouTube. My question is: why are the kids messing around at all? Put them to work. If they want to go watch YouTube videos, find ones that help them learn about your subject. Another arguement from the anti-Youtuber's is that there are other sites like it, such as SchoolTube and TeacherTube that can be used and are open. My response: those sites are terrible. We don't want them. Give us the top dog! Give us YouTube! 
WatchKnowLearn.org is another example of a great teaching tool we are unable to use. This site provides the ability to search for videos on youtube based on subject, grade, etc. Unfortunately, we can't use it because most of the videos on this site are hosted on YouTube or Vimeo. There are ways to get YouTube videos downloaded so we can watch them in school, but that requires a lot more steps than just simply hitting  "play" on the video player. 

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I agree Mr. Klumper. The only reason kids would mess around on YouTube is if they are not actively engaged in finding things for projects. When teachers use computers as babysitters, that is when the messing around occurs.
Brenda Waterbury