DISQUS

Neil Winton · 11 months ago

Hi Vicki,
This is something we have been addressing as part of a wider discussion on filtering in schools. You might want to cast your eyes over some of the discussions happening on my blogpost (especially David Gilmour's thoughts), and also on the Education2020 wikispace. The lack of trust shown is just a part of the argument.

Links:
My blogpost - http://nwinton.wordpress.com/2009/01/11/instant...
Education2020 Wiki: http://education2020.wikispaces.com/Filtering

Lori Feldman · 11 months ago

You are so right. We as professionals should be able to choose material which adds to our classroom at the appropriate educational, and maturity level. Thank you for helping with this concept!

Michelle Baldwin · 11 months ago

The key word is "Trust." We don't trust our teachers. We don't trust our students. Instead of trusting, we focus on the least common denominator and assume the worst. No wonder kids feel like they're in jail when they go to school. This makes me really sad, but it's also why I show as many positive sides to YouTube as I can find. Thanks for this post!

btw, some students at my daughter's high school did their own version of OK Go's video, too! Great minds think alike!

Brian Crosby · 11 months ago

Hi Vicki! I used to get around it being blocked with my wireless card ... but I had to give it up last month ... sniff, sniff.
Several of our high schools have 3 or so wireless cards for teachers to check out to get around things ... rumor is AT&T is going to allow tethering iPhones for $10 per month (roughly the same as a wireless card, but wireless cards are $30 - $60 per month). Will be interesting what happens then!
Learning is messy!!!
Brian

Beth · 11 months ago

"I say that if you cannot trust your teachers they should be removed and not be teaching." YES!!!!!!! Why can't it be this cut and dry? I have access to YouTube now. It used to depend on the mood of one particular tech in the IT department. If I have offended his senses any way, shape, or form then it might accidentally get blocked again.........and take an unreasonable amount of time before it was whitelisted again. This finally led to a an actual official procedure for determining which sites would be unblocked.

Teachers are professionals and should have a say in the materials they use in the classroom. We are still a long way from where we should be in my district, but we are making progress. Our administrators have a vision of where we need to be. I realize not everyone is that fortunate.

Dean Shareski · 11 months ago

Vicki,

I also use a FireFox plugin called YouTube Snob. It filters out profanity in the comments which is often visible when teachers take students to youtube via a class projector. Likely not a solution for most school machines but another tool for the toolbox.

James Gill · 11 months ago

I am fortunate. My district doesn't block facebook. I teach with YouTube regularly. Most importantly we show regularly the mis use of web 2.0, and how it can be used to their educational benefit. I applaud your article. Teachers are entrusted with the safety and education of children every day. We should be trusted to teach kids about right and wrong on the web, and be given the tools to do it.

Dave · 11 months ago

You also can import YouTube videos to edublogs.tv. Seems to work well and you get rid of the garbage comments, etc.

ellenquilt · 11 months ago

Another great resource (Free, of course) for downloading YouTube videos is idesktop.tv. You can search for your YouTube videos here and then download them to your account and then select the format you want to use and download them from your account to your hard drive. You must be a registered user to access and play the YouTube videos on idesktop, but again, free, which is my favorite four letter word. As an aside, the filters in my school that block You Tube do not block idesktop. Definitely a resource worth checking out. Zamzar is great, but unless you are a paid user, you can end up at the back of the queue and your downloads can take a lot of time.

clowe · 11 months ago

Great post Vikki. Another very simple resource for converting videos from youtube is mediaconverter.org. Conversion and download times are very fast because you don't have to wait for the file to be emailed to you as you do with zamzar.

coolcatteacher · 11 months ago

Thank you so much!!!

coolcatteacher · 11 months ago

Thank you!

Sent from my iPod touch

John Finch · 11 months ago

With the concept of digital citizenship in mind, while technology exists that allows users to copy or download user-submittted videos to memory keys or hard drives from YouTube, this does indeed violate the Terms of Use that users agree to by accessing Youtube.com. While this restricts our use of content that is uploaded to Youtube by its users, if we are to model good digital citizenship for our students, then we must respect YouTube's Terms of Use.
Here is the Terms of Use that applies to downloading of user-submitted YouTube content:

"You may access User Submissions solely:

* for your information and personal use;
* as intended through the normal functionality of the YouTube Service; and
* for Streaming.

"Streaming" means a contemporaneous digital transmission of an audiovisual work via the Internet from the YouTube Service to a user's device in such a manner that the data is intended for real-time viewing and not intended to be copied, stored, permanently downloaded, or redistributed by the user. Accessing User Videos for any purpose or in any manner other than Streaming is expressly prohibited. User Videos are made available "as is." "

coolcatteacher · 11 months ago

Wow! What do we do then? Does fair use apply?

Sent from my iPod touch

Kathy Schrock · 10 months ago

John,

I am always talking about this and agree that the Terms of Use do not allow the ripping to static media. In addition, in the Terms of Use, 4c. states that the user can stream or embed only.

Another educator and I are working on contacting YouTube for clarification for schools, although I do not think the Fair Use guidelines would allow us to do something that is prohibited by the Terms of Use.

We are just looking for written permission from them to allow teachers to do this, not necessarily because it is blocked in some schools, but due to the fact that streaming hogs all the bandwidth it can find, and we need to leave it open for other instructional purposes, too.

We will see what type of response we get and make that public. For now, I am acting under the assumption that ripping onto static media is not allowed, and that is how I am handling it in our district. We do not block YouTube, though.

Luke · 11 months ago

And how often does it happen that a teacher loses the "teachable moment" because a website is blocked, often by someone who is not, strictly speaking, an educator?

coolcatteacher · 11 months ago

Yes, Luke - decisions on websites for the classroom belongs with curriculum
and admin. It shouldn't be an IT decision.

Mark Williams · 11 months ago

Humm... Here I found great work of technology and a tech mind.
Great work please keep it up

coolcatteacher · 11 months ago

Thank you. So many people share great things in the edublogosphere,
hope you'll find time to seek out some of the others listed in the
blogroll on this blog--- staying connected is so inspirational. Thank
you again for such a great compliment.

Sent from my iPod touch

Matt · 11 months ago

Working in the K - 5 environment, there is absolutely no way I would take students to youtube. You just can't know what might come up around the video. I have seen profane, threatening, etc, on inoquos videos. I have seen sexy videos in the related videos areas.

It is quite easy though to embed youtube videos. This is what we do.

Lexy205 · 10 months ago

I liked your idea on how to get a video on youtube and bring it into the classroom. Using a real player to show a video instead of the actually website will take out some of the inappropriate comments that some people may leave.
Also, a rating system would be nice to have on sites like youtube. I read below somebody talked a plugin called YouTube Snob which would be good if you wanted to look up a video right away but do not have it already prepared in real audio format yet.