Thing 9

I have been a fan of YouTube for awhile.  I have used it mostly to find old TV shows that I liked when I was a kid.  My favorite from the list had to be the Panda sneezing.  Although I found In My Language and Taylor Mali inspiring.  I made comments on all three of them.

Things I like about YouTube: looking up old shows, learning about things from Commoncraft and others, finding funny videos for my daughter, and being able to leave positive comments.

Things I don't like about YouTube: people who leave negative comments and some videos are inappropriate.

There are loads of videos on YouTube, TeacherTube, and SchoolTube that are educational and can be used in the classroom.  I had not heard of SchoolTube, but I have tried to post to TeacherTube.  In my district, YouTube is not blocked for teachers, but I do believe that it is blocked for students.  TeacherTube is not blocked, but I cannot upload videos because I am limited on the size that I can upload.  That can be very frustrating.  As much as I know kids would look for videos on YouTube that might not be appropriate, they would like to have the privileges and with guidelines to follow, they might actually be engaged in the learning.  At some point, we need to embrace the technology that is available for the students to use and not make them shut down when the get to school.

CR