“Using You Tube in the Classroom”
Mary Anne Poatsy
Montgomery County Community College
http://www.cisinstructorslounge.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&
id=27&Itemid=1
“We must educate the student we have, not the student we used to have, nor the
student we wished we had.” – David Thornburg
This article is written by an educator who recognizes the needs to keep
children of the new technology age, “plugged in” when they come to school. One
way that she has found to do this is to incorporate “You Tube” videos into her
classes. She stresses,
“There is YouTube fever going on right now. In the first year, 1.73
billion YouTube videos were viewed. At last count, there are 45
terabytes of videos available. Like it or not, YouTube is becoming
our new TV”.
Poatsy notes that while our students spend many times looking for videos that
are entertaining there are also many videos on “You Tube” that are instructional
and educational. She says she is successful in using these videos for visual
representations of topics and ideas. Since they are usually less than 5 min they
are time effective as well. Students are also required to use “You Tube” in their
power point presentations for class. As well, students can create their own “You
Tube” videos.
This article gives straightforward instructions on how to create and upload
your own “You Tube” video.
Being a huge advocate of using YouTube ot TeacherTube videos in
school I thought this was a fantastic article. I think that in a generation that is so
“tunned in” it is essential to bring in tools they are familiar with and enjoy.
Some schools believe in blocking sites like “YouTube” to keep children
from searching for inappropriate material. I believe that with all the time children
spend on the internet at home, no matter how much we shelter them in school
they will see what they want to see somewhere. When we show our students that
they can find interesting, cool, fun videos that also have an educational value we
show them that learning can be cool interacting and fun too.
“Is the Internet Affecting the Social Skills of Our Children?”
Bob Affonso
December 1, 1999
University of Nevada, Reno
http://sierrasource.com/cep612/internet.html
This article investigates the effect of the Internet on social skills of school
aged children. This article remarks that,
“According to a U.S. Census Bureau report, 22.2% of the 76 million American
computer users aged 3 and above use the Internet and one fifth of children with
home computers use them to access the Internet (U.S. Census Bureau, 1997). It
was also reported that 55 million enrolled children used a computer at school,
and school was the most common place for children to access the Internet.”
This authors concern lies in studies, like one done at Carnegie Mellon
University which sites that, “Internet use leads to small but statistically significant
increases in misery and loneliness and a decline in overall psychological well-
being (American Psychological Association, 1998). In fact, a large portion of this
article is dedicated to the idea of internet as an addiction.
On the other hand, however, the author does add that, “despite the alarm,
research indicates most children are doing fine. Computers are certainly
intriguing and captivating, and the Internet is most assuredly alluring with its
research and communicative capacities”.
My feelings are divided on this issue. While I can sympathize with and
understand the material the author is presenting I am struck with two thoughts.
The first, this article is 8 years old, many more of our children and students must
be using the internet by now. And second, would they really chose to use IM
when they could just go outside and see them? Maybe they would.
I disagree with this article about the negative social implications of the
internet mostly because I believe that the negative impact is not coming directly
from the internet but more from the lack of parental control or monitoring of the
internet. The internet is a fantastic tool and can provide so many opportunities for
a child if used correctly; however, it is the job of the parents to monitor the time
their child spends on the computer. To fault s machine for the mistakes of a
human seems absurd.
Jessica Senk- Internet for the Eudcator- 2007