There is some disagreement in homes and schools across the country related to the popular video Web site, YouTube: is it popular new technology that should be embraced or is it unregulated video anarchy that should be filtered? Put another way, the discussion boils down to this: does it offer anything positive, or is YouTube just voyeuristic entertainment that’s not suitable for your computer?
Many families have chosen to block access to YouTube. Parents point to the content – and there is a lot of it – that is certainly not appropriate for most teens. Although YouTube censors videos containing nudity, there is plenty of gross, ugly, objectionable, even dangerous content that users produce and post on the site.
On the other hand, YouTube is increasingly being utilized as a place for learning. One of its most popular categories is called “Howto & DIY,” which is an area that houses videos that explain everything from phonics to phone etiquette; science experiments, instructions on playing a musical instrument, and even a video demonstration to help solve a Rubik’s Cube.
YouTube’s education channels are turning the traditional notion of a classroom upside down. For example, Google University is the name for an educational channel of posted videos that provide tutorials and sample course content so Computer Science students and educators can learn more about current computing technologies. Google is YouTube’s parent company.
And, the University of California at Berkeley is the first major college to program its YouTube educational channel with entire course lectures. Topics range from bioengineering to peace and conflict studies, to the videotaped lectures from a popular class on campus called Physics for Future Presidents. In the news release announcing the posting of the University’s classes on the video-sharing Web site, UC Berkeley spokesperson Ben Hubbard said, "YouTube's ongoing innovations create a great environment in which students and lifelong learners alike can discover, watch and share educational videos.” Hubbard says there are now more than 300 hours of videos posted since the University began programming its YouTube educational channel in 2006.
It is in that environment that i-SAFE has begun programming our own YouTube nonprofit video channel. The channel, located at http://www.youtube.com/user/isafevids, allows us to reach beyond the classroom to further our mission and better promote e-Safety education. Visit our channel, watch the videos and encourage your children to produce an e-Safety video that we can include on the channel. In addition, we have some big plans and cool video contests which put our new YouTube channel in the center of the action. Look for all that to happen at the beginning of the new year. In the meantime, we’ll continue to add to our collection of i-SAFE videos and student-generated videos posted on the site.
We understand that currently many parents are reluctant to allow their children to access YouTube. Some parents see the site as merely a place that students view a continuous video loop showing kids falling off of bikes or whining on a webcam. Of course, those kinds of videos are seen there. However, i-SAFE believes that this new medium can convey a powerful message that has the potential of favorably impacting tens of millions of eager students across the country, and around the world. YouTube is, at the same time, an undeniably popular phenomenon which is not inherently bad. Rather than blocking access with software, teachers and parents can help provide students with the education and guidance that empower them to use this technology responsibly.
And, isn’t that really the way lasting lessons are learned?
Take an interest in what your children are doing online, and learn as much as you can about e-Safety. i-SAFE provides easy and convenient i-PARENT online training at http://ilearn.isafe.org/. You can also learn more at http://www.isafe.org/, or our new Web site just for Hawaii at http://www.isafehawaii.org/.
