The barrier to opening youtube is two-fold:
- Bandwidth concerns
- Student safety and security (bad stuff out there/time wasting)
The principal is the key, convince him or her and they have the power to open Youtube by providing the following solutions to their concerns:
- It turns out the bandwidth should not be a concern. Most schools have 25Mbps access. Until there is a problem, if there is responsible use, there shouldn't be a problem. The district is prepared for use to go up, and this problem is not as legitimate as you may think (unless you are a big high school, but centre high 2000 + students is open and running).
- It is up to use to teach students responsible use. Through Modelling and Supervision - we ought to be able to combat the concern of student access.
The point to be driven home to get your principal to ensure access is to provide real examples of how it can be used for learning!
When you are done making this easy to see logically sound argument ask your principal to email Jamie Hermans with EPSB, find his name in Outlook.
One very important Caveat:
Make sure you have in place a responsible way of making the transition. Educate the staff, educate the students. This is a powerful tool, but it can be easily abused. Keep the two arguments against in mind and have in place a method for dealing with 1) Bandwidth abuse and 2) Inappropriate/Off task behaviour.
It is easy to see how students will abuse the openness that we advocate, thus proving right the nay-sayers. Allow it to stay open through responsible use in the entire school.
Make sure you have in place a responsible way of making the transition. Educate the staff, educate the students. This is a powerful tool, but it can be easily abused. Keep the two arguments against in mind and have in place a method for dealing with 1) Bandwidth abuse and 2) Inappropriate/Off task behaviour.
It is easy to see how students will abuse the openness that we advocate, thus proving right the nay-sayers. Allow it to stay open through responsible use in the entire school.
All it took was a mention. My principal wants it open too, and she was pleased to hear that it was her decision.
ReplyDeleteYoutube is getting opened at Westlawn.
Google Education needs to create a filter for YouTube videos. If they want a foothold in the ed market, they should create the filter so we can allow students to access appropriate content. As long as we can still report "inappropriate content", we should be OK.
ReplyDeleteYoutube is up and running and the results are fantastic. Students are eager to show each other the best videos they found on Loius Riel, and I can seamlessly access videos on topics that are brought up in discussion without having to authenticate. Some students even showed me how to embed a youtube video into a google presentation on Canadian troops in Afghanistan.
ReplyDeleteI was open to the students about why they have the tools (learning) and why they don't (entertainment), and so far they are respecting and honouring their new responsibility.
I have had a conversation with my principal here at J Percy Page High School and he has agreed to allow me to bring up the topic of YouTube access during our ILT meeting next week. I am very hopeful that we will have YouTube unblocked by Easter so that we can all watch the Easter Bunny spreading the joys of Easter eggs to all! More to come...
ReplyDelete