I’ve just encountered first hand why it’s so frustrating that the videosharing site YouTube is blocked in my school division. This past fall, Canadian young adult author, Eric Walters, visited our school. If you ever get the chance, I highly recommend having Eric visit your school. You won’t be disappointed. If he can keep a hundred junior high students enthralled with his witty banter about his writing and books like he did at my school, trust me, he can keep anyone interested.
But I digress from the real reason I felt compelled to post this evening. Eric just sent me links to his latest book trailers that he posted on YouTube. I’d love to show these clips to my students but to do that, I have to jump through what seems like an endless series of hoops. I’m somewhat tech savvy so I’m willing to do this but what about those teachers who aren’t. They’re just going to pass these videos by because it’s just too time consuming and difficult to convert the files to something they can watch at school which is too bad because I know how watching these videos might entice one of their students to pick up one of his books and read!
Now I fully agree that this should not be beyond a teacher’s capability to convert a YouTube video to a file that can be played at school but really, why should they have to? As teachers, we’re having to pass so many great learning opportunities aside because we’re worried about ban width and students watching inappropriate material.
In the meantime, I’ve encouraged Eric to consider uploading his videos to TeacherTube which isn’t blocked. At least this way, more teachers and students will be able to see the book trailers.
Eric Walters’ latest YouTube book trailers:
January 6, 2009 at 1:44 pm
Jo-Anne
A great post about such an important topic! We are struggling with issues of censorship here in BC too. Often social networking sites are blocked from kids, as are media sites such as YouTube. I am frustrated with colleagues, who have difficulty downloading their own email, making pronouncements about student access to the internet. It echoes back to the Dark Ages when books were burned in favor of handwritten manuscripts. Teachers need to embrace the web 2.0 and use the opportunities it provides in constructive ways or suffer the fate of the monks who once scribed the knowledge of the world in their walled cells.
Ken
January 6, 2009 at 5:57 pm
Ken,
So true. Thanks for reading and adding to the discussion about our need to move forward with technology and not backward. Do you read Will Richardson’s blog “weblogg-ed” and Doug Johnson’s “Blue Skunk Blog”? Both talk a lot about the importance of not fearing technology but teaching our students how to use it appropriately. Ethical use of ICT is one of the three cornerstones of the Manitoba Literacy with ICT provincial document. Lets face it, kids are going to use technology so we might as well teach them how to use it ethically and responsibly.
Jo-Anne
January 6, 2009 at 9:36 pm
You are in luck I know the answer
I posted it last week:
http://blogush.edublogs.org/2008/12/30/no-bikinis-at-my-school/