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:
Web Jammin' 
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