A 2 Speed YouTube?

image credit: theqspeaks CC Licnece BY_NC_SA

“Opening up a world of educational content with YouTube for Schools”

As a firm advocate of video for learning, I really hope Google’s recently launched YouTube for Schools service will get YouTube into more schools.  Then if those schools were to move from YouTube for Schools to the default open YouTube, that would  be even better.

As expected the initial reactions to the launch of YouTube for  Schools on the  educational blogs and twitter feeds has been welcoming and positive and .... largely.......uncritical.

Google’s  bold statement (above), has obviously struck a chord with lots of educators, despite the fact that the content on YouTube has always been open and available to schools should they wish to access it. There are of course many schools and administrations that have; (misguidedly in my opinion), chosen to block it,  but that is an entirely different matter.

Therefore is Google really opening or providing anything new?  No, what YouTube for Schools does is offer a filter switch by which school IT admins can allow access to the Youtube.com/education subdomain  i.e. YouTube Edu, whilst still allowing the blocking of  open YouTube. The keywords in Gooogles rationale are:  safety and distraction together with  school friendly/teacher friendly and free. Taking these points in order:

• if YouTube is really that dangerous;  why are many schools using it without any significant issues as Daniel Stucke points out in his post?  
• distraction; lots of glib references to cats and music; from both Google and commentators but no analysis of the causes of distraction
• school/teacher friendly is a pretty meaningless term, but could possibly be interpreted as spoon feeding.....having the spadework done for you.... avoiding issues of digital literacy?
• YouTube has always been free ... ‘no brainer’

The YouTube Edu content is sourced from over "600 partners” and indeed there are some excellent videos from the likes of NASA, RSA, Smithsonian and TED. Nevertheless there are also a lot of talking heads and dry lectures.  There is very little evidence of student authored videos or the student voice, instead it is very much a one-way street where video is used to "illustrate."  I think YouTube Edu focuses too heavily on 'subjects' and ‘grades’ rather than the interconnectedness of knowledge or the educational affordances of video. Perhaps it is just my take, but there seems to be a very US centric feel to the service. I have also noted; that many, if not the majority of clips still feature pre-roll and pop-up adverts.

There is of course no shortage of educational video being curated and shared on the web.  A good example is WatchKnow.org; a moderated wiki where and  teachers  recommend, aggregate and curate educational content from a number of video services including YouTube. Another developing service in the UK is EdmediaShare, where educators in HE and FE upload, share and discuss the videos they are using. The emphasis within EdmediaShare is on  how to leverage the pedagogical value of the videos and can be used in different learning contexts as well as subjects using the Dial-e framework developed at the University of Hull.

I am not convinced about new either; YouTube  hosts hundreds or even thousands of  channels and playlists that have educational value. I  would argue that this value is best determined by a community of educators curating and sharing, rather than a committee even if it does include teachers and Google educators. YouTube has become such a powerful educational platform because of its serendipity - the discovery, of new videos and channels, facilitated and promoted through social networks.

Of the 35 hours of video uploaded every minute to YouTube, a significant amount will be extremely current, relevant and topical. YouTube provides instantaneous access to many events of local and global significance as they happen, for example the recent Japan Tsunami, Arab Spring or a local Starling roost  - all good  examples. Teachers should have access to; and be able to decide; if, how, and when to use such videos; and also consider the age group and how to frame them in an appropriate learning context

In my opinion what YouTube should be doing, is helping teachers to understand and use the
excellent creative YouTube tools such as: Playlists, Editing, Captions, Video Manager  and promoting embedding YouTube content in other educational resources, as they do in YouTube for Teachers. Teachers should be encouraged to address the issues of raised by comments and how related videos algorithms work and evaluate their effectiveness. This is all part of developing digital and media literacies. Offering a solution based on 'removing' comments and related videos is pedagogically unsound.

To give Google some credit they have factored in a suggest option for  channels, but here's the rub - it must must be sourced from a YouTube partner! .... rather than selected for its true educational merit.

 

So in the final analysis what we end up with is a digital video library, a walled garden.

whereby a ‘committee’ and Google deems what is educational video, which can then be allocated to teachers on an individual basis by an IT admin. I think this is  a backward step for video for learning. It will will be interesting to watch how this plays out and follow the crossover, both ways,  between YouTube for Schools and Open YouTube. Of course my big worry is that some currently Open YouTube users would move to the YouTube for Schools.

Comments

[Adam Webster]

An interesting development but as you say, the real concern here is the idea that full/open YouTube isn't for schools. I don't know what I would do without full access to this amazing resource. Frankly the non-educational material is at least, if not more useful than the dry lectures you mentioned. Surely teachers and students in most cases are capable of decidingbwhat material is useful and of ducational value? From a pastoral perspective too, educational videos probably aren't going to stimulate discussions in the same way. On the other hand, if this is a development which gets YouTube into more schools, then it will certainly be of benefit.

[Theok]

Thanks for your comment and I agree with you. I am pleased you pointed out the value of YouTube for pastoral and personal development. I wonder how much of Google's educational content would fit that bill? Have you had a look at TrueTube http://www.truetube.co.uk/

As you say anything to allow video to be used in schools is a priority.

[Mrstucke]

Thanks for the link back Theo. Obviously you know my views.

But one thing you touched on rings true in particular. Youtube is such a wonderful resource for those spontaneous little bits of learning where you just need a clip of Bagpuss or the 1984 FA Cup final or whatever else it may be. So much of this won't be classified as educational - it just seems a big old waste of time and effort. I've often found it useful as a spontaneous relationship builder too, many times a conversation in class leads to a story from my childhood or similar, and many times Youtube brings some video context to the story. It's these little moments, that may have nothing to do with learning at that point in time, but help build trust and honesty that pay dividends down the line. It's a shame this can't happen in so many schools in this day and age.

[Theok]

Exactly Daniel, I think YouTube for Schools could easily end up as a video text book. Besides... why this continual harping on about video distractions such as cats and music.... it is very very arrogant to assert they have no educational value : )

[twitter.com/josepicardo]

Youtube for Schools: Has Google just taken the fun out of Youtube? So what kind of educational resource is that then?

[Kevin Mclaughlin]

YouTube for Education is a step in the right direction for institutions that have TouTube blocked but it could turn out to be merely a watered down, sanitised version of a service that is truly inspiring when required to be so. As Dan points out, the best part of YouTube is having immediate access to any clip you deem suitable to use with a class. Having a Educational version could filter out all those excellent resources and leave institutions with nothing more than lectures, demos and 'suitable' educational videos.

[Theok]

José I think that could certainly be the case...but then.. there is a school of thought learning should not be fun ; )

[Theok]

Thanks for comment Kevin, but if you do a twitter search for YouTube for Schools you will find that on the whole the responses are very uncritical and most commentators don't seem to get the subtle nuances of this filtered service.

There could be several reasons; 1) (many) Schools have been deprived of YouTube for so long anything is better than nothing. 2) Googles promotion of the service has been excellent 3) Because it's Google.... it must be good!

[David Rogers]

A good post Theo. I, like you, am worried that schools will settle for this service and then stop pushing for full access. Also, the debate shouldn't be restricted to YouTube alone but move toward a better approach to web access full stop.

[Theok]

Good point about web access David - and other video platforms such as blip and Vimeo also have some excellent videos educators can use.