Alright. I should probably be ashamed to admit this, but here goes. I honestly have never gone to YouTube to...well just go. Sure I have gone to upload my Faces of a Librarian project; and yes I went to see an uploaded video of my daughter being serenaded by seventh graders last year-but I always thought it was..hmmm....a waste. A bunch of weird, inappropriate people who were posting stupid videos of stupid stuff.
So for my technology posting this week, I decided to put myself out there and visit YouTube to see what it was really about. Why did I choose this optional tool? Because as I stated above, it's about time to check this out. Would it have value beyond my prejudicial mindset? Or was I pretty spot on with my assumptions?
From an entertainment standpoint, sure I liked it. Seeing Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake do the history of rap on late night TV was fine by me. Did I like all of the other links that popped up on the right hand side? Did I appreciate the sexual innuendo and profanity that were shown in the comments directly under the video? Not so much since my kids were sitting by me when I went on the site. The search tool was a good way to quickly find videos that I could view. But again, even when I searched "innocent" videos like animals, babies, etc. there were still vulgar comments and images that came up. I'm sure that doesn't happen every time, but it seemed like it did happen a lot-which is one of the reasons why I haven't really made YouTube a habit.
From an educators point of view I was still skeptical until I used the search bar. I found a really cool video for Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus (the above link) that I will be using with the preschoolers that I work with. I also found a cool Will-I-Am video with Sesame Street characters that I will use as well. I also know that my colleague has used YouTube when showing informational videos on Olympic athletes and history.
The site is user friendly. I didn't see any tutorials but also didn't need one. I will go back and explore more videos using the search option-but I am not sure I feel comfortable letting my own kids just search the site without supervision. I do think that my original opinion is still pretty spot on-it isn't that I think the entire site is "bad", I just think it stinks that so many inappropriate images and language pop up.
I will use YouTube with my students in a very controlled way. I will seek out the videos that I think are applicable to my classes and then have them ready to show prior to class. I know that my colleague has done this very think with her students and it has been successful. I think that YouTube does have value but still think it is disappointing that there are such obvious ways that kids can read inappropriate language (even under the Will-I-Am clip there were comments using profanity), see images that are unnecessary, etc. when innocently searching.
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