Week 9 -Thing 20

It was interesting to experience a bit of what YouTube has to offer. I hear the kids at school talking about YouTube so it was great having the opportunity to play with it a bit. It obviously offers a great variety of videos, some of which would be very valuable to teachers trying to describe a particular historical event or have them listen to an interview. I did some searches on historical topics that I know our students study to see what would be available to show as clips during a class to illustrate a particular issue or time period. By providing students with the opportunity to see and hear the actual events and people related to a particular incident, we are able to make history more relevant to our students. I do see problems with sites like YouTube where students can be exposed to some unsavory materials. There are issues of privacy as well that present some real concerns.

Unfortunately, the opportunity to use YouTube at our school to show educational videos is not available. Our filter prevents us from accessing YouTube from any of our computers. It would be possible, I'm sure, if we had a particularly relevant clip, to have the filter disabled on one computer for a limited time. This does provide some access but does cut down on the ability to be spontaneous, i.e. to access a video on the spur of the moment as the need arises.

The clip that I'm highlighting is an interview with one of the leaders of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. This clip would be an excellent way to open a discussion with students on the topic of Civil Rights in the 1960s.



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I'm having problems viewing my video on my MAC at school. It comes through on my PC at home. I don't know whether this is a problem with the MAC or whether, since YouTube is blocked at school, the video doesn't appear. I guess it points up the possibility of problems with incompatibility between platforms and the restrictions created by filters and firewalls.