YouTube

YouTube once flooded my inbox with funny videos deemed worthy of forwarding to everyone in my contacts list.  Laughing babies, wedding mishaps, SNL spoofs, and everyday bloopers were the clips that defined what YouTube was - a means of entertainment.  However, it has become so much more than simply a site for entertainment.  It truly has shown its educational value with increasing frequency.  

Miguel Helft, in his New York Times article, "At First Funny Videos. Now, a Reference Tool," states, "The explosion of all types of video content on YouTube and other sites is quickly transforming online video from a medium strictly for entertainment and news into one that is also a reference tool. As a result, video search, on YouTube and across other sites, is rapidly morphing into a new entry point into the Web, one that could rival mainstream search for many types of queries."  

I have used YouTube in my classroom on many occasions as a quick reference for something I am teaching.  When teaching about the ancient Mayan civilization, I found a YouTube clip explaining and demonstrating the famous ball game they played.  It was a brief but perfect accompaniment to our discussion.  I typically show a quick clip from the animated Disney movie The Road to El Dorado to provide a light-hearted and humorous visual for the Mayan ball game, but this year I was unable to get the movie in time.  Sure enough, trusty old YouTube had the clip from the movie ready for my use.  

I have used YouTube clips to teach about Dia de los Muertos, the Great Wall of China, and the traditional practices of the major world religions.  I have shown Martin Luther King, Jr.'s famous "I have a dream..." speech as well as interviews with authors of the books we read. 

I still enjoy the entertainment aspect of YouTube...I mean, you can't really beat a truly funny kid... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OBlgSz8sSM  

However, YouTube in my classroom has truly proven to be a useful tool aiding me as a teacher.  

Wikipedia

When writing research papers with my sixth-grade students, I did not allow them to use Wikipedia as the source of their information. We talked about the fact that because anyone can edit the site, it is not always completely accurate. One student asked, "So is it EVER ok to search for an answer to a question and find it on Wikipedia?" The question was convicting as I reflected on the number of times I have searched for a quick answer, statistic, or fact and found what I was looking for on Wikipedia. How would I answer that question without being a complete hypocrite? What followed was an interesting discussion on the availability of information on the internet. What can you trust as reliable? We practiced searching for the same information using many different sources to see if the information given was consistent. I realized afterwards that a simple conversation about Wikipedia (and my fear that my students would blindly believe potentially inaccurate information) led them to dive even deeper into research.

David Wolman, in his article in Wired Magazine, "The Critics Need a Reboot. The Internet Hasn't Led Us Into a New Dark Age" states, "The explosion of knowledge represented by the Internet and abetted by all sorts of digital technologies makes us more productive and gives us the opportunity to become smarter, not dumber. Think of Wikipedia and its emergent spinoffs, like Wiktionary. Imperfect as they may be, the collective brainpower contained within these kinds of sites — and the hunger for learning and accurate information they represent — is something human history has never known before. (Even Encyclopedia Britannica will soon be accepting user contributions.)"

If students are simply "set free" to use the internet in any capacity, we as educators have no right to complain about the outcomes. Wolman goes on to say, "We need better schools as well as a renewed commitment to reason and scientific rigor so that people can distinguish knowledge from garbage. The Web is not an obstacle in this project. It's an unparalleled tool for generating, finding, and sharing sound information. What's moronic is to assume that it hurts us more than it helps."

I have a renewed commitment and enthusiasm to further my knowledge about and use of the internet WITH my students so that I can use it is a tool as opposed to an opponent.