Why YouTube?

         Don’t know if you guys have seen this one before, but this is a great article that you should check out and read!  It seems like more and more YouTube has been under fire about being used in school or not.  I am the type of person who likes using YouTube due to its many features.  Along with that, it is my thoughts that YouTube can be used in a very educational and beneficial way for a child’s schooling.

         So what is all the fuss about blocking it from our schools to keep harmful material from a child’s eyes?  Since when has the Internet been so vile and despicable that we find it necessary to keep a useful and educational teaching tool from their use?  That seems absurd to me that there is such a drive to block it when there are countless useful possibilities in an educational setting.

         An article put out by “State Impact” from 2011 touches base on a lot of the useful aspects that YouTube allows teachers and students to do.  For instance, a teacher can create a video on something that they are going to cover, and instead of having the kids come and sit through it, they could watch it on YouTube and come prepared to class to do an activity and expand on it.  To me this sounds like a great idea to actually reach children on their level and get them interested in school.

         As talked about in Tina Barseghian’s piece linked at the bottom, YouTube is a way to access more students.  Not just the ones who are in the classroom but any other that might find it.  Isn’t that what education should be about?  Reaching as many students as possible and broadening their horizon?  That is how I see our educational system, which is why I am a strong supporter of using videos and especially YouTube in our classrooms for our students.

Stokes, Kyle. "How YouTube Is Changing The Classroom." Indiana RSS. State Impact, 11 Oct. 2011. Web. 16 Apr. 2013.

http://stateimpact.npr.org/indiana/2011/10/12/how-youtube-is-changing-the-classroom/

Barseghian, Tina. "MindShift." MindShift RSS. KQED, 8 Sept. 2011. Web. 16 Apr. 2013.

http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/2011/09/five-reasons-why-youtube-rocks-the-classroom/

Political Cartoons and Policies

     We have all seen these political cartoons about politics, people, and even education.  The one above is something that caught my interest when I came upon it.  Standardized testing has become more and more of a focus in our schools these days.  It is hard to think that young kids are being overwhelmed with test, one after another.  Education should not be students preparing for the next test to come along.  However, this is what our educational has become of the past couple years.  It truly is quite sad.  Looking at the political cartoon above it is clear that there has been a major shift in the focus on school.  It used to be the younger grades were not as focused on grades and testing, but that is no longer.  This huge change in the education of our young children is truly terrifying.

http://www.education.com/magazine/article/Standardized_Testing/

     The link above is right in line with the idea of our standardized testing ruining a child's educational experience.  It would seem that the more and more we throw at students, will only turn them off of school.  Though standardized tests show us where students are struggling and where they need help, at what cost are we paying for that information.  It would seem that we spend more time teaching to the tests than we do actually teaching the material.  School used to be a place that students could learn and grow in their education, however, now students and teachers are so worried about performing well that they loose this love and drive for education.