YouTube, in my opinion, is the hidden gem of education. It’s hidden, not because people don’t know it exists or what it can do. On the contrary, everyone and their dog is aware of the diverse clips that YouTube contains. It’s hidden because many schools, including until recently my own, have chosen to block it. The reason for this is fairly understandable – YouTube contains clips which are clearly unsuitable for children.
Whilst this is true, there is too much to be gained by exposing children to the wealth of educational opportunities that exist on YouTube to justify blocking it.
The other day I wanted to buy a phone. I had a few in mind, but didn’t posses the technological nous to help me find something that would best give me value for money and fulfill my practical needs. So I did what many do when they can’t make their mind up about something – I asked YouTube. On YouTube I watched clips on the various phones, was given a run through of their features, advantages, design and reliability issues etc.
This helped me settle on a phone. But my education didn’t stop there. As I am a visual learner, I require more than just a booklet to follow. To set up my phone and navigate my way through the different functions I turned to my dear friend, YouTube, who again, didn’t let me down.
YouTube is the modern-day instructive tool. It clearly and carefully teaches people practical skills in language they can understand. It plays the part of teacher.
At the moment I am teaching my 5th Graders about finding the lowest common denominator before adding and subtracting fractions. As a test, before writing this blog post, I typed some key words into a YouTube search and came up with many fine online tutorials on this very skill that kids can readily access. It shouldn’t replace the teacher, but it can certainly help a child pick up a concept.
And it’s not just academic skills that can be developed through YouTube. If my school hadn’t relaxed its position on YouTube, I wouldn’t have had the chance to show my students the best anti-bullying film going around. I have come across so many lame and unconvincing films about bullying in my time. So to first find Mike Feurstein’s masterful film, and then get the chance to show the movie to my appreciative class, was a major coup for my ongoing efforts in trying to keep my classroom bully free. The film, posted below is as good a reason as any to allow teachers to use YouTube in the classroom.
Sure teachers have to be on the lookout for students who may exploit this privilege, but ultimately that is our job. If we banned everything that has possible risks or negative outcomes, we wouldn’t have much to work with at all.
I am not one to use therm “addiction” lightly. Many would dismiss video game addiction as merely a bad habit or a product of an anti-scocial personality, but it is very real.
Video game addiction can take over a child’s life and deeply affect their relationships, schoolwork and daily routine. With role-playing games such as World of Warcraft now in vogue, the video game addiction has become far more serious. Because these games have no designated end point, the game goes on indefinitely. This means that kids struggle to put the controller down in order to eat, sleep or even go to the toilet!
In fact, in 2007, a Harris poll found that 8.5% of youths between the ages of 8 – 18 in the United States could be classified as video game addicts.
“The excitement, the thrill and the challenge, for some people gets greater and greater, and then it takes on a life of its own.” Dr. Anna Bacher, a therapist in Sarasota, treats patients with addictions — including those who have a hard time putting down the controller. “It can go to the extreme, where they stop sleeping, they stop eating, the person becomes irritable, lethargic, depressed, highly anxious and very difficult to be around.”
It is absolutely essential that parents are aware of the consequences of an addicted child before the odd game of World of Warcraft and games of its type, become an obsession. Parents should not feel that copious hours in front of the computer amounts to innocent fun.
Yes, gaming addiction is better than drugs. But not as much as some parents may think.
We all love our internet connections and mobile phones and would find it extremely difficult to live without them. However, addictions are still addictions, and there is no doubt that our children have grown a deep addiction to the internet. So bad is the problem, that children have become more addicted to the internet than to TV:
Just 18% of children would miss TV most, compared to mobile (28%) and Internet (25%), finds Ofcom research
A new research by communications watchdog Ofcom has revealed that more young British teenagers can do without TV but not without mobile and the Internet.
Ofcom research found that just 18% of children aged 12 to 15 would miss TV most, compared to mobile (28%) and the Internet (25%). However, the research suggests that the teenagers are also watching more TV than ever before, with viewing figures increasing by 2 hours since 2007.
In 2010, children aged 4-15 watched an average of 17 hours and 34 minutes of TV per week, compared with 15 hours and 37 minutes in 2007. Nearly one third (31%) of children aged 5-15 who use the Internet are watching TV via an online catch-up service such as the BBC iPlayer or ITV Player, said Ofcom.
Ofcom’s research said that 95% of 12-15 year olds now have Internet access at home through a PC or laptop, up from 89% in 2010 and 77% in 2007.
Social networking is still one of the most popular uses of the Internet amongst 12-15s. Ofcom said that children are visiting social network sites more often on their mobiles. Half (50%) of 12-15s with a smartphone visit them weekly compared with 33% in 2010.
Children aged between 8-11 are more likely to use Internet for gaming, with 51% saying they play games online on a weekly basis, up from 44% in 2010. 8-11s are also spending more time playing on games players/ consoles compared with 2010 (9 hours 48 minutes – an increase of nearly 2 hours), said Ofcom.
In my school days television addiction was a problem. Now we have another addiction which comes with the same side-effects. It creates tired students who have been up so late they can’t concentrate. It has compromised our children’s capacity to have healthy social interaction. Playing with a friend has now become messaging a friend. It’s just not the same.
As soon as people go from the moderate to the obsessive, they lose control of themselves. Children today are certainly showing the signs of a lack of control, to the point where they are smuggling mobiles in their bags so they can reply to Facebook messages as soon as they receive them.
Kids require rules for their internet usage. Rules that outline when, how and where they can use it.
Parents are clearly worried about their children’s online activities. They are worried about the content they get access to and the people they befriend and chat with on social media sites such as Facebook.
In a nationwide survey conducted by legal information website FindLaw.com, it was revealed that 67 percent of 627 parents are extremely worried (10%), very worried (18%) or somewhat worried (39%) about their children’s safety online. About 20% said that they are not very worried while 14% are not worried at all. The study was done with a small sampling but FindLaw.com said that it was demographically representative.
Most parents are taking steps to restrict their children’s use of the Internet. Steps taken vary, including: monitoring which sites they visit (35%); using site-blocking software (21%); restricting their access to computers (19%); restricting the use of social networks (18%); reading their emails or social posts (17%); and not allowing any Internet use (8%).
I recently attended a Professional Development session on cyber culture. The survey conducted by AISV interviewed thousands of kids from Grade 4 to Year 8 and collected information about their internet habits. Some of the interesting findings included:
1 in 5 year 5/6′s don’t consult parents about their internet activity.
15% of year 5′s and 20% of year 6′s have internet access in their bedrooms.
Half the respondents claim they don’t have parent imposed internet rules.
30% of respondents know ways in which to circumvent parental controls such as bypassing net filters and minimising pages when parents approach.
40% of respondents name their school or city on social media sites such as Facebook.
84% use chat rooms on a daily basis.
Approx. 3/4 don’t use privacy function on their social media pages.
I have 2 tips for parents to help keep their children safe.
1. Don’t allow them to have a computer (or move the i-Pad or notebook) in their bedroom. Instead keep the computer in the living room or another room that is open to you and other adults.
2. Please watch the clip below with your children. It is a brilliant clip about cybersafety. I have posted it before and will continue to do so when discussing this issue.
Whilst I feel that the courts made the correct ruling, preventing an Indiana high school from punishing two girls for posting racy photos online, I applaud the school for trying to address the behaviour. This was clearly not a school issue and therefore not within their jurisdiction. This was something the parents of the two girls could either address or ignore. But what I like about this story is that a school cared enough about their reputation, setting an example of proper behaviour and helping those two girls reflect on their actions.
Two Indiana girls — one 16, one 15 — took racy photos of themselves at a slumber party and posted them online. When their high school found out, it suspended the girls from participating in a certain amount of their extracurricular activities. Can the school legally do that?
A federal district court in Fort Wayne, Ind., recently ruled that it cannot — because the punishment violated the girls’ First Amendment rights. The legal question of what rights students have to post provocative material on the Internet, and what rights schools have to restrict such postings, is still unsettled.
I hope schools become far more active on the subject of cyberbullying and cybersafety, two issues which are not clearly within the jurisdiction of schools. For too long schools have been only too happy to turn a blind eye to what their students do outside the school gates.
This was not the appropriate time to act but at least it wasn’t summarily ignored like so many other matters are.
I am in favour of schools playing a far more proactive role in dealing with cyberbullying and advocating privacy settings to protect against cyber stalkers, but spying on their students’ Facebook pages is not appropriate.
SCHOOLS are using internet monitoring companies to read what students are saying on social networking sites.
The typical service used by schools such as Ascham looks at any publicly available material posted on sites such as Facebook, Formspring and Tumblr to monitor the sometimes ferocious use of the media by young people.
Whilst schools often go into their shells when it comes to cyberbullying, spying on their students is an invasion of privacy. Instead of concerning themselves with publicly available material they should work harder to ensure their students have their privacy settings on.
This measure will do precious little to stop bullying. Bullies are much smarter than we give them credit for. They find ways to harass away from the watchful eyes of anyone that might punish them for their crimes.
Yet whilst this will do little to prevent bullying it will make the students even more negative about school and authority in general.
Another reminder of the severity of falling victim to cyber bullying:
The inability to escape from the 24 hour online world and the public nature of threats posted on the internet make being bullied electronically more intense, it was claimed.
Addressing the American Psychological Association’s Annual Convention, Elizabeth Carll said: “Increasingly, stalkers use modern technology to monitor and torment their victims, and one in four victims report some form of cyberstalking, such as threatening emails or instant messaging.”
Victims may feel stress, anxiety, fear and nightmares, as well as enduring eating and sleeping difficulties, she said.
Dr Carll, of the APA Media Psychology Division, “It is my observation that the symptoms related to cyberstalking and e-harassment may be more intense than in-person harassment, as the impact is more devastating due to the 24/7 nature of online communication, inability to escape to a safe place, and global access of the information.”
There is age rstrictions on Facebook for a reason. The potential outcomes when a pre-teen uses Facebook are severe enough to warrant it a 13+ age requirement.
But does that stop under age kids opening their own account? Of course not.
Washington: Some 7.5 million of the 20 million minors who used Facebook in the past year were younger than 13, and a million of them were bullied, harassed or threatened on the site, says a study released Tuesday. Even more troubling, more than five million Facebook users were 10 years old or younger, and they were allowed to use Facebook largely without parental supervision leaving them vulnerable to threats ranging from malware to sexual predators, the State of the Net survey by Consumer Reports found.” Read the rest, here.
And this is a trend we are seeing all over the world. As important as it is to have this age requirement, it seems too easy to sidestep it.
I believe that if Facebook really wanted to ban under 13’s from setting up accounts, they could.
Father and computer expert, Bill Ramsey sets a good example for other parents concerned about what their children get up to online:
“The internet has really changed the way that children interact with the world and not always for good,” said Bill Ramsey. He’s owns The Bill Guy Technology Solutions and is a dad. He says you have to know who your kids are chatting with on places like Facebook. “There are so many parents that say I don’t care that they put that stuff up there and I tell them they should. You should care,” he said.
He cares so much, he requires his 15-year-old step daughter provide her passwords so he can access everything, including text messages. He says she doesn’t like it but knows if she breaks the rules she’ll lose her computer privileges. By checking her email recently, he found emails from a guy who asked she send pictures of herself. She didn’t do it, but he says she also didn’t understand why it was a big deal. “So what this is a person I’ll never see. But you don’t know this. You don’t know who this is,” he said.
Ramsey was able to find the boy who lived in Arkansas and called his parents. He says that also shows how easy it is to track people down with information posted on-line. The National Center for Exploited and Missing Children say one in seven youth between the ages of 10 and 17 have received a sexual solicitation on the internet. Ramsey says that’s enough to know what your kids are up to. “It’s not an invasion of their privacy,” he said.
Obviously Ramsey is good with computers and has an easier time keeping track on his child’s on-line activity. But he says it’s not difficult if you put in some effort. He says having passwords is the most helpful but it’s also good just to visit their Facebook page. If getting a password won’t work, he says there are several software programs that offer various amounts of protection and some at a cost.
A survey has revealed that fully 30 per cent of British parents’ Facebook “friend” requests to their children get rejected, and that many then resort to using other people’s login details in order to keep track of their offspring’s Web-2.0 activities.
This sad commentary on the number of parents who feel able to speak to their kids as opposed to interacting with them primarily online – it would seem normal to know in advance whether a friend request to one’s nipper would be rejected, for instance – came among the results of a survey of 2,000 online Brits.
The survey revealed that among today’s digital British some 5 per cent of parents would like to monitor their kids on Facebook but don’t know how, and 55 per cent do stalk their kids online. No less than 11 per cent reported that the only reason they had a Facebook account was to keep an eye on their nippers, suggesting that in some age groups, up to a fifth of Facebook users have no real interest in the service’s putative benefits and are only there because they worry about its effects on their kids.
Indeed in many cases a Facebook user who signed up for positive reasons is not actually that person – it is a friend of theirs borrowing their login to keep tabs on their kids. Some 13 per cent of digital parents reported having done this, presumably because they couldn’t be bothered creating an account just for this purpose.
Altogether then, it would appear that 24 per cent of online Brit parents consider that the only reason to use Facebook is worry about their children. Perhaps it’s just as well that the company’s founder Mark Zuckerberg says he no longer cares about new signups.
“These figures are initially quite surprising, but since certain malicious third parties have been known to prey on unsuspecting or over trusting individuals online, it does seem as though many could have legitimate concerns,” commented Claus Villumsen of security firm Bullguard, which commissioned the survey.
I wonder if Mark Zukerberg and his Facebook team can do more to help concerned parents.
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