Hundreds of schools and 30 local authorities are in talks to buy a piece of software that filters out comments on videos and related films.
The software costs between £2,500 and £10,000 a year depending on the number of computers being used.
This is so teachers (should that be ‘teachers’, I wonder?) can use that peer-reviewed, quality-assured resource that is YouTube…
Up to now most schools have blocked access to the video-sharing website because of concerns about exposing pupils to violent or sexual content.
But teachers say that such a ban restricts their teaching and prevents them from accessing educational material on the website.
I suspect ‘restricts their teaching’ is code for ‘doesn’t allow them the option to sod off to the break room and have a cup of tea’…
Teachers say that they would use YouTube to access videos of scientific experiments, scenes from Shakespeare’s plays and footage of other cultures or foreign landscapes, according to The Times.
Sure they would.
Suuuure they would…
Alternatively they could use a decent browser with plugins that allows you to download such videos and then play them as and when required.
ReplyDelete@DC - but then they'd miss an opportunity to spend more money and to be able show how "cool" they are in front of the cheeeeeeldren.
ReplyDeleteIf the films are so educational, why should anyone be afraid of children seeing the comments on them?
ReplyDeleteThe children, being idiots, will be completely unable to write down/text the URLs and check them out on their own computers. None will be carrying a smartphone with its own brower.
ReplyDeleteLikewise, the councils will already have considered asking YouTube to set up a safe area, or setting up their own area, or using a free proxy (e.g. Squid), but wisely come to the conclusion that hosing money at the "problem" is the optimal solution.
If the films are so educational, why should anyone be afraid of children seeing the comments on them?
ReplyDeleteBecause of internet tough guy asshole trolls like me.
I'm with DC though. You can download videos from YouTube. If it's imperative that teachers show their pupils whatever scare educational material is on YouTube, then they can download it when they're planning their lessons, instead of spending valuable lesson-time fagging around in the intertubes. And what's more - it's free.
I must say though that whoever came up with the idea of flogging that software to those poor innocents in the education system played a blinder.
ReplyDelete"Alternatively they could use a decent browser with plugins that allows you to download such videos and then play them as and when required."
ReplyDeleteAh, but I suspect they have no choice in their browser...
"...but wisely come to the conclusion that hosing money at the "problem" is the optimal solution."
Amazingly, that seems to be the solution to so many problems encountered by both Big and Little Gov, doesn't it?
"I must say though that whoever came up with the idea of flogging that software to those poor innocents in the education system played a blinder."
Oh, indeed..! And also see this.