I love Wikipedia
and Youtube.
Youtube is a tool that is blocked under student log-ins, but
available for teachers to use. This is a
great tool for fun videos to use with your instruction. Are there drawbacks? Of course! You MUST watch in their entirety the videos
before you play them to 30 students.
There are times when you think you’re watching one thing, then BAM
something inappropriate comes on. Also,
the ads can be a bit annoying. However,
if you use Youtube in a professional manner, it is a great FREE tool.
Wikipedia was probably my best friend during undergrad. I used it as starting point for research or
just basic understanding. After reading
an article on topic it would help me guide my research in a better
direction. Also, the references listed at
the bottom were great places to go. I
use it now as a teacher when I need to write an information piece for my
students at their level (1st/2nd grade reading). When my friends and I are having a discussion
on a random topic it’s easy to pull up my Wikipedia app to prove myself right.
Wikipedia is actually blocked on my schools internet for
students. However, if the students want
to look at it for general information, I don’t have a problem with it. When we teach students how to do research for
essays we generally tell them to stay away from Wikipedia, Yahoo Answers, and
sites where anyone anywhere can edit the information. We try to teach them to look for reputable
sources. For example if my 7th
grader is doing research on heart disease we would want them to use Mayo Clinic
or the American Heart Association for a reference, not Wikipedia.
Photograph from http://goo.gl/5ESiOj
Amber, I agree with your position on Wikipedia. I feel that to use wikis effectively there has to some life experience behind it in order to parse the data and get to the source. Teaching students which direction to go with data research is important as you mention with Mayo and the AHA. Knowing the difference is the first and most important thing and as educators we need to give students the skills to think critically about where to get the best research data from.
ReplyDeleteSue, Half of the battle is teaching students appropriate sources. My experience with teaching this to middle schoolers has not been a ton of fun. They basically believe everything they read online because they don't know any better. This is a difficult habit to break.
ReplyDeleteAmber
ReplyDeleteI agree with you about YouTube being a good source for students regarding some things. It is hard to find a good and appropriate video, and doing so requires more efforts on our parts, but I think that it is worth it. I know at my school YouTube is blocked and I work with college age students. However it is still necessary because if we don't block the site we'd have everyone in the library look at porn and all kind of inappropriate things. It's hard sometimes finding a balance between allowing them to have information freedom and not allowing them to watch porn.
Hi Tracie, This is wear educating parents and families becomes important. I have a student right now who repeats things he hears from explicit rap music/videos (He's cognitively impaired). His parents however, do not speak English as all, so they have no idea that what he is doing online is bad.
DeleteAmber, what you say about previewing a YouTube video first, in it's entirety, is absolutely true. Not only for incorrect information, but also for inappropriate ads! I think that Wikis are great starting points for information. However, for research purposes, more credible sources must be used.
ReplyDeleteAs far as discussion purposes and proving points to friends, I had to laugh:) Recently, we were at a wedding and we were dating music with our friends, trying to figure out how old songs were. It was sad to realize that some music that we listened to in high school is now approaching "oldies but goodies" status!! We were getting our "facts" from Wikipedia:)
Alicia, I have a friend that teaches middle school in a local district. He previewed the first couple of minutes of a ten minute long video on cultures in Africa. He started playing it to his class and stopped paying attention, next thing he knew his kids started freaking out because there was a scene they weren't expecting. He told me it was the most embarrassing thing he ever experienced. lol. Previewing is a must!
DeleteYou do the same thing I have been doing with both You Tube and Wikipedia. You must view the whole video before showing the students and as for the references in Wikipedia I to use them as my sources now. The both a free which is great and they are a going starting point for both students and educators.
ReplyDeleteJerry, Starting point is key! It's not the end all be all for information, but it's a great start for research and general information.
DeleteA few comments. Regarding appropriateness, also consider the videos that are suggested both after the video and on the sidebar.
ReplyDeleteOne other overall comment. Previewing is a must. My concern is that if people are not watching the video completely, they are simply not using technology purposefully. They may be (and I'm not saying this about any of you, but give it some thought) saying, "I need a video tomorrow on [topic]. I'll check YouTube." That's not proper technology integration strategy.