These days technology is everywhere. It runs our streets and fills our homes. And it is always changing, adding new features and making innovations. It can bring about better results for age old methods and yet it can also complicate things a bit. And now it is threatening to take over our schools.
For many of us, when we read the title of this post, our initial thought was “NO. My child is in the classroom to learn, not to watch movies all day.” So, when YouTube introduced their YouTube For Schools program, it was met with some very mixed emotions and still is. However, this idea is catching on quickly.
Why?
Since the inception of formal education, school has looked much the same. Students sit down reluctantly to learn about things they are not really interested in. And teachers struggle to keep those children engaged and active in their studies.
A good teacher will try all sorts of ideas to change things up and make each day fun and interactive for their students. However, in a world where technology is in every home, students have become even less likely to be engaged in book learning.
This is where YouTube can help. With the introduction of YouTube For Schools, teachers are beginning to see the benefits of using video in their curriculum. And students around the world are learning and becoming more engaged in their education.
The Benefits
This program is a website that educators can turn on that allows only educational content from YouTube EDU to be played. Teachers can be given access to thousands of educational videos that they can then use in their classroom to assist in learning. The topics can be filtered by age, grade, subject, or a number of other things.
With this program you can find short lessons from international teachers, full length courses from top universities, stimulating ideas from trailblazing scholars, and developmental tools for teachers. It also allows the teacher to limit what their students can see.
This is not meant to be a substitute for physical classroom learning but an aid. Many teachers are finding that adding little snippets of videos to their day adds intrigue and curiosity to the students.
Children are kept on their toes and it also helps to break up the class period a little. If used at the beginning of class, educators find that it pulls their students in and hooks them into the topic of the day.
Internationally
This is revolutionizing the educational world both here and abroad. In the developing world, this learning by video takes on an even bigger role. Here, it is often found that students only form of education is someone thousands of miles away talking to them through a video. They can interact, leave comments, and even ask questions all in video formatting.
Technology is great tool for student success. Let’s make sure to use the best that it has to offer to allow our children to grow and learn.
