…that Jeff Utecht‘s kids in Shanghai are publishing a series of History of Technology videos to YouTube that most American kids probably won’t be able to see?
What’s not surprising is that because they are being uploaded to YouTube, Jeff’s students are starting to understand the reach of what they can do.
We talked about what these numbers meant and that they were producing something that could potentially be seen by millions of people. I then read them the comments that Clarence and David left on my last posting about the videos and more than anything that was what really caught them off guard.
“You mean people are waiting for us to finish this?â€
“Canada? I’m from Canada!â€
As I looked around the room there was all of a sudden this sense of ‘he’s not joking’. One student completely deleted his work and started over proclaiming, “This isn’t good enough.†I had another student go home that night do more research and then come back Thursday with a 4 page report on the history of Google. We had to have a talk as YouTube videos must be under 10 minutes, and as he recorded his voice we decided that talking faster wasn’t a good solution to fitting all his information in a 10 minute slide. Another student that was finished came over and helped him edit his work decided to cut the years 2001, 2003 out completely and chopping some paragraphs here and there. He didn’t finish his on Thursday so it will be uploaded to the account on Monday. My teaching partner has his students uploading their videos on Friday so you might want to stop by and check those out as well.
These technologies empower students to do good work. As I wrote on Thursday. They become contributors to society and they understand that and live up to that potential. Empower students with information and what them go!
Let your students teach to the world and watch what happens. But if you’re here in America, you’ll probably have to find a way to do it without using the most insanely popular publishing tool out there right now.
technorati tags:youtube, JeffUtecht, video, school20, classroom20, weblogg-ed, education, learning
Whoa (Keanu Reeves Style)
That is amazing, I am sorry if this sounds silly, but why can’t americans use the ”
most insanely popular publishing tool” out there?
I plan on having all of my 80+ students look at their work, so they can be motivated to publish as well.
Thanks Will!
I just had our tech people block YouTube.
I didn’t want to-you know me, the more tools the better and I understand the importance of YouTube as a publishing platform.
But we don’t have the bandwidth for streaming video. That’s why.
We found that out last year when our network screeched to a halt. Why? Teachers streaming NCAA Men’s basketball games during their prep periods.
Surprisingly, I can accept the inappropriate video clips that are there-after all, I’m a supporter of Flickr as well. But for us, it comes down to a simple, network thing.
Also, this may be the equivalent of promoting publishing student audio to Napster circa 1999:
http://www.blogmaverick.com/2006/09/17/the-coming-dramatic-decline-of-youtube/
Well David, it sounds like your district needs to apply for more bandwidth via E-Rate! 🙂 I think all schools should be planning now for dark fiber (owned fiber) connections between all campuses and to the commodity Internet for this very reason. The road to the future will be paved with bandwidth and fiber. (Can you tell I’ve been reading “Telecosm” by George Gilder?!)
Great story Will, thanks for sharing this. Yet more anecdotal evidence (perhaps the most valid kind) that when students are invited to create, write, and publish for a global audience– that fact alone changes everything.
Thanks for the link Will. This is great stuff and sure to help us get excited about the possibilities. As for bandwidth I am an administrator and only a part time tech person but I believe some of the problems can be avoided if you download the streaming video to your server for temporary storage. this strategy has worked for us…it takes some preplanning but does give the students access.