YOU GOTTA FIGHT FOR YOUR RIGHT, to YouTube?
February 27, 2008 by bicej
This article is about a few kids in an inner-city middle school in Chicago that were suspended for staging fights that were intended to be broadcast on YouTube. The article starts out by outlining the particulars of the incident.
“The 8th graders were using the camera phone to watch video of a fake fight they staged in a bathroom at Benjamin Middle School. They had filmed multiple rounds of a shoving match_ no more than a couple of minutes long_ and planned to post it on YouTube” (Ortiz)
As I read this article I immediately thought that this is the exact kind of incident that I should be crusading against; kids misusing technology which inherently leads to teachers/parents/school districts banning the use of such technology. Thus, when a teacher attempts to use technology like YouTube in an educational setting they are shot down. Yet, as I read on in the article all of these feelings of disappointment that came from the fear of yet another school hopping on the anti-technology bandwagon disappeared. Why did they disappear one may ask? They disappeared because the Chicago area school district did something that I never thought they would; opposed to cutting back already stringent technology use in their district they decided to consider educating students on how to use technology in a productive way.
“Administrators at Benjamin are considering offering classes on blogging and video techniques to channel misguided activities into productive learning” (Ortiz).
Even the faint notion of acceptance, “considering offering classes”, in my opinion is a huge step in the right direction. If schools decide to embrace the use of technology like YouTube or MySpace in their classes who knows what their students could create. Not only has Chicago public schools started to help their students with their use of technology but they are not helping “arm” the faculty with the tools they need:
“Since 2006, nearly 1,000 security personnel in Chicago public schools have received special training on MySpace, Facebook, Xanga and other popular sites to help maintain safety” (Ortiz).
I have never been a huge advocate of policing student’s lives while they are not in your classroom but I think this training for security personnel is a great idea. If school districts truly want to introduce technology into their classrooms, in a meaningful way, they will need faculty that is just as experienced with the technology as the students are. This article started because of a disciplinary action taken on tech savvy students but I think it gains it real merit by the reaction of the school district at hand. I personally applaud the foresight and courage of the district’s administrators.
Students Staging Fights for YouTube Publicity
by Chicago Tribune (Vikki Ortiz)
February 18, 2008
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I absolutely agree, it’s refreshing to hear that a school is taking action to incorporate something that students like to do into the school. Rather than just condemning kids for goofing off and getting into trouble, we should be finding ways to use that energy in the classroom for good purposes and to get kids excited about what they’re doing. Youtube is a great tool for this sort of thing because kids are eating it up- these are the kinds of things that teaches and schools need to tap into.
[...] 5. Jack’s Blog: http://bicej.edublogs.org/2008/02/27/you-gotta-fight-for-your-right-to-youtube/#comments [...]
I am lost when it comes to this topic of using technology in the classroom–in fact, when it was brought up in my 311 course last semester, I found myself angry with the discussion that ensued. I usually sub for the computer teacher at the school I work at, and even if I don’t every teacher that I have ever subbed for has had at least one computer course. Trying to police students to stay off their myspace (because it’s just not school appropriate) not wander on to pictures of scantally clad women, or just plain goofing around on websites they shouldn’t be on is just too difficult. It makes me want to scream constantly telling students, get off that, or you’re not supposed to be on that site, etc. It’s frustrating, and makes me want to say, no, no technology, they can’t use it appropriately.
I know that not all students are going to be like this, and I also know that the benefits out weigh the costs, but it’s frustrating when you’re a technology fan–as I am–and see it being used in all the wrong ways. You could tell these kids over and over again to stay off you tube, or to only use these mediums in a positive way, but to think that would actually happen is so naive.
Like I said before, I don’t really know how I feel on the subject, I have my opinions for and against…I’m just up in arms. This school district in the article seems to have found a possible solution, I’d like to see how well that words for them.