As every teacher knows, Youtube is blocked in schools in Ireland.
The problem, as I understand it, is that the NCTE have two levels for rating sites; Conservative and Very Conservative.
It’s no that youtube does not qualify for either category and so schools don’t have the option of whether to allow it or not.
It may be possible that with lobbying on our part we can change this.
I hope to contact the Irish Science Teachers’ Association soon and hopefully have something included in their journal to this effect.
Step one would probably involve persuading teachers of Youtube’s potential as a teaching resource. This shouldn’t be too hard – a link to relevant clips on del.icio.us perhaps?
Step two would be building up a list of interested teachers and/or subject areas.
I guess this is as good a place to start as any?
If interested please leave a comment and perhaps a link to a favourite youtube teaching clip.
Think for Yourself 
As an English teacher, there have been so many occasions I have wanted to use Youtube in lessons. The volume of great clips for teaching poetry is amazing. ‘Ode to a Mouse’ by Robbie Burns and ‘Tiger, Tiger’ by William Blake, are two poems that I remember having loads of great resources.
The pupils would benefit so much, keep up your lobbying.
We use YouTube for loads of our videos on RevisionWorld and we have had no complaints about this. The problems though as stated in this piece are more from members who have to wait until they are at home to access the YouTube content.
YouTube like any other form of media if used in the right way is extremely useful and it’s all to do with how this medium is used.
Paul
http://www.revisionworld.co.uk
I think the “one size fits all” model needs adjustment. I’d like to see some devolved administration rights given to schools.
That way schools could accept the excellent filtering system underpinning the schools broadband service but also add sites to a whitelist for their school.
So if a school has a good use for youtube, or any other site, they can add it to their schools whitelist and work away.
I completely agree with your opinion that Youtube has it’s educational benefits. In our school we have our own broadband provider and our own content filter and so are able to allow youtube on the teachers’ network, but block it on the students’ network. In this way, teachers can use it in class – as a teaching resource, but students are restricted from it while they are using the computers.
This works for us but I acknowledge that this is not an option for most schools. Good luck with your lobbying. You have my vote!
P.S: Great blog by the way! When do you get the time?!? Well done!
Thanks for the kind words, and taking the time to comment.
I think you’re right – give teachers the option of deciding what is and is not suitable material for their classes
Time is indeed an issue, but I’m very grateful to have the resource when i do have a free hour or so. It really doesn’t matter if anybody reads it or not – it’s the opportunity to put ‘out there’ something I feel strongly about. blogging in general seems to be a very slow burner among Irish teachers but I remain optimistic that it will catch on!