Rethinking Youtube for your school, class, or Library

I love weekends! It’s a time for family and friends to gather and it’s a time for our family to spend quality time together playing games, watching cheesy Hallmark Holiday movies or Harry Potter marathons in our pjs!

These free days occur more seldomly now that the kids are teens and have jobs and find their friends better company than their parents. 🙂

When we do have down time,  I like to learn more about what my kids are watching on Youtube. Youtube has been referred to the world’s largest library and it’s true, you can learn anything from Youtube (my husband finished our entire basement thanks to Youtube) and I use it as a learning tool all the time. Check out some of these 2018 stats.

Youtubers are influencers for teens today. My kids will purchase a product base on a Youtube selection.

Sydney showed me a channel she thought I would find interesting. It’s called, Editing is Everything and it’s basically a channel dedicated to re-editing films into different genres. It’s brilliant and as a former English teacher and now Teacher-Librarian.  Of course, I can never turn my teacher brain off and I wondered at the obvious media-literacy possibilities like asking kids to look at the interplay of music, text, scenes, etc…. as well as the unique after-reading activity opportunity for a story or novel. Why not ask kids to create a media product where they rework a story or novel into a different genre? 

Youtube in your classroom, school or Library

Rethinking Youtube has been on my mind lately, especially since I hosted a webinar for ISTE on the topic last week. Often, we hide or embed Youtube videos so we don’t have to see or deal with the comments. I think this such a missed opportunity for Digital Citizenship. Here are a few things that I shared which I think may be valuable:

-Principals like Doug Timm, Brad Gustafson, and Allyson Apsley use video newsletters to communicate with parents and use their youtube channel as a communication tool

-creating a class Youtube account is a great alternative for students who are under 13 and provide lots of ways to teach Digital Citizenship in context

-Creating playlists and showing kids how to create them is such a valuable skill: curation. Not only does this show kids how they can organize their channel and curate videos according to their interests, passions, but it can also serve as a digital portfolio. 

-A class, school, or library youtube channel provides and excellent place for students to showcase their own video talents and expertise in a given subject

-Creating a playlist for kids with alternative ways of learning a particular lesson or unit can be an excellent way to differentiate for different learners in your class.

-Customizing your channel together teaches valuable digital literacy skills specific to how Youtube works and how to control what people see (privacy).

-Being intentional about leaving a comment on a Youtube channel you use for school shows kids how to comment positively and constructively. I also recommend you do so anonymously so students see that anonymous doesn’t always mean negative.

I love that my own kids feel comfortable to show me what they are watching and I use it as an opportunity to have open conversations about what they find funny or interesting. Asking students what their favourite youtube channel can build relationships and open up conversation about digital citizenship, empathy, creativity, etc…I am also mindful that I am kids are always watching, and so my playlists include, “Things that make you go Hmmm…”, “Videos which will Inspire you…” etc…If a student shares a great video, I will explicitly say, I’m going to add that to my ______ playlist. 

Here is a copy of the slideshow. Please give credit if you plan to use any of the slides for your own purposes.