Do-it-yourself online video: services such as PutFile and YouTube bring benefits and dangers to schools.A student in a New Jersey high school recently filmed a shouting and visibly angry teacher forcing a student to stand for the National Anthem by yanking his chair from under him. The clip was posted on several Internet sites, and garnered support and criticism. A student in Minnesota posted a film about the poor condition of bathrooms in his high school, complete with interviews. "The students tend to abuse the facilities, so I make use of staff restrooms whenever I can," said one teacher. Such do-it-yourself online video brings compelling reality to teaching and learning, but also presents escalating new challenges for school districts. Video clips are now easy to upload to the Internet, thanks to new Web-based video file sharing Copying files from one computer to another. See peer-to-peer network, file sharing protocol and file and printer sharing. services such as Blinx, Dailymotion, Putfile and YouTube. The power of online video is available to most districts, and students and staff are using films for countless applications. For example, the St. Louis Public Schools St. Louis Public Schools (SLPS) is the school district that operates public schools in the City of St. Louis, Missouri, United States. With a 2005 enrollment of approximately 33,000 students it is the largest public school district in the state of Missouri. in Missouri posted presentations by candidates running for the school board; the Orange Unified School District Orange Unified School District (OUSD) is a public school district headquartered in Orange, California. Orange USD serves the cities of Orange and Villa Park, the unincorporated land of Silverado, and parts of Anaheim, Garden Grove, and Santa Ana, California. in California posted a special performance by the middle school honor band at a local university; and the Colonial School District Colonial School District is a name shared by several school districts in the United States.
Videos can be uploaded to one or more of the host sites for use by anyone at any time, integrated into district Web pages, added to other sites such as MySpace.com, and downloaded to portable devices, including the video iPod A common name for the first iPod that supported video, introduced in late 2005. Also called the 5th Generation iPod (5G iPod). Apple refers to Video iPods as simply "iPod." See iPod. . YouTube has become an Internet phenomenon showing a staggering 30 million videos a day on every conceivable topic, and adding more than 30,000 videos daily. Proliferating VBlogs The ease of uploading video to the Internet is also causing an explosive growth of video-centered Web logs called videoblogs, vblogs or vlogs, for posting personal news, information and commentary. Vblogs are now information sources in every content area, such as Rockethoom in New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of that covers daily stories from news and the arts to the quirky Internet culture. Similarly, the Full Disclosure vblog in California reports on controversial topics including allegations of school corruption. Online video is a potent communications medium schools need to tap. To illustrate, the Web site of the Council Rock School District in Pennsylvania provides a staff development resource page about blogs and vblogs, Central High School in Minnesota includes a section on its Web site for student films, and the Martin Luther King Jr. School in New Jersey claims that its "Atlantic City Atlantic City, city (1990 pop. 37,986), Atlantic co., SE N.J., an Atlantic resort and convention center; settled c.1790, inc. 1854. Situated on Absecon Island, a barrier island 10 mi (16. Rough Cuts" is "the world's first elementary school elementary school: see school. video blog See vlog. ." You will find additional examples by searching on phrases such as "school videoblog" at a video host site or in a blog directory such as Blogger.com. Escalating Dangers But the ease of uploading video and the overwhelming numbers of online clips present huge problems for schools since offensive and even grossly pornographic content can get online before site owners have a chance to isolate or delete such films. Some host sites offer free access to so-called mature content, some ask users to click a button to "certify" they are of legal age and others require token registration. Locally identifiable content also makes it easier for cyber-stalkers to harass harass (either harris or huh-rass) v. systematic and/or continual unwanted and annoying pestering, which often includes threats and demands. This can include lewd or offensive remarks, sexual advances, threatening telephone calls from collection agencies, hassling by children and teenagers. While online video brings substantial benefits to schools, it has never been more crucial for educators to be well-informed, establish clear school policies and closely supervise its use. Odvard Egil Dyrli, dyrli@uconn.edu, is senior editor and emeritus professor of education at the University of Connecticut The University of Connecticut is the State of Connecticut's land-grant university. It was founded in 1881 and serves more than 27,000 students on its six campuses, including more than 9,000 graduate students in multiple programs. UConn's main campus is in Storrs, Connecticut. . RESOURCES Rocketboom www.rocketboomi.com Full Disclosure www.fulldisclosure.net Council Rock School District www.crsd.org Central High School central.spps.org Atlantic City Rough Cuts www.starw.org/acrc Freevlog freevlog.org |
|
||||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion