Sunday, April 6, 2008

Thing 18 - YouTube and Conclusion

Wow! I didn't know that YouTube was started by a St. Paul Central High School grad. That's a fun Minnesota fact!

The jury is still out with me as to the educational value of YouTube. I like exploring YouTube just like everyone else...especially the funny videos and for my Bon Jovi fix. However, my desk is in the computer lab and YouTube and on-line gaming has pretty much taken over most of the time students spend in the computer lab, even during classtime. This past Thursday, I had a girl in the lab, with an English class They were there to do research for a class assignment. However, this girl played the funny and cute baby Charlie YouTube video (shown here), over and over again...I'm talking ALL hour. I told her to turn the volume down, and even the student sitting next to her said something, but her and her friends just kept playing it and laughing and laughing. Unfortunately, the teacher didn't seem to mind and even congratulated the class for their hard work at the end of the hour. At times like this, I wish our school blocked YouTube!



On a more positive note, our Media Specialist uses some library-related YouTube videos (I Want to Be a Librarian) during our 9th grade library orientation. I also liked the WSU library tour on YouTube (the link was part of this Thing) and think that this might be a project we could work on with our Media Team. Our Media Specialist also shows timely YouTube videos throughout the day, once in a while, i.e.: Super Bowl commercials and things that will catch the kids' attention.

As for the other YouTube links in this Thing, who do you suppose filed the books after the Library Dominoes? And, be honest, who amongst us hasn't secretly thought like Conan the Librarian when it comes to overdue books...very funny!

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