YouTube access in schools

[Byford-Rew]

What do you do in your school to control access to you tube? Some schools ban it completely for students while others leave it completely open. Is there any detrimental effect to having free access to YouTube or is it a myth?

[bushby]

here its avalible but blocked for ict room unless its requested by the teacher/lunchtime

 

with our ISP (Hampshire County Councle) they have it set to safe-mode only how ever this doesnt stop all flesh,

 

there is a youtube for schools aswell that i have looked at but still havnt configured

[Chris_Jones]

We allow access for staff, but not students and this seems to be fine.

 

We also use smoothwall to force SafeSearch and strip out the comments.

[rob_coles]

We allow staff and sixth form access with safe mode enforced

[rickypike]

We allow for teaching staff and block for students, as Chris_Jones does above we also use smoothwall to force SafeSearch and strip out the comments.

Works well for us here, never had any issues.

[TechMonkey]

We allow full access to staff and EduTube for students. Comments removed and safe search enforced for all.

[AJWhite1970]

As others have said, access for staff is permitted, no access for any students.

 

Been like that since 2009 and everyone is used to it now

 

 

Andrew

[clareq]

Staff access is permitted, 6th formers get a quota - an hour a day for streaming media, social media and web mail.

[X-13]

Is there any detrimental effect to having free access to YouTube or is it a myth?

 

There are downsides. Mostly to do with productivity and safeguarding.

 

We have YouTube completely unblocked here [YouTube for Schools is too hard apparently] and I'm constantly seeing staff just watching videos for no reason. Granted, the majority of them leave it until lunch/break but they're not the sort of videos they should be watching here.

 

There's also the issue of certain content that is available. Softcore porn, entire copyrighted films, copyrighted music, violent videogames let's-plays/commentaries...

 

Plus, the comments. Oh, God... the comments.

 

 

Having it freely available also runs the risk of YouTube becoming a crutch for shoddy teachers. But, that's a similar problem to DVDs. [Don't bother to learn the subject so you can teach, just stick on a video about it.]

[localzuk]

We moved from free and open access to Youtube to their Youtube for Schools system for a couple of reasons:

 

Some pupils accessing inappropriate videos

Our filtering not hiding comments

A member of staff showing an inappropriate video.

 

So now, I am the only person who can un-filter videos on there. It all depends on your kids and staff really!

[edutech4schools]

A parent called the police out to a primary school when their child said an inappropriate image appeared on the teachers smartboard. The image was one of the random images listed down the side and caused a lot of stress for the teacher involved.

 

Youtube is completely blocked at that school.

[sippo]

Our staff and students have full access to youtube but with comments removed. I don't see why students need youtube, but apparently it's needed for 'research'....

[Danp]

Years R-9 no access

Years 10-13 full access with smoothwall filtering

Staff full access with smoothwall filtering

[HarryMonkey]

We allow access for staff, but not students and this seems to be fine.

 

We also use smoothwall to force SafeSearch and strip out the comments.

 

How do you prevent anyone from using the https version ?

[kaphc]

Teachers can access Youtube - students can't. I direct teachers in primary schools to Quiet Youtube which blocks out the comments and the suggested videos, as usually there is no local control of filtering.

[APMerry]

We allow staff full access and students access to YouTube Education. I get a few complaints that students have been set a task which includes watching a particular YouTube video that's not available on YouTube education, but we tell them to project the video to the whole class if they need to see it.

 

I personally don't think students should have any access to YouTube. They're bound to get off topic and end up endlessly watching random videos, not to mention some of the stuff you can watch with unfiltered YouTube. I definitely wouldn't want my kids being able to watch YouTube in school.

[Joanne]

I've been trying to sign up for a youtube for schools account for ages and it just won't let me. Get a 500 internal server error. I've unblocked it, because some educational sites point to youtube and vimeo vids.

 

Anyone else had any issues with the youtube for schools?

[Danp]

Teachers can access Youtube - students can't. I direct teachers in primary schools to Quiet Youtube which blocks out the comments and the suggested videos, as usually there is no local control of filtering.

 

For some reason this does not work for me. I just grabbed a Minecraft video and stuck Quiet in the url and I got a 404 error.

 

edit - I had kept the https in place, d'oh

Edited May 21, 2014 by Danp

[pooley]

You could inform the teachers about quiettube ?

 

Basically you take the youtube url and insert quiet after the www.

 

i.e. Awsome Fails Compilation 2013 - YouTube

becomes

http://www.quietyoutube.com/watch?v=T0nlEWRtu0Y

[mthomas08]

We allow it even though I prefer not to but I am putting together a proposal to:

1. Upgrade our internet bandwidth because it is consistently hitting 90-100%

2. Put up with it but tell Staff/Students tough on their problems

3. Consider banning websites that in my view are not really educational but we can allow future EDU websites.

 

I prefer 3 mainly because its what I did at my last job and having 1000 machines roughly on the same internet connection with a consistent 65/75% hit on busy times just shows what you can do with a bit of work. I didn't allow Youtube and a lot of other sites at my last job.

 

FYI we tested a block on youtube and we witnessed the spike drop.

[Earthling]

Staff have Youtube access, Smoothwall filtered.

 

Of the students, only the 6th Form Film Studies group have access to Youtube, Smoothwall filtered.

 

Both of these against my better judgement, contrary to my advice, and I'm waiting eagerly for the time when something goes wrong, something completely inappropriate gets displayed, then I can give it a BIG 'Told You So' and block them all again.

[BassTech]

We allow it to all staff and students, have done this for years with no problems. But our students are generally very well behaved, I wouldn't do it in a comprehensive school!

[Chris_Jones]

How do you prevent anyone from using the https version ?

 

They can use the HTTPS, Smoothwall decrypts and inspects it anyway

[eyetea]

Staff and Sixth Form have access, other students do not

[Alkaline]

"My" primary's leave it completely open. Not had any issues apart from when YouTube decided to show a almost naked person on the homepage. But kids will find stuff if they want to, thankfully teachers keep a close eye on them.

 

In another school it had to be blocked as students were on it all lesson. Guess it depends on the teachers.

Edited May 22, 2014 by Alkaline