YouTube for Schools - How do you signup!?!

[RichardHam]

Can anyone tell me how we signup for YouTube for Schools? There seems to be no signup link on the https://www.youtube.com/schools page and the help page says if you have this then to create a channel and come back to the page and then click the link saying 'Sign up today'. I have checked that a channel is setup but still no link.

 

I thought it may be something to do with the message they have stating "We are aware of the issues with the YouTube for Schools product sign up flow. We realize this is a frustrating experience and thank you for your patience and understanding. Please stay tuned for an update." but its been like this for months now and I don't see hundreds of people complaining so please someone tell me where I am going wrong!?

 

Many thanks in advance for any assistance!

[Arthur]

You can't signup at the moment.

 

• www.edugeek.net/forums/internet-related-filtering-firewall/147974-youtube-edu-sign-up.html#post1269673
  

[Opendium_Steve]

The Youtube for Schools signup system has been broken for at least a year - seems pretty clear that Google aren't interested in supporting it. I think people who are already signed up can still use it, but Google could pull the plug entirely at any moment...

[jbunoomally]

Might be worth looking a this (appeared yesterday)

Google Apps update alerts: New settings in Admin console for restricting YouTube content on managed networks

 

JB.

[IrritableTech]

Might be worth looking a this (appeared yesterday)

Google Apps update alerts: New settings in Admin console for restricting YouTube content on managed networks

 

JB.

 

Thanks for the heads up - looks like something is starting to happen, but this seems reliant on users being logged into their school account. It seems useless if they log into another account or aren't logged in at all?

[Opendium_Steve]

Yes, not really sure how that works - it says to create CNAMEs to restrict.youtube.com, which I guess would probably stop people using youtube without logging in (?), but what's to stop them logging into an account you don't control? Testing required to figure out how it works

[caffrey]

This looks interesting, has anyone dared tried it ?

 

Some more info, this looks interesting

 

https://plus.google.com/+KyleBeattyFCS/posts/BVjnjVHCnSC

 

http://venturebeat.com/2015/08/04/youtube-now-lets-google-apps-admins-restrict-access-to-specific-video-content/

Edited August 6, 2015 by caffrey

[free780]

Adding cname records for internet domains is a bit nasty.

[Opendium_Steve]

Adding cname records for internet domains is a bit nasty.

 

Its similar to how Google already recommend forcing safe search, etc. (We actually do it by rewriting the HTTP traffic rather than inserting bogus DNS records, but that's not the approach that Google suggest)

[caffrey]

I'm guessing this will be integrated into filtering solutions soon

[DMcCoy]

Only any use if you have a gapps domain though, and end users are signing in.

[Opendium_Steve]

I'm guessing this will be integrated into filtering solutions soon

 

Yep, our development team have implemented and tested support for it already and the update will be going out tonight.

 

This is basically how it works (from my experience testing it - Google haven't exactly published great documentation):

 

Firstly, you force YouTube into "Restricted Mode" (either with DNS tricks or through your web filter). Anyone who isn't logged in with a Google Apps account will only get to see restricted content - this is essentially the same as YouTube's old Safety Mode. Safety Mode was always a bit too aggressive at filtering for most people to find useful, and I don't expect this to have changed.

 

The difference between the old "Safety Mode" and the new "Restricted Mode" is that once you're logged into a Google Apps account, what you can see is controlled by that account's settings (which are set through the Google Apps admin dashboard) - so you can set some users to still be restricted, others to be unrestricted and you can say that some users are allowed to approve videos. Approved videos can be viewed by all the users who are logged on with accounts in your Google Apps domain.

 

Gotchas that are immediately apparent from this change:

- You're going to need to subscribe to Google Apps and have accounts for every user.

- Users will need to manually log into their Google Apps account unless you've set up single signon stuff (I have no experience of setting that up - looks complex, although someone may correct me?)

- There appears to be nothing stopping a user logging on with a different domain's Google Apps account, which you wouldn't have control over.

 

My take on it is that it's a bit more powerful than the old YouTube for Schools, but a lot more effort to set up unless you're already using Google Apps (but was presumably designed to push people into using Google Apps, but that might just be my cynicism )

[dhicks]

You're going to need to subscribe to Google Apps and have accounts for every user.

 

If your filter can inspect HTTPS URLs then you could have your filter associate a single Google Apps account with a particular level of access ("staff" access, "pupil" access, etc), then allow or disallow access to those URLs depending on what YouTube allows that user to see.

[Opendium_Steve]

If your filter can inspect HTTPS URLs then you could have your filter associate a single Google Apps account with a particular level of access ("staff" access, "pupil" access, etc), then allow or disallow access to those URLs depending on what YouTube allows that user to see.

 

That's true. Would need to check the Google T&Cs though.

[free780]

Looks like Youtube for schools has been killed off.

[free780]

https://www.youtube.com/schools just takes you to the blog post. Vendor lock in to Google services.

[MrFrostmaul]

Just got this email from Google FYI.

[howartp]

Ooh, that looks great!

 

Details here: https://support.google.com/a/topic/6206681

 

(Sorry, didn't realise I'd missed the chunk of posts further up already explaining this!)

Edited August 14, 2015 by howartp

[Arthur]

There appears to be nothing stopping a user logging on with a different domain's Google Apps account, which you wouldn't have control over.

This might help?

 

Setting up the new YouTube Restrictions! (and enforcing them via Windows DNS)

 

However, students can log out of their accounts and access the videos unfiltered until you set up DNS properly. Google has an article outlining the requirements of this setup, but it is not geared to organizations utilizing a Windows server for their DNS. Here is their take on DNS setup.

 

If you have a Windows server running your DNS, here is what works for us. This may not be best practice, and you may have to alter it a bit to fit your environment, but it works on Windows Server 2008 R2:

 

1. While in your DNS manager, select “Forward Lookup Zones” on the left pane
   
2. Right click in the white space and select “New Zone”
   
3. Select Next to progress through the New Zone Wizard.
   
4. On the second screen, select Primary Zone.
   
5. Replicate to all DNS servers running on domain controllers in this domain
   
6. Enter the name of the zone. You will have to follow these steps three times iterating through the following list:
   

   www.youtube.com
   youtubei.googleapis.com
   m.youtube.com 

   
   It is imperative that you type these exactly as shown!
   

7. Allow only secure dynamic updates
   
8. Finish!
   
9. Repeat for the other two URL’s outlined in step 6
   

Now to configure each zone:

1. Double click on one of the newly created zones
   
2. Right click in the white space on the right pane and select New Host (A or AAAA)...
   
3. On the New Host screen, leave the Name blank, and under IP address add:
   

   216.239.38.120

   
   This is the IP address that restrict.youtube.com resolves to. This IP address may change, and you will have to keep an eye on it. Windows does not support the CNAME method outlined in the Google Help documents, so this is a bit of a hack!
   

[CyberNerd]

With Chromebooks / boxes you can also restrict personal accounts from logging in

[Opendium_Steve]

This might help?

 

Setting up the new YouTube Restrictions! (and enforcing them via Windows DNS)

 

That just places restrictions on users who aren't logged in to Google Apps. Once you're logged into Google Apps, your access is controlled by your account settings (which are set by your Google Apps domain administrator). But there doesn't appear to be anything to force users to log into one specific Google Apps domain, so users could log in to a different Google Apps domain, if they have an account in one. So this isn't a bullet-proof setup, but it may be "good enough" since users would have to jump through some hoops to create their own Google Apps domain.

[PaulBedford1]

I don't want Google Apps just so we can control YouTube access. The old method was working perfectly well for us. It's a transparent attempt to get schools to sign up for Google for Education. We're quite happy on Office 365 and this will just mean YouTube is not available again for students, unless I can set up a generic logon for all students.

 

I'd be interested to know how many schools allow unfiltered access to YouTube for students, it's not something I'd entertain unless made to.

[grant_girdwood]

That just places restrictions on users who aren't logged in to Google Apps. Once you're logged into Google Apps, your access is controlled by your account settings (which are set by your Google Apps domain administrator). But there doesn't appear to be anything to force users to log into one specific Google Apps domain, so users could log in to a different Google Apps domain, if they have an account in one. So this isn't a bullet-proof setup, but it may be "good enough" since users would have to jump through some hoops to create their own Google Apps domain.

 

You can restrict logging in with consumer accounts by modifying the header in the request - https://support.google.com/a/answer/1668854?hl=en

 

Which would result in the below...

 

http://i.imgur.com/whzUZXR.png

 

 

It does appear to be a backwards step geared to getting more schools to sign up to Google Apps for Edu..

[CyberNerd]

I don't want Google Apps just so we can control YouTube access. The old method was working perfectly well for us. It's a transparent attempt to get schools to sign up for Google for Education. We're quite happy on Office 365 and this will just mean YouTube is not available again for students, unless I can set up a generic logon for all students.

 

I'd be interested to know how many schools allow unfiltered access to YouTube for students, it's not something I'd entertain unless made to.

 

I don't really want an Active Directory just so that students can sign into the computers, I'd rather they just authenticate to GAFE directly but sometimes you just have to roll with the easiest solution. You may find that the staff actually prefer GAFE over 365 - most of the research say they will: Google Apps vs. Office 365: Trends in Cloud IT

Remember GAFE has many more features and it won't cost you a penny to enrol.

[Edu-IT]

So if I have understood this correctly users will need a Google Apps account, to login to, in order to fully use YouTube? That leads me to ask whether accounts can be setup just for YouTube, with Email, Docs etc disabled?