Blocking Youtube

[stratisphere]

Hey all.

 

Before anyone comments, I did look for this on the forums but couldn't find a discussion specific to this.

 

Right, like many schools etc, we block youtube. For very valid reasons.

 

However now our staff are getting more comfy with the net, they are finding tonnes of good videos on you tube for their lessons. I have no problem with that and youtube isn't blocked for staff (allowing them to show the videos in lesson via the IWB).

 

But now some staff have requested youtube be unblocked for lessons so they can use it for lessons etc.

 

So my questions are... Do you allow students to access youtube? If so, what precautions do you take to make sure they don't waste time on it or view indecent videos. I know youtube at the very least requires login for >18 videos (for the ones it catches anyway). So as a small precaution I could block the login pages.

 

Just wondered what all your views are on this. I can see the benefit of youtube in lesson... I just want to make it available in a safe way.

 

(We do log all internet activity, so we could catch students out who are using it when they shouldn't be, but the admin overhead of all that would be amazingly stupid)

[jcollings]

We currently block YouTube for staff and students. Staff will often email a link to a particular video which we then download for them. As the use becomes greater I think I will end up allowing staff access to YouTube so they can use it on the board as a resource. Can't see me changing the policy for students at the moment.

[stratisphere]

Hmm, good link! I'll let the staff know about that. Not sure about the stack of adverts everywhere, but still! Nothing comes for free

[tom_newton]

It is possible to block "logged in" access to youtube, but I believe the only sane way to do it is with cookie manipulation. I did manage to get Guardian to do this a year or so ago. If any smoothie customers (or others who would be willing to evaluate & play) want to try this out, let me know and I'll get back to looking at it "properly".

 

We've also added a "top youtube vids" report - which seems to help keep the worst ones out of commission!

[powdarrmonkey]

I trialled opening YouTube to sixth form only once in my last school, and it was a complete disaster. Staff did have access though, on the understanding that it was just them and not to expect students to be able to see it, which worked reasonably well. I'm currently working on a way for staff to request a video and it be cached locally for them to use, which also neatly steps around the problem of videos being removed.

[Guest Guest]

You could give teachers access with the understanding that they download the video for later use rather than being logged into youtube opening up the obvious problems of naughties "popping up".

 

Maybe you could enforce this with time restrictions so that youtube can only be accessed out of school hours or at lunch.

[TechMonkey]

Surely if the teachers have access they can show the video to the class? Otherwise show them one of the flv downloader sites & install VLC. Then everyone can watch the downloaded vids.

 

Here staff have access, students do not. Highly unlikely they ever would.

[Theblacksheep]

Staff and Students do not have access to youtube.

 

We get asked all time time, but after the head saw a video of 6th formers wrecking the 6th form area on youtube we suddenly gave us 'the head said no' card.

 

Teachers can download at home and they have access to teachertube.

[Quackers]

Both students and staff have access to youtube, its being used in lessons lots. Its now the 2nd most popular website after google now according to my proxy logs.

[stratisphere]

Both students and staff have access to youtube, its being used in lessons lots. Its now the 2nd most popular website after google now according to my proxy logs.

 

Not trying to be a pain or anything, how much of that use is... "legit"?

 

I realise the usage by students varies by school depending on how... sensible (?) the students are, but if there's just one school out there who's students can use it right then maybe there's hope for the rest of us!

[mrforgetful]

Staff have access, students do not.

 

Having said that, I'm not sure if videos are blocked on Google, Yahoo, Altavista, Live Search, Dogpile or any other search engine...

[stratisphere]

Staff have access, students do not.

 

Having said that, I'm not sure if videos are blocked on Google, Yahoo, Altavista, Live Search, Dogpile or any other search engine...

 

lol it made me laugh when i read that then I saw your nick was mrforgetful

 

Good point tho! I'm not sure if they are here!

 

*goes to check*

[Quackers]

Not trying to be a pain or anything, how much of that use is... "legit"?

 

I realise the usage by students varies by school depending on how... sensible (?) the students are, but if there's just one school out there who's students can use it right then maybe there's hope for the rest of us!

 

They are using it for IT to grab sound clips using Audacity while playing, also in music too.

 

The non legit use it to listen to songs, but the staff say they get on with the work whilst they have youtube on in the background, so suppose there is no harm if they are getting on with work, and i have seen this for my self.

[mcloum]

we block it for all since some photos of two female members of staff appeared online on a works night out.....looking at unblocking it with the intnetion of making staff sign an agreement along side their internet agreement to say they will not leave un attended. Having trouble with ISA policies though

[FN-GM]

We ask staff to download the videos at home using

 

KeepVid: Download and save any video from Youtube, Dailymotion, Metacafe, iFilm and more!

[Sylv3r]

I'd like to have it unblocked here, but its the LA that blocks it for us.

[mrforgetful]

Which LA are you with? Here we can add and remove URLs to our own scheel specific lists, or for things such as proxies have them re-categorised.

 

If I want things blocking just for students that's pretty much all I use ISA for now!

[sippo]

We block youtube, but the little blighters are finding video sites all the time. It really is a cat and mouse game!!

 

The site I hate is dot.tk

[stratisphere]

ooo, didnt have that one blocked. Cheers!

[SSFC]

We do the same as you here. Staff have access, students do not. If staff want students to view a video in there own time the can embed it in a page on our moodle vle. We have had requests for student to be able to search YouTube in a particular lesson. In this case we ask the member of staff to give us a list of student numbers and we will allow that group access for that lesson only.

[lionsl2005]

Its blocked for staffs and students. even private mails are blocked too( yahoo, msn etc)

[GoldenWonder]

I was forced to unblock it for staff here by SMT, but not students.

 

Now they can't teach without it!

 

Despite the logs showing that 99% of the usage is music videos, football and 'funny' clips.

 

The future of teaching is youtube....

[aTEK]

There is no point in blocking anything at schools!!! Its an unbeatble battle i myself am a student at 6th form and have done large amounts of research into getting past blocking systems. For example Proxy sites render the majority of blocks useless anyway. Yes you can block them but if your Students are intelligen then they just add there emails to a mail list such as peacefire that emails a new set of proxy's every day.

 

Keyword filters are also rendered useless by proxys such as written by several of my friends that swap out keywords for images server side before pushing the page to the client. THese systems simply cant be defeated so is it really worth trying?

 

THere is the argument that even if a patient is dying they shouldnt be abandoned and refused help yet us as students have access to these things at home and will always find ways around blocks at school. As blocking systems become more complicated so do the methods used to circumvent them!

[ChrisH]

I just block flash and whitelist sites that need it. This will stop most games sites and videos etc. It's less hassle than it sounds.

[mrforgetful]

Have a look at Scholar Experience

 

login with username: student password: random1.

 

I suggest only using the yellow IE bar on an isolated machine though.