Youtube and Internet Access

[soapyfish]

Hi, I am wondering how many of you allow your students to access YouTube

and if you find it the cause of a significant number of problems.

[Hightower]

Take a look at something called Fliggo (I think). Allows you to store the videos you want meaning kids can't access everything. Might be useful.

[LukeC64]

I work for a college and we allow Youtube access but force safe search and also have keyword search filters in place on smoothwall. We do suffer from bandwidth issues at lunchtimes so looking at QoS solutions.

[tom_newton]

Luke,

Try the bandwidth limiting feature? You could limit youtube urls to a specific amount of bandwidth.

[LukeC64]

Thanks Tom, you couldn't PM me some could you

[36Degrees]

No - we removed that ability due to the nature of content some of the pupils were watching.

 

Even when I have got SmoothWall up and running I am still going to prevent access for pupils.

[localzuk]

We had Youtube blocked for quite some time, and only unblocked it when teachers requested it for their lessons.

 

It got to the stage of me unblocking and reblocking multiple times a day. So now, it stays unblocked.

[soapyfish]

@ localzuk How do you monitor what the students are watching ?

 

Also nice logo !

[joe90bass]

Blocked for pupils, allowed for staff. Though currently all users have to enter credentials to authenticate against our LAs proxy so most staff are using the pupil credentials (I have manually input and saved the ID for those who HAVE to have youtube!), last time I gave out the staff IDs to them some passed it on to the kids........ I'm now looking at dansguardian (no money for SW unfortunately) in house to sort out the groups and access.

 

We've had bandwidth issues when streaming media was allowed so that's all blocked now............

[localzuk]

@ localzuk How do you monitor what the students are watching ?

 

Also nice logo !

 

We don't. It is up to teachers to actually control their children in lessons.

 

And thanks, Sysman_MK made it for me.

[Bashir]

Just incase its of use:

 

I recently tested several products and there are a couple out there that have special YouTube controls.

 

The one I liked the most allowed teachers/staff to request YouTube video's on from a video library portal web page, then the Reviewer would Allow (or Deny the request), and the video would appear on the video library. The students then have access to this video library and can watch the video in the safe portal as they dont actually goto YouTube its just streamed down to them.

I liked this concept it allowes YouTube access but in a controlled fashion and away from the main site that can display some very suspect links to other videos.

Bash

[robk]

Just incase its of use:

 

I recently tested several products and there are a couple out there that have special YouTube controls.

 

The one I liked the most allowed teachers/staff to request YouTube video's on from a video library portal web page, then the Reviewer would Allow (or Deny the request), and the video would appear on the video library. The students then have access to this video library and can watch the video in the safe portal as they dont actually goto YouTube its just streamed down to them.

I liked this concept it allowes YouTube access but in a controlled fashion and away from the main site that can display some very suspect links to other videos.

Bash

 

What product were you looking at that with that kind of feature set?

[Cache]

Sounds a bit like the Bloxx Media Filter that I had demo'd shortly after easter.

[ayoward]

As a rule for most users, we have youtube.com blocked and it's not just due to some dodgy videos that are on there, a lot of the issues are with the adverts and the comments you get up the side and underneath. I recently came across a website called safeshare.tv which allows the display of just the youtube video and cuts out all the rubbish from round the side.

 

So what you would do is go to youtube, select the video you deem to be safe, copy the URL and paste it into safeshare.tv. This will then give you a safeshare.tv URL which you can copy round to everyone or display it on a whiteboard for pupils to access etc.

 

It will will only display that video and none of the gumph round the sides and bottom and it also doesn't show the adverts at the end of the film for similar films etc. It requires a bit of forward planning by teachers, I grant you, but not a great deal and no more than other solutions that have been mentioned here. It's basically exactly the same as the Bloxx Media Filter (apart from the ability for a moderator to deem the video is fit for use, you'll just have to trust your teachers ), but for free. We have been recommending it to all our filtered customers.

 

It also means that you're not having to store files anywhere as well as it streams it just the same and you're not having to find a server to install some in house streaming capability or even worse, pay for something.

Edited July 27, 2010 by ayoward

[jamesfed]

AD intergation with websense - allowed for staff blocked for students

[Bashir]

@robk

 

The two I found where Bloxx and Lightspeed. The one I desribed above was the Lightspeed implementation of allowing Youtube, i just found it more logical and easier to use for the staff and students and it integrated with the main filter block page which was nice. Ohh and I think from memory it could import whole Youtube channels. Saves a lot of typing

 

@Cache

I looked at this also, did the job but was licenced seperatly. The Lightpeed one was included with the filter for free.

 

Of course once the Youtube content is allowed the questions then followed...how to we allow other Web 2.0 content

 

Bash

 

@

[Iain]

We block Youtube access for students, but allow access for staff - however we enforce Youtube's Safety Mode using our ISA firewall.

 

Iain.

[john316]

We block Youtube access for students, but allow access for staff - however we enforce Youtube's Safety Mode using our ISA firewall.

 

Iain.

 

How have you enforced that via ISA server?

[Sylv3r]

Staff have had access to Youtube for around 12 months - as of tomorrow i'm giving our sixth form students access also - but will be throttling the bw used via our SmoothWall box.

[Iain]

How have you enforced that via ISA server?

 

I wrote an ISAPI filter, that inspects, and modifies YouTube cookies, forcing safety mode to be on, even if the user switches it off.

[Finch7]

As a rule for most users, we have youtube.com blocked and it's not just due to some dodgy videos that are on there, a lot of the issues are with the adverts and the comments you get up the side and underneath. I recently came across a website called safeshare.tv which allows the display of just the youtube video and cuts out all the rubbish from round the side.

 

So what you would do is go to youtube, select the video you deem to be safe, copy the URL and paste it into safeshare.tv. This will then give you a safeshare.tv URL which you can copy round to everyone or display it on a whiteboard for pupils to access etc.

 

It will will only display that video and none of the gumph round the sides and bottom and it also doesn't show the adverts at the end of the film for similar films etc. It requires a bit of forward planning by teachers, I grant you, but not a great deal and no more than other solutions that have been mentioned here. It's basically exactly the same as the Bloxx Media Filter (apart from the ability for a moderator to deem the video is fit for use, you'll just have to trust your teachers ), but for free. We have been recommending it to all our filtered customers.

 

It also means that you're not having to store files anywhere as well as it streams it just the same and you're not having to find a server to install some in house streaming capability or even worse, pay for something.

 

What stops kids safesharing inappropriate stuff?