User:Ahunnicutt1

Review of YouTube as an educational tool in the elementary school classroom. I previously did not advocate student use of YouTube because of security concerns, but the new Safety Mode has made me less concerned. I still advocate heavy supervision of the use of this tool, but as long as the student is accessing YouTube in the safety mode it can be a useful educational extension of the classroom.

Acces to YouTube is easy to obtain, and the visual presentation of information benefits not only students in the regular classroom but also students with learning disabilities who need increase visual stimulation. The audio and visual quality is limited only by the computer used to watch the videos. Disadvantages include the inability to print transcrips of the videos and the need to critically wade through search results.

The increased access YouTube provides students to research material is invaluable in today's classroom. Research time and access when compared to a typical library is greatly beneficial to the student.

Review of Google as an educational tool in the elementary school classroom. Google, while being a useful educational tool, is not one that I recommend for an elementary classroom in terms of student use. Google results, even with the new safety standards, are too numerous to be useful for a student of elementary school age. Sifting through search results to find the most relevant ones is an important skill which is rarely mastered by age 10. Also, if on Google Kids there is questionable content which may come up in a search and which parents may not approve of their child viewing.

I do agree that google is beneficial to students in that it provides them access to exponentially more data than that of a school library. It is best used in today's classroom as a tool to use in collaboration with an educator. Educators can guide students in entering search criteria and viewing results by pre-entering the criteria themselves and checking the appropriateness of the first five to ten sites.

As a tool for educators Google is useful but cumbersome to learn. If an educator is not comfortable with computer use, internet use, etc., Google may not be the ideal site to get one's feet wet with. I am told that someone who is comfortable learning new tools on a computer will find Google for Educators, Google Sites, and Google Blogs use. I find that tools daunting to learn, and was not impressed with the help tool. In my case, the help tool assumed prior knowledge which I did not possess.