Youtube Curation Follow Up Post

I have written a post previously about how I feel about Youtube as a curation tool (for those of you who didn't get a chance to read my work, I found Youtube to be distracting and not terribly helpful. I would not recommend it.) This post will be taking a look at some of the content that I have found on Youtube regarding education and technology.

As I mentioned, the videos that I have found the most helpful have been TED talks. My favorite TED talk was by Paul Anderson. Paul Anderson talked about how technology in the classroom can be very useful. However, he pointed out the dangers of relying too much on technology by comparing that type of technology-reliant classroom to how young Spock learns in the Star Trek reboot movie. He reminds us that most students would be bored out of their minds by just watching videos all day and reciting memorized facts. In his experimenting with using more technology in his own classroom, Anderson also found that there is a great danger of neglecting of reading. It is easy to forget how important reading is, but videos and technology cannot replace the benefits that come from reading. I feel that Anderson's views on technology and education address some concerns that I had after reading Disrupting Class. He does not advocate separating students by learning style, but rather gamifying the classroom so that each student can learn at his or her own pace while still being able to work with one another. There was a link in the video description to Paul Anderson's website with more information on the topic.

Raj Dhingra also gave a TED talk about education and technology. He recommends what he calls blended learning, in which teachers function as coaches/tutors rather than the traditional teacher who is in charge of deciding what students learn. This is also called student-centric learning. This philosophy about teaching reminds me of the recommendations made in Disrupting Class. For my thoughts on the problems inherent in this type of system, feel free to take a look at my previous blog post on the topic.

In summary, while I did not find YouTube to be a helpful curation tool overall, I am glad that I used it because I likely would not have found Paul Anderson's philosophy on gamifying his classroom without using Youtube specifically.