Why I don't block YouTube anymore

YouTube has long been on my list of banned sites, not because it's inherently a bad place to hang out, but because there is plenty of content that simply isn't appropriate for the average public school. Recently, however, several teachers have come to me and asked if we could open it up, citing great reference videos and supplementary materials they were able to locate at home, beyond the reach of our content filters. Even I found some great examples for my physics class as they brainstormed ideas for an egg drop project. So into my list of acceptable domains it went.

Of course, the kids were happier than the teachers; there are countless funny, gross, wacky, and/or crude videos out there. While Google sensors the worst of the worst, if it doesn't contain actual nudity, there's not much that is off limits. YouTube requires a login to view "potentially objectionable content", but that's 30 seconds of typing and clicking to create an account if you don't already have one.

Streaming video eats its share of bandwidth, too, limiting bandwidth available for legitimate purposes. While we generally have bandwidth to spare, 4 computer labs (3 of which contain clients, the servers for which share a connection to our backbone) with several kids in each accessing YouTube can take a toll.

What's the moral of the story here then? Is it worth the hassle? The general consensus from the teachers is a resounding yes. The onus is now on them to ensure that acceptable use policies are enforced and that students are using the labs for legitimate academic purposes, not just hogging bandwidth to see the latest video of kids falling off their skateboards. This has always been the case, but extra software has always been a crutch on which teachers could rely. Now it comes down to teacher judgment. Honestly, though, isn't that the way it should be?