5 ms·

On similar note, schools should not send kids to Youtube to complete their assignments.

tartoran 5y ago
Yes but YouTube is similarly such a good resource for learning that avoiding it does a disservice. I've seen the best explanations for topics that I struggled to understand at the time and they were explained so well that teachers should learn from it to. With YouTube the answer is moderation and it has to be taught by parents, by education institutions and so on. This is also valid for grown ups. One can look for information on YouTube but veer onto temptation's path and sink a lot of time that gets taken from something else. But a bit of meandering into wherever it takes us and in moderation is great for discovering new things.
- supercanuck 5y ago
  This is completely missing the point. The teacher is doing the moderation and curating a curriculum. Youtube is simply the medium by which they are sharing the video which contains the content. YouTube is the most convenient solution to upload because of he simplicity of uploading since it is integrated into pretty much every hardware device. This idea that parents now need to be moderating YouTube is asnine. Most are struggling to simply help their kids do their math homework and now we are going to require them to moderate google?? Right now the tech companies have more information on what my kids are viewing than me, unless we want a world where parents are literally approving every single thing that reaches their eyeballs, let's hold the platforms a accountable for what they are serving up.
  - terracatta 5y ago
    Youtube is designed to extend engagement beyond the intended initial video the user wanted to view. Beyond a basic rating system with parental controls, the algorithm does not care if the videos are inappropriate for children. Given enough time with a child, the algorithm will lead them down a rabbit hole where they eventually reach strange videos portraying their favorite fictional characters in vaguely sexualized situations, or videos containing anti-science propaganda and/or promotion of harmful conspiracy theories. Allowing young children to use YouTube unsupervised is demonstrably a bad idea.
    - rimliu 5y ago
      And god forbid they will see some nipple.
    - supercanuck 5y ago
      Take a step back and pretend you belong to society. Try explaining what you just explained to the average parent. You are also qualifying "Young" "children". Doesn't the definition of children mean young human, so what are you communicating here? in the real world, we have this thing where a teacher can upload an education video using two clicks of an iPhone and as you said, this uncorks pandora's box of goodies for kids. >Given enough time with a child, the algorithm will lead them down a rabbit hole where they eventually reach strange videos portraying their favorite fictional characters in vaguely sexualized situations, or videos containing anti-science propaganda and/or promotion of harmful conspiracy theories. What a fantastic addition to human society! Let's leave it to the parents to sort this shit out.
  - antattack 5y ago
    Youtube business model is to make money of playing ads to it's viewers. Recent changes to Terms of Service allows Youtube to inject ads to content that has none. Before kids get to their assigned video they have to often watch an ad for a game or a service. Sometimes multiple ads play throughout. Also, at the end of the video kids get enticed to watch more videos that Youtube wants them to see (not the teacher or parent) - in order to play more ads.
- sneak 5y ago
  Teachers can learn how to use youtube-dl.
  - samb1729 5y ago
    This is such a HN comment
    - easton 5y ago
      It’s missing the obligatory “then throw it on a FTP server for the users to access, it’s not that hard to secure”.
      - sneak 5y ago
        These days we would throw it on a web server and provide the URL to the students. Expecting students to waste time sitting through Google ads and tracking at school is insane to me.
      - marcodiego 5y ago
        Peertube, anyone?
      - cuspycode 5y ago
        It's 2021. It's really not that hard to secure these days.
    - bosswipe 5y ago
      Yours is also a very HN comment these days.
  - jonplackett 5y ago
    Teachers should just roll their own video upload site.
    - justaman 5y ago
      Nearly every school (in the US anyway) has some sort of online portal that kids log into to complete or submit assignments that can be used to embed or host videos.
- logifail 5y ago
  > YouTube is similarly such a good resource for learning Given the insistence on being "a platform not a publisher", isn't that a bit like claiming that "content written on paper is a good resource for learning"?
  - pchristensen 5y ago
    Only if there was one primary source for paper. No numbers, but it wouldn't surprise me if YouTube had orders of magnitude more video than all other video sites together.
    - logifail 5y ago
      > it wouldn't surprise me if YouTube had orders of magnitude more video than all other video sites together How about quality vs. quantity? If you wanted to recommend a video platform with video content where all of it is suitable for under-18s would you really pick YouTube? (Full disclosure: I have three under-18 kids) I wouldn't pick YouTube. It's about signal-to-noise. Just an aside: a random video of some random person unwrapping something random that happens to be fascinating to small kids ... keeping them glued to the screen, and quiet... is not good content
      - tartoran 5y ago
        Im not saying the quality ratio is higher on youtube, there’s a lot more garbage for sure. But it has become a central hub in a way, you search for something and it’s likely you’ll find it. Second, the content creator niche has grown and went up a notch. There are a lot of self made great and professionally made channels on youtube. Im sure there are a lot more fantastic educational resources outside youtube but youtube is pretty good if you know what you’re looking for
- threatofrain 5y ago
  Given a specific focus, you only need a few good videos from YT. For example, perhaps you are using Khan Academy with your kids. Then you augment it with one other lecture series. You're not going to augment that with yet another lecture series on the same subject, are you? Kids don't need access to the whole cultural tapestry that is YT, they only need guidance as to the highest quality resources.
  - tartoran 5y ago
    I agree, that is true. But I think kids should not be completely be shielded from that tapestry. They should know what crap is shouldn't they? There is time for kids to be gullible and learn to fend for themselves.
Der_Einzige 5y ago
Most of the time it's as a result of the kid getting to their class the first time, realizing the teacher is garbage, and realizing "oh I have to teach myself all this crap" as the load up videos from extremely talented indians about calculus...
908B64B197 5y ago
Sounds like a market opportunity for something like OCW but pre-college. Could even feature some YouTube content that's vetted by teachers, re-uploaded and properly monetized of course. Uploads being ultimately restricted to teachers holding credentials and peer-moderated.
slver 5y ago
... Why?

Yes but YouTube is similarly such a good resource for learning that avoiding it does a disservice. I've seen the best explanations for topics that I struggled to understand at the time and they were explained so well that teachers should learn from it to. With YouTube the answer is moderation and it has to be taught by parents, by education institutions and so on. This is also valid for grown ups. One can look for information on YouTube but veer onto temptation's path and sink a lot of time that gets taken from something else. But a bit of meandering into wherever it takes us and in moderation is great for discovering new things.

supercanuck 5y ago
This is completely missing the point. The teacher is doing the moderation and curating a curriculum. Youtube is simply the medium by which they are sharing the video which contains the content. YouTube is the most convenient solution to upload because of he simplicity of uploading since it is integrated into pretty much every hardware device. This idea that parents now need to be moderating YouTube is asnine. Most are struggling to simply help their kids do their math homework and now we are going to require them to moderate google?? Right now the tech companies have more information on what my kids are viewing than me, unless we want a world where parents are literally approving every single thing that reaches their eyeballs, let's hold the platforms a accountable for what they are serving up.
- terracatta 5y ago
  Youtube is designed to extend engagement beyond the intended initial video the user wanted to view. Beyond a basic rating system with parental controls, the algorithm does not care if the videos are inappropriate for children. Given enough time with a child, the algorithm will lead them down a rabbit hole where they eventually reach strange videos portraying their favorite fictional characters in vaguely sexualized situations, or videos containing anti-science propaganda and/or promotion of harmful conspiracy theories. Allowing young children to use YouTube unsupervised is demonstrably a bad idea.
  - rimliu 5y ago
    And god forbid they will see some nipple.
  - supercanuck 5y ago
    Take a step back and pretend you belong to society. Try explaining what you just explained to the average parent. You are also qualifying "Young" "children". Doesn't the definition of children mean young human, so what are you communicating here? in the real world, we have this thing where a teacher can upload an education video using two clicks of an iPhone and as you said, this uncorks pandora's box of goodies for kids. >Given enough time with a child, the algorithm will lead them down a rabbit hole where they eventually reach strange videos portraying their favorite fictional characters in vaguely sexualized situations, or videos containing anti-science propaganda and/or promotion of harmful conspiracy theories. What a fantastic addition to human society! Let's leave it to the parents to sort this shit out.
- antattack 5y ago
  Youtube business model is to make money of playing ads to it's viewers. Recent changes to Terms of Service allows Youtube to inject ads to content that has none. Before kids get to their assigned video they have to often watch an ad for a game or a service. Sometimes multiple ads play throughout. Also, at the end of the video kids get enticed to watch more videos that Youtube wants them to see (not the teacher or parent) - in order to play more ads.
sneak 5y ago
Teachers can learn how to use youtube-dl.
- samb1729 5y ago
  This is such a HN comment
  - easton 5y ago
    It’s missing the obligatory “then throw it on a FTP server for the users to access, it’s not that hard to secure”.
    - sneak 5y ago
      These days we would throw it on a web server and provide the URL to the students. Expecting students to waste time sitting through Google ads and tracking at school is insane to me.
    - marcodiego 5y ago
      Peertube, anyone?
    - cuspycode 5y ago
      It's 2021. It's really not that hard to secure these days.
  - bosswipe 5y ago
    Yours is also a very HN comment these days.
- jonplackett 5y ago
  Teachers should just roll their own video upload site.
  - justaman 5y ago
    Nearly every school (in the US anyway) has some sort of online portal that kids log into to complete or submit assignments that can be used to embed or host videos.
logifail 5y ago
> YouTube is similarly such a good resource for learning Given the insistence on being "a platform not a publisher", isn't that a bit like claiming that "content written on paper is a good resource for learning"?
- pchristensen 5y ago
  Only if there was one primary source for paper. No numbers, but it wouldn't surprise me if YouTube had orders of magnitude more video than all other video sites together.
  - logifail 5y ago
    > it wouldn't surprise me if YouTube had orders of magnitude more video than all other video sites together How about quality vs. quantity? If you wanted to recommend a video platform with video content where all of it is suitable for under-18s would you really pick YouTube? (Full disclosure: I have three under-18 kids) I wouldn't pick YouTube. It's about signal-to-noise. Just an aside: a random video of some random person unwrapping something random that happens to be fascinating to small kids ... keeping them glued to the screen, and quiet... is not good content
    - tartoran 5y ago
      Im not saying the quality ratio is higher on youtube, there’s a lot more garbage for sure. But it has become a central hub in a way, you search for something and it’s likely you’ll find it. Second, the content creator niche has grown and went up a notch. There are a lot of self made great and professionally made channels on youtube. Im sure there are a lot more fantastic educational resources outside youtube but youtube is pretty good if you know what you’re looking for
threatofrain 5y ago
Given a specific focus, you only need a few good videos from YT. For example, perhaps you are using Khan Academy with your kids. Then you augment it with one other lecture series. You're not going to augment that with yet another lecture series on the same subject, are you? Kids don't need access to the whole cultural tapestry that is YT, they only need guidance as to the highest quality resources.
- tartoran 5y ago
  I agree, that is true. But I think kids should not be completely be shielded from that tapestry. They should know what crap is shouldn't they? There is time for kids to be gullible and learn to fend for themselves.

Der_Einzige 5y ago

Most of the time it's as a result of the kid getting to their class the first time, realizing the teacher is garbage, and realizing "oh I have to teach myself all this crap" as the load up videos from extremely talented indians about calculus...

908B64B197 5y ago

Sounds like a market opportunity for something like OCW but pre-college. Could even feature some YouTube content that's vetted by teachers, re-uploaded and properly monetized of course. Uploads being ultimately restricted to teachers holding credentials and peer-moderated.

slver 5y ago

... Why?