Youtube Ban!

Schools are locking down the access that teachers can have to worldwide popular and very useful sites. Schools are being stopped from accessing such sites as Youtube, Flickr and the majority of social networking sites due to concerns that inappropriate content may potentially be looked at. At the school where I have just been observing there was a need for a clip of ‘chick’ being hatched from a egg as part of a science lesson. The teacher had no video or dvd that could be played and so i suggested that there would be loads of clips on Youtube that the children could watch and use in their science lesson. I was then informed that no access was available to Youtube at school nor could any videos downloaded from Youtube at home, later be played at school. I can understand why there maybe concerns as to whether pupils should have access to it but in regards to teachers who could use is valuably for teacher purposes – it is awful that they are deprived of such a resource. Youtube is being used to teach children across the world and in universities etc today – there is no reason that primary schools should be stopping their teachers having access to it!