Youtube in Education

Zachary Davis
Mr. Jordan
AP English 3
18 March 2013
YouTube: The Future of Education Since its launch in 2005, YouTube has been a source for videos of every variety. Famous for videos like “Charlie Bit My Finger” and “Lamas with Hats”, YouTube has been a great place to laugh and escape from ordinary life. It is from these humble beginnings that video blogs (aka vlogs) began to thrive. As a seeming microcosm of YouTube itself, these vlogs branched into hundreds of different subject matters. The most surprising and delighting of which was education; a subject previously monopolized by federal and private school systems. This new avenue for both education and YouTube has created “a community of learners” in a setting which is “very much like a classroom” (John Green). And although it is not a classroom right now, within the few decades it may be a large part of what ‘traditional’ schools use to teach there technology inclined students. The purpose of learning has, in the 21st century at least, been about the betterment of the student, their community and mankind as a whole through the use of technology. The traditional classroom however is mediocre at helping students reach their technological and social goals. One of the largest problems is that teachers simply cannot move ar the right pace for everyone. Those who do not understand the material the first or even second time it is presented are left behind and those who understood the topic before the class began are being dragged down and kept from truly excelling. (Grey) such will always be the case with our teachers, or will it? Let’s imagine for a moment a collage class. The most common form of teaching is the lecture format in which a speech is given by the teacher with the students taking notes. This is the epitome of a single speed teacher, yet we call collage higher learning. There must be something effective in this style of teaching, since it continues to turn out good students, but its flaws are overwhelming.
‘Good’ Students are far less learned with education as they are getting a job, or passing a test. These “seemingly meaningless hurdles set in front of [them]” prepare them for their exams, but fail them for life. When one test is over and they don’t need specific information anymore they forget what they studied and move onto a new subject, without allowing anything to truly cement in their mind. But when a true learner comes about, one who refuses to jump over these hurdles and wants to really learn the information placed in front of them they are labeled as stupid, unmotivated and incapable of success because they didn’t cram, or force themselves to conform. Similarly this type of solitary learning is entirely different from anything high school students have gone through before. Those who want to learn well for a purpose, often have no frame of reference for what to do in collage, because they have always simply learned for the sake of learning.
The use of YouTube can solve both of these seemingly over whelming issues. YouTube videos, are just that; videos. They can be rewound, watched again, and scrutinized until the student understands what is being said. There is never someone saying you have to move on, or any pressure that you are not going at the speed of the class, because you are the class. You are no longer required to learn something for a test, or listen to someone drone on about a subject you would rather get to in a month. YouTube will suggest videos that are related to the ones you are watching and allows you to go off on a tangent leaning opportunities based on what you are trying to learn at that moment. If this suggestion technologies improve for enough we will eventually have a technology that knows what students want to learn and how they will be best taught better than a human teacher ever could (Grey). And when students begin to learn because they are interested in what is being taught they will absorb the information at a rate hundreds of times faster than that of an uninterested child. The 1 out of every ten children who don’t graduate high school have the opportunity to do better. The 2 out of 5 high school graduates who wouldn’t have gone to collage have a far higher chance of at least applying to a community of higher learning, and every new college student would be better equipped to cope with the lecture format of collage life. (American Fact Finder) YouTube’s format is, in all reality, only slightly modified from that of a collage class. Infrequent testing in collage is eliminated on YouTube’s site, pace is reduced, and unlimited questions are allowed. The comment section of these videos is a unique way to learn from both the teacher and the students trying to learn with you. YouTube educator, partner, and vloger John Green admits that “YouTube’s comments have a bad reputation” but sheds light on how these educational videos are so different from a normal video. Viewers of these videos are engaging in the subject matter, asking questions, and answering the questions of others all to aid their understanding. This type of learning will raise a generation more concerned with the acquisition of knowledge than acquiring a job, more concerned with what is being taught than the format in which they are learning. This is no mere speculation; we are seeing it in action today.
Viewers of these videos are inherently learners. These learners are ones who will join together to talk about something enriching instead of useless jabber. I have seen these very people, high school students just like you or I, sitting on a bus discussing the general form of quantum states in the 4th 5th and 6th dimension. Arguing that a theory is invalid because of the specific way it is described, and having no animosity towards those who were wrong, or those who correct a misguided idea. They are there to discuss and learn, and when the bus ride was over they returned to being normal teenage boys. Students such as this, True students who learn for their own good are going to be the ones who change the world for the better, and the more of them we have the more society as a whole will progress. True students will inspire true teachers, who will go further than was ever necessary to ensure understanding. The use of Youtbe in classrooms in addition to a true teacher to guide students will outmode the teachers who simply do not wish to be teachers, or are particularly unskilled at it.
While it might seem harsh to dispose of so many teaching jobs by replacing them with videos, it is an inconvenient and unavoidable truth. The US Bureau of Labor statistics estimates that since 2009 teaching jobs have declined 12%, and show no significant change in the next 5-10 years. The jobs we have left for teachers are disappearing and filling them with the best people possible as quickly as possible is the most prosperous rout for students everywhere. With the advent of technologies as teachers I think schools are likely to change. They will never completely disappear but “there will be far fewer teachers doing far less” and this kind of change will leave our government with more available money to do whatever it pleases. It will allow us to focus on learning new things and experimentation and ultimately become a leader for the world once again.
There will be naysayers in the world. People will say there is something about the human teaching experience that is fundamental for learning social skills, and that some things cannot be taught through a computer. And these points are true. Language and the arts may never be taught this way successfully, but we cannot know that until it has been tried, and if YouTube is the best way to tech science, math, history, and English, then why wouldn’t we continue down this path? The sciences are the future of the world as we know it, and preparing students in this way will set them up for success. That is what is most important. And for that we must push past what is out dated, discover what is new, and believe that we will be in a better place for it later. So let’s all log on, and start learning.