Just the other day I had the lucky experience of being on the bus home when it got hit by the after school rush. I’m sure we’ve all experienced being on the bus and having it swarmed by loud, rambunctious middle school and high school students. It is this time that I absolutely dread but at the same time I really do enjoy, for I often finding myself overhearing the most interesting conversations that give me an insight at today’s youth and reminding me what the main concerns for adolescents are. (Something that I think is a valuable thing for teachers to have) On this particular day I was sitting near the back by a large group of young boys-probably around 12 or 13 who were animatedly discussing issues they had ‘learned’ about via YouTube. I know that the use of technology has played a large role in discussions in our class, so I found the conversation particularly interesting. My interest was especially peaked when the boys started discussing videos they had seen in regards to drugs- what a druggie is and what a drugger is, and videos that point fun at homosexuality- what ‘makes’ you gay, and why. The conversation that I was listening to became somewhat concerning to me as a majority of the information being passed between the kids was incorrect and misleading. Of course young kids are always going to use media and technology to ‘learn’ things that are often not addressed by parents or in schools and that invalid information will then be passed on amongst themselves but what WE are going to do about it is the real issue. I believe that as future educators it is our responsibility to look at these forms of technology and harness them as a tool to properly educate students for this opens an opportune venue to teach without students realizing we are teaching. I would be curious to know other people’s opinions on whether you think this would be a good way to use technology to educate students on touchy issues.
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I find that with both the students I work with, and my own son, I try to remain open-minded and curious about what they are watching. YouTube videos often reflect the individuals interests and reveal much about their sense of humour and curiosities too.
ReplyDeleteRegarding videos about "touchy subjects" I think they certainly have value as a conversation starter, but think much of it is just entertainment. many teachers do seem to be using YouTube videos in their classes too.
"Touchy subjects", such as sex and drugs, are real concerns to the age group we cater to. I think YouTube and the internet provide many accurate and fabulous informational sites too. For example, two great websites about youth sexuality are:
http://irespectmyself.ca/ and http://www.scarleteen.com/
Considering that issues of sexual identity (and/or drug use) are of paramount importance at this age, perhaps the presentation of factual information on-line, will be a positive experience for some youth?
Perhaps it will successfully avoid the naive moralizing many adults enagage in with this age group, while providing facts. (???)
I think that as parents and edcators our job is to provide an opportunity to introduce critical thinking skills in these situations. There are many YouTube videos that could encourage critical discussion. I often wonder, how can we 'subvert' these technological trends into "powers for good" - not evil?
How can we teach students to assess the sites, videos and information, they find on-line for reliability and identify what the source of, or bias of, the information presented might be?
Was my response a tangent??? I may be prone to tangents ...
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