Let’s take a look at YouTube.  YouTube has always been somewhat controversial in educational circles because some of the content hosted there is not suitable for minors.  Some teachers and administrators see no educational value to the site, while I know others who make very good use of YouTube to provide a multimedia component for their lessons.  The point of this article isn’t to argue the educational merits of YouTube, though.  What I want to do is take a look at YouTube’s Terms of Use.

First, let’s look at the mechanism by which users accept the Terms of Use

2. Accepting the Terms

2.1 In order to use the Service, you must firstly agree to the Terms. You may not use the Service if you do not accept the Terms.

2.2 You can accept the Terms by simply using the Service. You understand and agree that YouTube will treat your use of the Service as acceptance of the Terms from that point onwards.

In other words, using YouTube means you have accepted their Terms of Use and agree to be bound by them.  Such a provision is fairly standard for Web 2.0 services, so there really isn’t anything shocking about it.

What does YouTube have to say about restrictions it places on your use of the site? This section is a bit long, so I’m going to only focus on a few of the restrictions.  I encourage you to check out this section in its entirety at the link above.

5. General restrictions on use

5.1 YouTube hereby grants you permission to access and use the Service, subject to the following express conditions, and you agree that your failure to adhere to any of these conditions shall constitute a breach of these Terms on your part:

1. you agree not to distribute any part of or parts of the Website or the Service, including but not limited to any Content, in any medium without YouTube’s prior written authorisation, unless YouTube makes available the means for such distribution through functionality offered by the Service (such as the YouTube Player);

2. you agree not to alter or modify any part of the Website or any of the Service (including but not limited to the YouTube Player and its related technologies);

3. you agree not to access Content through any technology or means other than the video playback pages of the Website itself, the YouTube Player, or such other means as YouTube may explicitly designate for this purpose;

4. you agree not to (or attempt to) circumvent, disable or otherwise interfere with any security related features of the Service or features that (i) prevent or restrict use or copying of Content or (ii) enforce limitations on use of the Service or the content accessible via the Service;

12. you agree not to access Content or any reason other than your personal, non-commercial use solely as intended through and permitted by the normal functionality of the Service, and solely for Streaming. “Streaming” means a contemporaneous digital transmission of the material by YouTube via the Internet to a user operated Internet enabled device in such a manner that the data is intended for real-time viewing and not intended to be downloaded (either permanently or temporarily), copied, stored, or redistributed by the user.

13. You shall not copy, reproduce, distribute, transmit, broadcast, display, sell, license, or otherwise exploit any Content for any other purposes without the prior written consent of YouTube or the respective licensors of the Content.

There’s a great deal of information in this section that’s worth noting for the classroom.  The most import, in my opinion, is the absolute prohibition on downloading any content for non-real-time viewing.  Many teachers want to download YouTube videos so that they can have easy access to them later or so they can embed them in presentations.  Some may also have bandwidth issues that make it difficult to stream video content.

It’s actually very easy to download content from YouTube.  There are numerous sites and programs designed to do just that, but making use of them violates YouTube’s Terms of Use.

Some of you may be wondering why I’m making such a big deal about this.  You might also be thinking that no one really cares if you download videos from YouTube.  I feel this is an important issue because it show students (and the community at large) our trustworthiness.  YouTube’s Terms of Use are a legally binding contract between you and YouTube.  By using the site, you agree to uphold that contract.  The same can be said for software licensing agreements and (legal) music downloads.  Violating those agreements (beyond just the possibility of committing a criminal act) shows students two things.  First, that restrictions like those in YouTube’s Terms of Use are meaningless  and it’s okay to circumvent them.  Second, it creates an atmosphere of distrust in the classroom.  If the teacher is willing to break their agreements with major companies, why wouldn’t they do the same with their students?

We are called upon to hold ourselves to the highest of standards.  In Philippians 2:14-16a (ESV), Paul writes

Do all things without grumbling or questioning, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life…

Part of “shining as lights in the world” is setting an example for our communities about what it means to be a child of God.  Upholding terms of service agreements is just one way we can do that.

So, what can you do to make use of YouTube videos in presentations without violating their Terms of Use?  There are two ways to do just that.  The simplest solution is to just place an active hyperlink to the desired YouTube video in your presentation.  Clicking on the hyperlink will launch your computer’s default web browser and display the video.  This method may run afoul of security restrictions on your system, so be sure to try it out first.  The other solution is to make use of YouTube’s playlist feature to create a playlist of videos you want to share with your class.  (You may need a YouTube account to access this feature.)  Then, you’ll just need to use a web browser to open your playlist and select the desired video.

So, as the title of my post states- “Are we getting anywhere?”  In teaching?  Well, are we?  I would say yes when it comes to the technologies that are available.  We have so much at our fingertips, literally!  But are we using the technologies to get anywhere?  I sometimes struggle with this.  There are so many websites, devices, software and hardware choices to choose from that it is hard to know what can be of the most benefit to our students.

There are new things to learn, new technologies to try, and students who crave the interaction with these technologies.  They crave engaging learning and interactions.

“It takes time to learn new technologies”

“I have enough to worry about”

“I don’t think I would use it”

So, I ask again- Are we getting anywhere?

Integrating technology isn’t about using technology to teach.  It’s about engaging our students.  It’s about changing something in the way we teach.  Instead of reading about the people in Russia, we can  talk to them via Skype.  Why not engage the students in fractions via You Tube.  It means taking our teaching to the next level.

Does this require some work?  Yes!  When we decided we would be educators, we committed ourselves to life long learning.  And if you didn’t, well…maybe you should take a second look at what you are doing with your life! It is part of the calling of being in education.  There’s learning involved.  What I am writing is probably not a shock to anyone.  However, there aren’t too many who may say it out loud.

Looking back a the photo above, I can tell you that both phones will get us in touch with the people we try to contact.  The old ways of engaging students versus the new ways of technology- both ways will get the information across.   Are we getting anywhere?  Yes, slowly.  However, how we get to where we are going is up to us!

So, what is your passion?  What do you most want your students to learn?  How does this all fit together?  Do you ask yourself this often?  If not, start.  Our students are not the same as they once were.  The way we educate our students is and should be changing.  I would venture to say that we will see more 1:1 classrooms in the next 10 years if not sooner.  Technology is shifting education.

Now where does that leave you?  Are you willing to shift your teaching?  Are you willing to learn?  Are you willing to teach the students in new ways?

Hmmm……

Something to ponder if you aren’t already.

The Lutheran school I examined was Our Savior Lutheran Academy in Nashville, Tennessee.  Their core values are the following:

God’s Word

We are centered on the Gospel of Jesus Christ, our Savior, [sic] the Bible is God’s truth for our lives & the foundation for everything we do.

Spiritual & Educational Development

We provide a coordinated system of dynamic, appropriate, and exceptional Christian Education.

Relationships

We build on Christ to establish strong, healthy relationships within our school & community.

Servant Leadership

We empower & equip students to realize, develop, & use their God-given time, talents, & treasure to become models of service to Christ & others in the world.

Outreach

We share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with others through an intentional system of word and action.

The core values of Our Savior Lutheran School would be admirable values for any Lutheran institution.

God’s Word, both the written Word and the Living Word, needs to be at the center of our decision-making process.  One area of concern is corporate partnerships with educational institutions.  Many schools see these partnerships as the only way to obtain funding for perceived needs, but what is lost by so doing?  For instance, is exposing students to carefully targeted corporate advertising in exchange for televisions in every classroom compatible with God’s Word?

Three of the five values presented focus on others: relationships, servant leadership, and outreach.  A school that allowed these values to inform all its decisions would be strongly focused on establishing connections with its own community and with the world.  Collaboration, one of the key 21^st Century skills, would be a predominate feature there.  The example that immediately comes to mind (though it does not solely involve Lutheran schools) is the Digiteen Project.

The Digiteen Project is an offshoot of the Flat Classroom project that focuses on digital citizenship.  One team working in that project focused on creating a virtual learning environment for younger students to learn about online safety.  That project was an amazing example of servant leadership and relationship building.  As another example of servant leadership, that team of students organized their own protest when Google announced that it was shutting down Lively, the 3D virtual world program the students were using for their project.  This protest was entirely student-managed, and though Lively was still shutdown, the students demonstrated a respectful and mature response to an action with which they disagreed.

A Lutheran school that truly used these five core values to inform every technology decision would be powerfully present on the Internet, using the various tools of the 21^st Century, especially social networking, to establish relationships with individuals and communities worldwide and using those relationships to share the Gospel of Christ.  I’m imagining a school whose students are working on projects with students from around the country (or even outside of it) and sharing those projects online.  As a part of participating in those projects, relationships form between the students as they learn about each other and the communities to which they belong.  Students would also be actively involved in sharing the Christian worldview through work that is publicly posted online.

Faculty and staff would also be involved in this process as they establish relationships with remote classrooms for student collaboration.  They would be servant-leaders as well through sharing their ideas with their colleagues inside and outside of their own building.

Core values are a crucial aspect of school ministry.  What are the core values of your learning organization?

Core values can best be describe as the moral compass of an organization.  When used properly, they inform every action and decision the group undertakes, so their selection should be undertaken with careful reflection.  The recommendation is usually to make a list of values and pick the five that are most important to the organization to be the core values.

After self-reflection, I identified the following as my personal core values:  faith, integrity, curiosity, wisdom, and relationships.

Faith: “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see” (Hebrews 11:1).  For most of us, God has never directly revealed Himself to us, so faith becomes one of the defining characteristics of the Christian life.  That faith then impacts every aspect of our life, as we seek to be little Christs to the world.

Integrity: For me, integrity means doing what is right in all circumstances, even if no one ever knows.  This is a very difficult value to uphold, because not doing the right thing is often easier and has greater rewards.

Curiosity: I believe that one of the tasks God has given to mankind is to explore and understand the world He has created for us.  This task was given us when God brought the animals of the world to Adam to be named (Genesis 2:19).  Classifying something (taxonomy) is an important aspect of science.  It could be argued that much of science can be understood as efforts to classify various phenomena.

Wisdom: It is often said that just because one can do a thing doesn’t mean that one should do it.  Wisdom is being able to evaluate the consequences of a proposed action and act according to one’s values.  Put another way, wisdom is applying knowledge responsibly.

Relationships: Building relationships is a major focus of the New Testament.  Jesus commands His disciples to “love one another” (John 13:35).  In Romans 12:10, we see the admonition to “be devoted to one another in brotherly love.”  Galatians 5:13 tells us to “serve one another in love.”  Christ Himself repaired our relationship with the Father through His sacrifice on the cross (Romans 5:8).  Through our relationships we are provided the opportunity to share Christ, both with the focus of our relationships and to those who observe our interactions.

These values are my personal core values, but what about core values for a learning organization?  In the next installment of our series on critical issues, we will examine the core values of a Lutheran school.

Here is my list in no particular order:

Textbooks:  Most Lutheran schools I know of have a system where each subject or class gets new textbooks every so many years.  One school I know of uses a seven year rotation, but I’ve also heard of schools on a fourteen year cycle.  A case could be made that knowledge in subjects like Mathematics and English doesn’t change very quickly, so a more frequent replacement cycle is not necessary and would be too costly.

However, have you ever done a side-by-side comparison of a new textbook and one that is fourteen-years old?  I have, several times.  Even if content hasn’t changed, presentation of that content has.  Modern textbooks are very visually appealing and tend to be much easier for students to understand.  They also include tie-ins to websites and other online content.  Even more importantly, they are based on our current understanding of students’ brains function in the learning process.

So, how do we get updated textbooks into students’ hands and make sure that each incoming class also has the most up-to-date books possible?  Is the answer requiring students to purchase their own books, just as they will in college?  Or could the solution be in online and electronic textbooks?  Or, alternatively, do we even need textbooks any longer?

Decline of Liberal Arts

The length of the school day was an issue within the public school systems of my community a few years ago.  As a cost-saving measure, several class periods were cut from the public school day.  As a result, graduation requirements were adjusted to fit the now shorter days.  Graduation requirements are now 4 years of English, 3 years of mathematics, 2 years of Social Studies, 2 years of science, 4 years of PE/Health (with waivers offered), and 1 year of Fine Arts/Foreign Language.  Students would also need to take approximately 3 elective courses to fulfill the graduation requirements.

These requirements emphasize English, PE/Health, and mathematics, while de-emphasizing science, fine arts, and foreign languages.  First, let me state that I am glad to see that English and math requirements were kept high.  However, I am saddened that the science requirements were reduced to only 2 years (Biology and Chemistry or Physical Science).  I am also concerned that students are able to graduate without taking both a foreign language and a fine arts course.

I feel one of the strengths of the American educational system is liberal arts, the notion of exposing all of our students to a wide variety of topics from many disciplines.  This eclectic mix fosters the formation of higher thinking skills and also creates well-rounded citizens who are better able to appreciate viewpoints different than their own.

Let me know what you think on the issues I’ve identified or on the issues that you think are critical in education today either in your comments below or through email to jbiddle@lutheraneducators.com.