Jumping Monkeys Episode 41: One Media Player Per Teacher

Listen to our interview with Matt York of One Media Player Per Teacher, a non-profit organization devoted to helping educate the world's poorest billion people with the use of technology.

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SPEND: Pleo
SAVE: Save on a breast milk organizer (from Parent Hacks)

GIVE: Fair Trade Certified Flowers

AUDIBLE PICK: The Tales of Beatrix Potter

POLL
In reference to Brad Moon's post on Geek Dad.

Opinion Polls & Market Research

LISTENER FEEDBACK:

Corbett recommends the Math Tutor DVDs.

Brian Niles of PTA Tech Corner says to check out High School on We TV and the PBS documentary Growing Up Online. (You can watch the whole thing online.)

Erica from Chicago says homework should reinforce the skills taught in school. She also recommends Scratch. Also, here's the link to Mitchell Resnick's podcast.

Comments

[TheMacMommy]

Wow, I'm glad I read the reference blog post before casting my vote about whether or not YouTube should be used in schools. My first thought was YouTube being used in schools as an educational reference for watching videos about a particular subject like a how-to or something of a National Geographic-esque nature. I didn't even think about the students actually being videoed and uploaded. I was shocked to find out that is the purpose of the poll. Not long ago I was employed by an elementary school. Taking photos is not encouraged and you had better make sure that you have parental consent before even thinking about doing it for a special project. I wouldn't even dream of taking video of little kids at school and then uploading it. After reviewing the referenced blog post and the comments, I now see that my initial reaction is the training of being a state employee and the heightened sense of following the strictist of standards. I'm given to understand that the real problem here is the risk of non-custodial parents seeing kids who need to be protected, so even if permission forms were signed, I'm not sure how one would actually deal with that in a situation like this particular class project.

Personally, I have no problem writing about my own son by name and posting hundreds of photos and videos of him. I do it with the idea of being able to communicate with many of our friends and family all over the US as well as in other countries. Sometimes I do wonder about photos where other kids are in the pictures with him, but then the whole notion of having to ask permission from everyone just drives me nutty.

My only caveat for if my son were to be videoed and uploaded is I would like to know about it beforehand, not find out from him coming home from school some time later. I would just be excited too and not want to miss out. I hope our children do not become so desensitized that sometime later it will be something like "oh, by the way Mom, I'm on YouTube, it's been up for 3 months now and has over 1000 hits, I forgot to tell you about it."

I personally think that this particular project that was referenced was a truly wonderful idea and it's good to know the teacher did have parental consent. I just feel bad for children who might be in a situation where there is a non-custodial parent issue. How would those children be included in such a project? If only we didn't have to worry about how such media could be used to harm people, it would be a truly invaluable resource for all children of all ages all around the world.

[Donald]

I answered your poll before I listened to the episode, but I think teachers should use any and all solutions they can to reach their students.

In On Board Games we have a recurring segment on games in education. While games may not be suitable as a form of primary instruction, they are great for helping development of a wide range of skills. Sure it sounds strange, but advancements are made by trying new things and people pay attention to what interests them.

[Jen]

Another $300 dinosaur toy! At least this on is big enough for a kid to "ride". :/
http://www.hasbro.com/playskool/default.cfm?cmp=ILC-kotaprevent&site=playskool&adtype=flash&page=toyfair2008_pr

[debinsf]

I wonder what the child's excitement was about being on YouTube? I loved the first video on the site where the kids narrated their drawings about the water cycle. No faces, no names.

Maybe there's a niche for a kidvid site. Like the photo sites that you can keep private to the folks you want to see the photos. And if the excitement is that the author saw the video and dug Moon's daughter's contribution - they could have included him on their distribution list.

Sadly, I've volunteered at places where it was a real worry that certain folks never be able to find the children. At my kids' public school, there may be kids like that too. I don't think it's something most of us have to worry about. But if we do, it's a pretty serious situation. password protected video sites seem like a good solution. The school play or whatever can go up without having to be broadcast to the general public. I'm surprised youtube doesn't offer that option.

[Lori Henderson]

I'm against the putting of videos of kids on You Tube. Even through our school did have the release, and we did sign it, I expect the images to be used locally, not globally. Putting a video up on say a teacher's site/blog and telling the parents would have been better.

[Asha {Parent Hacks}]

Just wanted to thank you for the pointer to the Breastmilk six-pack! As always, there's so much good stuff going on here.

[Victoria]

I'm catching up with past episodes so this is a bit late. There is a site called TeacherTube with a lot of lesson plans and other "safe" info for teachers.

[coach outlet]

it's a good post, i like it so much, and i look forward to your next wonderful article.