What is seen through ICT (voki, flickr, Youtube) cont.

YouTube is an online Website that allows it's users to upload videos. This I believe is an extremely useful tool in a learning environment. Engaging with learners can be helped with the right video from YouTube. This site is easy to use and is available anywhere that has an Internet connection which mean that it is easily assessable. This also give an indication of the scale of this site being global there are many voices to be heard about topics. During the start of the week a fellow student and I attempted to place a video on YouTube with a SWOT analysis unfortunately we were not able to complte the task so we had to turn to our indivial blog's to convey what we have found.
Strengths
User friendly
Students can watch critical points several times
Videos can be paused for note taking
Cheap, easy access to media
Access to videos from all around the world
Videos can be re watched as many times as necessary
Searing for clips is fast and easy
Clips can be creative
Weaknesses
Not all information on YouTube is reliable
YouTube is dependent on Internet connectivity
Slow downloading can be frustrating
Clips are not interactive
Not all videos to appear in a search are relevant to topic
Clips can be bias
Opportunities
Watching clips could be given as homework/revision
Helps students to become global citizens
Students could use YouTube as a way of presenting assessment
Clips could be watched as a class then discussed
Talent can be recognised through YouTube
Collaboration of information and ideas
Networking through YouTube
Students can contribute to online database
Threats
Copyright issue
Can be issues with privacy invasion
Not all videos are child friendly
Government censorship means that it isn't always accessible to learners

Again clips from YouTube if used correctly in the classroom and in the right context can be a valuable tool for learning. When I eventually have my own classroom I will try to find educational videos for my learners in the hopes of creating a interesting and happy learning enviroment. I have also added a Link on youtube from another persons prespective from the site. She puts foward the pro and cons of youtube in education and give some great real life examples in which youtube is being used.