I learned by reading the Core Knowledge Blog this morning that YouTube, which is owned by Google, has started an effort to put lectures by college professors online. It’s called YouTube EDU. Robert Pondiscio suggests that Google should create something similar for K-12 teachers.
Update: By the way, when you click on the link for Core Knowledge Blog above, you’ll get a scary message saying you’ve reached an “attack site.” You can click on “ignore this warning” and move on to the site. I’ve done that and my computer hasn’t blown up or anything. Pondescio told me in an e-mail that Google has blacklisted the site and he thinks the labeling is a result of computer hacking. They’re working on the problem. Update Again: The problem is fixed. This just demonstrates some of the perplexing problems that can arise while one is publishing digital content!
But back to the content of this post ... here’s an excerpt of the rationale for the K-12 YouTube idea:
When you think about the enormous waste of teaching capacity that takes place every day—millions of teachers preparing lessons for audiences of two dozen kids—it seems a shame not to have a mechanism to capture great teaching and distribute it broadly for all students.
It seems like the videos would be a great resource for professional development, so that new teachers could learn from experienced teachers about ways to differentiate instruction, get students engaged, etc. But I wonder how many K-12 students would actually want to tune in.
What do you think, teachers: Would a YouTube channel for K-12 teaching get a lot of Web traffic and be useful?