YouTube being blocked is good for some reasons, but a lot of students still believe we should be able to use it. “The issue was that even the best tools on the market, with machine learning built in, could not keep up with the insane volume of media that gets uploaded to YouTube every day. We were constantly fielding complaints from parents and staff that students were able to view things they found inappropriate, and there is no good way to block content that some find distracting rather than dangerous,” explained the WPUSD tech department.
There were also a series of incidents. “It was definitely a series of incidents and complaints over the past few years. Like with anything else, there are a few incidents that stand out as higher profile, but there was not just one or two that caused us to look down this path,” said the WPUSD tech department. They added, “Our content filter and Google were putting out new tools quickly, but none of them were good enough to close the gaps.”
There are definitely some pros and cons to this. According to Mrs. Fernandez, “One drawback is that some teachers rely on YouTube for instructional activities or assessments, and restricting access could make it difficult for students to complete those tasks. On the other hand, a benefit is that limiting access helps reduce inappropriate technology use during school hours. It also reinforces the expectation that devices and accounts are strictly for educational purposes, even outside of school. Without these restrictions, students have often accessed sites like YouTube after school for non-educational or inappropriate reasons, which creates a significant challenge to monitor.”
There is a small chance YouTube could return, but it’s not likely. “We keep up to date with improvements that Google and our content filter make. As they come out with new tools, we will go back into testing and see if they are good enough to reverse this change. With what is currently available to us, I do not expect this decision to get reversed in the near future. We have also spoken to a number of other school districts in the state who have made this same change,” said the WPUSD tech department. Mrs. Fernandez added, “This would fall under a technology decision, and it may be a viable option provided that appropriate internal restrictions can be implemented through YouTube, but I don’t believe that is possible at this time.”
But what about videos that help students learn? “Before we made this change, we had documentation and options in place for the teachers to be able to select videos that they found useful and share them with students in ways that would still be allowed. There is currently no plan to provide an alternative where the students can search for video content on their own. It will come through the instructors,” said the WPUSD tech department.
It may be too soon to know if students have changed for the better or worse because of this decision, but there are some early signs. “I think that it is too soon to tell for this. Any evidence would be anecdotal since there is not enough data from the first month of school. The feedback from the handful of parents and teachers that we have spoken to has been positive. We have had no people approach us speaking out against this change,” explained the WPUSD tech department.