On Line Video Sharing Thing 9 and 10

Maybe if the IPAD came with a cat I would get one!

YouTube can take up a lot of time, especially if you do not get specific about what you are looking for. The fact that anyone can post just about anything makes it difficult to stay on task.  You start off looking for something educational that will relate to a classroom subject and the next thing you know you are off enjoying your favorite music video or cartoons from the 1950's.  (Still love Felix the Cat!)  It can be fun but all of sudden you realize a few hours have passed and you have things to do. 

The reason YouTube is blocked in school is because it is video streaming.  Information (the video and audio) is being streamed into your classroom computer while the rest of the school is trying to send out information from their computers.  I was recently upgrading a computer at one building when everyone started complaining about the Internet being exceptionally slow.  When we started tracing the huge amount of activity coming into the building (yes we can do that ) we discovered that it was going to the computer I was working on. It was indeed my fault., I was bringing a ton of data into the computer to repair it while everyone else was trying to take attendance, work on grades and classes were trying to do internet research in the computer lab.

This was an isolated incident, normally when we update computers we do not block the bandwidth. You can imagine though what would happen if several computers in your building were streaming video and audio at the same time, the network would come to a complete halt and no one would be able to do anything.  All that information trying to come in while more information is trying to get out. And just one little network cable to handle it all!

The solution to this problem is simple, $$$, and lots of it.  If the district had enough money to update the internet bandwidth and install the latest and greatest servers in every building there would be a lot more you could do with your computer.  Until then we just have to make do with what we have and one way to help is to remember that your classroom computer is for computing, it is not a boom box or television.