#WEEK 5/Angela/ "Ethics & Technologies in Education."

"I'm Angela and I'm going to evaluate Youtube!"

YOUTUBE is an app in which you can access to a wide variety of different videos, such as movies, TV programmes, music videos, videoblogs, gaming, videos explaining how to do things from clothes, to how to cook, to learning maths, ... This app is accessible from different devices like the mobile phone or the computer. In addition to watching videos, it is also possible to follow people and see their content, or like and dislike the content, apart from making comments if the option is activated. We can bring this app into the classroom environment using this videos as a support of the content explained, in order to make it more visual and easier to catch.

Source obtained from https://www.youtube.com/

CRITERIA BASED ON THE RUBRIC FOR E-LEARNING TOOL EVALUATION

FUNCTIONALITY

About its functionality, we can talk about the scale, which works well as this tool can be scaled to accommodate any size class and create sub-groups of practice, as this videos can be seen by anyone at any time as long as the device has internet connection. The same applies to the ease of use, as this tool is really easy to use for both instructors and students and it does not present any difficulty. However, if we need help to use it, or we want to access to some documentation of it app, we can find it easily just searching it or just clicking on the “help” tab; so we can say that Tech support/Help availability works well. Regarding hypermediability, we can say that this tool allows users to communicate through different channels such as audio visual and textual, as it the videos are visual, the sounds are audios and the textual could be the comments that people can make on the different videos.

ACCESIBILITY

If we talk about accessibility, we could say that this tool has a limited capacity to meet accessibility standards, as some of them are accessible, such as the use of colour, audio control, audio description, resized text, time-based media, but some others like sign language are not. Regarding user-focused participation, this app, as is really easy to use and does not have any special thing to do to use or any difficulty, I would say that nearly every person, even if they have limited capacity, they could use the app, thereby, learners will not be restricted from any participation. This app does not need a required equipment as it is enough to have the device with the basic things such as the speakers, internet connection… With the cost of use, to access to the main and basic things of this app, such as accessing to the videos, comments and channels, is totally free, but there are some special videos in which if the user wants to have access to, it will be necessary to pay an amount of money to make the account “premium”; in this way the users can also download the videos.

TECHNICAL

Being technical, we can talk about Integration/ Embedding within a Learning Management System (LMS), the tool can be embedded as an object via HTML code. When it comes to Desktop / Laptop Operating Systems, users may encounter limited or altered functionality depending on the up-to-date operating system being used, as sometimes it is necessary to update the app to get the new updates incorporated, and the same thing happens with browser, even though it is possible to make the updates automatically, so with this option, users will not have to do it every time. And regarding additional downloads, users do not need to download additional software or browser extensions.

MOBILE DESIGN

Talking about mobile design, as we said before, we can access to the app downloading it, or via mobile browser, and the design of the screen of the mobile is taken into account to reproduce the content. Regarding functionality, as we said before, this app can be accessed either from the computer or the mobile phone as long as the device has access to the internet. With the offline access, this app offers a kind if offline mode, where you can see the videos if you are offline with a service called “YouTube Premium”, where you can download any video you want and see it whenever you prefer, however this service is not free, so you would have to pay to use it.

Source obtained from https://instatecno.com/que-es-youtube-premium-os-regalamos-4-meses-gratis/

PRIVACY, DATA PROTECTION AND RIGHTS

Regarding Privacy, Data Protection, and Rights, when it comes to sign in/sign up, it is necessary for both instructor and student to have a personal google account to sing in the app, however, users who already have an email account or do not want a Gmail account, can create Google accounts using valid non-Gmail addresses. Talking about Data Privacy and Ownership, users can decide if they want their content to be personal and private, and not share this data and maintain their ownership and copyright; that is why if another user uses their content in their videos, the video will be blocked, deleted or the user won’t be able to make money from this video. In the same way, if the user wants to export or import a video with this personal data, there will be limitations to do it, as the ones mentioned before, however if the video complies with all privacy rules, then the user will not find any limitation archiving, saving, exporting data.

SOCIAL PRESENCE

When it comes to Social Presence, we talk about collaboration, talking about the capacity that this tool has to support a community of the learning though both asynchronous and synchronous opportunities as this app allows communication over the Internet between people in a non-simultaneous way; and its possible through the comments of each video.

Source obtained from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7eSxduV_s0

We also can talk about the user accountability, in which the instructors can control students’ anonymity, as this app provides a technical solution called “parental control”. YouTube is an app which has a lot of diffusion, as a lot of people know it and neither they use it or know how to use it and know what it is for.

TEACHING PRESENCE

About its teaching presence, we can take into account its facilitation, as the tool has easy-to use features which improves the teacher’s ability to present the app to the students. Regarding customization, the tool is really adaptable to its environment as suits the classroom contexts and targeted learning outcomes. When it comes to learning analytics, the tool does not support the collection of learning analytics, as the app does not allow the instructor to follow what the students are doing and learning.

COGNITIVE PRESENCE

Finally, we can talk about cognitive presence, we can find Enhancement of Cognitive Task(s), as the app enhances engagement in targeted cognitive task(s) that were once overly complex or inconceivable through other means. About higher order thinking, this app does not involve learners in higher order thinking skills, despite significant consideration to design, facilitation, and direction from the instructor. Regarding metacognitive engagement, the opportunity for receiving formative feedback on learning would be if the teacher follow the students work and see if they know how to upload videos, give like, create an account, comment on them, …