AIBU to think YouTube videos in Year 3 lessons are inappropriate?

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Son is in yr3 at a v good state primary school.l. just want a sense check as they seem to watch videos on YouTube as part of normal schooling. Is this the norm?!!! So today they got a treat of a 'satisfying video' basically one of those shite asmr type things that kids like. But he's mentioned this a few times and I'm getting to the point where I feel like speaking to the head. We get all these emails from school around internet use including you tube etc and it seems hipocritical that they then use it as part of the normal day!!

Aibu to think this is just a bit crap? Or is it pretty normal now?

I imagine it calms down all the ‘disregulated’ kids who can’t sit still for ten minutes, ironically because they’ve been weaned on short form digital slop from birth. They should hand out comics, dominos or colouring pens instead.

I also occasionally show Newsround in form time too, particularly when there’s a big event. It helps to generate discussion in an age appropriate way. My form year 7 btw.

Yep, YouTube shouldn't be used as a treat in school, we're trying to get them off screens aren't we??

There are educational things on YouTube OP.
Even as a child in the 80s, the TV would get wheeled in and we would watch educational stuff.
Last day of term, anything goes.

They look at a screen all day. The smart boards are all huge screens. It’s how we teach. Even if we read something, like a passage from a textbook, it goes under the visualiser and is linked up to the screen so the children can read with a ruler and follow along. No getting away from screens in schools.

Yes, I remember going to a special TV room. We watched things like Through the Dragon’s Eye and Geordie Racer. I remember one with a magic pencil too drawing letters, something like magic E. Teaching using screens has been happening for a long time.

I loved the magic pencil! “Up and down and round and flick”

There’s this new thing called Google. Try it.

Ooo which plants did you have?

Watching Chelsea is getting me all excited about plants again!

Did you show the bamboo with the longest flowering cycle?

Sad really isn't it.

@RobertBobsee we actually only had the big tv wheeled in really infrequently in primary! I remember watching the nuclear bomb safety video (which totally freaked me out & also shows my age!) railway line safety and a sex education video. I'm sure there were more times but we never watched films or had at wet breaktimes or anything.

@DanceMumTaxi and any other teachers, just to clarify I'm absolutely not teacher bashing, couldn't and wouldn't want to do your job! I think my concern is more around the use of YouTube and not videos in itself - although relying on or excessive use of them as others have said can be a slippery slope I would imagine. I really like his current teacher who has been really helpful and proactive with other things. The teachers he's had so far through school have also been amazing, but I have definitely noticed there has been far more use of online content in his current year. His teacher is NQ and this was his first class teaching, he is v young and I don't know if this has any impact. There is also a high number of ND children in the class who struggle with concentration/focus/behaviour and I wonder if that also feeds in somewhat.

Perhaps there's scope for an educational platform for all of these videos that have been mentioned, and if there isn't then someone should invent it, that schools can use for trusted content that also works within the evidence base we have around short clips and neurobiology/neuropsychiatry/educational psychology etc.

I think fundamentally for me, it's the fact it's YouTube.

I think YouTube can be super helpful for learning - my DC will use it for alternative methods of approaching maths problems etc when the teacher's explanations don't quite click. I'm impressed at the level of agency it gives them over their learning even during primary school. I didn't have the option to go on YouTube to find different ways to do long division!

Great post! A few minutes of a video (YT or VCR) isn't going to be a problem. Parents on their phones, or kids being allowed on screen all the time at home, will be.
Your teachers knew they had 30 students to deal with, and knew the adult to child ratio at home is often close to 1:1.

Teachers definitely need to be vigilant about how many videos they show and screen them for quality. I don’t think the fact it is accessed on YouTube means the videos are problematic. Many videos that are no longer available on BBC Teach or Bitesize are still on YouTube. I’ve also used short clips from films pupils are familiar with to help them understand character motivation before they write about an imaginary character. Children nowadays are rarely avid readers which is reflected in their writing sadly. Short, well chosen videos can enhance learning. It’s not comparable to kids scrolling past endless shorts in their free time.

@CranberryCandyCane I think from responses I probably need to accept this is just a thing now!

But why? You tube is just a platform, neither better nor worse than any other. What is watched is entirely the choice of the human. There is a LOT of crap on it but all of that can be ignored and avoided. I pick my clips very carefully and link them through Google classroom. That means only the clip I’ve picked and no adverts etc. screens in schools are the smallest end of the wedge when it comes to the issue of screen time for children.

We looked at the carnivorous plants, the black bat flower, the dragon blood tree, Rafflesia. They found it fascinating.

Did your teacher never wheel out the tv when it was a treat day or last day of term?

It can be perfectly appropriate and useful to use video in education, and if this was a treat, fine. But if they're often used, simply as a time filler, not fine.
Details are important too - I hope the teacher has the video 'ready to go' - that s/he just presses 'play', rather than the kids witnessing a random search for something decent (as that really sets a bad example, and is something that the school/parents are hopefully discouraging).

I love Danny Go! But I find it very over stimulating for the age I teach.

YouTube generally brilliant for art and craft videos.

Never understand why teachers use it for ‘relaxing music’ slop. If you must have music whist children are working there’s plenty of actual music from the last thousand years that’s been recorded.

And don’t get me started on those bloody bubbles….!

I can, as a teacher, totally see your point around YouTube being the problem because, as parents, we are constantly told its not good. However, as many have already said it is full of great education stuff (as long as you are careful and watch it first) and, most importantly, in today's climate with budget constraints its free. There are other platforms with videos but at a cost (twinkl, for example is quite expensive and teachers often end up paying themselves). I wonder if, as you suggested, someone gathered the videos together, how much they would charge for access!
For what it is worth, as a teacher, I would never use asmr videos even as a brain break. I tend to do movement breaks where they do some go noodle or walk and talk around the room type stuff.

It's fine, in the 70s we watched things like playschool and maths in the box. It's the same thing it's just on YouTube now not BBC.

I use video clips a lot. This week, for example:

• in a KS2 RE lesson, clips from video tour of Southwark Cathedral explaining features of a church.
• in KS2 French lessons, several clips with French songs reinforcing vocab we are learning.
• in KS2 Computing, a clip about Mars Rovers showing how binary code is used to send data back to Earth.
• in KS2 Music, a video which was the backing track for the song they are writing their own lyrics for in a unit about songwriting.

I always watch the clips first and I often pause them for discussion. I very rarely use YT just for "brain breaks". Videos are a common teaching tool.

I think they are. Hangman is socially interactive and requires use of brain and good spelling. ASMR videos are about as passive as anyrthing can be.

Schools should be helping children learn to unwind through gentle exercise, social connection and playing games or craft activities.

That's different. Active learning.
They all sound really interesting and make me want to be in those classes.