I had to smile when accompanying a young man from Japan to
his sixth form interview at a #boarding school this week. He explained that while
at school in Japan and learning English through classes he attended in the
evenings, he had worked hard to improve his English pronunciation by watching
YouTube clips!
It led to an interesting discussion as to how effective YouTube
might be in improving English? A subsequent brief search into what resources might
be out there to support learning makes me think this learning strategy might
not be as potty as it first sounds.
Browsing YouTube Education results in a seemingly exhaustive
selection of videos on a plethora of topics from every field you can imagine.
From medicine to climate change to teaching yourself to play guitar, it seems
it’s possible via YouTube to learn how to do pretty much anything, as well as
to find an answer or an opinion on pretty much any question it’s possible to
ask. As a research tool, it seems YouTube ticks many boxes.
However, just as with all internet-based research to support
learning, I’d say it’s important to check to make sure that the material viewed
is from a credible source that can be trusted. With no quality control or
vetting process, it’s important to question the origins of all opinions and
information and to use a number of sources to get a balanced view.
One YouTube channel I particularly liked was the recently
launched Hay Levels. These are 3 minute talks or discussions with leading academics
across the whole field of education from English, Economics, and Maths to Religion and History. With new material added
every week, the topics are specially targeted at A level students and aim to
inspire enquiring minds or answer key questions from the syllabus through
access to the thinking of leading academics of today. Take a look via the
following link https://www.youtube.com/user/HayLevels
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