In his article "Video Killed the Faculty Star" Jack Stripling discusses how YouTube has changed the nature of education and how teachers have to be very weary of what they say. I find this article to be very scary since I plan on being a teacher eventually.
In the article Stripling discussed a teacher who was caught on film railing against his students who don't believe in global warming. What the video doesn't show is that this was only half of the lecture and in the other half shows the professor arguing against the students who do believe in global warming. The camera operator edited the video to show the teacher in a negative light. This lecture is actually an example of how good the teacher is. He's able to take both sides of the argument and help the students develop their opinions and counterpoints to what he says. The video however shows him as a tree hugging nut who can't accept other points of view.
These videos are worrying for a couple reasons. Teachers don't want to be shown in a bad light because their jobs depend on student, parent and administrative trust that they are actually educating the students. It's hard to have that trust when you see a video that supposedly shows a teacher abusing their power to further their own points of view. The other reason this is so troubling is that a classroom is supposed to be a safe environment. If a student or teacher can't feel free to express their opinions because of fear that those opinions will get out into the larger world then dialogue can come to a standstill. Students won't want to share their opinions in class, the teacher will have a harder time getting them to answer questions and the whole structure can break down.
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