Yesterday, YouTube announced that they are now selling video placements in search results. They call it “sponsoring” a video. What it means is that if you want to promote your video to as many people as possible, for a nominal fee you can have your video at the top of YouTube search results.

Applications for Education
I didn’t think anything of this announcement from YouTube until I read an article written by Erick Schonfeld on TechCrunch about the topic. Schonfeld pointed out that it is only a matter of time before there are videos of “questionable morals” at the top of generic search terms. For an example of this go over to YouTube and search with the term “sports” or “science.”

Most of the teachers I talk with tell me that YouTube is blocked by their school district’s filters. The school I work in does not block YouTube. For those of us who do have access to YouTube now I fear that the addition of more “questionable content” on YouTube will lead to YouTube being bocked by our filters. For those of us who have advocated for access to YouTube in our schools, I fear that this announcement from Google weakens our arguments. So YouTube, it was nice knowing you, I hope we meet again.

Fortunately, there are many other good video sharing sites that teachers can access. Some of these services are Teachers.tv, Teacher Tube, Viddler, and Blip.tv.

If there is a video on YouTube that you just have to use, you can always try one of the methods I’ve suggested here.