While I don’t post a lot (time, time, time), I do read all of the blogs found on the right side of this page (plus about 30 more not published). I really try to at least track the “conversations” in education and educational technology. Every couple weeks I also wander around YouTube a bit, just to see what the “people” are buzzing about for the moment.
A couple weeks ago I ran across this video of a student jumping from a balcony at his school onto a large Christmas tree. I guess the kid was suspended or maybe even expelled for endangering his life and those around him (it was a crowded area with potential for injury). I started reading the comments (which turned into a conversation about why there was even a Christmas tree at a public school). Finally, I looked at the video comments (where people can respond to a video with videos of their own). This video is an interview with the “jumper” featured in the original. The interviewer asks if the infamous stunt was a political statement (it wasn’t) and then asks if he had a video sharing site in mind when he decided to make the plunge. Guess what, he did. He watches YouTube every night and wanted to be a participant.
What a perfect example of Web 2.0 through the eyes of a teenager. Whenever I talk about Web 2.0 in one of my presentations or workshops I tell them the students are already using many of these technologies and if could just harness those skills and use them for good instead of evil (not really evil in the biblical sense of course), then we could really make some progress preparing our students for the world that awaits them. As it is, most students have absolutely no guidance online. No one telling them how to act appropriate, no one telling them how to act professionally. What do have is stupid people tricks.
This video has been viewed over a million times and has over 6000 comments. I think he got what he wanted and learned a life lesson that makes his school punishment irrelevant. And over a million people think he’s the bomb.
[tags]youtube,web2.0[/tags]
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