UStream inappropriate? Your Feedback Requested.

In the Inauguration lesson plan ideas I shared I recommend the below UStream activity and received an email from a school principal saying, "Please take Ustream.TV off of the list. There is inappropriate material and language on the page." What do you think about this? Do you agree or disagree and why?

Activity:
Have an inaugural speech contest and select contest winners from your school to broadcast their own inaugural speeches live on UStream using a password protected channel accessed by those in your school community. Ustream.TV is the live interactive video broadcast platform that enables anyone with a camera and an Internet connection to quickly and easily broadcast to a global audience for free. In less than two minutes, anyone can become a broadcaster by creating their own channel on Ustream or by broadcasting through their own site, empowering them to engage with their audience. You can click on broadcast now to start a broadcast or learn more about broadcasting.

Depending on how a school would like to implement this idea, the broadcast can be viewed in classrooms with internet access and projector. Viewers can comment and chat on the broadcast with facilitation from their teacher. Parents and other community members can be invited to participate.

Tags: UStream, inappropriate, inauguration, materials

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Permalink Reply by Maria Fleyshgakker on January 16, 2009 at 7:05am

I believe in Education, not prohibitions. Prohibitions never worked and never will. History is a study of how humankind put prohibitions as a method to deal with problems and then slowly we've been removing them one by one through disobedience and protests.
Oh, ya, and sometimes through positive experiences like this coming inauguration :)

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Permalink Reply by Daniel Craig on January 16, 2009 at 9:01am

My personal opinion is that it's fine. However, I see a couple issues that the principle could be concerned about.

1) Google Ads - Google ads do often contain lightly inappropriate ads. Of course they are on just about every page one visits these days. If he objects to them, he should object to using Google as well.

2) Other shows available - There are lots of shows on uStream that are inappropriate. Even some featured on the front page contain vulgar language and questionable content. Of course, if you are linking directly to a broadcast, nobody will ever see those.

All-in-all, I see the rationale as quite weak. What they see on uStream is no worse than what is seen on network tv.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Hargadon on January 16, 2009 at 3:10pm

You could do the same thing with Elluminate's free VRoom program and that might be an appropriate alternative. http://www.elluminate.com/vroom/register.go