The Great

Scavenger Hunt

Instructions:

Use YouTube to find videos that match the criteria below. When you find the video, list the:

 title of the video

 username of the person who posted the video
 number of views

Find a video:

1. of a children’s song you like

a. Title: __________________________________________________
b. Username ______________________________________________
c. Number of views ________________________________________
2. explaining how to find the circumference of a circle
a. Title: __________________________________________________
b. Username ______________________________________________
c. Number of views ________________________________________
3. showing how to tie a tie
a. Title: __________________________________________________
b. Username ______________________________________________
c. Number of views ________________________________________
4. of an historical event
a. Title: __________________________________________________
b. Username ______________________________________________
c. Number of views ________________________________________
5. solving the Rubik’s cube
a. Title: __________________________________________________
b. Username ______________________________________________
c. Number of views ________________________________________
6. of a tutorial on how to play guitar
a. Title: __________________________________________________
b. Username ______________________________________________
c. Number of views ________________________________________
7. describing Bernoulli's principle
a. Title: __________________________________________________
b. Username ______________________________________________
c. Number of views ________________________________________
8. of something that interests you
a. Title: __________________________________________________
b. Username ______________________________________________
c. Number of views ________________________________________
Scenario One:

Instructions:
Copyrighted Material 1
1. In your table group have one person read out the scenario and the questions.
2. THINK - After reading, take 30 seconds to a minute to jot down your thoughts on this
incident
3. PAIR – In pairs, discuss the questions highlighting the things that resonate most with you
4. SHARE – In your table group have each pair share one of their points, one-at-time, going
clockwise from the first pair.
5. Look – On the back of this sheet is some extra information. You will see how YouTube has
faced some criticism on this issue.

The Scenario:

After seeing the Ratatouille trailer on YouTube, your son Devon

pesters you relentlessly for a couple of days for you to purchase the
video. You said you would on the weekend but then you catch Devon
watching the full version of Ratatouille on his computer. He tells you
it was downloaded from the Internet and that he got it from a USB
drive borrowed from a friend in class. Knowing that this material is
copyrighted, what do you do…
I. (could you have done) before this incident?
II. When you catch Devon watching this ‘illegal’ download?
III. After you discuss this with Devon?
IV. What does this say about copyrighted material? How do you
envision the future of content creators getting paid for their
work?
V. How might you model the correct behavior, if there is a
definitive correct way to respond?
Description of issue: YouTube has been criticized for failing to ensure that uploaded videos comply
with copyright law. At the time of uploading a video, YouTube users are shown a screen with the
message "Do not upload any TV shows, music videos, music concerts or advertisements without
permission, unless they consist entirely of content that you created yourself". Despite this advice,
there are still many unauthorized clips of copyrighted material on YouTube. YouTube does not view
videos before they are posted online, and it is left to copyright holders to issue a takedown
notice pursuant to the terms of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

Views to consider:

Chris Anderson has written a book called “Free – How

today’s smartest businesses profit from giving something
away for nothing”. He gives 4 examples of how companies
can give something away (see graphic)

Andrew Keen has written a book called: “The Cult of the Amateur: How Today's Internet Is Killing Our
Culture”. He has criticized Web 2.0 …for destroying professionalism and for making it impossible to
find high quality material amidst all the user-generated
web content. Keen argues that "every free listing on
Craigslist means one less paid listing in a local
newspaper. Every visit to Wikipedia's free information
hive means one less customer for a professionally
researched and edited encyclopaedia such as
Britannica." Thus, he concludes that "what is free is
actually costing us a fortune." He also refers to changes
such as downsizing of newspaper business and the
closing of record labels as forms of economic pain
caused by internet-based social changes. Keen states
that most of modern social culture has existed with
specific gatekeepers analyzing and regulating
information as it reaches the masses. He views this
expert-based filtering process as beneficial, improving the quality of popular discourse, and argues
that it is being circumvented.
Scenario Two:

Instructions:
Privacy 2
1. In your table group have one person read out the scenario and the questions.
2. THINK - After reading, take 30 seconds to a minute to jot down your thoughts on this
incident
3. PAIR – In pairs, discuss the questions highlighting the things that resonate most with you
4. SHARE – In your table group have each pair share one of their points, one-at-time, going
clockwise from the first pair.
5. Look – On the back of this sheet is some extra information. You will see how YouTube has
faced some criticism on this issue.

The Scenario:

Stella has just come home from a friend’s house beaming with
delight as she announces that she just posted her first video on
YouTube. Stella and Tory did a lip synch version of the song “Where
is the Love?” by the Black Eyed Peas. You were unaware that, at 14,
she even has a YouTube account. Stella quickly shows you the video
and already it has been viewed by 31 people. She suspects that most
of those people would be her friends as she had posted it on
Facebook. You ask her if she has set up this video with any privacy
settings and she looks at you quizzically.

I. What might you have done before you found out about her
recent video post?
II. How will you discuss this issue of privacy now that the video is
public?
III. After you discuss this with Stella, what might you do regarding
future uses of video and on-line publishing?
Description of issue:

In July 2008, Viacom won a court ruling requiring YouTube to hand over data

detailing the viewing habits of every user who has watched videos on the site. The
move led to concerns that the viewing habits of individual users could be identified
through a combination of their IP addresses and log in names. The decision was
criticized by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which called the court ruling "a set-
back to privacy rights". U.S. District Court Judge Louis L. Stanton dismissed the
privacy concerns as "speculative", and ordered YouTube to hand over documents
totalling around 12 terabytes of data. Judge Stanton rejected Viacom's request that
YouTube hand over the source code of its search engine, saying that it was a trade
secret.
Scenario Three:

Instructions:
Controversial Material 3
1. In your table group have one person read out the scenario and the questions.
2. THINK - After reading, take 30 seconds to a minute to jot down your thoughts on this
incident
3. PAIR – In pairs, discuss the questions highlighting the things that resonate most with you
4. SHARE – In your table group have each pair share one of their points, one-at-time, going
clockwise from the first pair.
5. Look – On the back of this sheet is some extra information. You will see how YouTube has
faced some criticism on this issue.

The Scenario:

Lulu is researching the Holocaust and comes across a link to a

YouTube video that states that the Holocaust was a myth. She comes
up to you and asks if this is true given the video shows a person who
looks like a teacher, shows footage from World War II, and has
convincing statistics. How might you address her confusion and her
curiosity given they have been taught to show multiple points of
view on issues they are studying…

I. Before she does independent study on the Internet?

II. When Lulu asks about this conflicting point of view?

III. After you discuss this with Lulu, what might you do about this
video?
Description of issue:

YouTube has also faced criticism over the offensive content in some of its videos. The
uploading of videos containing defamation, pornography, and material encouraging criminal
conduct is prohibited by YouTube's terms of service. Controversial areas for videos have
included conspiracy theories, religion, and Holocaust denial.

YouTube relies on its users to flag the content of videos as inappropriate, and a YouTube
employee will view a flagged video to determine whether it violates the site's terms of
service. However, this procedure has been criticized by the United Kingdom government. In
July 2008, the Culture and Media Committee of the House of Commons of the United
Kingdom stated that it was "unimpressed" with YouTube's system for policing its videos, and
argued that "Proactive review of content should be standard practice for sites hosting user-
generated content."

YouTube responded by stating:

We have strict rules on what's allowed, and a system that enables anyone who sees
inappropriate content to report it to our 24/7 review team and have it dealt with
promptly. We educate our community on the rules and include a direct link from
every YouTube page to make this process as easy as possible for our users. Given the
volume of content uploaded on our site, we think this is by far the most effective
way to make sure that the tiny minority of videos that break the rules come down
quickly.
Scenario Four:

Instructions:
User Comments 4
1. In your table group have one person read out the scenario and the questions.
2. THINK - After reading, take 30 seconds to a minute to jot down your thoughts on this
incident
3. PAIR – In pairs, discuss the questions highlighting the things that resonate most with you
4. SHARE – In your table group have each pair share one of their points, one-at-time, going
clockwise from the first pair.
5. Look – On the back of this sheet is some extra information. You will see how YouTube has
faced some criticism on this issue.

The Scenario:

Jacobi (13), a natural artist, posts a video of how to draw cartoon

characters. He is thrilled that so many people have watched his
tutorials and uploads a new video weekly. Daily he checks the
comments and is encouraged by all the positive feedback he has
received. One day he gets a comment from PaintBrush48 telling him
‘his drawings sux and that he should go back to finger painting’. You
catch Jacobi, in tears, at his computer screen. What might you do…

I. (might you have done) before Jacobi read this comment?

II. When Jacobi reads this post?

III. After you discuss this with Jacobi, how might you react?

IV. Would your response be different if Jacobi was younger (9 or

10 years)? Older (17)?
Description of issue:

Most videos enable users to leave comments, and these have attracted attention for the
negative aspects of both their form and content. When Time in 2006 praised Web 2.0 for
enabling "community and collaboration on a scale never seen before", it added that
YouTube "harnesses the stupidity of crowds as well as its wisdom. Some of the comments
on YouTube make you weep for the future of humanity just for the spelling alone, never
mind the obscenity and the naked hatred". The Guardian in 2009 described users'
comments on YouTube as follows:

Juvenile, aggressive, misspelled, sexist, homophobic, swinging from raging at the

contents of a video to providing a pointlessly detailed description followed by a LOL,
YouTube comments are a hotbed of infantile debate and unashamed ignorance –
with the occasional burst of wit shining through.

In September 2008, The Daily Telegraph commented that YouTube was "notorious" for

"some of the most confrontational and ill-formed comment exchanges on the internet", and
reported on YouTube Comment Snob, "a new piece of software that blocks rude and
illiterate posts".
Suggested Solutions:

In all four scenarios, there were three general approaches that could be used. The following is a
summary of how one might approach various situations using technology, not just YouTube.

1. Be Proactive – What to do beforehand

When there is a new medium being commonly adopted, find out about its uses and the pros
and cons. Often our negative reaction to anything new is due to ignorance. By understanding
how the technology is used we are better able to adapt and work with it. With YouTube, one
quickly realizes this is a great resource for finding tutorials and how-to-videos. It also
provides a wonderful forum for sharing work to a larger audience. YouTube is also a source
for the mundane, trivial, and sometimes offensive. Exploring the settings and discussing the
possible shortcomings of video sharing sites should be something you do with your child
before an issue or event presents itself.

2. Be Supportive – What to do while it is happening

If your child is very interested in using a particular piece of technology that is not very
engaging for you, find out how they are using it and why they find it so appealing. Just
showing an interest will allow you the opportunity to see how the technology is utilized.
Even better, if you are able to support the proper use of the technology then you will be able
to direct and monitor its use more effectively. Video is becoming a ubiquitous way to share
and communicate. Publishing videos is very enticing as it enables one the potential to share
to a much larger audience. You may want to discuss how your child shares their videos and
to whom. Looking into YouTube’s privacy settings together may help clarify the options. Your
child watching too many videos? Set time limits and ask about the videos s/he found most
interesting. Another option is to have them watch with a purpose, rather than just channel
surfing not unlike the rules many have for TV viewing.

3. Communicate – How to react

Even by being proactive and supportive, you need to show consistency with your message.
The digital world is often considered entirely different from the real world, however, you
need to be clear that the expected behavior off-line should be the same as the expected
behavior on-line. Many try to abide by the Golden Rule – treat others as you would like to be
treated. If you speak to your child about this rule, you need to be clear about its application
in the digital realm. Just because someone can use an anonymous user name does not mean
they are now allowed to misbehave. Using inappropriate language, being rude, and even
bullying is not acceptable behavior no matter where it is found. If you regularly
communicate this message then its application with tools like YouTube should be no
different from its application on the playground, in school or in your home.