Why are schools awash in YouTube?

There’s nothing particularly new or sexy about YouTube, the video platform that’s been around forever. But it’s enormously popular, deeply addictive, very lightly regulated — and it’s everywhere in students’ lives. “American public schools are awash in YouTube,” according to Shalini Ramachandran’s Wall Street Journal investigation, How YouTube Took Over the American Classroom, which describes schools unintentionally creating “a gateway for students to get sucked into an infinite scroll of videos on school-issued devices.”In this new interview, Ramachandran describes how she first found out her son was exposed to YouTube at school, the value of social media lawsuits in providing background information that tech companies otherwise refuse to provide, and the role of concerned parents in helping her reporting the story. Anti-YouTube efforts have been taking place in a smattering of locations including Wichita, it starts out in Wichita, Kan., Bend, Ore., Los Angela, Cal., and Maplewood, NJ. Meantime, Google is putting out a its latest Chromebook, rebranded for the AI era. Watch the interview or read the transcript above (or on YouTube). Listen to the conversation on Spotify or Apple. You can follow Ramachandran @shalini.Previously from The GradeThe 30-year delusion about schools & tech (Todd Oppenheimer)Covering the edtech backlash (Sharon Lurye) Artificial intelligence & education newsHow to cover ed tech hysteria (Holly Korbey)How to cover online manipulation of students (without exacerbating the problem) Get full access to Alexander Russo's The Grade at alexanderrusso.substack.com/subscribe