It’s the start of class, you pull up BLEND to watch the video assigned by your teacher but when you click on the video a computerized sad face pops up telling that “Oops! Something went wrong.” It turns out the video is restricted by AISD and now you can’t complete your assignment. Leaving you with more unwanted homework and a teacher completely fed up with technology.

Well it looks like,thankfully, this will become less of an inconvenience as AISD sent out an email to staff members on Wednesday, October 17th explaining how on October 19th the level of YouTube restriction, for high school students, would be changed to “Moderate”.

“Based on testing at LBJ/LASA, we believe this change will improve the ability of staff and students to utilize YouTube educational video content in BLEND.” writes Director of Network Services,John Kohlmorgan, in the email sent out to staff.

I think most students would agree that this decision has them relieved. I can’t tell the amount of video’s I have tried to access during class only to have it be restricted. It sets back everyone in the class. I know it’s going to take school boards awhile to figure out how to properly utilize technology in a school environment. It is a fairly new thing but not being to access all the Khan Academy videos, an online educational source that post a lot of academic videos to youtube, is simply stupid.

A lot of older administration are most likely hesitant to let the strings loose when it comes to the ever evolving technology. Older generations constantly blame cell phones and computers for everything wrong with today’s youth. When in reality a lot of young people can credit social media to helping them find ways to deal with their mental issues and find new friends. Social media gives people a voice to say things that they might not feel ready to say out loud just yet. This can bring people together and also tear them apart but I can’t deny the help it has brought me and some of my friends.

This new rule might make staff see that students can handle this technological freedom. Technology really is the future and the sooner we accept that the sooner we can move forward.  But, at least for right now we should be able to access Khan Academy and other educational sources. Hopefully the new decision will be less stressful for students and staff alike.