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SYDNEY, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) -- When it comes to supplementary teaching aids, a new study has found that YouTube is by far the single most used source by Australian teachers.
The findings from the "Australian Screen Content in Education: Digital Promise and Pitfalls" project and report released on Wednesday said this was because content derived from YouTube was free, had an ease of access, was easily searchable, and enormous in depth.
The study's lead researcher University of Queensland Professor Stuart Cunningham said 150 teachers interviews, 25 classroom observations and 175 students focus groups ranging from 5-year-olds right up to 18-year-olds from all Australian states except South Australia were interviewed before the findings were derived upon.
"Almost 92 percent of the teachers we interviewed had resorted to YouTube as a supplementary education tool," Cunningham told Xinhua.
Cunningham said besides YouTube, teachers also resorted to public service media such as Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) and the Australian Children's Television Foundation content for usage in classrooms.
"We have had 60 percent of the teachers using ABC and 30 percent SBS, which is far lesser than the number of teachers using YouTube," he said.
"YouTube is the access portal of choice and every supplier of content to schools should have a YouTube strategy," he added.
The report also revealed that it was high time Australian schools took a more flexible approach on the use of YouTube and other social media platforms and embrace the new trends in edutainment' by allowing teachers to maximize the value ofteachable'andin the moment'content.
The research project which was funded by the Australian Research Council Linkage Program also included insights from producers and distributors, as well as interviews with hundreds of teachers, students and industry representatives, and observations of classroom practice.
It also contains further recommendations to develop opportunities for Australian producers and distributors as well.
"We found there is a definite hunger for Australian content, particularly featuring Indigenous themes," Cunningham said.
"So there is an opportunity there for local suppliers but only a few have mastered the complex nature of the education market and developed sufficiently robust, user-friendly and relevant platforms which can deliver at scale," he said.
