Navigating four billion videos: teacher search strategies and the YouTube algorithm

ABSTRACT

YouTube hosts a vast catalogue of instructional videos that are increasingly used in formal education contexts. Teachers regularly use YouTube to select videos for students, but the processes they use to select these resources have been understudied. This study explores how teachers search for videos, and the role of YouTube’s complex algorithm in that process. It reports on a case study of nine Australian teachers working across two schools, at various stages of their careers, from a variety of subject domains. When searching for content on YouTube, most teachers use what can be described as a search and scroll method, meaning they enter a relatively simple search term then scroll through the resulting list. This strategy relies on the teacher to select appropriate videos displayed by YouTube’s algorithm, representing an entanglement of human and software labour. The considerations of teachers around specificity to learning goals, length, engagement, and affect when choosing videos are discussed as important factors in final selection. While some teachers navigated through the search returns using well-developed content knowledge, others used rushed, or uncritical methods, increasing the influence of the algorithm in their practice.

KEYWORDS:

• YouTube
• video
• teacher knowledge
• new media
• curriculum

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes on contributors

Matthew Fyfield is a PhD candidate in the Digital Education Research group at Monash University. His research centres on the nexus between teacher pedagogical reasoning and the influence of learning technologies. He examines the role of platformisation on teacher labour, and the changing nature of teacher knowledge in education with technology.

Professor Michael Henderson is the academic director of Monash Education Innovation at Monash University. His interest lies in the use of ICTs, particularly internet-based technologies, in teaching and learning in schools and higher education contexts. His work involves the role of identity in mediating teacher pedagogy and teaching and learning with social networks: affordances, risks, and expert literacy practices.

Michael Phillips is a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Education, Monash University. His work focuses on the knowledge expert teachers develop when integrating educational technologies into their practice. Additionally, Michael researches the ways in which expert teachers make active decisions about their classroom technology integration.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.