Zoe Armstrong – MET

YouTube Takeover: The Displacement of the Beloved TV Cart

Introduction

There were two types of days that fired up an elementary school 90s kid. The first was a computer lab day. The sweet sound of 25 to 30 iMac 3Gs going off at the same time was a core memory for many. The second was walking into class to find your teacher had signed out the infamous TV cart. Whether it was a VHS or DVD player that the TV used, this machine was the holy grail of educational technology joy. Sadly (or not), these days are long gone and instead students are met with all the on-demand educational content they could ever imagine in the form of the infamous YouTube. When YouTube first came out in 2005, it had around two million video plays per day (Hosch, 2009). A month later? Over 25 million (Hosch, 2009). It is no wonder that the beloved TV cart was displaced by the endless learning vault that is YouTube. As Lake (2011) put it, “the days of wheeling in a VHS recorder and television to play a program to students have gone, replaced by a myriad of new audiovisual technologies,” (p. 72.1).

Context

As a current middle school teacher, I can’t imagine having to deal with the steps of getting a TV cart into my classroom. From signing it out, to ensuring I have access to the correct content to play, to running into problems while getting it set up in my room. I use YouTube every day in my practice and it has changed the way I approach questions in my classroom. When teaching Science specifically, students come to me all the time inquiring about topics we’ve discussed. Nine times out of 10, I do not have the answer. So, instead, I will either pull up a video for the class to check out, or I’ll encourage them to plug in their headphones and find the answer themselves so they can be the ones to share it with the class. This shift has allowed us to go far beyond what the curriculum is asking to be taught, and into the realm of student interest. This is the context I will be further studying the displacement of the TV cart with YouTube. 

Catalyst

There were a number of factors that played a key role in how this displacement came to be. One of the most crucial elements was that internet speeds became high enough that streaming videos in the classroom was accepted. When Netflix first started their streaming service in 2007, very few folks had access to enough internet speed to allow a seamless watching experience (Christiansen, 2024). For a change to really impact the K-12 publicly funded education system, it has to be accessible and logically sound. “Teachers want ready access to fresh relevant programming that speaks to the curriculum,” (Lake, 2011). When wireless internet became the go-to sometime in the mid 2000s, it finally made more sense for videos to be streamed in classrooms than to wheel in the old TV cart (Zentro, n.d.). No longer did the entire period need to revolve around the viewing of a video. Now, videos could be integrated for only a portion of the period. Videos could be used to explain theories to students in different ways than the teacher could. Videos could be easily utilized to answer questions and seek more in-depth knowledge on topics students wanted to learn more about. 

This pedagogical shift in allowing students to be the drivers of their learning was also an influence on the displacement of TV carts. Though the concept of student-centered learning has been around for over 100 years, it wasn’t until our present century that the shift in classroom instruction started to change (Kaput, 2018).  Having YouTube in the K-12 classroom meant that students now had access to millions of videos that could be found to help students learn more about a specific content area of their choosing. Duffy (2007) discusses how “a great deal of the medium’s power lies not in itself but in how it is used,” (p. 124). At the time that YouTube became more prominent in the classroom, educators were looking for a tool that would increase student engagement by allowing students to explore more of their own interests. The “power” of YouTube allowed the classroom focus to shift from the teacher to the student.

Educational Usability

As a classroom tool, YouTube is wildly more concerned with educational usability than the TV cart ever was. Issa and Isaias (2015) quote Benyon et al. (2005) by sharing that usability “refers to the quality of the interaction in terms of parameters such as time taken to perform tasks, number of errors made, and the time to become a competent user,” (p. 52). When being mindful of a tool’s educational usability specifically, thought must also be given to its accessibility, its ability to engage, and its reliability. As educators became more concerned with centering their students in their learning, it became evident that the TV cart did not fare well in its usability. 

Having TV carts replaced by YouTube, it is evident that the latter was  “designed for the needs and capabilities of the people for whom they are intended,” (Issa & Isaias, 2015, p. 20). Because of the extremely wide range of content on YouTube, the ability to scaffold and diversify the content provided for students was limitless. Mishra (2025) shares how “YouTube’s accessibility settings promote inclusivity and ensure that everyone, regardless of their abilities, can enjoy and engage with the vast array of videos.” This is a big feature for educational usability. The demand to meet the learning needs of each individual student is a tough endeavor for educators. TV carts were a one-size-fits-all type of situation. There were no features like changing the playback speed of the video, having closed captioning turned on, or the ability to watch on different devices. The displacement of these TV carts was warranted given that the dynamics of the classroom were shifting to become more student-driven. 

For something to be considered educationally usable in the K-12 system, it needs to engage a multitude of types of learners. Engagement was another factor of educational usability that further displaced TV carts in the classroom.  No longer were students satisfied with simply watching a video. They needed more interactivity. At the time of this displacement, our world was becoming more and more digital, which allowed humans to become more and more connected. YouTube played a role in this connection by allowing individuals to “communicate directly with one another regardless of distance or time,” (Ghose and Dou, 1998, p. 30). Features such as commenting and going live meant that educationally, students could connect with the content by more than simply watching a video. The task-matching ability was also something that kept students engaged. Known as the “extent to which the information and functions that a system provides matches the needs of the user,” task matching on YouTube is often spot on, exposing much more varied content for learners than a TV cart ever could (Booth, 1989, p. 107). 

A classroom teacher needs to know that whatever technology they’ve incorporated into their lesson is reliable. It is very easy to lose the attention of a classroom when something is not working quite right. The factor of reliability in educational usability is the final point of how and why TV carts were displaced with YouTube. The “Ease of Use” idea from Booth (1989) is the idea that once a user has learned how to operate a system, it should require little effort. Though the TV cart was easy to use, it was displaced because of how much more expansive YouTube was, though it required the same if not even less effort. YouTube also has high memorability, another of the usability criteria laid out by Issa & Isaias (2015). Still, educators consider YouTube to be reliable because of how simple it is to use even if they’ve not used it for a period of time. 

Now, with the development of so much educational content making its way to YouTube, it really is limitless what can be found. Teachers are able to bring to life the individual interests of their students on curricular topics, something that a TV cart was not able to do. 

Analysis

Overall, I see this displacement as something very positive. As a classroom educator, I simply cannot have all the answers to the questions my students bring me. The needs in a 21st century classroom are diverse. Having YouTube as an option for students to answer their own questions provides already scaffolded content that can meet each of them where they are at. Though the TV cart brought a lot of joy, its demise was inevitable. 

Though there are so many reasons why YouTube for education is advantageous, there is a lot that still needs to be considered. Because of the multitude of videos available on this platform, students need to be educated on how to find videos that truly are educational. When referencing educational technology Duffy (2007) asks, “how do we teach students to think critically about their potential uses?” (p. 126). This is one of the primary concerns with the displacement of something like the TV cart. The teacher is no longer in control of the content that their students could be consuming. Ensuring they know how to think critically about it will ensure that the consumption of these videos remains productive and effective in all the ways we want it to. There are advertisements and and side panel videos that could become a distraction (Srivastava, 2023). Students will need to learn the skills of staying on task even when their attention might be diverted elsewhere. 

Another lens to consider is that YouTube is not going to remedy all the challenges that educators face in the classroom today. Though it is a great tool, it cannot be a band-aid fix for meeting the needs of every student, though, nor was the TV cart. It is a resource that still needs to be thoughtfully examined and incorporated in the classroom. “Educators need to go beyond treating video sharing sites as only virtual libraries and instead emphasize the features more aligned with Web 2.0,” (Duffy, 2007, p. 126). In an age where students are constantly blindly consuming content, it is important that educators take the time to robustly coach students how to utilize the parts of YouTube, beyond just the watching of videos, that make it such an asset to their learning. YouTube has slowly become one of the most popular applications for young people (Kulturelle Bildung, 2022). Schlieb (2019) discusses how often students utilize it to review concepts or lessons that they didn’t understand in class. These types of habits need to be outwardly taught so as to remind students that YouTube can be a resource they utilize outside the classroom. 

Conclusion

The displacement of the TV cart was inevitable, just as someday, YouTube will be displaced with something new. As educators continue to try to meet all the demands of their classrooms with student-centered learning, YouTube continues to be a strong resource to consider. “This platform provides a forum to connect, inform and inspire individuals across the world,” (Wilson, 2015, p. 6). With many boxes checked in educational usability, it is logical why YouTube has become such an integral part of many educators’ teaching practices. Though it is not a flawless tool, it is one that can most definitely be implemented to make a difference for many student needs in ways that the TV cart was never able to. With the rise of AI-driven technologies, it will be interesting to see if YouTube will remain as influential as it is today. There is no doubt that if it does not want to be displaced in the classroom, it will need to continue to evolve and adapt alongside the ever-changing landscape of education. 

References

Booth, P. (1989). An introduction to human-computer interaction. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers, Hove/East Sussex.

Christiansen, P. (2024, July 15). A history of the internet. HighSpeedInternet.com. Retrieved from: https://www.highspeedinternet.com/resources/history-of-the-internet

Duffy, P. (2007). Engaging the YouTube Google-eyed generation: Strategies for using web 2.0 in teaching and learning. European Conference on ELearning, ECEL (p. 173-182). Retrieved from: https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1098687.pdf

Ghose, S. & Dou, W. (1998). Interactive functions and their impacts on the appeal of internet presence sites. J Advert Res 38(2). 

Hosch, W. (2009, August 6). YouTube. Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved from: https://www.britannica.com/topic/YouTube

Issa, T. & Isaias, P. (2015) Usability and human computer interaction (HCI). Sustainable Design (p. 19-35). Springer.

Kaput, K. (2018). Evidence for student-centered learning. Education Evolving. Retrieved from: https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED581111.pdf

Kulturelle Bildung, R. (2019). Youth/YouTube/cultural education. Core Evidence Base. Retrieved from: https://base.core-evidence.eu/publications/226

Lake, S. (2011). From VHS to the cloud: Audiovisual content in education comes a long way. Telecommunications Journal of Australia, 62(5), 72.1-72.10. https://doi.org/10.7790/tja.v62i5.369

Mishra, A. (2025, January 13). The importance of accessibility on YouTube. Techtupedia. Retrieved from: https://techtupedia.com/youtube-accessibility-settings/

Schlieb, G. (2019, June 4). YouTube: A digital revolution in the classroom. DW. Retrieved from: https://www.dw.com/en/youtube-in-schools-a-digital-revolution-in-the-classroom/a-49049423

Srivastava, S. (2023, April 1). The benefits and disadvantages of using YouTube as an educational tool. Justemagine. Retrieved from: https://www.justemagine.org/post/what-are-the-benefits-and-disadvantages-of-using-youtube-as-an-educational-tool

Wilson, A. (2015). YouTube in the classroom. University of Toronto. Retrieved from: https://utoronto.scholaris.ca/server/api/core/bitstreams/04254f71-41e5-4c9d-b574-8d35772c81e3/content

Zentro. (n.d.) The evolution of high-speed internet: From dial-up to fiber optics. Zentro. Retrieved from: https://zentrointernet.com/evolution-high-speed-internet/