By Dana Dean

St. Louis (KSDK) -- Happening everyday in classrooms across America, students use a website created right here in St. Louis. Video sharing websites are typically not allowed to be viewed in schools, but this one is.

There are many websites allowing anyone to post videos online. YouTube might be the first that you think of but it's usually blocked on school computers. So, a St. Louis father-son team wanted to come up with a safe video sharing website that would be allowed past schools strict firewalls.

SchoolTube has grown dramatically since 2007, when it started to be allowed in some local schools. The website is used by 40,000 schools in the United States. They say they'll double the amount of SchoolTube users in the coming weeks.

NewsChannel 5 visited its headquarters in South County to learn more about the website that your children might be using on a daily basis. It's deemed safe because after a student uploads a video, it doesn't go on the site until a teacher from their school watches it to make sure it's school-appropriate.

Videos on the site are educational. Instead of making a presentation in history class, a student might make a video instead. And with more students allowed to bring their own device to class, SchoolTube is getting more popular in schools nationwide.

Andrew Arizpe, SchoolTube co-founder, said, "Every kid that has a cell phone, they can shoot video, so every student is a potential content creator. They need a safe place to share that video. Everyday, as technology enhances, SchoolTube becomes more and more relevant."

There are other video sharing sites that have educational content but the founders say SchoolTube was the first of its kind allowed in classrooms.

 

KSDK