Tag: video

Quality Online Video Sites for Education

In light of YouTube’s recently launch of “YouTube Edu“, I figured I’d compile a list of the best sites for educational use. (I’ve seriously thought about aggregating our own on wpmu with a premium WordPress template like On Demand, which looks like a Hulu or WordPress tv. and can aggregate content from many user-based video services). At any rate, I’d love to grow the list with some feedback as to what else is out there. So far, the list is short, though the content in all is vast:

YouTube Edu
YouTube’s videos and channels from college and university partners

Fora.tv
Videos on the people, issues, and ideas changing the planet

Big Think
Interviews and insight from the world’s leading experts in business, entertainment, education, religion, and politics

Academic Earth
Thousands of lectures from the world’s top scholars

iTunes U
Free lectures, language lessons , audiobooks, and more

Top Ten University YouTube Sites

While assessing the recent state of the trend in the educational industry toward making video content more available to a wider audience, I stumbled on some pretty interesting sites on YouTube. These institutions have partnered with YouTube and have their own custom channels. Here are my top 10 in terms of content and design, in no particular order:

Carnegie Mellon University

http://www.youtube.com/user/carnegiemellonu

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Massachusetts Institute of Technology

http://www.youtube.com/user/MIT

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Stanford University

http://www.youtube.com/user/stanforduniversity

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University of Southern California

http://www.youtube.com/user/USCCollege

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University of California at Berkeley

http://www.youtube.com/user/ucberkeley

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Dartmouth

http://www.youtube.com/user/Dartmouth

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Northwestern University

http://www.youtube.com/user/NorthwesternU

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Oxford University Said Business School

http://www.youtube.com/user/OxfordSBS

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Harvard Kennedy School of Government

http://www.youtube.com/user/HarvardKennedySchool

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Northeastern University

http://www.youtube.com/user/Northeastern

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The Video Revolution, Broadband, the Mobile Web, etc.

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What is the state of the video revolution, video internet delivery, broadband, “smartphones”, education, entertainment and the mobile web?

Here’s a round-up of some recent links on these subjects:

  • In a video-taped panel discussion, Walt Mossberg, tech writer and reviewer for the Wall Street Journal discusses the video revolution and the problem the United States has with Broadband on beet.tv.
  • iTunes has become the number one music retailer in the United States, surpassing brick-and-mortars like Best Buy and Target in 2007, and finally Wal-Mart in 2008. Through iTunes you can also watch and rent movies on your computer, mobile device, or directly to your TV with no computer required.
  • More user-friendly set-top boxes for viewing web content on televisions will be coming to market to join the likes of Apple TV and Tivo (with Amazon’s unbox content), with Blockbuster, among others, now working on devices.
  • As for the mobile web in education, mLearning, (the shortened term for Mobile Learning) research, studies, whitepapers, and initiatives have been growing, with the work of many schools and universities informing the developments and discoveries. For one recent example among many, see Abilene Christian University’s initiative and list of resources on the subject.

Hulu: Watch NBC online, Embed TV Shows on Your Blog or Myspace Page

Hulu came out of its private beta a week or two ago, and now anyone can access the site. As a private beta tester, I had been catching up with episodes of The Office ever since the series left iTunes, which I am still not happy about. I’d much rather watch these episodes on my iPhone during my commute, and the unfortunate part about Hulu is that it doesn’t offer TV shows for download. Instead, you are stuck watching them in streaming video on your computer complete with, yes, advertiser commercials.

However, the site’s layout and design is pretty user friendly, and the most ingenious aspect of Hulu (and the most fun) is that you can grab the embed code for an entire TV show, or even just a clip that you create, and embed it anywhere you want. Giving fans, viewers, and users the ability to do this without having to rip the content themselves is certainly a plus for most of us, and for NBC, who doesn’t want to see unauthorized, copyright protected clips on YouTube and elsewhere on the web. It appears that Hulu has decided not to fight the tide on this one. The commercials come with the clips when you embed them (a boon to Hulu and its advertisers), and when viewing one of their videos on a blog or elsewhere, double-clicking it brings you back to Hulu’s site (as in YouTube’s model). I’d highly prefer viewing without the commercials of this were ever a possibility, and I’d still like to see the ability to download entire episodes (without DRM) and remix the clips. Still, the functionality Hulu is providing its users is a step in the right direction.

Sadly I can’t get it to work here, but I’ve tried it elsewhere and it’s working in most places. Pretty cool!

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Two Big Media Holdouts Open Up

As a big fan of Web 2.0 and free and open access, I was excited today to see that two old-media holdouts, Sony BMG and the Wall Street Journal, took progressive steps toward rethinking their business models and opening up access to their content.

The WSJ announced today that it will open up free access to all of its editorials, op-eds, video interviews and commentary which were previously only viewable to paid subscription customers. No doubt this decision came, in part, from increased pressure and competition from the blogosphere. Although the Journal is not completely free yet, I am looking forward to accessing these free features and think the company will eventually discover what the NY Times did: although free, open access is clearly good for consumers, it is also good for business.

On the music front, Sony BMG, (Sony’s music division), announced today that it would finally rollout their music catalog without DRM, Digital Rights Management. Continue reading “Two Big Media Holdouts Open Up”