Technology Tip Number 52
Broadcasting to the World

Some technology tips are informational pieces that help you use existing software.  Others serve to highlight a specific feature on the internet.   Still others are just designed to help the reader keep track of the rapid pace of technology.  Today’s tip falls into that later category.  It is a glimpse at the possibilities and the pitfalls of currently available technology.

Home video cameras have been around for decades and the internet has been around for almost two decades.  These two elements are coming together to distribute some of the most amazing, interesting, humorous, educational and sometimes disturbing images to anyone on the planet with a computer.  And as this online video explosion takes place there are companies like Google trying to organize it.  Here are some video search engines to check out: 

YouTube.com - The premier free video site which was bought by Google in 2006. Just one statistic to consider, while you take 5 minutes out of your day to read this technology tip YouTube estimates that 500 hours of video will be uploaded to their site. More amazing statistics here.

Hulu.com - Watch TV shows on the internet (commercials and all) for free at this website. This is just one of several websites out there that want to replace your over the air, cable or FiOS TV service with much less expensive streaming internet TV. Another popular internet streaming video service is NetFlix. These services are getting popular and there are several easy to use devices out there that connect to your TV so you don't have to watch TV exclusively on your computer screen. You can read more about some of these devices here.

Vineo.com - If you are interesting in some cool looking, cutting edge, artistic videography then you might want to check out this website. It was founded by filmmakers who wanted to share their creative work and they still want the website to inspire others. Check out the Staff Picks for some insight into what the next generation of filmmakers are up to.

TeacherTube.com - For the educators out there there are specific websites like this one that were founded to meet the needs of teachers to have a safe place to post and share videos. It is well worth a visit. In the U.K. Teacher TV offered thousands of hours of free tutorials. Though the original project has ended many of the videos can still be found online.

KhanAcademy.org - Probably the most famous recent development in educational videos was created by Salman Khan when he started posting tutorial videos on YouTube for his neice and soon found out that they were being watched by students all over the world who needed a little academic help. Eventually these videos developed into an entire non-profit operation that is being backed by none other than Bill Gates. You can browse the library of videos here and watch the video below to learn more about Salman Khan.

Many people are comparing this time period and the information revolution that we are living through to the time in Europe after the Gutenburg printing press made knowledge affordable and portable.

PRACTICE ACTIVITY:  Check out at least one of these video sites today.  Try searching for a couple of things.  The results might surprise you.

TO KEEP ON LEARNING:  If you'd like to learn more about online video try searching the internet for:

Online Video
MPEG files
YouTube

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