A collection of web sites with thousands of free video lectures and related course materials, including many offerings from major universities. 

There are thousands of video-taped course lectures, and many other more complete course offerings, available for free on the Internet today. The quality and quantity of these offerings is growing and improving daily.

How educators and students choose to leverage these types of resources is also evolving. As stated on the Opencast Project web site, “openly accessible course videos help draw attention to a professor’s work, they can keep alumni engaged and informed, and students often supplement their studies with the material.” It should be interesting to see how members of the academic community choose to use this type of resource, in and out of the classroom, in coming years.

General Video Lecture Sites
All of the sites have directories and search tools to facilitate finding content you may desire. Of course, some overlap in these offerings (that is, the same videos on multiple sites) is inevitable.

Academic Earth: This site provides hundreds of free video lectures from professors at leading universities such as Yale, Stanford, Harvard, and more.

The OpenCourseWare Consortium: According to Makeuseof.com, ”Simply put, the OpenCourseWare Consortium is the best place to begin looking for free online video lectures”. 

Free Video Lectures: This site’s vision: ”Every body from every nook and corner of the world should be able to access the best Knowledge Resources available.”

Videolectures.net: Almost 7000 video lectures, with a high emphasis on Computer Science. This site makes good use of Web 2.0 tools, having a Facebook Group and Twitter account. This site also introduced me to the interesting “Opencast Project” open courseware initiative.

LearnersTV: ”Video Lectures, Video Courses, Science Animations, Lecture Notes, Online Test, Lecture Presentations. Absolutely Free”

Lecture Fox: This site is a central link respository with a very simple interface (I like the simple way in which they indicate whether each lecture has video, audio, and/or notes available).  

YouTube EDU: While not all of these videos are lectures, many of them are. A search for “lecture” in this special YouTube section yields “about 60,000″ results!

Video Lectures Sites from Specific Universities
These universities make lecture content available to the general public (and yes, it is quite likely that many of these videos are featured in some of the more general sites above).

MIT OpenCourseWare: Over 1900 Courses. “Free lecture notes, exams, and videos from MIT. No registration required.”

Open Yale Courses: Not a lot of courses here, but the materials provided are very thorough, with complete sets of lectures and  supporting materials.  

Princeton’s UChannel: A collection of public affairs lectures, panels, and events from academic institutions all over the world.

Stanford University’s YouTube Channel: features over 800 videos, including many lectures (unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be any obvious way to search this content in an organized manner). The example video lecture below, “Einstein’s Theory of Relativity”, by Professor Leonard Susskind in Sept. 2008, is from this channel. 

UCLA “BruinCast”: Most of these are ‘restricted’ (to students in those courses, I assume), but there are still many that are not. Note that to view lectures with video available, you’ll need to download Real Player.

[Ed Note: How did I manage to overlook Apple's "iTunes U"? Oh well, it's here now! Apple's vast resource contains over 250,000 lectures, videos, films, and more. Definitely worth being aware of. - KW 2/20/10]

In closing, I’ll mention that there are  many other educational video sources on the Internet (for some examples,see the ‘Related Posts’ listing below), but I have chosen to concentrate on college level materials in this post (although a few of these sources do contain K-12 level offerings).

As always, if any readers know of any other similar sources they wish to share, please comment and let us know about them. Thanks!

Related Posts (if the above topic is of interest, you might want to check these out):
New Web Site WatchKnow.org (1000’s of Free Educational Videos)
TeacherTube, and other YouTube alternatives for instructional use

Site offers tens of thousands of ”videos for kids to learn from.”

WatchKnow is a recently launched web site that hosts educational videos. These videos have been ”deeply and usefully categorized according to subject, education level, and placed in the order in which topics are typically taught” (quote from WatchKnow’s About page).

All the videos on WatchKnow are reviewed by a “Media Review Panel”, and the site is overseen by an Advisory Council consisting predominantly of educators. This non-profit site offers a unique Age Filter, which can be coupled with a Search box and Topical Categories and Subcategories to help users search the growing database of videos for useful content.  

WatchKnow looks like a potentially powerful addition to the growing list of educational video web sites on the Internet (such as TeacherTube, SchoolTube, etc.), and they have attempted to provide a somewhat unique twist with their age level and categorization scheme. 

Stop by and give WatchKnow a try today!

There are so many different tools and technologies available on the internet today, and so many associated terms and concepts. As I think about topics to focus on here in the coming months, I want to make sure we’re touching on the most important ones. What are the most important internet technologies for educators to be aware of, and informed about?

I’m sure many people would probably come up with a slightly different list, but based on my observations and experiences, and feedback from faculty at my institution, I have selected the following technologies. I do not mean to imply that every educator should be expected to use all of these technologies in the classroom, but rather that every educator should understand what these are, the potential they have in the classroom, and how their students may already be using them. 

1. Video and Podcasting - One of the most widely adopted internet technologies for use in instructional settings is video streaming. Between YouTube, TeacherTube, EduTube, and many other video hosting sites, there are an abundance of lectures, how-to videos, and supporting materials available in the form of web based video. Podcasting has also been used to provide similar offerings of audio materials through popular sites like iTunes. [Click here to learn more about video hosting for education, or here to learn more about podcasting for education.]

2. Presentation Tools - This category is vast and rich. There are hundreds (perhaps thousands) of tools on the Internet that can be used to create and share presentations, from simple Powerpoint slide players like Slideshare to multimedia timeline tools like Vuvox and OneTrueMedia. These tools can be used to support classroom teaching or distance learning, or for student reports and presentations.

3. Collaboration & Brainstorming Tools - This is another wide ranging category, including thought-organizing tools like mindmap and bubbl.us, and collaborative tools like web based interactive whiteboards and Google Documents. Additionally, some of the other tools in this list, such as wikis and virtual worlds, also serve as collaboration tools.

4. Blogs & Blogging – Bloggers and many other regular Internet users are well aware of blogs and blogging, but there are many other professionals who really are not frequenters of the “blogosphere”. In addition to a basic familiarity with this technology, educators should be aware of sites like Blogger and WordPress, where users can quickly and easily create their own blogs for free.

5. Wikis – The use of Wikis in educational settings is growing every day. Sites like Wetpaint and others allow users to create free wiki web sites and are a great way to get started with using wikis for educational applications. [Click here to learn more about the use of Wikis in education].

6. Social Networking – All educators should have a basic understanding of sites like Facebook and MySpace and how they are used. This doesn’t mean they need accounts on these sites (and many educators would recommend against using these sites to communicate with their students), but they should understand what they are and how they are being used. Educators should also be aware of the professional social networking site LinkedIn.

7. IM – A large percentage of students use IM regularly, via Aim, IM aggregator site Meebo (Meebo allows users to combine messaging from Aim, Yahoo, MySpace, Facebook, and other sites), or other tools. It behooves educators to be aware of this, and I have even come across various articles about using IM within the classroom setting (such as this one from Educause).

8. Twitter – This listing is really focused on technologies, not specific applications, but this application is currently just too popular to ignore. You should at least understand what it is and the fundamentals of how it is used. [Click here for some insight into how Twitter can be used in education.]

9. Virtual Worlds – This technology has received a lot of press, with SecondLife being the clear leader thus far in this application area. In my experience, the use of SecondLife has been somewhat constrained by high bandwidth and processing power requirements, but this also means that there is still considerable room for increased adoption of the application as systems continue to become more powerful and higher speed bandwidth more prevalant. Active Worlds is one of a number of competitive technologies, and provides a “universe” dedicated to education that has been popular with educators.

10. RSS Feeds - RSS allows users to create their own “push” data streams (that is, define data flows you want coming to you automatically, rather than having to go and “pull” the information with a Google search or other browsing effort). RSS feeds enable you to take advantage of streams of published content that will be sitting in your In Box, or in an RSS reader, when you want them. There are RSS feeds available for many topics and many web sites.

While many readers may have their own interpretation of which technologies are essential for educators to be aware of, I think this is a great list to get started with. Of course, this list will require updating over time, as technologies change, and as educator’s uses of these technologies evolve. As always, reader input is welcomed. What do you think? Is this a good top 10? Would you like to see some other technologies listed here? Feel free to comment and offer your insights, please. Thanks!

Related Posts (if the above topic is of interest, you might want to check these out):
5 Reasons Why Educators Need To Embrace Internet Technologies
Education Technology – Don’t Lean On It, Leverage It!
8 Engaging Videos Advocating Better Integration of Technology in Education

This week we continue our overview of video hosting web sites focused exclusively on education. Last week I was impressed with TeacherTube, and this week we look at lesser known competitors EduTube.org and MyLearningTube.com, and wrap up with mention of a few other education oriented online video resources I came across.

EduTube.org
Like TeacherTube, EduTube.org also monitors postings and limits them to appropriate content – no ads, mature content, low quality videos, nothing that does not have educational value, and nothing promoting hatred, violence, or intolerance. Unlike YouTube, the interface is not designed to emulate YouTube, but it seems rather straightforward. They have a nice search screen available (pictured below), allowing one to use a variety of parameters to locate videos that are right for applicable uses.

Like many of the educators I know, you have probably heard of TeacherTube, but like me, you may be wondering how TeacherTube differs from YouTube, and how it compares to alternative video hosting sites. This week and next, I’ll checkout TeacherTube and some alternatives, and see if I can’t provide some brief, useful answers to those questions.

TeacherTube positions itself as a safe alternative to YouTube, focused solely on educational applications. By “safe”, TeacherTube means that students are not going to be exposed to the wide variety of postings that can appear on YouTube or other video hosting sites (according to their Help section, they accomplish this via a “preliminary review on uploaded videos through both a manual and automated process”). Additionally, uploaded videos “must address specific learning objectives and/or provide professional development for educators. Videos may not post advertisements or solicitations of business. [YouTube doesn't] allow any nudity or profanity and your video must be appropriate for all audiences.” There is also some focus on videos for professional development for the teaching community, or ‘teachers teaching teachers’. The aspect of safe video browsing for students, and the tight focus on educational content, is an important differentiator between YouTube (and other video hosting sites) and TeacherTube. For me, this is more than enough to warrant the conscious choosing of TeacherTube over YouTube for the posting of educational video content to be shared with students, as long as TeacherTube is easy to use and reliable.

Launched in March of 2007, the history of the site isn’t too long term, but some quick Internet searching yields plenty of positive recommendations, and few negative perspectives on the product (the only logical complaint I saw was mention of concerns about the content in various ads on the site).

As for utility, the functionality available on TeacherTube appears to echo that of YouTube pretty closely, making it easy to use. Note that as with YouTube, you can choose to allow anyone to view your posted video’s on Teacher Tube, or make them private and choose to only be to able view (and show) them yourself. Videos uploaded to TeacherTube can be categorized into 1 or more (up to 3) categories, from a predefined list, and this categorization mechanism is one way to search out videos. Those interested in posting a video on TeacherTube, or getting a look at the application, might want to check out this instructional video on how to post a video to TeacherTube:
TeacherTube: How to upload a video

As for other alternatives, there are a lot of Internet sites to post videos to, such as Metacafe, Google Video, Yahoo Video, and many more, but if you are focused solely on video for educational/instructional purposes, TeacherTube is a great way to go. However, there are a number of alternative sites focused specifically on hosting educational content, such as edutube.org, and mylearningtube.com, and I’m going to give them a quick look-over next week. In the meanwhile, as always, I would love to hear about related experiences and observations, so please weigh in if you have anything to add. Thanks!