YouTube for toddlers and preteens

There has been a lot of debate about time spent in front of the television and determining how much computer exposure is good or bad for children. I'm not completely leaning one way or the other but I do think that television and internet exposure can be a viable educational tool, if and only if it is monitored and limits are put in place. One website that has become increasingly popular is YouTube it offers a wealth of video resources and people have become famous from their postings.

One problem is that there is no filter and a 9 year old doing an innocent search on YouTube could see some pretty controversial and inappropriate results. With this in mind totlol was developed for the 13 and under crowd.

Here's an excerpt from the website "Totlol is a video website designed specifically for children. It is community moderated. It is constantly growing. It is powered by YouTube. All videos were submitted, screened and rated by parents. The selection is huge and if you like, you can participate too."

The most porpular and recently added videos are listed, you can search for videos and there's also a section where parents can screen videos awaiting approval. There are fun videos and loads of educational videos. For all of you "school house rock fans"...Yes it is there! I hope you'll take a moment to check it out and if you know anyone with children please share this resource.

http://www.totlol.com/index.php

Video Production

As promised, I am following up on a previous post about video production. The last post was about video podcasting--a basic how-to. The info here is more focused on the production side of things. I know that I don't want to watch something that is rather poorly done, so why would anyone else want to see my bad video?

http://websitevideoguide.com/29/7-tips-for-better-videos/

http://websitevideoguide.com/video-production/add-quality-to-your-videos/

The first of these links provides some quick tips on "how to make it look and sound good," whereas the second offers some advice on how to add some production flair. Much of it is basic stuff, but if you don't know to think of it in the first place...

These basics can really boost the quality of your movies or video podcasts.

More Free Tools

This blog seems to be undergoing a bit of a trend in open source software and things available via creative commons. I thought I'd share some interesting tools I've been reading about recently- all of them free.

Csounds: sound design, music synthesis, and signal processing for Mac, Linux, and Windows.

Plone is open source content management that easily allows you to organize web content for group projects and communities.



Plumi is a little piece of software that works with Plone, once you have Plone up and running.
Plumi allows you to create your own video sharing site! Currently, developers are even working on functionalities that will allow users to upload and download to/from Plumi sites using mobile devices.




For Chris Davis, in response to one of your previous posts- the Open Clip Art Library. This library is user supported- submit your own clip art and contribute to an archive of Creative Commons images, or download clip art when you need some.



Not really open source software, or creative commons assets, blip.tv is a really interesting site that provides learning and hosting resources for web shows and web storytelling. Newbies can learn the craft, and the more experienced web show producers can hone their craft. Free accounts are available, and their tools are good for Windows and Macs.


If you've never been to the Internet Archive, you simply have to go. Home of the Wayback Machine, the Internet Archive is a huge, digital library that is dedicated to providing access to all sorts of digital collections.

Move over low quality Video on the web. Hello........

Now you can upload and watch videos in high quality Standard and High definition on the web. This is not the you tube quality we are all accustomed to. There a few e learning related videos up there now. So get out the camera or your favorite screen capture program and add the content. And while you are there, sign-up and rate the other videos. http://www.vimeo.com/


The Sound of Wood from Anthony Edels on Vimeo.

Podcasting. Great, but how?

Most of us have at least a vague sense, if not a solid understanding of what a podcast is, though this, like everything else in information delivery spheres, is in a constant state of change. Podcasting, in a brilliant illustration of this phenomenon, quickly moved from voice-only to video podcasting (though both maintain strengths in certain areas).

As I think the quality of a podcast truly lies in the production, I will look for a solid yet simple digital video production resource for a future posting. For now, let's focus on the nuts-and-bolts of how to create and publish a video podcast.

A pretty good (in that it keeps thing simple), though slightly dated resource can be found at streaming media http://www.streamingmedia.com/article.asp?id=9314

While this tutorial is rather mac-centric, the sense of process remains the same, and pc's are given some press time, too.

A gem at the end (pg 4) of the article is a list of video podcasting resources. Now where is that camera...