Hulu and YouTube have tossed their hats into the educational video ring. Hulu's contribution is Academic Earth, a site where visitors can access "thousands of video lectures from the world's top scholars." Not to be left behind, YouTube introduces YouTube EDU, which offers "videos and channels from our college and university partners." Who are the college and university partners? A list is available here.
What does this mean for sites, like TeacherTube? Can all three survive in these tough economic times? What features and characteristics will distinguish one from the other? These are just a few of the questions that come to mind, and I'm sure others will surface over time.
Showing posts with label YouTube. Show all posts
Showing posts with label YouTube. Show all posts
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Bits of Honey
The trip to Colorado couldn't have been any smoother. Everything worked like a well-oiled machine, including the airlines. Surprisingly enough, the return flights were ahead of schedule. While I was away, several interesting tech stories hit the virtual presses.
The Printed Blog: Print is dead they say, long live print! More on this experiment can be found here.
The latest addition to the Twitter family - Bank of America.
A virtual college debate match - St. Johns versus the University of Vermont: February 4 at 8 p.m. ET in Second Life! Go here if you'd like to attend this event.
Interested in elearning? This site includes a bibliography of 2007-2008 articles, and some are available online.
Are young people as tech-savvy as they are portrayed in much of the literature? Some Australian scholars say "No." Go here and here for the details.
The 2009 Horizon Report claims that the latest hot technologies are mobile technology, cloud computing, "geo-everything," and the personal web. In the coming years, watch for semantic applications and smart objects. What about video games and virtual worlds? No info on video games, but virtual worlds are mentioned in the geo-everything and smart objects sections.
A new critical case study also came out this week on social networking sites and electronic surveillance.
Enabling video game players to create games as well as play them. A fad or a new game genre that's here to stay? http://tinyurl.com/cymvrr
No online learning option for individuals taking advantage of the GI Bill. http://tinyurl.com/dz9mce
The mobile computing trend is on the rise, but "the era of the desktop PC is quickly coming to an end." http://tinyurl.com/bb9ab4
It's not just for entertainment anymore! YouTube is now a reference search tool. http://tinyurl.com/8rtver
A few little nuggets from the publishing world: John McMurtrie - editor of the San Francisco Chronicle book reviews - has plans to save it from the "deteriorating" pub. world. http://tinyurl.com/8kzkt9...and "The days of a 'newsmagazine of record'...are long gone." http:// tinyurl.com/a37992
The Printed Blog: Print is dead they say, long live print! More on this experiment can be found here.
The latest addition to the Twitter family - Bank of America.
A virtual college debate match - St. Johns versus the University of Vermont: February 4 at 8 p.m. ET in Second Life! Go here if you'd like to attend this event.
Interested in elearning? This site includes a bibliography of 2007-2008 articles, and some are available online.
Are young people as tech-savvy as they are portrayed in much of the literature? Some Australian scholars say "No." Go here and here for the details.
The 2009 Horizon Report claims that the latest hot technologies are mobile technology, cloud computing, "geo-everything," and the personal web. In the coming years, watch for semantic applications and smart objects. What about video games and virtual worlds? No info on video games, but virtual worlds are mentioned in the geo-everything and smart objects sections.
A new critical case study also came out this week on social networking sites and electronic surveillance.
Enabling video game players to create games as well as play them. A fad or a new game genre that's here to stay? http://tinyurl.com/cymvrr
No online learning option for individuals taking advantage of the GI Bill. http://tinyurl.com/dz9mce
The mobile computing trend is on the rise, but "the era of the desktop PC is quickly coming to an end." http://tinyurl.com/bb9ab4
It's not just for entertainment anymore! YouTube is now a reference search tool. http://tinyurl.com/8rtver
A few little nuggets from the publishing world: John McMurtrie - editor of the San Francisco Chronicle book reviews - has plans to save it from the "deteriorating" pub. world. http://tinyurl.com/8kzkt9...and "The days of a 'newsmagazine of record'...are long gone." http:// tinyurl.com/a37992
Monday, November 3, 2008
A Web 2.0 Campaign
We've been talking about video sharing sites in class for a few weeks, and an article in today's New York Times discusses the ways in which sites like YouTube (and other Web 2.0 technologies) have changed the campaign. David Carr and Brian Stelter kick off the conversation by noting that the clip from “Meet the Press” of Colin Powell's endorsement of Barack Obama appeared on MSNBC.com hours before individuals on the West Coast could watch the interview in its entirety on television. What's also interesting is that many of the Web 2.0 technologies that have been heavily utilized in the 2008 campaign (e.g., YouTube, Facebook) were not yet available in 2004.
Obama and McCain both used Web 2.0 technologies to further their campaigns, but they did so in different ways. Last week alone, the Obama campaign uploaded 70 new videos. Many of the videos, including ones on BarackObama.com were not television ads; rather Obama's new-media director stated that many of the videos were more biographical in nature. In contrast, McCain produced videos that revitalized older news stories such as those about Rev. Jeremiah Wright.
While one could speculate that the heavy use of the Internet in the current campaign could mean the end of the more traditional media outlets, this does not appear to be the case. As the Colin Powell example illustrates, networks like NBC are taking advantage of their web outlets to preview their television content. Katie Couric and other reporters have their own YouTube channel. In other words, it's not an either-or decision.
Further, one medium isn't dominating. On election night, for instance, it is expected that individuals will be watching the election results on television as well as accessing news and information from online sources. The best of both worlds.
Obama and McCain both used Web 2.0 technologies to further their campaigns, but they did so in different ways. Last week alone, the Obama campaign uploaded 70 new videos. Many of the videos, including ones on BarackObama.com were not television ads; rather Obama's new-media director stated that many of the videos were more biographical in nature. In contrast, McCain produced videos that revitalized older news stories such as those about Rev. Jeremiah Wright.
While one could speculate that the heavy use of the Internet in the current campaign could mean the end of the more traditional media outlets, this does not appear to be the case. As the Colin Powell example illustrates, networks like NBC are taking advantage of their web outlets to preview their television content. Katie Couric and other reporters have their own YouTube channel. In other words, it's not an either-or decision.
Further, one medium isn't dominating. On election night, for instance, it is expected that individuals will be watching the election results on television as well as accessing news and information from online sources. The best of both worlds.
Saturday, October 4, 2008
Crowdsourcing on YouTube
Huberman, Romero, and Wu (2008) posit that there is a relationship between productivity and attention. They test their hypothesis by examining more than nine million videos on YouTube. Before describing their research, however, the authors briefly define the terms crowdsourcing and tragedy of the commons. First, crowdsourcing is a term used to describe the ability of individuals to produce and distribute content - videos, photos, writings - without centralized oversight. In other words, the consumers are the producers (sounds like sections straight out of Tapscott & William's book Wikipedia). MIT professor, Eric von Hippel refers to this as "user-centered innovation." "Wisdom of crowds" is the term James Surowiecki uses to describe this concept in his aptly titled book The Wisdom of Crowds. Next, according to Huberman and his colleagues, the tragedy of commons the dilemma that occurs when individuals do not share their original content with others because of the free riders who fail to reciprocate the gesture.
After outlining several statistical analyzes used to determine the connection (or lack thereof) between productivity on YouTube and attention, the authors conclude that crowdsourcing depends on attention. Individuals who receive attention continue to post videos; individuals who do not receive this positive attention discontinue their posting behavior.
The authors make a passing reference to academics and the way in which they publish and present to gain attention. While not mentioning cyberspace celebrities or the celebrity instructor, specifically, this concept is what comes to mind when reading this section. However, work published and presented by the majority of academics is read and cited by very few individuals. Yet, academics continue to publish even without gaining attention. Does the prospect/pressure of achieving tenure outweigh the lack of attention? Is attention from the public merely one factor that plays a role in this equation? While these questions are not addressed by the authors, they could be areas for future research.
On a related note: Jeff Howe, a writer for the magazine Wired, has a new book out titled, Crowdsourcing: Why the power of the crowd is driving the future of business. While the target market appears to be business executives, the book might be worth at least a skim through.
After outlining several statistical analyzes used to determine the connection (or lack thereof) between productivity on YouTube and attention, the authors conclude that crowdsourcing depends on attention. Individuals who receive attention continue to post videos; individuals who do not receive this positive attention discontinue their posting behavior.
The authors make a passing reference to academics and the way in which they publish and present to gain attention. While not mentioning cyberspace celebrities or the celebrity instructor, specifically, this concept is what comes to mind when reading this section. However, work published and presented by the majority of academics is read and cited by very few individuals. Yet, academics continue to publish even without gaining attention. Does the prospect/pressure of achieving tenure outweigh the lack of attention? Is attention from the public merely one factor that plays a role in this equation? While these questions are not addressed by the authors, they could be areas for future research.
On a related note: Jeff Howe, a writer for the magazine Wired, has a new book out titled, Crowdsourcing: Why the power of the crowd is driving the future of business. While the target market appears to be business executives, the book might be worth at least a skim through.
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