Places to find Instructional Videos On-Line

25 places to find instructional videos

Recently I have received a number of emails asking about places that offer free instructional videos.  Of Course our School system subsribes to a pay service called LEARN-360, and that should be your primary resource site for instructional videos. 

Still can't find what you are lookin for??  Maybe try on of the following 25 sites.  If one of these is blocked...below you will find my instructions again for "any video converter"-- if you run across a site that is blocked here at school and want to try and convert it at home and bring it to school for classroom use.

I saw this list Jane Knight's blog for educators:  http://janeknight.typepad.com/pick/2010/02/index.html

5min Life Videopedia - instructional and how-to videos

Academic Earth - Thousands of video lectures from the world's top scholars

blip.tv - next generation TV network

Google Video - videos on all topics (blocked at school)

Graspr - The instructional video network

Howcast - How-to videos

iCue - A fun, innovative, learning environment built around video from the NBC News Archives

Instructables - Make, HowTo and DIY

iTunes U - Faculty are using iTunes U to distribute digital lessons to their students, e.g Stangord, Trinity College Dublin, etc.

John Locker - Documentaries and educational videos

MindBites - Video instructional marketplace and publishing platform (Some free)

MonkeySee - HowTo videos

neoK12 - free educational videos and lessons for K-12 school kids

Research Channel - 3,500 video titles available

SchoolTube - provides students and educators with a safe, world class, video sharing webiste

Sparkeo - a flexible video platform

SuTree - learn virtually everything by watching how to videos from all over the web.

TeacherTube - educational videos

TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) - a clearinghouse that offers free knowledge and inspiration from the world's most inspired thinkers, and also a community of curious souls to engage with ideas and each other.

TV Lesson - How to videos

Ustream - watch live broadcasts, explore networks ranging from music, talk shows, sports and politics and/or review our past broadcasts.

Video Jug - Life explained. On film.

Vimeo - a thriving community of people who love to make and share video

YouTube - videos on everything under the sun

YouTube EDU - aggregates all the videos from more than 100 institutions of higher education around the US.


So,  you found one that is blocked??

My favorite tool for getting around the Youtube blocking is to download and install a very easy program called: "ANY VIDEO CONVERTER" (I blogged about this before since it is also great for converting Flip videos to wmv's for easy use with movie maker: http://tjmstechtips.blogspot.com/2010/01/some-video-editing-tips.html )


Anyway, here again is the link for the free download for Any Video Converter:

http://www.any-video-converter.com/products/for_video_free/

Once you download it, INSTALL IT on your computer.

Open the program

Choose FILE,

SET OUTPUT FOLDER (so you can keep track of where your converter files will go)

Under PROFILE (in the case of converting Youtube videos) you might set the Video Output to be WMV

Then, simply click on CONVERT

The converted file will end up in the folder you designated earlier. If at home, you can then easily save that converted file to a flash drive and bring into school to play with windows media player. Woo Hoo

One last site...

European Film Gems

Another way around You Tube being blocked

Another great find on Twitter!  I am constantly getting questions from teachers about videos that they find on You tube, and want to share with their classes.  I received a twitter about this site with several good suggestions for ideas of how to best use http://www.youtube.com/
 as a educational resource, but also some suggestions for getting around the blocking that many school districts do. 

http://www.edgalaxy.com/journal/2010/1/26/the-ultimate-guide-to-youtube-for-educators.html

Like the teacher on this site advocates, I think it is worth considering:  "Rally your techies, school board or whoever to get connected to YouTube, and he provides the evidence to support its case as an educational essential tool"  Here's a good article about "School districts playing it too safe"

In the meantime, my favorite tool for getting around the Youtube blocking is to download and install a very easy program called: ANY VIDEO CONVERTER (I blogged about this before since it is also great for converting Flip videos to wmv's for easy use with movie maker: http://tjmstechtips.blogspot.com/2010/01/some-video-editing-tips.html )

Anyway,  here again is the link for the free download for Any Video Converter:

http://www.any-video-converter.com/products/for_video_free/

Once you download it, INSTALL IT on your computer.

Open the program
Choose FILE,
SET OUTPUT FOLDER (so you can keep track of where your converter files will go)
Under PROFILE  (in the case of converting Youtube videos) you might set the Video Output to be WMV
Then, simply click on CONVERT
The converted file will end up in the folder you designated earlier.

If at home, you can then easily save that converted file to a flash drive and bring into school to play with windows media player.  Woo Hoo...Another similar converter can be found at: http://kickyoutube.com/

In the past I had suggested zamzar as a decent Youtube video converter, and below are my old directions about Zam Zar.  It works but it comes with a bunch of pop-ups and also during the process you have to check your mail (sometimes it might get blocked) you have to return to the zamzar site where it tries to "trick" you into getting the paid for version.  So I really do recommend the free ANY VIDEO CONVERTER program instead.

Anyway,  if you don't want to have to install anything on your computer or can't for some reason, then you might still try using zamzar to convert a You tube video to a windows media player file and have it e-mailed to you. You can then access the file through your e-mail and download the video to your computer and play it that way.


http://zamzar.com/

Once on zamzar you select URL under step #1, paste the youtube video link into the box, Then, In step 2, select wmv under (convert to) / video formats and then type in your e-mail address in step 3. Later, you will receive an e-mail with a link back to zamzar where you can down load the You tube video as a windows media file.  Here is a site that explains more about zamzar:  http://dougpete.pbworks.com/Using-Zamzar-to-Collect-Movies-Offline

30 alternatives to You-Tube:

http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2009/06/30-alternatives-to-youtube.html

Happy You Tubing!

Some Video Editing Tips

Since we recently had training in MS Movie Maker before the holidays, I thought I would share this entry in the WS/FCS tech blog about movie maker:

http://wsfcsintouch.blogspot.com/2009/12/importing-videos-from-flip-camera-into.html

If you happen to have received a Flip Video Camera for Christmas, and were trying to use Movie Maker to edit it, then this article may be relevant. I made a comment on the article, and I also recommend a program called "Any Video Converter" that is a free download-able program you can use to convert file formats:

http://www.any-video-converter.com/products/for_video_free/

Finally, some might want to convert from a Windows Media File to actually make a DVD:

http://www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-tips/burn-wmv-to-dvd/