Dealing with educational video on the internet is difficult because there is no order. This is one of the endearing traits of the intent unless say, you’re a high school science teacher trying to find resources for her advanced students or someone who wants to find out about Mayan Culture but doesn’t want to deal with the end of the world in 2012. One problem is verifying the content. Another problem is finding content spread across many different content producers, distributors and aggregators. I’ll address those issues in future blogs. What I would like to address today is just defining what we mean by educational video.

When I was in elementary school in the 1960’s educational films told us how to brush our teeth, survive a nuclear attack and avoid girls who had VD. (I’m assuming the girls in the other class were watching a film telling them how to avoid boys with VD.) If Walter Cronkite narrated the film you could be sure it was important. With Public Television in the 1970’s and 1980’s educational television included everything from cooking shows to singing puppets, from political commentary to World War II documentaries. Easy internet distribution has now made available the entire spectrum of educational video to the world. But, in regards to what is available on the internet, what is educational video?

I would say that Educational Video is a program whose intention is to teach or impart knowledge for the sake of learning. This is a bit vague, but let me elaborate first by listing what I would not consider Educational Video.

How to Videos: Some may argue this point and I would concede that they teach but their intent is to teach a skill or use a product or perform a procedure. This would include how to put on make-up, how to install Windows on your computer or how to grill a chicken. All important things but not included in my definition. A sub genre of the how to videos are “get-rich-quick” programs that I don’t even want to think about.

Corporate or Commercial Programs: These would be any program meant to promote a company or product. These usually include corporate image pieces or programs on how to use a product. Many corporations make and finance fine educational programs; in fact many educational programs would not be made without corporate support. But if the intent of the program is to persuade you to buy a product or support a for profit organization it is not educational.

Propaganda or persuasion programs: Any program with a political slant or that has an ax to grind is propaganda. A lot of programs labeled as documentaries would fall into this category. I personally would also include religious programs. Their goal is to persuade and not to teach. I am not saying it is bad to persuade, I’m just saying it is not the same as education.

Entertainment: This would include the vast majority of programs from Harry Potter to Cats on a treadmill and every music video, reality program and cell phone captured catastrophe. I would also include so called infotainment and reality programs.

Current Affairs Programs: Current affairs programs can be very enlightening and impart important information, but I would not consider them educational programs.

Ok, now what is left? Educational videos tend to fall into several broad categories that represent how they are presented rather than subject matter. These would include instructional programs, documentaries and by far the largest group represented on the internet, lectures and panel discussions.

Instructional Programs: At some risk of contradicting myself, instructional programs are a close cousin to how-to-videos. They essentially show or explain to the viewer how to do something. This programs from Teacher Tube are a good example.

Documentaries: When meant to instruct or inform they are a popular educational video format. They can be very effective if they are well produced but they can be very expensive to produce. Many documentaries are produced by professional or commercial producers such as Nature found on PBS Video. But there are many great programs available that are not such grandly produced affairs. An example of a more modestly produced but still very informative and effective documentary was produced by the University of Kentucky’s Center for Visualization and can be found on the ResearchChannels’ YouTube Channel the program Flying on Air: The Science of Inflatable Wings.

Interview or talk shows: A common format that dates back from the early days of radio is the interview program and talk show. I would include in this panel discussions. Educators have been using this format to interview academic and thought leaders and to engage in intellectual debate and discussions. Many of these programs are series with a regular host but the format is familiar to anyone who watches television. A good example is "Conversations with History" hosted by Harry Kreisler, produced by UC Berkley and distributed by UCTV.

Lecture: By far the largest numbers of educational videos are lectures. These can run anywhere from 5 minutes in length to two hours although I would say the majority are around 50 minutes, about the length of your average University class. The cheapest to produce and perhaps the least satisfying is the camera stuck in the back of the classroom. Here is an example from Stanford University, a Computer Science Programming Methodology class by Professor Mehran Sahami.

A lot easier to watch are those lectures recorded with multiple cameras, or just look that way. (See my instructional slide show on shooting a lecture with a single camera.) A good example of this format is the University of Washington’s series African American West, 1528-2000 by Quintard Taylor.

TED has some very nicely produced lectures and seems to be concerned about the visual presentation as much as by the content. Just because we are watching an hour long lecture the presentation doesn’t have to be ugly. They also seem to be shorter programs which make them easier to watch on the internet. I kind of like this lecture by Alain de Botton entitled: A kinder, gentler philosophy of success.

I also think that the Howard Hughes Medical Institute does a great job of staging and presenting a lecture series so that it is more interesting to watch on the internet. Below is a lecture by Bruce D. Walker, M.D. on AIDS and the HIV Life Cycle.

Finding these programs is another problem altogether and the subject of a future blog. For now a very handy list of almost 50 sites that feature educational videos, or as they are referred on the site, “intelligent videos”, can be found at the Open Culture web site.

Enjoy the programs and let me know what you think.