How to post videos to RVA

[Clinton Blackmore]

Greetings.

I've created a video on how to put up posts for Robot Video Academy.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcJ-EYplxww

While http://www.robotvideoacademy.org does not meet the standards of perfection I desire, I am inclined to "go live", start telling people about it, and focus on some other tasks.  Is there anything you'd like to see fixed or tweaked first?

Cheers,

Clinton

[Dave Parker]

HI Clinton,

Your newest iteration of the site is looking pretty good. I like the
ability to browse by category, etc.

I will say that when I saw the first version, I was thinking that a
simple blog format with tags is not going to work for me, and wasn't
sure what to make of that.

I am going to need a road map to my videos, and in fact as I refine my
thoughts on this, I am thinking it might be something more complex
than just a linear list of videos -- probably with a couple of
alternative tracks (fast paced vs. slow paced), and some decision
points that help you decide whether to skip a bunch ahead, etc. I
plan to lay this out somehow on my site, as links to the relevant
videos on YouTube.

To be honest I am a little concerned about the confusion and extra
effort required in maintaining two parallel representations of this.
But anyway, at this point, I think I need to make some more progress
on my videos, then check back later about how this relates to RVA.org
and how to present it there. I have made 6 videos now, and it is slow
going finding time to do it, but as I go I am refining my thinking on
how the road map for the student works out.

So, to answer your question about going live, I'd say you are free to
release whatever you want on the site when you are happy with it, but
I will probably step back for a while and organize my own content and
produce more, then check back in with it later.

I will also say that at this point I am preferring videos without an
entrance slide, and therefore I will probably want to release them to
YouTube in batches without any RVA branding in the video itself (can
always add branding/links to the video description as appropriate).
So I am requesting that you not require the RVA entrance slide (I
think this will hinder the adoption of additional content as well).

Thanks for all the work you have done on this. I need to get cranking
on my content!

-- Dave

[Clinton Blackmore]

Hi Dave.

On Wed, Sep 21, 2011 at 8:36 PM, Dave Parker <bl...@nxtprograms.com> wrote:
>
> HI Clinton,
>
> Your newest iteration of the site is looking pretty good.  I like the
> ability to browse by category, etc.
>

Thank you.

 
>
> I will say that when I saw the first version, I was thinking that a
> simple blog format with tags is not going to work for me, and wasn't
> sure what to make of that.
>

I hear you.

 
>
> I am going to need a road map to my videos, and in fact as I refine my
> thoughts on this, I am thinking it might be something more complex
> than just a linear list of videos -- probably with a couple of
> alternative tracks (fast paced vs. slow paced), and some decision
> points that help you decide whether to skip a bunch ahead, etc.  I
> plan to lay this out somehow on my site, as links to the relevant
> videos on YouTube.
>

I agree -- a linear list is not the ultimate way to organize things.  I do think it makes for a useful first pass, but I'd like to show that certain videos parallel each other (just in different languages, or for different robots).  Do you have any concrete thoughts on what the conceptual content map should look like -- anything you could point to? I wonder how hard it would be to write a wordpress plugin that does what we need (or even an offline script)?  What would you think of linking to the RVA page for the video instead of to YouTube?  Also, where do you hope to take comments and questions on the video?

>
> To be honest I am a little concerned about the confusion and extra
> effort required in maintaining two parallel representations of this.

I hear you there, too.  Would it be enough to say, "Learn more about this topic at RVA?" and use that as the one source of videos you keep up to date?

 
>
> But anyway, at this point, I think I need to make some more progress
> on my videos, then check back later about how this relates to RVA.org
> and how to present it there.  I have made 6 videos now,

Good for you!

and it is slow
> going finding time to do it, but as I go I am refining my thinking on
> how the road map for the student works out.
>
> So, to answer your question about going live, I'd say you are free to
> release whatever you want on the site when you are happy with it, but
> I will probably step back for a while and organize my own content and
> produce more, then check back in with it later.
>

Fair enough.

> I will also say that at this point I am preferring videos without an
> entrance slide, and therefore I will probably want to release them to
> YouTube in batches without any RVA branding in the video itself (can
> always add branding/links to the video description as appropriate).
> So I am requesting that you not require the RVA entrance slide (I
> think this will hinder the adoption of additional content as well).
>

I have been contemplating this a fair bit (which is why I didn't respond sooner).  On one level, it doesn't seem to be a big deal, and on another, it strikes at the very heart of what RVA is.  Is RVA a jumping-off point for a bunch of various instructional robotics videos, or is it a source of consistent, well organized, peer reviewed content?

The purpose of robot video academy is to create accessible, quality materials from which people can learn robotics.  If you are creating more videos, Dave, I'm confident they fit this bill.  The other thing the videos do, though, is imply that there are more videos of the same nature; it is not that you've found a rare gem on youtube, with no idea of how to find more, but that you've hit a whole vein of gold, and can keep on mining it.  I also think that we should strive to keep the quality high by peer approval of the videos.  My hope is that when more than a single knowledgeable practitioner of the craft thinks it is a good video, we can be reasonably confident it is so.  [Speaking of which, can I get a second person to give a thumbs up to my Ferris Wheel videos?]  

With that reasoning, I propose:
- official RVA videos include the intro image, and, once approved, go up on the RVA site.  These videos will have the stength that consistency provides, and people can be confident in them.
- other excellent resources that provide great educational content for budding roboticists,  but which don't meet the above criteria, will be linked to from RVA, maximizing the potential that said people can find helpful resources.

Alternatively, we can lower the barriers to entry, allow anyone to post videos to the site without vetting them, and hope for the best.  I think this could be successful, too, and I bet many of the videos would be excellent, but it would be rather more like a specialized youtube than the Khan Academy-style site we first envisioned and is not my preference.

I want to ensure that being an RVA instructor is not complicated, and I want to work with people and be inclusive.  I see no problem in embedding videos in your own site or maintaing your own content map.  I  have wrestled with requiring consistency and outlined my thoughts above.  I would be happy to hear what the rest of you think, and what you imagine educators and roboticists would think.

Out of curiosity, Dave, why do you prefer to omit the intro?  Is it the extra work incurred to add it?  Is it so the videos do not look out of place on your site?  

> Thanks for all the work you have done on this.  I need to get cranking
> on my content!
>

Good luck on the videos.  I'd love to see them up on RVA, and if not, I'd be happy to refer people to them.

> -- Dave
>

Cheers,
Clinton