Oh. My. God. THIS IS WHAT WE NEED TO BE DOING!
An article from the NYT magazine, "The Medium: Tiny Talents" by Virginia Heffernan, introduced me to some of the most exciting forms of education and communication currently available on the web.
How to Avoid Poison Ivy from "Howcast"
How To Survive If You're Lost in the Woods, from "Howcast"
How To Treat a Snakebite from "Howcast"
(note: these videos use a great trick in their timeline at the bottom of each screen. Notice the little red, green, black and blue dots? These correlate to the narration. Red is for warnings, green for tips, black for each instructional step and blue for "did you know" tid-bits. It's a really smart and simple design solution to help reinforce the information.)
What's also really great is the open participation between the community of viewers. You can vote to see if this video was helpful. You can suggest topics. You can upload your own. You can comment on the video (adding validation or criticism). This dialogue, common in places like Wikipedia or Facebook/MySpace, is really what makes the Internet an exciting place for communication and building community. This online fluency is something we the National Park Service, does not have. YET.
Oh, and I checked if there were any instructional videos about or from the NPS...none. This is a ripe, un-tapped market ready for the taking!
Thought: Can we hire this guy to do work for our network?! These are some of the wittiest videos I've seen.
Other videos to watch at your leisure:
How to Use Less Water on Your Yard
How To Make Your Bathroom Eco-Friendly
How To Cook Seven Simple Recipes Over a Campfire
Okay. So excited and inspired. Learning is fun!
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