PBS has made videos available on various parts of their website for a while. The problem was there wasn’t one central location for all of those videos. Today, through Allen Stern at Center Networks, I’ve learned that PBS has launched a video center where you can find all of the PBS online videos in one place.
PBS Video offers videos from the most popular shows including Frontline, NOVA, Nature, and American Experience. For the younger crowd, PBS Kids offers videos as well. If you’re not sure what you’re looking for, but you think PBS has an appropriate video you can search the PBS Video center by topic.
You can watch all of these videos just as they appeared during their original PBS airings. The one improvement that I would like to see is the option to embed the videos into a blog.
Applications for Education
PBS has long been a great source of educational programming. My school has purchased many videos and DVDs from PBS over the years. Unfortunately, some of the older VHS cassettes are nearing the end of their lives and aren’t being replaced. The new PBS Video center may fix that problem for us.
Some of the longer videos, like those from NOVA, are broken into chapters which makes it easier to show just a portion of video to a class rather than an entire episode.
Here are some related resources that may be of interest to you:
20+ Educational Alternatives to YouTube
Six More Educational Alternatives to YouTube
Quietube – No Nonsense YouTube Viewing
VodSpot – Create Your Own Video Website