Videos are great for sharing the highlights of school events. That said, there are some parents who don’t want videos of their children viewable by the general public. In those cases you might want to try sharing videos in a private online environment. Here are three methods for doing that.
KinKast is a new service that offers free private sharing of the videos you record. KinKast is both an iPhone application and a web application. Here’s what KinKast does; you record a video on your iPhone or on a camera and upload it to the KinKast servers. You can then share it via email with the people you want to see it. You can also post it to Facebook if you choose. Under the free KinKast plan each of your videos is only stored for 30 days from the day you uploaded it. With both the paid and free plan there is not a restriction on the size of the video you can upload.
YouTube gives you the option to make your videos “unlisted” or to share your videos privates. Videos that you make private can only be seen by the people you specify via email. There is a limit of 50 viewers for private videos.
Using the unlisted setting in YouTube means your videos can only be seen by people to whom you’ve given the direct url for your video. Unlisted videos will not appear in search results or related video lists. So while the videos you or students post as unlisted video won’t be 100% private, you will have much greater control over who can or cannot see them.
YouTube is not the only video hosting service that offers a private sharing setting. Vimeo and Viddler both offer private sharing via email.
