The ease with which rich multimedia content can be created and shared online has been one of the most revolutionary developments in 21st century society.  There have been numerous examples of YouTube videos going “viral” and receiving millions of views in a short period of time.  We are now starting to see regular examples of episodic content being released first (or even, only) online.  Often, these programs are being produced on extremely small budgets, but still have high production values.

There are many sites that host rich multimedia content.  YouTube is probably the best known example, but there are many others.  Many of these services have content that you might want to use in your classroom, but they may also host content that would be completely inappropriate for your students.  This can also be a problem if you are asking your students to search for video content on their own.  There are some services, like SchoolTube, TeacherTube, and GodTube that seek to address the issue of inappropriate content through various forms of review and moderation.   This week’s Web 2.0 Weekly takes a look at another option in school-safe video hosting.

SchoolWAX TV is a free service offered by SchoolWAX, an online homework assistance site.  SchoolWAX TV is a little different in that 100% of videos that are submitted for posting go through pre-screening and approval by a board of educators.  SchoolWAX has a sizable directory of videos arranged by grade level and subject area.  They also have many videos intended for educators to use in professional development.  Video content is very diverse, including even many NASA created programs.

SchoolWAX TV allows individuals to upload video content for possible inclusion on the site (after moderation) in an array of formats.

.4xm, .IFF, .MTV, .RoQ, .aac, .ac3, .aiff, .alaw, .amr, .apc, .ape, .asf, .au, .avi, .avs, .bethsoftvid, .bfi, .c93, .daud, .dirac, .dsicin, .dts, .dv, .dv1394, .dxa, .ea, .ea_cdata, .ffm, .film_cpk, .flac, .flic, .flv, .gsm, .gxf, .h261, .h263, .h264, .idcin, .image2, .image2pipe, .ingenient, .ipmovie, .lmlm4, .m4v, .matroska, .mjpeg, .mlp, .mm, .mmf, .mov, .mp4, .m4a, .3pg, .3g2, .mj2, .mp3, .mpc, .mpc8, .mpeg, .mpegts, .mpegrsraw, .mpegvideo, .msnwctcp, .mulaw, .mvi, .mxf, .nsv, .nut, .nuv, .ogg, .oma, .oss, .psxstr, .pva, .rawvideo, .redir, .rl2, .rm, .rpl, .rtsp, .s16be, .s16le, .s8, .sdp, .shn, .siff, .smk, .sol, .swf, .thp, .tiertexseq, .tta, .txd, .u16be, .u16le, .u8, .vc1, .vc1test, .video4linux, .video4linux2, .vmd, .voc, .wav, .wc3movie, .wsaud, .wsvqa, .wv, .x11grab, .xa, .yuv4mpegpipe

SchoolWAX allows video files up to 100 MB in size.  The interesting thing is that there are no user accounts on SchoolWAX TV.  This means that even video uploading can be done without giving SchoolWAX any personal information.  Depending on your school’s Acceptable Use Policy and and student information privacy policies, this could be a major benefit.

The SchoolWAX TV service is free to use and also appears to be advertising free.  SchoolWAX requires a modern web browser with Flash Player 9 or better.  The only weakness to the site seems to be in how videos are organized.  There isn’t a way to browse through all of the videos, or even all of the videos in a grade level.  The user must instead view the videos by content area.  A basic search tool is provided that may help you locate content if you have an idea of what you are looking for.