I am extremely impressed with the potential educational uses of video when integrated with the newly released service called Overlay.tv.

Overlay.tv allows you to take any online video - posted to any of the more popular video-sharing websites - and superimpose text, images, hyperlinks, and other content onto the video.


Below is a simplified sample. The link to Halo has been added to the video. As you're watching the video (be patient, they're still in beta), imagine if the video was actually educational: a Ken Burns video, Donald Duck in Math Land, or even Pay Attention combined with links to other outside educational content.


In spite of some early opinions of apathy, I'm here to tell you that this kind of technology marks the beginning of an era in how users participate with entertainment. While the founders of Overlay.tv have touted their service as yet another way to earn a buck (through product placement), I think this service - and similar future services - have tremendous implications for curriculum and instruction. As an example, imagine giving your social studies students this assignment:

Alright class, welcome to the computer lab this morning. As we've been studying various significant events of the 20th Century, it's important to remember that because of our past, we now have our present. And therein lies the background for today's assignment.

Your assignment - should you choose to accept it - is to first watch this video, taking note of which people and events are referenced. After watching the video, you are then to identify five current events that are directly related to people and/or events referenced in the video. You will then use Overlay.tv to insert links, text, or images of the current events on top of the video of the related past events in the video.

Any questions? Go to work.

Now obviously you would have to give the students basic instruction on how to use Overlay.tv - and you'd need to find a suitable video to use from one of the supported video sharing sites - but imagine the possibilities!

• Teachers can now link from video to other components within their curriculum.
• Students can now interact, participate, and engage with the video. Sure, they could take notes in the past - but now they can explore aspects presented within a video at a whole new level.

Think about it. If I would have had this kind of technology at my disposal when I first created Pay Attention, I could have added links to the references used in the presentation. That way, when a person finds an intriguing quote within the presentation (while they're watching it on YouTube or wherever), they simply click the link in the video - taking them to an online version of the paper from which the quote was taken.

Wow!

I guess I've just stumbled upon your next assignment. Any questions? Go to work.

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