Link This | Email this | Blog This | Comments (0)

Hulu: My latest (not so guilty) pleasure

October 12, 2008

Permit me a post that may have little pedagogical value.  (You might file this one with my post on my other guilty pleasure, Mygazines.)

I find myself unable to stick to the kind of schedule that allows me to watch my favorite television shows when they air.  I never got around to buying TiVo.  Most nights I just fall asleep over the laptop or on the couch.

So discovering Hulu.com, a free alternative, was major for me! 

Hulu allows me to catch up on those shows I cannot find on Pay-Per-View--the stuff I miss on Saturday Night Live and House and Lipstick Jungle and The Daily Show and so many others I am even more reluctant to admit have me hooked.

The site features a combination of both clips and full shows.  You can create a queue.  You can browse by Channels (genre), Popularity, Recently Added, and more.  A Spotlight area now features the Fall Premiere Lineup, Huluween, and Election '08.  You can even embed a Hulu widget and watch shows on your own sites.  A clipping feature allows users to select segments of videos they'd like to share.

Founded in March 2007 by NBC Universal and News Corp, Hulu's mission is:

to help people find and enjoy the world's premium video content when, where and how they want it.

How do they do it?

Unlike, Mygazines, this one is not on the fringe:

Hulu is free and legal through an advertising supported model.

• Videos are available for unlimited streaming; watch favorite shows and clips over and over, for free
• Videos contain fewer ads than on TV. Advertisements appear during normal commercial breaks
• Hulu acquires the rights to distribute its videos, making them available to users legally

So is there any instructional value here?  Perhaps. 

Schools that have blocked YouTube, may not yet have gotten to this one.  And many teachers who'd like to use segments of popular television in the classroom can reliably locate and select both clips and shows on this portal and post them on their wikis and blogs and websites.

So, I take it back.  This one does have classroom value.

Posted by Joyce Valenza Ph.D on October 12, 2008 | Comments (0)