Link to the Show / Show NotesMany of us remember the early days of the Internetâ.when little things like chat rooms, streaming music and videos from web sites excited us. Even today, the web continues to evolve from its original intentions of simple text information to one of services like YouTube, Flickr, and Wikiopedia. This retooling of the Internet is not only exciting but is also a great resource for us all. As educators, we should not only be thrilled about this new web, but we should also take advantage and always looked for the educational values in these tools. Today I will be sharing a new evolution to the webâstreaming Televisionâand it is called Joosst. It is not available to the public yetâ.but a public release is set for the end of the year. I have been lucky enough to have access to it for a while because I am a beta tester for them.
Now when I originally heard about this product I was a little skeptical. But after doing a little research, I found that the creators of Joost -Niklas ZennstrÃm and Janus Friis who were also the minds behind Skypeâwhich is a phone service that allows you to use your computer and the Internet to make phone calls and Kazaa which is a peer-to-peer file sharing serviceâare also the minds behind Joost. Now Joost originally began back in 2006 under the code name "The Venice Projectââsounds like a covert operationâbut it was actually real project in they used teams of programmers from around the world to help develop this unique piece of software which would allow users to watch television over the Internet. This really peek my interest so I sign up to help testâ. and all I can say is that these two great minds have done it once again.
Now, Joost technology uses peer to peer technology to broadcast television shows over the Internetâand that is as deep as I will go on that. The installation of the software was very simple and I think was easier than setting up my current television. It has been written for both the Mac and the PC platformâsorry Linusx users. It has a very simple user interface that looks much like most DVD player programs. And unlike my TV, the shows can even be streamed wirelessly and does it in great quality. It is television so it does have ads and commercials. Unlike typical television viewing, the user can select , subscribe and control the content, getting what they want ,when the want ...the media trend of 21st century. Not only do you have the ability to go to a high-quality full-screen picture, it also offers hundreds of full-length shows. It offers everything from music, sports, travel, adventure, wildlife, sci-fi and animation from some of the world's best-known TV channels. Just click a channel from the list to choose from the list of featured content and kick back. Or you can search for your favorite content or show. The best thing is you still get the joy of flipping channelsâ.you got to love that. Joost also offers some additional no cost features- a built in search tool, instant messaging so you can communicate while watching your favorite shows.
Now, that I have briefly covered the feature of Joost, let's get to the educational value of this programâ it is the content. Now currently the educational content is limitedâbut it continues to grow as the Joost team negotiates with tv networks. But the current networks that I have found are Discovery, The Best of National Geographic, National Geographic History and Exploration, National Geographic Wild, Wall to Wall Documentary, Terra - Nature of Out World, Chat Planet and much more. These channels could be used for all grade levels for enrichment and like real televsion; there are channels that are not appropriate for children, but customization of channels can help control this. So if there is content that hold little or no educational valueâit can be taken off. Again, as the popularity of Joost grows, so will the content that they provide.
Now I do have a few invites to give away to my listeners so you can try it in advanceâbecause right now, it is not available to the public. If you would like an inviteâsend me an e-mail with your first and last name and e-mail addressâ.this is required by Joost for the invitesâand I would love some feedback on my podcast.
Also, don't forget to visit the TechTeacher Network website at: http://thetechteacher.libsyn.com/
PODCAST UPDATE: Joost is now open for Public Download.
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