Video and Community

now thats is an interesting idea! creating a type of visual...someone actually acting out the podcast...hmmmm...you could be onto something here cpod!

i like it and would defintely watch it again!

I personally don't care whether or not the content of videos are "innovative", as long as they are informative and interesting.

Frank,

This occurred to us as well, but we're very wary of the "video + subtitles = learning" idea. There's already tons of that out there already anyway.

But if ChinesePod users are actually using video to practice their Chinese, and we can somehow augment those efforts and help share them with other users, then there's a lot more potential for real learning...

John,

I think it boils down to where this vide would be placed. If it's going to be under the same tab with the actual lesson, then you have an opportunity here to really drive home the vocabulary while getting the added benefit of exposing students to the characters in context. Huge.

And while, yes, a lot of other people are doing that, or have done it, why allow your students to go somewhere else if you don't have to? But, hey... you know how I feel about this subject already. LOL

I do agree that if you can get users to generate content then it alters the landscape a bit. My only worry is that badly produced content is worse than no content at all.

Just my two kuai. Don't spend them all in one place.

John,

Why stop the "WTS" and "Vocab tour" episodes? They were both popular. Why so much pressure to "move on"? What are your long term video goals? Do you have sufficient resources allocated to achieve them?

btw, that's the lovely Christela from FrenchPod, and my boy Leo from SpanishPod.

rekkinize!

Needs more buzz. This confused me untill I listened to the podcast.

Excellent general idea though. I also agree with no subs. Directly linking what you hear with what you see happening is much more valuable than the character/pinyin reinforcement you get from subs.

Yeah, I liked both vocab tour and WTS, I found them incredibly helpful. Although innovation is good, it seems a shame to stop when you're on a winner.

I agree with RJ and Sebire. 

The Vocab Tour was my favorite, but WTS was just as good from a learning perspective.  I think continuing a mixture of both would be great - each one has its own unique value and they both were "polished."

To echo Sebire, why reinvent the wheel (in this case, 2 wheels)?

My other concern regarding the above video is with dubbing. We loose authentic native body language, facial expressions, and lip movements. (nothing against the actors btw). The situational visual will help some, but I fear we are loosing something valuable. 

This was cute. If you'd added subtitles in simplified Chinese, Pinyin and perhaps English...

For each podcast, I would prefer something like a "Video Review" to complement the "Audio Review" we now have.

The video content could directly link to the expansion sentences and exercises, re-inforcing the lesson.

Of course, logistically it may not be realistic, given the time and effort required to produce video.

John, why trying something new every month or two? I don't understand it. Why so much pressure?

Please put some work into improvements of the website: better forum (search, threads, ...), better traditional character support, better flashcards (eg spaced repetition system).

And more vocab tours, more WTSs.

Amen

I am still waiting for a way to learn how to write characters in a fun way ... Be that with videos, interactive gadgets, whatever.

I still believe in the idea of an story-based edutainment series.  People love stories, and when people are having fun their minds open to learning.

Think about all the funny lines from great comedies or the cool parts of our favorite movies and television shows that we never forget.  The only trick is how to blend the education and entertaining content together to form a cohesive whole that is enoyable and engaging to watch.

Maybe our friend Frank might be interested in throwing his hat into the ring? 

Frank is hatless. Frank has no hat.

Let me play devil's advocate here and ask the same question RJ asked:

Does CPod currently have the resources (people and money) to continue producing professional calibre video?

I ask for two reasons:

1.  Why would you stop producing two incredibly popular, and what seemed like highly effective learning tools, in Vocab Tour and What's the Story?

2.  Asking the community to create its own videos seems to confirm (at least in my mind) that CPod doesn't have the resources to properly produce video.  Not to say that CPod isn't full of creative users, but can you imagine the lack of continuity and educational structure that would come from user-created video?

My worry is that many of the resources (again, people and money) that would have previously been allocated solely to CPod, have now been spread out to the other LanguagePods. 

Maybe I'm way off here, but it'd be really cool if the suits at CPod cut to the chase for once and gave it to us straight, instead of feeding us fluff.  We're big boys and girls here, we can take it!

I agree, the communities self-created videos are fine if there left in the community section, unless some one comes up with an amazing idea and format, but surely, that's for chinesepod to figure out.

Chinesepod can facilitate users videos, but they shouldn't rely on them, unless I'm missing something :s

What's the story was already great.  I feel that there was still plenty of educational value left.

The video above is not helpful to me.  The first reason is what RJ just said.  The second is that just slapping on the right pronunciation doesn't help.  It would need to really pinpoint what's wrong with the first pronunciation in order to be helpful.  But even then, that's only helpful if they're making the same mistakes I do.