Element K Blog: Free Videos for Learning and Development Professionals

I recently wrote a blog post titled "Podcasts in the Learning and Development Industry" wherein I described and linked to several of the more popular and valuable podcasts for learning professionals. In this post I thought I'd do something similar for free video content, going beyond the excellent videos from CommonCraft that I've blogged about here.

First I'll start with the intersection of the largest free video sharing site in the world, and the largest L&D organization in the U.S.: the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD). By now the ASTD has jumped into YouTube in a big way, using their ASTD123 channel to market their events and their broader value proposition for their members, but also as an extension of their main website to provide substantive videos with good content for learning professionals. And they do a good job, especially relative to our relaxed standards for YouTube content, at producing high-quality, professional videos. Here are some I'd like to draw your attention to:

Social Learning: Voices of Experience -- A four-part series with interviews from learning professionals who have been successful in implementing social learning in their organizations.
CPLP -- A series of anecdotes from learning professionals who have pursued and obtained their Certified Professional in Learning and Performance (CPLP) certification from ASTD.
ASTD 2010 International -- Dozens of videos about their biggest annual event, including videos of keynote speakers (like the one linked to here), but also on-the-ground interviews of participants, vendors, and others during the conference.
Interviews with Chapter Leaders at ALC -- Dozens of short anecdotes regarding the value that individuals get from being a member of he national ASTD, but also their local ASTD chapters.
ASTD Author Interview Series -- Exactly what it sounds like: authors promoting their books to learning professionals.

And that just scratches the surface of the videos ASTD has uploaded to YouTube. They also provide plenty of videos from smaller, regional ASTD events, top thought-leaders such as Marshall Goldsmith and others, and much more. In fact, to keep up with all of their videos, I recommend that you sign up to their channel as one of your YouTube subscriptions, and then create a reminder for yourself to check your YouTube subscriptions page once a week (on a Friday afternoon perhaps?) to stay current on this and any other subscriptions of interest to you.

One of the series listed above mentioned ASTD local chapters. I've searched, and I don't see very many ASTD chapters with their own, official channels on YouTube -- at least not yet. Surely that will be coming, so watch for your local chapter to see if they start to post videos. Three that have taken the plunge so far are ASTD Orange County, ASTD Fort Lauderdale, and ASTD Valley of the Sun.

Of course, many other videos of relevance to learning professionals have posted to YouTube, with clips coming from vendors, practitioners, consultants, book authors, and more. But I'd like to leave YouTube for a moment, and shift attention now to another great source of videos for learning professionals: TED. As their website describes, TED is a "small nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Since then its scope has become ever broader. Along with two annual conferences… TED includes the award-winning TEDTalks video site, the Open Translation Project and Open TV Project, the inspiring TED Fellows and TEDx programs, and the annual TED Prize."

On the one hand, TED conferences are relatively expensive and registration is limited. On the other hand, TED makes their videos available for free online, and they can often be some of the best educational videos you will ever see. This is because TED has done a great job of attracting high-powered, big-name speakers, and then demanding that they give engaging, and most of all, *short* presentations. Further, they are arranged by themes, with broad coverage to interest just about anyone.

The theme of most obvious relevance to learning professionals is "How We Learn." Included in this theme are several individuals I've heard as keynotes speakers at L&D industry events, such as Ken Robinson, Tim Ferriss, and Steven Pinker. Your mileage will certainly vary, but other themes that might be of interest to you as learning professionals: The Rise of Collaboration, How the Mind Works, Presentation Innovation, and What's Next in Tech. Or take a look at the current top-10 TED talks, which includes the video that first introduced me to TED a couple of years ago, a true must-see clip: "Hans Rosling shows the best stats you've ever seen."