You Are There: The Thinking Person's YouTube

I was recently introduced to FORA.tv [1], a new Web site that aggregates videos of discussions and debates on interesting political, social, and cultural issues. If your schedule is anything like mine, it's difficult to find the time to travel to a bookstore to hear a famous author read or to afford the price of a ticket to see a big headliner speak. FORA.tv -- the name is the plural form of forum -- offers an alternative: Sit on your couch with your wireless laptop and listen to a variety of interesting speakers. It's a thinking person's YouTube.

FORA.tv's videos capture an entire presentation or panel discussion, so they are rather long; however, they do a decent job of breaking the video up into chapters, segmenting the speaker's or speakers' topics and themes.

Here are a few FORA.tv videos that might interest Edutopia.org visitors:

• MySpace Generation: Why the Hype and Hysteria? [2]: This panel discussion about young people and their technology use was taped October 27, 2007.
• Retooling Schooling: Innovations in Education [3]: I put this panel discussion together for an audience of journalists October 16, 2007, in San Francisco.
• Youth Voices: What Do Young Adults Think? [4]: At the Aspen Institute's 2007 Aspen Ideas Festival [5], three young adults talk about the vulnerability of youth and their paths to adulthood.

Visit these pages and tell us what you think, and share your ideas about how you might use the site in your teaching or in professional development.