For Blogger to play a video in a post, the video must be stored somewhere on the Internet. Blogger's tool for uploading videos is new, and itsn't perfect. When I have tried to upload anything over 5 minutes, there has been a problem.
Blogger is a Google product though, and is well integrated with other Google products like Picasa and YouTube. The most recent set of video introductions were all shared through YouTube. The same Google account you use to post on Blogger, will provide access to Picasa for web albums, and YouTube for your video galleries.
I was reluctant to use YouTube. And I would understand your reservations. Aside from being the most popular video sharing site on the Internet, it may be the most popular thing on the Internet. Perhaps you've seen videos that have gone viral (or literally spreading as quickly as a virus). Perhaps you've seen some nasty comments from YouTube users. Or maybe your school's Internet network blocks all access to YouTube (which is true for most American public schools).
Now that I've listed all of the reasons not to use YouTube, here are the reasons why I am using YouTube (for now).
1. Unlimited uploads (?): I can't confirm this yet, but I have not seen any notice about MB limits to my account. I considered Vimeo.com, but the free account is limited to 500 MB per week. To upload longer videos (longer than 15 minutes) I needed to confirm by YouTube account by receiving a code on my cell phone. Very easy.
2. Easy to upload: I am uploading multiple videos as I write this.
3. Privacy settings: Being on the Internet (even YouTube) doesn't mean that anyone is going to see it. You have to work to get noticed, using categories, tags, and other forms of metadata, for example. It seems just as unlikely to get noticed walking in a crowd in Times Square.
And I don't really want my students videos to get noticed on YouTube. I want them to be viewed in context on our class blog here. Any video uploaded to YouTube can be public (and searchable), unlisted (from what I understand, this video will not be found without a direct link) and private (only people invited to see it can). I am using the unlisted setting, so that anyone viewing the videos on the blog can see them.
4. Editing Features: YouTube has tools to improve your video online. You can also make slide shows combining images, videos, and music.
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-Eric, NYC