Hi..
i just asked myself if there are people who learn from a Video Tutorial .. let's say a new programming language or something.
Do you like to learn this way .. or is a good book better than a good video.
Second question.. are there any Series of Video Tutorials in the english speaking community.
As a German i like the Video2Brain-Series.
I went through the XNA video tutorials and found them helpful.
I quickly get tired of them though, whereas text tutorials (source with comments and an overview really...) are searchable and usually more to the point.
There is plenty of good video material available on the web. Take DnrTV for example. Or the Autumn of Agile series. I would argue they can be as useful as books when learning a new technology, but ultimately it comes down to what works for you.
I like the video tutorial for getting the basic "Hello world" type app running. Anything more complicated than that, and I want a written tutorial.
Not having headphones on my office PC is also a barrier to entry.
I like http://www.dimecasts.net. These are short (5-15 minutes) webcasts about various topics, and I like them to get an overview about these topics.
If I'm interested in a topic then I will continue reading blogs, books, ...
It may be a personal preferences, but I never understood the concept of video tutorials for anything outside the Aerobic world. Rereading a paragraph in a book is so much easier than cueing in a video. Flipping back and force, using the index to find what you need is also way harder if not impossible in a video.
And - bonus point for books - a book doesn't obscure my screen that I need to program.
Personally, I find video tutorials good for getting a introductory overview of a new techonology.
But if I actually want to get to a workable level of understanding, I need to read. The written word is just more flexible, move at your own pace, multi taskable between reference material, skimming, and just plain old going back to reread something you completely missed.
I am currently learning Clojure through the videos at blip.tv. I've also watched some CS61a lectures on SICP through Berkley. I find them useful, but not as efficient as a book. The information comes a lot more slowly in a video and I don't think it sticks with me as well as if I read it. Certainly it is much harder to refer back to later.
For visual topics like how to use photoshop, a video can be useful. For programming languages, I find them much less so.
The repertoire of Silverlight Video Tutorials have been an incredible resource for me. Although it's not free, the training from the Pluralsight On Demand! library has been even more valuable as a source of information.
I would agree that some topics are more suitable for the page than a video but videos don't have to be a presenter; they are quite effective when it's just a screenshot of some code and a narrator discussing various concepts.
One other tidbit, I have an infant so it's a great way to pass the time constructively while she sleeps in my arms. :^)
Video tutorials can be great learning tools for basic tasks, but they make terrible reference tools, which is why I don't tend to find them useful. I find books and other written sources much more helpful because they make it easy to skip around to find relevant information. Videos are nearly impossible to skim easily.
I enjoyed: iPhone tutorials from pragmatic programmers Worked really well at introducing the workings of the Apple Xcode IDE - some things are hard to demonstrate in a book.
Videos won't take you a great depth into a subject, but if it helps as an introduction then go for it. Sometimes it can be easier start a video rather than open a 500+ page textbook :o)
Yes! I always greatly enjoy watching the Peepcode and RailsCasts videos.
Of course. It’s the best way to be productive ASAP in a subject or tool.
And you tube is one of the best places to get those learning tools.
Not the main source of information, or where you might go for a quick answer but videos can have their place.
Videos can work as ice breakers into new technology.
When joining a long running project after the main developer had left I was told that the documentation was in screencasts. My first reaction was to think that all the information is trapped in video. But watching the main dev talk through the UML diagram bouncing back and forth between the code I saw the relationship between the classes a lot quicker then stepping through the code myself. It provided the intent type information missing from the in-line comments.
Videos can help you understand the thought processes of other developers.
One common theme I see on SO is people recommending improving your development skills by working with others. Watching developers solve problems when building software on video can be nearly as good. Especially if you have a small team or just want to see a different approach.
You can see this in the tutorials on dnrtv or Channel 9.
Or watching the full development lifecycle on series such as http://www.asp.net/learn/mvc-videos/#MVCStorefrontStarterKit.
Whenever I see a new product marketed with video tutorials, I think "Crap, yet another case of hype".
Since I can read, I find that Video tutorials are a waste of time compared to any form of documentation that can be quickly read, understood, and then revised and skim-read as necessary. If the documentation is essential, then remembering where you were can be very helpful - when was the last time you could remember how to bookmark a video tutorial 5 minutes and 23.4 seconds into the movie? Heck, when was the last time you REMEMBERED that was were the information you were interested was at that location?
Additionally, such video tutorials rarely have alternative access - I'm deaf, which automatically means that Video tutorials are inaccessible.
Yes, I do take advantage of video tutorials. Reading 1200 page books that could have been written with 200 pages (but isn't because the auhor is paid per page) are an utterly waste of time .
An example. For learning Djago I used this video tutorial: Eric Florenzano's "Django From the Ground Up". It is a series of 13 videos showing the building of a particular site from scratch, http://startthedark.com/.
The start URL is http://showmedo.com/videos/video?name=3360000&fromSeriesID=336
The direct download URLs for the Flash videos are (approx. 25 MB each):
http://showmedovideos4.com/ShowMeDos/3360000.flv
http://showmedovideos4.com/ShowMeDos/3360010.flv
http://showmedovideos4.com/ShowMeDos/3360020.flv
http://showmedovideos4.com/ShowMeDos/3360030.flv
http://showmedovideos4.com/ShowMeDos/3360040.flv
http://showmedovideos4.com/ShowMeDos/3360050.flv
http://showmedovideos4.com/ShowMeDos/3360060.flv
http://showmedovideos4.com/ShowMeDos/3360070.flv
http://showmedovideos4.com/ShowMeDos/3360080.flv
http://showmedovideos4.com/ShowMeDos/3360090.flv
http://showmedovideos4.com/ShowMeDos/3360100.flv
Honestly I love video tutorials. Obviously they aren't going to provide indepth knowledge and will almost always point you to more indepth resources, but I find them a painless way to jump start into many topics. Of course they provide another endless rabbit hole of information overload.
I use video tutorials and agree that they're "good for getting an introductory overview". Specifically I think they're great and useful for gaining knowledge on any given topic regardless of how advanced. Videos can be just as in depth as books, depending on who makes the video. That said, I'd rather watch videos that are 5-10 minutes long and give a great explanation of specific topics as opposed to watching a 2 hour overview lecture on video.
For instance, I don't want to watch "php in a nutshell" for two hours. I'd rather watch "intro to if-else loops" or "advanced if else statements" for 5 minutes and then decide on what I want to watch next just by reading the title of the video.
I treat videos the same way that I treat books. I don't want to spend hours and hours with either one and would rather cherry pick my content for what I think i should do next - it's even better with guided content that has an outline structure or table of contents to save me some thinking - of course, if I don't care about loops, I'll just skip that series altogether.
Now, of course, books do have their place. I find them irreplaceable as reference material - imagine using windows-grep and searching a folder of pdf's on a specific topic.
Still since the book and the video might contain different information, It's really a matter of which particular resource would be easiest to learn with for your particular case. Sometimes i can't find 'good' video tutorials on a topic and I have to switch gears and go to books or some blog post with a tutorial.
The information can come in all sorts of formats. It's the authors delivery and your own circumstance that make one or the other attractive.