APOD for off-grid schools

[hazurbaa]

Hi, I've enjoyed the window on the universe from APOD for years, but this is my first foray onto the discussion page.

I've a question for the editors and a request to all readers--regarding access to the several videos on APOD, and our search for other short, educational videos.

I lived for 14 years in Nepal, pursuing various opportunities to devise technical solutions for rural problems--like how to get across a river safely, or how to pedal-power a village into domestic lighting. Since returning to the US, I've continued to chase these challenges. The current project is titled "Looma", and if it succeeds, will result in an interactive audio-visual system designed to bring knowledge, inspiration, and new dynamics to classrooms in rural areas worldwide.

As your members will all wonder what's inside, the current prototypes that are under field trial in Nepal have a single board computer with Wi-Fi, Ethernet, mobile data, and USB connections; large solid-state storage; a 300 lumen LED projector; speakers; and an infrared wand-tracking camera. A wireless wand allows a teacher or student to run the system from the front of the classroom. And a webcam and microphone will be added.

A few schools have wifi, some can connect via the mobile phone system, but most will have to rely for now on pre-loaded content. We've added the local textbooks, and various available pictures, videos and simple games, but the big need is for permission (and access) to use good, short science, math, and English videos.

I've wanted of course to use some of the spectacular APOD videos, but haven''t know how to get permission and access to them. At the moment our combination of a Pandaboard ARM computer and Linus/Ubuntu operating system precludes our using any Flash-based videos. MPG and MOV however work well with our system.

So (apologies for the long lead-in), is it possible and if so, how can we download MPG or MOV files for these field trials?

For more background on us and the project, please see www.villagetechsolutions.org and www.indiegogo/Looma

Thanks, Hazurbaa

[bystander]

None of the images or videos on APOD are owned by APOD and APOD can not grant permission for their use. Most of the time, with patience and determination, they can be tracked back to the original source. In the case of videos, many times the original source will have videos in an alternative format. Credits and copyright information is included below the image on each APOD.

For example, today's video (2013 Jan 15) can be downloaded from NASA in .mp4 format.