Week 10: Podcasts and Youtube

Listen to audio here

The word podcast is used to refer to a non-musical audio or video broadcast that is distributed over the Internet. What differentiates a podcast from regular streaming audio or video is that the delivery method for podcasts is often done automatically through RSS.

In 2005, "podcast" was named the "word of the year" by New Oxford American Dictionary and with the growth of podcasting over the last year and a half; it’s easy to see why. Podcasts take many forms, from short (like the ones used in this Learning 2.0 program) to much longer interviews or panel group discussions. There’s a podcast out there for just about every interest area and the best part about this technology is that you don’t have to have an iPod or a MP3 player to access them. Since podcasts use the MP3 file format, a popular compressed format for audio files, you really just need a PC (or portal device) with headphones or a speaker.

iTunes, the free downloadable application created by Apple is the directory finding service most associated with podcasts, but if you don’t have iTunes installed there are still plenty of options.

For this discovery exercise participants are asked to take a look at some popular podcast directory tools. Do some exploring on your own and locate a podcast that is of interest to you. Once found, you can easily pull the RSS feed into your blog reader (i.e., Bloglines or Google Reader) account as well, so that when new casts become available you’ll be automatically notified of their existence.

Discovery Exercises:

1. Take a look at one or two of the podcast directories listed and see if you can find a podcast that interests you. See if you can find some interesting library related podcasts here like book review podcasts or library news.

Add the RSS feed for a podcast to your blog reader account.

Create a blog post about your discovery process. Did you find anything useful here?

Discovery Resources:
· To find out more about podcasts start with Yahoo: What is a podcast tutorial
· There are many, many podcast directory and finding tools out there. Here are just three of the more popular ones that don’t, like iTunes, require a software download:
o Podcast.net
o Podcastalley.com
o Yahoo Podcasts
See also Educational Podcast Directory

Do you want to learn how to be a podcaster ? (Here are optional Resources for those who want to learn to create podcasts)
Yahoo: Publish a podcast
Odeo’s Studio – online recording studio.
Beginners guide to Podcasts & Creating Podcasts
How to podcast tutorial

Listen to audio here

Youtube

Within the past year online video hosting sites have exploded allowing users to easily upload and share videos on the web. Among all the web 2.0 players in this area, YouTube is currently top dog serving up over 1 million video views a day and allowing users not only to upload their own video content easily, but also embed clips into their own sites easily.

Do some searching around YouTube yourself and see what the site has to offer. You'll find everything from 1970s TV commercials and 60s music videos to library dominos and a video made by library school students for National Library Week. There's also the cult classic Conan the Librarian. CLA 2006 conference Library Cheer was fun, too. See also:

• Introducing the Book
• Library 2.0 Manifesto
• March of the Librarians
• A Vision of Students Today

...and my personal, and completely library unrelated, favourite, Johnny Depp as Capt Jack.

Of course, like any free site you’ll also find a lot stuff not worth watching too. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t explore and see for yourself what the site has too offer.

Discovery Exercise:

1. Explore YouTube & find a video worth adding as an entry in your blog.
2. Create a blog post about your experience. What did you like or dislike about the site and why did you choose the video that you did? Can you see any features or componets of the site that might be interesting if they were applied to library websites?

OPTIONAL: Try placing the video inside your blog using the copy and paste code for the for "Embeddable Player.” Note: you'll need to use Blogger's Edit HTML tab when pasting this code.

Discovery Resources:

Other popular video hosting sites:

• Yahoo Videos
• Google videos
• TeacherTube
• Jumpcut by Yahoo!Teachers
• Others - top video site list

NOTE: Videos, like music downloads, are bandwidth hogs. It is recommended that you complete this exercise during light Internet usage times.