Week 9: Podcasts, and Downloadable Audio

Welcome to the ninth and final week of exercises! While this is the last week of new assigments, don't forget that you have until the end of December to complete your work! Things 20-23 require sound. You may need to make arrangements to use a computer with sound for the next two exercises.

#20 Downloadable music at Spokane Public Library

Thing #20 for PLCMC features YouTube, but since the streaming video does not play well on the thin client stations in our library... we are asking everyone to listen to a sample of the streaming audio music from the library's new databases found online at http://www.spokanelibrary.org/research/electronicresources.asp#Music Find your earbuds from Staff Day and listen privately!

Options include African American Song, Classical Music Library, and Smithsonian Global Sound -- Listen to something appropriate to the season, from a country you've never tried to spell or an instrument you especially like. Offer an honest assessment of the music on your blog. Would YOU or your family ever choose to listen to music this way or use these resources for a school assignment?

#21 Podcasts, Smodcasts!

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 24 months, it's easy to see why.

Podcasts take many forms, from short 1-10 minutes commentaries to much longer in person 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.

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 Bloglines account as well, so that when new casts become available you’ll be automatically notified of their existence.

Discovery Resources:

There are many, many podcast directories and finding tools out there. Here are just three of the more popular ones that, unlike iTunes, don't require a software download:
Podcast.net
Podcastalley.com
Yahoo Podcasts

What? You want to learn how to be a podcaster too? (Optional Resources for those who want to learn create podcasts)
Odeo’s Studio – online recording studio.
How to podcast tutorial

Discovery Exercise:

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.
2. Add the RSS feed for a podcast to your Bloglines account
3. Create a blog post about your discovery process. Did you find anything useful here?

#22 Audiobooks (or "The end is in sight ")

We will be experimenting with LibriVox. This "acoustical liberation of books in the public domain" is available free of charge and is currently the only form of downloadable audio book that we make available to our customers.

Discover Exercise

1. Explore LibriVox.
2. Create a blog post about your experience with this website.

#23 The end or the beginning?

Congratulations!! You’ve reached the 23rd thing. Be sure to give yourself a pat on the back for completing the program. Your reward for completing this journey before the December 31st deadline is a useful and handy USB flash drive. These will be available by the end of January. But before you are done, there is one last discovery post. For your last and final exercise for this program please reflect on your learning journey and post a few thoughts. Here are some questions to prompt you if you're drawing a blank ...

• What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?
• How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals?
• Were there any take-aways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?
• What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept?And last but not least…
• If we offered another discovery program like this in the future, would you again chose to participate?

As we wrap up this learning adventure, you all deserve a big thank you for diving in and participating in something new. Nice work.