Week #8 - Podcasts and Video

***Thing #19 - Discover YouTube and a few sites that allow users to upload and share videos.

Wikipedia's explanation on YouTube

In this exercise we will be having a look at the video hosting site YouTube. YouTube is currently the most popular site to allow 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 Web 2.0 to the Revolution of dance to Mr Bean's revolution of dancing. Of course, like any free site you’ll also find a lot stuff not worth watching too. But that does not mean you shouldn't explore and see for yourself what the site has too offer.

Also, here is a video created by the teens at Ephrata High School as an introduction the their morning show, Ephrata AM.


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

Other popular video hosting sites:
Yahoo Videos
Google videos
Others - top video site list

***Thing #20 - Learn About Podcasts and Discover Some Useful Search Tools for Locating Podcasts

In 2005, "podcast" was named the "word of the year" by New Oxford American Dictionary and with the growth of podcasting over the last few years, it's easy to see why. Podcasts take many forms, from short 1-10 minutes commentaries (like the podcasts that have been created for this Learning 2.0 program) 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. 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.

Discovery Rescources:
Have a look at Podcasting in Plain English.

Some Podcasting Directories
http://www.podcastdirectory.com/
www.learnoutloud.com/podcast-directory

Optional Advanced Resources: (for those who want to learn how to create a podcast of their own)
Beginner's guide to Podcasts & Creating Podcasts
How to podcast tutorial

Discovery Exercise:
Take a look at ITunes or one or two of the podcast directories listed above and see if you can find a podcast that interests you. See if you can find some interesting library related podcasts, like book review podcasts or library news.
Add the RSS feed for a podcast to your Blogger account

***Thing #21 - Post Some Links on Your Blog for Videos and Podcasts You've Discovered. Discuss How This Medium is Changing the Way People Can Share Creative Projects