Thing 19 -- Podcasts

03/21/2008

The 1st podcast I picked I found in podcast.com. I used their "rooty/our featured pocasts" menu and then clicked on Science. Kidcast.tv : Science@Home jumped out to me. My 3 "kids" (human not 4 legged!) watched Bill Nye the Science Guy as they were growing up plus I've always been interested in science. The episode I viewed was Science@Home: Minute 7. These podcasts are only quick, simple shows that answer science questions submitted by kids but DEFINITELY more useful than commerical advertisements! I did notice that the podcast was listed under "lastest episodes" but the link info said it had been posted 41 weeks ago -- hmmm, not too recent. So I found their direct website and found out quickly that they have had to abandon their shows etc. -- their news blog indicated a "cease and desist notice" ... so much for that!

Okay so on to some more podcasts I tried. The Education Podcast Network (EPN) seems like it would have some interesting & academic titles (I work in an academic library). I started to listen to Math Mutation #60 "Drop that number or we'll shoot" but it was only audio ... and surprise, surprise ... boring!! Just thought I'd give it a shot (yes, pun intended!). So while still on EPN I checked out a podcast under the topic "Healthful Living", The EnvironMinute -- "Easter Eggs" but again, just audio. So I'm really a visual person while on the computer :))) and if I wanted to listen to audio only then I'd turn on a radio ... and if I wanted boring radio then I turn on talk-radio.

Podcastalley.com didn't appeal to me; reminded me more of a news source. Podcast.net wouldn't load for me so I went back to Podcast.com and checked out the Education rooty and selected The Princeton Review Vocab Minute "Party". This is supposed to teach a vocab word in 60 seconds via song. Well, for higher education it's an interesting concept ... and I guess could be used to bridge a link between K-3 and ESL ... but mainly I think it's a college group having fun and touting this as educational. I was expecting something more a long the lines of Schoolhouse Rock teaching but this is more like Raffi enjoyment. ... I should note this was only audio but I did like it!

Would I ever podcast? As in create one myself? I really don't think so ... or at least I don't have any inspiration for a podcast of my own creation. As for subscribing to a podcast I think I'd have to do a little more researching but I don't think that I would subscribe. But I reserve the right to say "never say never" ...

Thing 5 Revisited -- More Flickr Fun

03/18/2008

I was so inspired by Linda's "Missy Kitty/Warholized" that I had to try it myself! So here's me (at about age 15) "Warholized" using BigHugeLabs Warholizer. I think Missy Kitty still rules but I had fun trying!

Thing 18 -- YouTube

03/17/2008
I so wanted to upload Gary Allan's video "Tough Little Boys" but the embedding has been disabled by request (I assume by the artist etc.) I think is this a wonderfully done music video. I remember having listened to the song many times before actually seeing the video. I had enjoyed the song and always wondered what the video was like but I had NO idea that it was portrayed as service men with their little girls. Wow!

Okay, so here's the video I picked: Cats talking, Translation.

Yes, cats rule!

YouTube Uses -- What can I say? Yes, numerous uses. I especially like the Winona State Univ Library video -- great way to advertise a library!

Thing 17 -- ELM Tools

03/17/2008
Well I have to admit I have a link for ELM on our library website but I don't use the ELM resources very often nor do I suggest them to library patrons. I do have separate links for EBSCO (using "MegaFile") and ProQuest but the remaining ELM links have not promoted as heavily.

Gale -- I, like others it seems, was not able to get the RSS feed working. The feed symbol showed up but I rec'd an error msg when pasting the URL. IF it worked I think this would be useful when researching for a project or paper.

EBSCO -- Page Composer was "ok" but I think there are much better options out there for creating webpages ... but maybe I'm tainted by having 13 years experience in webpage design.

ProQuest -- I did like this feature of creating a "web page" (actually just a way to send your research results via e-mail) ... being able to add notes or comments is a great advantage and just that little extra reminder about why you liked or kept a certain webpage.

NetLibrary -- Yet another offering of ways to save, share, and comment on research items. I wasn't able to fully explore this since my NetLibrary logon & password weren't working for me ... this has happened for me more than once in the past with NetLibrary. I sent a logon/password help request but still have not yet had a response ... all this discourages me from using their product.

How can these tools benefit us? Since we are an academic library and the majority of our patrons are our students these are good ways to help them keep track of their research resources.