Hello,
I just finished watching ‘twitter in plain English’ on youtube. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddO9idmax0o). My first impression of twitter from the youtube video is that it seemed a lot like the ‘status updates’ portion of facebook accounts. The twitter page also reminded me of an ‘msn’ messenger sort of page where instead of posting to someone specifically, user postings are made public to all ones twitter friends.
Twitter is a free website designed for user’s to socially interact on a more ‘small-talk’ level of friendship. It allows users to post short messages about themselves and what they are currently doing. From these posts I feel that whoever is interested may post back and forth with the original poster. Once you sign up for a twitter account then you can search twitter for friends who also have established twitter accounts.
This website seems very beneficial to those who live ‘on-the-go’ and want to keep track of everyday details about the ones they know and care about. I see this website being more for users who have cell phones, ipods, etc, who can post short messages while walking or resting. I am not sure if I would use this twitter from a home computer. I guess I’m not that outgoing and/or social and would therefore feel kind of strange posting something like ‘I just ate dinner’ or ‘I’m now going to bed.’ On the other hand if I was out doing something away from my home I may be more inclined to twitter something like ‘I just saw a really great concert.’
I’m not sure of a possible educational use for twitter with students but it could definitely be fun with other staff members. Since the program requires people to be ‘friends’ I don’t think it would be appropriate with students. With staff members twitter could definitely be used to break the ice with new staff or to get reacquainted with old staff at the beginning of the school year in September. At the first staff pro-d day we could spend 20-30 minutes adding each other as friends on twitter and posting short messages about current feelings or things other teachers participated in over the summer break. I think this would bridge a lot of similarities between staff in a more relaxed environment.
So I visited twitter.com and signed up for a free account. My user account can be found at the following website link: http://twitter.com/#!/waylonsmithand I posted a few ‘tweets’ just to check if it worked. I also added a picture of my vintage bike to my profile space. It seems like a pretty neat site. During the registration process I was prompted to add some bands to ‘follow’ on twitter. I found a few bands that I enjoy and chose to follow them. In twitter language, the command to ‘follow’ means to add that person/band/thing/ etc to your account so that when there are updates for these items, then you are made aware of the changes. I have yet to find any friends on the twitter site. The twitter site only allowed me to search limited sites for friends. Since most of my friends are located facebook, I couldn’t find any of them directly on twitter. Therefore my new goal is to find some of my friends/relatives/etc who are on twitter and add them to my fiends list.
Twitter seems very hip and I look forward to using it more in the future. Thanks and good night.
-Regen
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Blog Post #7: Social Networking Sites....
Hello,
Shortly before I started using facebook, I was hooked on the social website myspace. I’m still unsure as to why facebook trumped myspace somewhat because they do offer similar services but myspace even has a great music and band component that facebook doesn’t have. Anyways, facebook grants users free accounts in which they invite friends to be friends with them on the website. Each user has their account profile in which they add information about themselves such as pictures, quotes, favorite movies, favorite music, etc. Facebook also allows users to post comments on their profiles, friend’s profiles, and on pictures. These comments are always attached to profiles or pictures and all comments are date and time stamped to the nearest second, allowing other users to see exactly when comments are made. I believe that ‘comments’ are the biggest aspect of facebook and make up most of the new activity on the networking site.
When a user makes an account they must be aware that other users will see their profiles and see all their pictures and comments. If you are truly friends with someone then having these people see your profile, pictures, and comments isn’t a big deal. Though if you add friends to your facebook account that are more like acquaintances, co-workers, or bosses, then this greatly changes the level of privacy that your facebook account possesses. You must then be aware of all the people who could potentially see everything you have added to your profile. You must also think if these people would judge you by your comments, or in other words how seriously these acquaintances or co-workers will take your comments, pictures, etc.
If I was to list the most useful aspect of facebook, I would say that it would be the ‘event’ creation service that allows users to create an event and send e-invites to friends of facebook. Yes, numerous e-invites can get annoying but I find that this aspect of facebook is very efficient in finding out who will be attending and who will not. The electronic event creation ability of facebook eliminates the need for actual paper invitations and it makes it easier and cheaper to distribute the invites to your friends.
I also enjoy using facebook’s group creator which allows users to create groups of common interest. Once the group is created the moderator or creator of the group can then select which friends they want to send invitations to in order to join the group. If the group is a public group then users I send invites to, can then invite others who they feel may be interested in joining the group.
I am a co-moderator (officer) of a group called ‘Taylor Box Hockey’ at the following link: http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=2486591360 A friend and I created this group in order to better organize outdoor street hockey games. We play street hockey on rollerblades during the summer in a lacrosse box. We use the facebook group site as a way to better organize drop-in games. It’s great because we can post a game day and start time and then have people show up to play that wouldn’t have otherwise known about the game without the site. One bad aspect of these groups is that if it’s not updated frequently then users and members just quit checking the group site and it eventually becomes obsolete.
I feel the one main drawback or negative aspect of facebook is its privacy settings for user accounts. At one time my wife had a facebook account but deleted her account because she was upset by the fact that user comments could open up one’s profile to exponential numbers of other users who aren’t necessarily friends with you on the site. Meaning if I were to make a comment on a friends picture, then all of my friends could view that comment and further view my friends entire account including all past pictures, comments, etc. On the other hand if one of my friends makes a comment on one of my pictures then all of their friends can then view my entire profile and all of my past pictures and comments.
A possibility of using facebook within a school would be to organize events. Sporting events could be better organized using the event creator on the facebook site. A facebook group site could also be created for the school staff to discuss topics pertaining to social gatherings or specific student’s academic achievement. Creating a group site for a schools staff could make it easier to message everyone at the same time instead of using individual messages or the schools email list.
And yes, I did see the movie 'the social network'. I thought it was pretty good but wasn't sure if it was that accurate or not. I don't know the real story of how facebook was created but the movie did a good job. Especially liked the aspect of the creator not wanting to add advertising to the margins of the facebook page to give it a cheesy look.
Thanks. -Regen
Shortly before I started using facebook, I was hooked on the social website myspace. I’m still unsure as to why facebook trumped myspace somewhat because they do offer similar services but myspace even has a great music and band component that facebook doesn’t have. Anyways, facebook grants users free accounts in which they invite friends to be friends with them on the website. Each user has their account profile in which they add information about themselves such as pictures, quotes, favorite movies, favorite music, etc. Facebook also allows users to post comments on their profiles, friend’s profiles, and on pictures. These comments are always attached to profiles or pictures and all comments are date and time stamped to the nearest second, allowing other users to see exactly when comments are made. I believe that ‘comments’ are the biggest aspect of facebook and make up most of the new activity on the networking site.
When a user makes an account they must be aware that other users will see their profiles and see all their pictures and comments. If you are truly friends with someone then having these people see your profile, pictures, and comments isn’t a big deal. Though if you add friends to your facebook account that are more like acquaintances, co-workers, or bosses, then this greatly changes the level of privacy that your facebook account possesses. You must then be aware of all the people who could potentially see everything you have added to your profile. You must also think if these people would judge you by your comments, or in other words how seriously these acquaintances or co-workers will take your comments, pictures, etc.
If I was to list the most useful aspect of facebook, I would say that it would be the ‘event’ creation service that allows users to create an event and send e-invites to friends of facebook. Yes, numerous e-invites can get annoying but I find that this aspect of facebook is very efficient in finding out who will be attending and who will not. The electronic event creation ability of facebook eliminates the need for actual paper invitations and it makes it easier and cheaper to distribute the invites to your friends.
I also enjoy using facebook’s group creator which allows users to create groups of common interest. Once the group is created the moderator or creator of the group can then select which friends they want to send invitations to in order to join the group. If the group is a public group then users I send invites to, can then invite others who they feel may be interested in joining the group.
I am a co-moderator (officer) of a group called ‘Taylor Box Hockey’ at the following link: http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=2486591360 A friend and I created this group in order to better organize outdoor street hockey games. We play street hockey on rollerblades during the summer in a lacrosse box. We use the facebook group site as a way to better organize drop-in games. It’s great because we can post a game day and start time and then have people show up to play that wouldn’t have otherwise known about the game without the site. One bad aspect of these groups is that if it’s not updated frequently then users and members just quit checking the group site and it eventually becomes obsolete.
I feel the one main drawback or negative aspect of facebook is its privacy settings for user accounts. At one time my wife had a facebook account but deleted her account because she was upset by the fact that user comments could open up one’s profile to exponential numbers of other users who aren’t necessarily friends with you on the site. Meaning if I were to make a comment on a friends picture, then all of my friends could view that comment and further view my friends entire account including all past pictures, comments, etc. On the other hand if one of my friends makes a comment on one of my pictures then all of their friends can then view my entire profile and all of my past pictures and comments.
A possibility of using facebook within a school would be to organize events. Sporting events could be better organized using the event creator on the facebook site. A facebook group site could also be created for the school staff to discuss topics pertaining to social gatherings or specific student’s academic achievement. Creating a group site for a schools staff could make it easier to message everyone at the same time instead of using individual messages or the schools email list.
And yes, I did see the movie 'the social network'. I thought it was pretty good but wasn't sure if it was that accurate or not. I don't know the real story of how facebook was created but the movie did a good job. Especially liked the aspect of the creator not wanting to add advertising to the margins of the facebook page to give it a cheesy look.
Thanks. -Regen
Monday, March 14, 2011
Blog Post #6: Presentation Sites....
Hello,
I researched Prezi using the following youtube video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpLsF5lh98k
In general ‘Prezi’ is a whiteboard space designed for users to make single-page presentations. The users can input text and pictures and a prezi site allows users to zoom-in and zoom-out. Text size is important to display importance. Users can also make frames around similar topics. I created a quick Prezi regarding fractions, percents, and decimals to possibly use within the junior secondary math curriculum. The whole process was pretty straight forward, though it did take me a while to figure out how to change the size of the font. I have never created an electronic page where font size made such as huge difference. Using the endless zoom-in and zoom-out features made inserting an illegible text size possible. If you can’t read something that’s too small, just zoom-in. Please view the Prezi I created that is embedded in the previous blog thread.
I researched voicethread using the following youtube video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-U1wlRrKyyk
At first glance it reminded me of an online mind map. Posting a picture and then adding a comment for students and all to observe. I didn’t create anything using voicethread but enjoyed learning about it.
I researched glogster using the following youtube video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80NISdsoouE
Overall it’s an online poster creator with hyperlinks, text, pictures, etc. I didn’t create anything using glogster but enjoyed learning about it.
I researched animoto on youtube and viewed the following promomotional video from the company on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdTn0yRH_-w&feature=fvst
It didn’t say much about how to make a presentation, but displayed great examples of what the animoto site can create. I also watched another cool example on youtube where a user posted an animoto creation using their pictures from a Maui holiday. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTrm0s09FQA
Please see my blog posts below for my embedded animoto creation. I gathered a bunch of past Christmas photos together and used them. Animoto grants users free basic accounts for presentations 30 seconds or shorter (‘lite’ account, free). Animoto also allows basic access to a bunch of templates for user to choose from. Animoto also has thousdands of songs to choose from and use within your presentation. If users want more length and more features there is a ‘plus’ account , $30 per year. Presentations created using the ‘lite’ and ‘plus’ accounts have embedded logos and branding within them and require an animoto player to run the presentations. For a ‘pro’ account, $249 per year, the website allows users to create presentations that don’t have any branding and no required animoto player to run presentations.
The presentations created from this website would be great in school for the beginning of a new chapter or unit in order to ‘hook’ the students. Whenever music is combined with video footage or pictures it becomes hard not to be interested. Combining music and video is magical and should be used in class whenever possible as a way to get through the less interesting topic material.
I liked this wesbsite and the features offered but I feel it is not that different from imovie (Mac) or moviemaker (Windows PC). I feel this site provides novice pc users an easier and more convenient presentation product, but if you know just a bit around moviemaker or imovie that one could develop the same thing with more control over song choices and overall appearance of a presentation.
Researched xtranomal on youtube…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtjQlztrA2A
I created an account for the website www.xtranormal.com but I later discovered that users must buy points in order to purchase actors, sets, and music. I also read that educators can get free use of the site but you had to email the site and request to be verified. Although the sample xtranormal videos on youtube were quite entertaining, I didn’t know how much the total cost would be. Each new account gets 300 points to start but the costs of actors was 300-400 points, and more points to buy the set etc. The site sells 1200 points for $10USD, and I was going to buy them, but then didn’t know how far 1200 points would go.
This website is really denying themselves users and potential revenue by not allowing visitors to make their own small presentation that they could take away or embed elsewhere for that matter. This aspect seems very greedy and not user-friendly. Yes, the user can enter in some dialogue and hear some characters speak, but I don’t feel that is enough to get visitors returning to purchase points.
Thanks.
-Regen
I researched Prezi using the following youtube video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpLsF5lh98k
In general ‘Prezi’ is a whiteboard space designed for users to make single-page presentations. The users can input text and pictures and a prezi site allows users to zoom-in and zoom-out. Text size is important to display importance. Users can also make frames around similar topics. I created a quick Prezi regarding fractions, percents, and decimals to possibly use within the junior secondary math curriculum. The whole process was pretty straight forward, though it did take me a while to figure out how to change the size of the font. I have never created an electronic page where font size made such as huge difference. Using the endless zoom-in and zoom-out features made inserting an illegible text size possible. If you can’t read something that’s too small, just zoom-in. Please view the Prezi I created that is embedded in the previous blog thread.
I researched voicethread using the following youtube video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-U1wlRrKyyk
At first glance it reminded me of an online mind map. Posting a picture and then adding a comment for students and all to observe. I didn’t create anything using voicethread but enjoyed learning about it.
I researched glogster using the following youtube video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80NISdsoouE
Overall it’s an online poster creator with hyperlinks, text, pictures, etc. I didn’t create anything using glogster but enjoyed learning about it.
I researched animoto on youtube and viewed the following promomotional video from the company on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdTn0yRH_-w&feature=fvst
It didn’t say much about how to make a presentation, but displayed great examples of what the animoto site can create. I also watched another cool example on youtube where a user posted an animoto creation using their pictures from a Maui holiday. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTrm0s09FQA
Please see my blog posts below for my embedded animoto creation. I gathered a bunch of past Christmas photos together and used them. Animoto grants users free basic accounts for presentations 30 seconds or shorter (‘lite’ account, free). Animoto also allows basic access to a bunch of templates for user to choose from. Animoto also has thousdands of songs to choose from and use within your presentation. If users want more length and more features there is a ‘plus’ account , $30 per year. Presentations created using the ‘lite’ and ‘plus’ accounts have embedded logos and branding within them and require an animoto player to run the presentations. For a ‘pro’ account, $249 per year, the website allows users to create presentations that don’t have any branding and no required animoto player to run presentations.
The presentations created from this website would be great in school for the beginning of a new chapter or unit in order to ‘hook’ the students. Whenever music is combined with video footage or pictures it becomes hard not to be interested. Combining music and video is magical and should be used in class whenever possible as a way to get through the less interesting topic material.
I liked this wesbsite and the features offered but I feel it is not that different from imovie (Mac) or moviemaker (Windows PC). I feel this site provides novice pc users an easier and more convenient presentation product, but if you know just a bit around moviemaker or imovie that one could develop the same thing with more control over song choices and overall appearance of a presentation.
Researched xtranomal on youtube…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtjQlztrA2A
I created an account for the website www.xtranormal.com but I later discovered that users must buy points in order to purchase actors, sets, and music. I also read that educators can get free use of the site but you had to email the site and request to be verified. Although the sample xtranormal videos on youtube were quite entertaining, I didn’t know how much the total cost would be. Each new account gets 300 points to start but the costs of actors was 300-400 points, and more points to buy the set etc. The site sells 1200 points for $10USD, and I was going to buy them, but then didn’t know how far 1200 points would go.
This website is really denying themselves users and potential revenue by not allowing visitors to make their own small presentation that they could take away or embed elsewhere for that matter. This aspect seems very greedy and not user-friendly. Yes, the user can enter in some dialogue and hear some characters speak, but I don’t feel that is enough to get visitors returning to purchase points.
Thanks.
-Regen
Prezi sample...
Hey all,
Here's a sample I created in Prezi for a Percents/Fractions notes page.
Thanks. -Regen
Here's a sample I created in Prezi for a Percents/Fractions notes page.
Thanks. -Regen
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Animoto Sample....
Hello,
Here's an Animoto sample video I created using some Christmas decoration pictures.
It was pretty easy to set up the account and upload the pictures from my computer. I created this demo using the free user account and was tempted to sign up for the fee-based account to access longer video times.
Here's an Animoto sample video I created using some Christmas decoration pictures.
It was pretty easy to set up the account and upload the pictures from my computer. I created this demo using the free user account and was tempted to sign up for the fee-based account to access longer video times.
Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.
Monday, March 7, 2011
Blog Post #5: Wikis.....
Hello,
I began to learn about wiki’s on youtube viewing the ‘wikis in plain english’ video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dnL00TdmLY
I instantly related to the hypothetical scenario discussed in the video. The video discussed 4 friends trying to email back and forth to organize a camping trip. Instead or sending out countless emails to each other and making sure to include all members in each email, a ‘wiki’ could be used. Before I discuss more aspects of a ‘wiki’ I just wanted to state some obstacles and/or difficulties that groups encounter in trying to organize group emails. Also note that the use of a ‘wiki’ solves all of these re-occurring problems encountered with group emails.
In organizing group emails the initial ‘sender’ must remember to include all email addresses of a particular group. If people are forgotten then other ‘recipients’ could include missed members if they quickly ‘cc’d’ that person in a ‘reply-all’ email. This gets challenging because new email messages composed by group members must use the ‘reply-all’ message with the missed cc’d members or else any new emails will neglect to include the original missed members as well. Regular email is kind of limited in this regard. Regular email doesn’t update email lists in real time, in response to newly included or removed members. With a ‘wiki’ you can always be adding or removing people to the group list.
Another con to regular email is the accidental comments or poor choice of words offered up by some insensitive group members, either on purpose or by accident. Once you type something and send it, an email cannot be changed. The only option a sender has is to create an entirely different email with corrections noted. Within a wiki anyone can change a comment instantly or add on to the information already contributed. I can remember many instances where I am sure family members would have loved to have been able to change their comments within a group email.
As you may have guest, a ‘wiki’ is a private webpage shared only by members of the wiki. Non-members cannot view or change the pages. A wiki is like a meeting place where members can gather and share, or review information. Once an account is created, friends can be added to the list of people who can read and post items on the wiki. The concept of a wiki reminds me of the concept of conserving paper, in this case electronic paper.
I signed up for a wiki page on https://my.pbworks.com/
I chose this site over three others offered by the youtube video I watched. This site was free and it seemed pretty straightforward to navigate through and sign up for a page. This wiki page also had no advertising and didn’t look overly busy with banners of photos etc. The page I created is at the following address: http://regenslibe477page.pbworks.com/w/page/37183511/FrontPage . Please visit this page and email me if you want to be included. I set the settings to ‘public’ so I’m sure anyone can see it and write on it. Hopefully this was alright to select ‘public’ for the security settings.
In the future I’d like to research the methods these wiki sites use to determine which posts take priority over other posts in reference to times posted. For instance, if two people logged onto the same wiki at similar times and began to modify the same wiki page and then posted their results, which post would appear as the most recent change? Could someone’s post or alteration therefore be ‘cancelled’ out if someone were to make a change a few seconds afterwards? I would also like to research whether users could make their posts read-only or in other words make their posts impossible to alter? I guess if wikis employed this kind of read-only style of post that it would defeat the purpose of a wiki. Having users post responses that cannot be changed is more like a blog or a discussion board than a wiki.
In terms of educational purposes, wiki’s could definitely be used to initiate students to discuss classroom issues and promote more online discussion. I think students would find it exciting to be able to change other students post in order to clarify ideas and make posts more accurate.
I began to learn about wiki’s on youtube viewing the ‘wikis in plain english’ video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dnL00TdmLY
I instantly related to the hypothetical scenario discussed in the video. The video discussed 4 friends trying to email back and forth to organize a camping trip. Instead or sending out countless emails to each other and making sure to include all members in each email, a ‘wiki’ could be used. Before I discuss more aspects of a ‘wiki’ I just wanted to state some obstacles and/or difficulties that groups encounter in trying to organize group emails. Also note that the use of a ‘wiki’ solves all of these re-occurring problems encountered with group emails.
In organizing group emails the initial ‘sender’ must remember to include all email addresses of a particular group. If people are forgotten then other ‘recipients’ could include missed members if they quickly ‘cc’d’ that person in a ‘reply-all’ email. This gets challenging because new email messages composed by group members must use the ‘reply-all’ message with the missed cc’d members or else any new emails will neglect to include the original missed members as well. Regular email is kind of limited in this regard. Regular email doesn’t update email lists in real time, in response to newly included or removed members. With a ‘wiki’ you can always be adding or removing people to the group list.
Another con to regular email is the accidental comments or poor choice of words offered up by some insensitive group members, either on purpose or by accident. Once you type something and send it, an email cannot be changed. The only option a sender has is to create an entirely different email with corrections noted. Within a wiki anyone can change a comment instantly or add on to the information already contributed. I can remember many instances where I am sure family members would have loved to have been able to change their comments within a group email.
As you may have guest, a ‘wiki’ is a private webpage shared only by members of the wiki. Non-members cannot view or change the pages. A wiki is like a meeting place where members can gather and share, or review information. Once an account is created, friends can be added to the list of people who can read and post items on the wiki. The concept of a wiki reminds me of the concept of conserving paper, in this case electronic paper.
I signed up for a wiki page on https://my.pbworks.com/
I chose this site over three others offered by the youtube video I watched. This site was free and it seemed pretty straightforward to navigate through and sign up for a page. This wiki page also had no advertising and didn’t look overly busy with banners of photos etc. The page I created is at the following address: http://regenslibe477page.pbworks.com/w/page/37183511/FrontPage . Please visit this page and email me if you want to be included. I set the settings to ‘public’ so I’m sure anyone can see it and write on it. Hopefully this was alright to select ‘public’ for the security settings.
In the future I’d like to research the methods these wiki sites use to determine which posts take priority over other posts in reference to times posted. For instance, if two people logged onto the same wiki at similar times and began to modify the same wiki page and then posted their results, which post would appear as the most recent change? Could someone’s post or alteration therefore be ‘cancelled’ out if someone were to make a change a few seconds afterwards? I would also like to research whether users could make their posts read-only or in other words make their posts impossible to alter? I guess if wikis employed this kind of read-only style of post that it would defeat the purpose of a wiki. Having users post responses that cannot be changed is more like a blog or a discussion board than a wiki.
In terms of educational purposes, wiki’s could definitely be used to initiate students to discuss classroom issues and promote more online discussion. I think students would find it exciting to be able to change other students post in order to clarify ideas and make posts more accurate.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Blog Post #4: Podcasts....
Hello,
‘Podcasting’ stands for Personal, On, Demand Viewing of videos, or listening to radio programs produced by individuals.
The idea of recording television first became popular because people developed desires to watch their favourite television programs at other times than the television stations were offering them. Listeners also had to tune in to radio stations at the right time to hear radio programs that they enjoyed.
The first solution to this problem was the VCR (video cassette recorder). Sony did produce its own version of the VCR termed the BETA recorder but it virtually performed the same operation as the VCR. Later the DVD (Digital Video Disc) recorder was produced, and currently the most popular form or recording is via the PVR (Personal Video Recorder).
PVR devices are typically supplied by the cable companies as incentives to sign up with them for multi-year contracts. The PVR unit’s record onto a hard drive, meaning there is no media disc or tape. The hard drive can hold hundreds of hours of television and recorded shows can be erased at any time. The nice thing about PVR units is that you can set them to record at similar times during the day or each week. The one drawback of the PVR unit is that it must be connected to a cable source to receive the video feed.
Enter the newest technology of Podcasting. From viewing the youtube video: Podcasting in Plain English http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMgemQahuFM, I make sense of the technology by comparing it to a wireless version of a PVR. The word ‘wireless’ refers to the lack of internet connection with respect to Mp3 players and wireless internet connections. Where the PVR has to be connected to an internet or cable source to record a television show, a device such as an Ipod or Mp3 player can receive the latest podcast recording wirelessly while in the user’s pocket!
To receive a podcast wirelessly, the user must first download a program that is able to receive or ‘capture’ the incoming podcast information. The capturing devices are termed ‘pod-catchers’ and be as simple as an iTunes program.
The actual technology available for this to work is quite amazing. I never knew what podcasting was until this blog post. Though the technology is great, I feel that the freedom to produce and ‘cast’ radio and video over the internet is far greater. Podcasting creates more ways for people to express themselves in an easy manner, and gives way to a far greater ‘electronic’ freedom of speech.
So for the actual creation of a podcast I visited the website www.podomatic.com and created a user account. Funny, this was one of the first accounts I had to create because google doesn’t own this website and I therefore can’t use my google email address. All the previous web tools have been owned or linked to google and one didn’t need to make a whole new account. Anyways, the podomatic site had a great layout and a very hip feel while you were visiting. Creating an account was easy and I liked how you didn’t need to go back to your email and enter in any verification code. Once you entered your email address and full name, you could begin immediately with your first podcast.
The process of publishing a podcast was similar to other web tools, as the site prompted you for a title and message for your podcast. At first I thought podcasts were all video based and was worried about the transfer process from my camcorder to my computer. Then after searching around I found that podcasts can also be strictly audio-based as well. Before creating my podcast account, and my first podcast, I had used my windows basic audio recorder to record a quick audio clip. I didn’t know where the microphone is on my laptop but as soon as I hit record and began to talk, my message was being recorded.
Once I had created an account, I uploaded my audio recording and posted it on my podcast homepage. One note is that the audio clip must be recorded elsewhere prior to making the podcast posting. The Podomatic site only organizes the already-created media. This site does not help with the specific creation of audio or video. The user must upload established material before entering the ‘make a podcast’ section of Podomatic. After creating my first podcast, I copied the hyperlink and posted it within my blog. It looked fine but I then desired to have it embedded into the site to create an easier access for visitors to my blog. You have to click on a few extra buttons within the Podomatic site and find the button that states ‘embed within facebook or a website’. When you follow the embed button, you’re provided with the embed code in which you can cut and paste as you wish into any sort of web document. One final note, prior to pasting the embed code into your blog, be sure to click the correct tab button so that your blog post accepts, and processes the ‘html’ embed code correctly.
In the future I would love to create more podcasts and would love to later experiment with video as well. As for teaching, a podcast would be a great accompaniment to any teacher website for a course. I teach math so I’ve thought about creating weekly podcasts which would verbally explain math concepts along with video footage too.
Please see my embedded podcast message in my previous blog post.
Thanks. -Regen
‘Podcasting’ stands for Personal, On, Demand Viewing of videos, or listening to radio programs produced by individuals.
The idea of recording television first became popular because people developed desires to watch their favourite television programs at other times than the television stations were offering them. Listeners also had to tune in to radio stations at the right time to hear radio programs that they enjoyed.
The first solution to this problem was the VCR (video cassette recorder). Sony did produce its own version of the VCR termed the BETA recorder but it virtually performed the same operation as the VCR. Later the DVD (Digital Video Disc) recorder was produced, and currently the most popular form or recording is via the PVR (Personal Video Recorder).
PVR devices are typically supplied by the cable companies as incentives to sign up with them for multi-year contracts. The PVR unit’s record onto a hard drive, meaning there is no media disc or tape. The hard drive can hold hundreds of hours of television and recorded shows can be erased at any time. The nice thing about PVR units is that you can set them to record at similar times during the day or each week. The one drawback of the PVR unit is that it must be connected to a cable source to receive the video feed.
Enter the newest technology of Podcasting. From viewing the youtube video: Podcasting in Plain English http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMgemQahuFM, I make sense of the technology by comparing it to a wireless version of a PVR. The word ‘wireless’ refers to the lack of internet connection with respect to Mp3 players and wireless internet connections. Where the PVR has to be connected to an internet or cable source to record a television show, a device such as an Ipod or Mp3 player can receive the latest podcast recording wirelessly while in the user’s pocket!
To receive a podcast wirelessly, the user must first download a program that is able to receive or ‘capture’ the incoming podcast information. The capturing devices are termed ‘pod-catchers’ and be as simple as an iTunes program.
The actual technology available for this to work is quite amazing. I never knew what podcasting was until this blog post. Though the technology is great, I feel that the freedom to produce and ‘cast’ radio and video over the internet is far greater. Podcasting creates more ways for people to express themselves in an easy manner, and gives way to a far greater ‘electronic’ freedom of speech.
So for the actual creation of a podcast I visited the website www.podomatic.com and created a user account. Funny, this was one of the first accounts I had to create because google doesn’t own this website and I therefore can’t use my google email address. All the previous web tools have been owned or linked to google and one didn’t need to make a whole new account. Anyways, the podomatic site had a great layout and a very hip feel while you were visiting. Creating an account was easy and I liked how you didn’t need to go back to your email and enter in any verification code. Once you entered your email address and full name, you could begin immediately with your first podcast.
The process of publishing a podcast was similar to other web tools, as the site prompted you for a title and message for your podcast. At first I thought podcasts were all video based and was worried about the transfer process from my camcorder to my computer. Then after searching around I found that podcasts can also be strictly audio-based as well. Before creating my podcast account, and my first podcast, I had used my windows basic audio recorder to record a quick audio clip. I didn’t know where the microphone is on my laptop but as soon as I hit record and began to talk, my message was being recorded.
Once I had created an account, I uploaded my audio recording and posted it on my podcast homepage. One note is that the audio clip must be recorded elsewhere prior to making the podcast posting. The Podomatic site only organizes the already-created media. This site does not help with the specific creation of audio or video. The user must upload established material before entering the ‘make a podcast’ section of Podomatic. After creating my first podcast, I copied the hyperlink and posted it within my blog. It looked fine but I then desired to have it embedded into the site to create an easier access for visitors to my blog. You have to click on a few extra buttons within the Podomatic site and find the button that states ‘embed within facebook or a website’. When you follow the embed button, you’re provided with the embed code in which you can cut and paste as you wish into any sort of web document. One final note, prior to pasting the embed code into your blog, be sure to click the correct tab button so that your blog post accepts, and processes the ‘html’ embed code correctly.
In the future I would love to create more podcasts and would love to later experiment with video as well. As for teaching, a podcast would be a great accompaniment to any teacher website for a course. I teach math so I’ve thought about creating weekly podcasts which would verbally explain math concepts along with video footage too.
Please see my embedded podcast message in my previous blog post.
Thanks. -Regen
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