Jane Bethel

Paper title: Podcasting Power

Abstract:
The power of podcasting can come from its characteristics as key points of specific topics , as audio explanatory material, and as an easy-to-use experience. More characteristics describe podcasts as a learning aide offered at the user’s point of need, appropriate for the average human being’s attention span, and as a reinforcement of knowledge learned through the dimension of conversation. Pure podcasts still do exist, but much broadcasting today adds the video element. This paper is geared to mainly a discussion of academic-centered audio-only podcasts.
Successful libraries of the future will incorporate participatory network service such as hosting educational podcasts or providing the tools to make them. Podcasts along with other library 2.0 services will keep patrons using the library and serve established user-centered patrons already listening to podcasts of their own personal choosing. The power of personal choice is satisfying and remains viable because it is the people’s choice.
The effectiveness and usefulness of educational or informational podcasts need to be measured for qualitative analysis in order to know if the production effort is worth the time and money, no matter how short or simple. Just because you make a podcast does not mean that the people will come to hear it. It must be powerful enough to fill the needs of the information seeker. Always evaluate by survey and/or through user interviews.

Definition:
My paper will take a peak at the history of podcasting, its natural symbiosis with video or still images, stay focused on informational or educational podcast themes for library involvement in patrons’ lives, and validate simple yet effective teaching components. Podcasting is just one part of the library 2.0 experience and the greater web 2.0 experience. Libraries who incorporate participatory services send a message to the user that the library invites participatory conversations. Conversational pieces are brought to you by participating and socially networked libraries.

Just checking out some articles for my paper in google scholar and I came across the two new terms “vodcasts” and “audioblogging.” Hence I have learned that audioblogging came before podcasting. Wikipedia has some basic information; so does Encyclopedia Britannica. I was surprised to find out that podcasting became stabilized less than four years ago, around 2004, with mp3 format and RSS. At least that is what I think I remember about the data I gathered.

Computers & Education
Volume 50, Issue 2, February 2008, Pages 491-498
DEVELOPMENT, DISRUPTION & DEBATE – Selected Contributions from the CAL 07 Conference

Chris Evans^{, a,
a}Centre for Educational Multimedia, Brunel Business School, Brunel University, Uxbridge, Middlesex UB8 3PH, UK
Received 30 April 2007; revised 21 September 2007; accepted 25 September 2007. Available online 7 November 2007.

I wonder how long podcasting has been used at schools for the blind? Have blind students had the  opportunity to learn about more subjects and hear more information because of this medium, podcasting?

I am so accustomed to an audio feed that when I recently started a tutorial, I was having a fit when I could not get any sound. My friend had to tell me that there probably wasn’t any sound. I could not believe it. I cannot remember only “watching”  a tutorial. There are probably a great many video clips without sound that I just don’t know about. Doesn’t sound very inviting, though. No pun intended.