MediaFly

MEDIAFLY On Air is a free site that connects viewers to recent news of all sorts of topics.  In addition to online radio and podcasts, Mediafly lets consumers listen to their favorite podcast and radio shows from the major networks.   Go to MEDIAFLY.com and explore!

You can search by community picks, source or topic.  Here are two topics.

• Education has a variety of sites, but they do not appear to be provided by the education community. TedTalks and GrammarGirl are options, for example. 
• Technology has many popular technology shows, including GeekBeat.tv

Library Technology Trends: Big Shift, Wifi Saturation, Laptops

Florida-based Free Range Librarian Karen Schneider wrote a summary of library technology trends when she returned from ALA Mid-winter conference in San Diego.  Karen's trends refer mostly to academic and public libraries.

• The Big Shift:  ebooks and streaming (rather than DVDs) is catching on faster than anticipated; moving seldom-used materials to off-site facilities.  Regional repositories are a far better investment than compact shelving.
• Wifi saturation: more and more people carry multiple wifi-enabled devices and increasingly depend on access to the Internet.  
• Laptops: most college Freshmen now have laptop computers and need wifi, power, and security. There is a reduced need for desktop computers in academic (and public libraries in affluent communities).

C-SPAN Author Interviews -- Webcasts Online

C-SPAN has 800+ author interviews online. The webcasts of the popular series "BookNotes" cover the years 1988-2004. Browse the database and discover all sorts of good finds. Programs run about an hour. Enjoy!

CES - Consumer Electronics Show 2010

Good to hear that the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) was more upbeat than last year. Apple no longer does trade shows, but in anticipation of Apple's planned end-of-January announcement, lots of vendors showcased tablet PCs. Top three products that got media attention were tablets and netbooks, 3D TVs, and e-book readers. See Wildstom's summary and LATimes item on e-book Readers. See FLICKR slideshow for a glimpse at all the gadgets, games, and guys (99% male audience). CNET editors announced its "Best of CES" (Panasonic 3D plasma TV and Intel Wireless). Local California company Sling Media made some big announcements -- Slingbox is a TV streaming device that allows consumers watch their home TV from all sorts of devices, from anywhere.

CES reported its 2010 Top Trends:

1. Year of the App - 2009 was only the beginning!
2. iPhone vs Palm - 2010 will see more mobile announcements
   
3. Green is the new black - Sustainable planet
4. Software - Windows 7
   

Education products and applications were addressed in several forums, including "Living in Digital Times"and HigherEd Tech Summit, but the news media focused mostly on consumer gadgets.

You Tube Quick Capture at Mac World

Post #2 from Mac World in San Francisco. A cool blogger was spoted in a red British phone booth, recording a message. Check it out.

New Online Video Site - Hulu.com

TV is going all digital in just a few months (2009). Will sites like Hulu replace traditional TV? Hulu offers many full-length television shows and movies for free. A post on Marc Cuban's Blog Maverick says the site is really taking off, thanks in large part to the success of YouTube. Hulu posts clips and other snippets on YouTube to attract viewers to full programs on its site. Hulu viewers can watch their favorite shows (and some older favorites) on this new online video site, which was launched this year.

Mobile Computing [Humor]

Speaking of mobile technologies -- check out this funny "mobile desktop" event by Improv Everywhere! This group's theme: "We cause scenes."

Words, Words, Mere Words - Digital Storytelling

Today's edition of the Daily Buzz on MoBuzz.tv covers digital story telling, including the announcement of online works of the earliest known versions of Shakespeare. It is fun to watch and listen to MoBuzz.tv's news reporter, Olivia.

Urbanista Diaries -- NOKIA's Urban Bloggers

Urbanista Diaries is the second phase of a Nokia ad campaign for its N82 series phone. The campaign first followed four bloggers on a trip around the world. Their mission was to capture stories and the beauty of the places they visited. This time, the mobile bloggers documented about 22 stops, using a relay method.


How could a class or school use this technique to showcase its community? Would the focus be on public places and people like parks and police, libraries and librarians? Or entertainment like movie theaters, malls, and milkshake meeting places?

Where did I discover this? A friend pointed me to the Public Broadcasting Network's IdeaLab blog. Check it out.

YouTube Award Winners 2007

YouTube is amazing. Here are the award winners for 2007. One of these days, a library advocacy video will win a prize. Or, maybe the librarians should have an awards nomination and winners for categories especially for library topics! Why not?

ALA or CLA award categories could include: humor, advocacy, "how to" search, professional development, program promotions, etc.

Story Boards and Videos

We've all enjoyed videos from YouTube, TeacherTube, Google Video, and such. But how do you go about creating your own special video? Afterall, a short video with just the right images, messages, music, and more can do wonders for getting the attention (and funding) your library deserves.

Here are a few sites that include "how to" lessons, online tutorials, and tools such as story boards.

• San Diego COE offers a Video Storyboard pdf to educators
• Photostory3 - a free download from Microsoft
• Microsoft Movie Maker. "How to"
• Kid's Vid
• Peachpit
• DiscoveryLearning/UnitedStreaming: MovieMaker Tutorial that uses UnitedStreaming images
• Atomic Learning - series of mini tutorials - well done!
• Ed Tech Masters project - dated, but well presented.
• Digital storytelling and tools
• Apple iLife and iMovie

The technology is the easy part. What you want to say and how to say it is the hard part.

Cell Phones will be a digital divide 'leveler'

Here is a good video about the future of using cell phones in K12. This is about 1/2 hour interview with Dr. Elliot Soloway of the University of Michigan. Robert Scoble's interview of Dr. Soloway is entitled "Improving Education with the Teacher of the Year." Near the end, there is a discussion on the critical importance of reading, increasing literacy rates, and the importance of the public library.

Some highlights:

• In 4 years, cell phones will be THE tool. It will be accepted in schools at some point soon.
  For schools to accept cell phones, teachers must teach the existing K12 curriculum in the cell phone in order to get the (cell phone) revolution going.
• Longer term, students will all be carrying hand-helds (like iPhone) and will think more globally because they can easily communcate with other kids around the world. School reports will see more multi-media (how students express themselves.) Cell phone costs will continue to go down in price, making them more accessible to all students.
• Digital divide: "The Cell phone is a 'leveler' of the digital divide."

ALA announcement on READ T-Shirts for avatars

I signed up to get ALA News so I'd get their announcement on the Yahoo! Avatar READ t-shirts. It appeared first on their list of lots of news. That was cool.

But what I also learned from the ALA announcement was that there is an ALA site for the general public called "I Love Libraries." I'm sure its been around for some time, but I just learned about it! It was also a clever way to direct readers to their public site, with fun links and donation opportunities. Another link on this page is "Careers in Libraries." Another link is "Librarians on YouTube." ALA is really getting hip! What a perception changer... hummm.

Week 9: LibraryThing and YouTube (#19, 20 Thing)

Week 9 is the final week of SJLibrary 2.0 and the first exercise asks us to look at LibraryThing, something I did back in Week 6 when the focus was on tagging. We were invited to look at MoBuzzTV.com for a story on LibraryThing, but I couldn't find the story even when searching their archives. MoBuzzTV has lots of interesting and short technology stories.

Another assignment (#20) is to check out YouTube and look for other similar sites. Humm.. this also seems like a repeat for me from Week 6. Two of my favorite "library themed" YouTube videos are Library Dominos and Ray of Light. Library Dominos is short, mostly silent, yet sweet. ray of Light has great music and is "a day in the life of a library" - a real treat and tribute to all who work at the St. Joseph's County Library.

WEEK 5: Award Winning Sites - ansaTHAT.com (#11 Thing)

This Discovery Lesson urges us to explore at least three award winning 2.0 sites. Here are my favorites: DailyMotion (video site), Wayfaring (mapping), and HipCAL(organization.)

DailyMotion.com won first place in the web 2.0 awards. It is something like YouTube, which won second place. Showing was a hilarious daily "research" program with James Black at ansaTHAT.com -- "The place where YOU ask the questions and WE find the answers."
see the January 30th or February 1st programs to capture the craziness of this British bloke -- is he a librarian? Good question to ask him.

Wayfaring.com is something like Google Maps. Problem so far with mapping applications is that they ignore our southern neighbor, Mexico! In any case, it won first choice, followed by Frappr and HousingMaps.
HousingMaps is a visual way to look for housing including available rooms to rent.
Frappr is for individuals to map where they are, attach a photo, and socialize with others in their Frappr map. One group consisted of people who own/ride horses, for example. This could be an interesting way for specialized librarians to have a national conversation.

First place site for organizing was HipCal, it's about time -- a site for creating calendars. This has potential for library room reservations, and possibly reference desk duty. Website indicated this was just acquired by second place winner, Planzo.com

Other places I checked out:
Shopping web.20 site ETSY is for buying and selling handmade things. OK, but I'm not much of a shopper.
So much to explore, but need to absorb possibilities before touring some more.