Luddite Learning

Week 7, Part A: Podcasting

Our assignments were to explore the podcasting directories of podcast.net and Podcast Alley, to view two medical libraries’ podcast sites, create an Odeo account, search for podcasts, subscribe to a podcast, and note subscription under My audio.

I found Podcast Alley easier to use than Podcast.net. Podcast Alley was faster, better organized, and included interesting features like voting. I liked how the description of the video and author popped up when you clicked on it. I was surprised to see videos listed on Podcast.net.

I could not get into UT podcasts, but the history of medicine lecture series at UVA was impressive and well displayed and organized.

Creating an Odeo account was easy, and finding podcasts of interest was simple, if sometimes slow through dial-up. I found NPR Health and Science, but somehow accidentally subscribed via an RSS feed to Google Reader. Of course, initially the RSS feed went to the wrong person, as I share the computer with the cheap husband, who signs into a different volunteer organization account. I was able to change to my account and copy in the NPR URL to my Google Reader RSS feeds. Four NPR programs appeared, and sometime after, I heard bits and pieces of one coming through the computer speakers. I realized that I was supposed to subscribe differently, but when I went to change the subscription in Odeo, it told me I already had a subscription. So I subscribed to a different program. I think I find getting them through my RSS feed more convenient however anyway.

I am not sure that developing Podcasts has too much potential use in our library at this time, in part, because all of the sites are blocked. Sometimes podcasts can be useful for staff education, however, like sharing a recent NPR story that mentioned our organization.