Do You Hear What I Hear? (Do You See What I See?)

Podcasts, video casts, I love them all. Okay, I'm an Internet junkie and a geek and love all the bells and whistles the Internet has to offer.

I love these technologies for they democracy they offer. The whole world can share thoughts, expertise, ideas and plain silliness. I think it's great.

I can't choose between them to name a favorite. For me, they each have their place.

On my iPod, I currently have episodes of the radio show This American Life and some casts from Yoga Journal. I love the Yoga Journal ones. When they first started offering instruction you could subscribe to and download, they offered podcasts. I enjoyed loading them on my iPod and listening to them, focusing on the instructions. Now YJ offers the option of audio with or without video, which is great. I can choose which option best suits my needs and I can do both on the iPod Touch. You don't have to go to the class, it comes to you. Same for lectures, radio shows, and people sharing their thoughts.

I love YouTube. I love the scope of things you can find there. We've used some of the "in Plain English" videos in computer classes we've taught here in the library. As we've seen in this class, their clear and breezy style makes learning a complicated topic so much easier.

As mentioned previously in this class it seems like people are finding all sorts of practical uses for YouTube videos, including reference resources for papers. I love that librarians are using videos to teach library skills, such as how to place a hold, to share projects and programs, and book reviews. Our teen librarian, Jenn Barnes, in a blog posting of a book review, included a YouTube trailer for the book read by the author.

I like the idea of TeacherTube, a specialized targeted collection of casts. Maybe we should start a LibrarianTube as well. Or maybe tagging will reach an art form and specialized collections will easily sort and resort themselves out according to our needs.

For the millions of people who are visual learners, YouTube offers instruction you can see. The scope is amazing. You can use YouTube to learn a knitting skill, debone a turkey and tie a tie. The examples are endless. I love that when you google something videos are frequently included on the first page of results.

And I love all the weird, funny, wacky stuff on YouTube.

When I went to look for my favorite video, Cat Flushing a Toilet, I was delighted to find a new, improved version set to music:



Oh, yeah, that reminds me. Last June my husband and I went to Peru for a yoga retreat. We were remarried at Macchu Picchu (it's a long story). Before we went a friend sent me this Llama Song video which was stuck in my head the entire time. Sorry if this happens to you: