This week in class we explored Online Multimedia. So, move over Hollywood, the World Wide Media Web has arrived! The biggest impact of multimedia on the internet is the ability of ANYBODY to express their opinions to the World. With a camera, microphone, computer and internet connections, we all are the media entertainment for this century. I personally find myself on the computer searching for sites that peak my interest more than I’m watching television lately. If I miss the latest episode of “Lost” I only need to wait for a short while before viewing the update or even a podcast on their website. What impact does this have on education? Overall, the concept is a positive one. Anyone “surfing the web” will find a variety of multimedia information available to answer their every quandary. Of course, the negative impact is that everyone’s opinions may not be the same as yours and not appropriate for the younger viewing audience. The stage is set. Let’s look at some of our prop and set designers.
Podcast Alley has a variety of podcasts available both educational and not-so educational. I found a sufficient number of podcasts to keep this site in my favorites for future use.
iTunes is known to me more for their music than their podcasts. However, there did offer a better choice than Podcast Alley in some subjects. I found they use mp4’s instead of a more common mp3 format for their videos and audio. This makes their music and video exclusive for their equipment. Although Zamzar could probably convert the MP4 format to MP3 (though I admit I didn’t try it)
Pandora offers and internet music experience. Register, type in your favorite music, sit back and listen. The difference with Pandora is they have classified the music. They classify types of music into “stations”, offering a variety of music in those stations, and we have the option of keeping which songs we want to keep in the station. You may receive the exact band you were looking for once or twice then it’s on to another band with a similar sound. How can it relate to education? All music is a reflection of their times. It could be used in a History or Social Studies class to show what the thoughts and opinions were of the year the class was discussing.
Europa Film Treasures a precious reflection of movies-past. Like music; these vintage movies are also a reflection of times gone by and also interesting historical insights into other countries and their viewpoint of the world.
YouTube My original opinion of YouTube was not the greatest. Our school, like many other school districts around the country, has had a low opinion of this site. YouTube’s mantra;“Broadcast Yourself” has invited people to do just that, broadcast themselves in scary detail on occasion. Schools are afraid of offering this site for fear of our young charges coming upon something they shouldn’t be seeing, especially while in a school setting. However, in my search for educational videos, TeacherTube was a safer location; yet YouTube had the most available, by far, then anything else I found this week. It could be because of the sheer number of people using this popular site.
VoiceThread I LOVE voicethread. I made two voicethreads this week. The one you see below and another for my girl scouts. I felt empowered by its easy usability. Voicethread doesn’t have the amount of videos that YouTube had. It didn’t have the educational focus of TeacherTube. What Voicethread does have is the ability of others to be an active participant in the learning process. VoiceThread give us the ability to comment, respond to that comment and edit what was originally entered. I like the way it goes beyond the “listen and learn” mentality of a basic video; entering into the “react and interact” mindset of the Read/Write Web’s future.
The Future; it brings up a good point; what does the future hold for us and the Read/Write Web? Ahh… that’s what we will be delving into in next week’s class… See you soon!
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