20-22

#20--YouTube
I'm not sure if this is going to embed the video, but I'll give it a whirl. If nothing else, the link should work.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txyKhT2Mx5c

While I am no stranger to YouTube, I've never uploaded anything to it. I've watched videos others have put on, but have no desire at the moment to share my stuff with the world. The video I chose showed singer Enrique Iglesias singing to an audience of the Cristina show in 2001. While I'm no rabid fan, I do enjoy the music, even if I don't understand the words. Spanish class was a loooong time ago. I like the fact that you are able to browse by subject if you're just fooling around, wasting time or you have the option to hone in on videos produced by specific people or about a certain topic. Also, by watching a certain type, YouTube automatically brings up a list of related videos that it thinks you may enjoy. This is a wonderful way to find some real gems without really trying.
I've seen book reviews done on YouTube as well. Rick Riordon does his own book talks on his "Percy Jackson" series. It is really great to hear directly from the author! Plus, if there are made up words or those from foreign languages, they tell you how to pronounce them. I think it's great to get student input on books, and if you tell them "If you do well, we'll post it on YouTube" they may be more inclined to put in more effort and take it seriously. Now, that is assuming that the filters allow YouTube through, which ours don't; but that won't stop everyone else.

#21-Podcasts
Podcasts are awesome! There are officially more podcasts on my ipod than there is music. iTunes is my drug of choice. For this assignment, I did use Podcastalley to find one of my favorite podcasters--Dan Carlin. Being a history teacher by training, and a history nut by choice, any new information I can get is a mini goldmine. Dan Carlin is a bit unorthodox, but after listening to one of his podcasts, you can tell just how much research he has put into one episode. If social history is your game, this is the best place to find little nuggets of wisdom. Who else could tell you that Genghis Khan was said to have red hair and green eyes and have the authority to back it up? (bet you didn't know that before!) Or that Alexander the Great was both a raging alcoholic and drug abuser? I found the show by using both the show title "Hardcore History" and Dan's name. It was extremely easy to subscribe through Bloglines. The one thing I wish Podcast Alley did was what YouTube does; suggest related podcasts. Unless I missed in completely, I did not see any section helping directing you to like-minded podcasts. That was a bit disappointing, as was the list of casts that "history" brought up in the search bar. Using "Society and Culture" tab wasn't any better. I really don't need to listen to the sex history podcast. I'd like to hear more g-rated ones, thank you anyway.

#22-Audiobooks and NetLibrary
Will I lose points because the NetLibrary link on PLCMC is down? I have no access to another library that subscribes to it so I'm stuck. I'm assuming that NetLibrary works similar to iTunes: you search for a story, find it, download it and sync it to your device. Then enjoy listening to it as much as you want! The only books I have downloaded is "Red Kayak" for another teacher, and "DarkFever" by Karen Marie Moning, but I love the idea of being able to listen to a story; that's probably why I love podcasts so much. I perused iTunes for this to see what was available. With "Ranger's Apprentice" so popular, I searched "flanagan" and came up with several of John Flanagan's books in electronic form. Score! I had listened to #5 on cd and was delighted to discover that the same narrator does all the books. I really dislike the fact that different narrators do books in a series. Kills the continuity for me, in theory of course. I listened to the snippets available for the Twilight books and couldn't stand the narrator for the second one. *sigh* You can't like everything or everyone. The "House of Night" series wasn't any better. Too high pitched and immature sounding for the characters portrayed. But, I'm not the guy hiring the talent, so that's that.