R.I.P. Little iPod

Well, I'm back from ALA and it turns out iPods don't like airport scanners. My iPod died shortly after my flight started and remained lifeless despite all the emergency procedures performed. But, never fear! I'm shipping it back to Apple and they plan to repair or replace it so I'll be back in business shortly.

I was able to attend a few sessions relevant to podcasting at ALA but I really wish I had known about the Computers in Libraries conference in Virginia this past Spring. "Podcasting and Videocasting Bootcamp" would have been a great workshop to attend. Luckily, there are links to this presentation as well as "Podcasting 101" and "Podcasting with a Purpose: Possibilities for Library Instruction" here: http://www.infotoday.com/cil2007/presentations/default.shtml

I attended a session on using video for instruction purposes and I left feeling like I had learned what not to do instead of gaining any useful "how to"s. The videos were long and clunky and students complained that they just wanted to get their information and go. Is audio the same thing? Is the medium too fixed? The Internet liberated text from its dormant format. Are we going backwards using audio and video?

I don't think we are if we use it correctly. When I bought my sewing machine a few years ago it came with an instructional video I could watch on the computer. I could pause the video and go through the steps on my own machine. I could go back in the video to any point to go back over things I didn't understand. And I felt that it was effective. I think screencasting would have this same effectiveness as opposed to some sort of "skit" on a video that students feel is wasting their time.

With instructional audio I think the point is to keep it short and relevant. There's no frustration over searching for a certain segment in a podcast if you make a seperate podcast for each segment. It would be different for lecture classes but for the type of instruction I'm doing it makes sense to have modules.