# 22 Audio Books and Media Downloads

Audiobooks have been around for a long time and I have vivid memories of listening to "A Fortunate Life" by A.B. Facey in the car, as my family travelled to Queensland. For many years, my parents listened to several audiobooks on many trips throughout Australia and derived much pleasure from this.

I agree with another blogger who commented that the Amazon is not intuitive to use. I have found it a little awkward to use and the black & white interface a little dull. I can't help wondering if the contest over the Amazon Kindle and the Sony E-Reader will be superseded as people access free software to download ebooks straight onto their phones.

I had a look at both Overdrive and Bolinda. Unfortunately, my local library does not subscribe to these services. The staff member informed me that it may be coming in the next financial year but they presently offer no ebooks for loan. As I don't have an iphone (are there people like me out there?)this raises an equity issue over access. What is the cost of subscribing? Will this way of accessing books put a new spin on our annual budget submission and the way we access books?

I had a look at World EBook Fair and Project Gutenberg. I searched for last years's CBC Older Reader's book, "Jarvis 24", but was not successful. Interestingly, when I put in "Pride and Prejudice", I could immediately start reading the text by downloading it. I then searched for the two texts which are used in English at my campus. "Aniaml Farm" was immediately able to be downloaded, but "Night" was not on their database. This would be great for the student who has left his novel at home and needs to read it at school. However, the copyright issues concern me.

And what about the pleasure of just browsing in a bookshop and listening to the recommendations of a knowledgeable staff member? Can you compare the experience of receiving a beautiful book wrapped up as a gift versus a downloadable ebook? There is still much to ponder...

# 21 Online Videos: YouTube and TeacherTube

I was really impressed with the simplicity of this clip on the benefits of blogging for students.

I think this would be a great video to show teachers.

I looked for some clips about bushwalking at Mt Kosciusko and Sealer's Cove but they weren't that good because they were often from the perspective of an American. However, on other subjects such as "How do I..?", it is great. I have also used clips from Youtube and TeacherTube in my teaching from topics such as Dreamtime stories to clips about The Vatican II Council.

One thing that has really surprised me is that many teachers are unaware of TeacherTube and tend to only rely on YouTube.

# 20 Podcasts

I loved the animated clip from "Amazing Presentation." It was really interesting that we are all capable of divergent thinking; indeed 98% of kinder children possess it but this declines as children are educated through the school system. It was amusing to ponder that copying is punished within schools but outside the school context this is known as collaboration. My only reservation would be the issue of plagiarism. The fact that we box children into their "dates of manufacture" has been somthing that I have had reservations about for a long time.

Podcasts

I think podcasts have been under-utilised in education and are a overlooked resource. They enable anyone to listen, watch and learn on the run or at home in their own time. My concern is that they are only as good as the person who creates them. Whilst this has the advantage of exposing people to a greater range of views they may not always be of high quality. Nevertheless, the podcast directory tools help overcome this.

I will definitely continue to use them and I think they are a great tool for students to use as part of revision or other learning tasks. For example, students can creat a podcast or videocast about a book instead of writing a book review.