Sound#26 Making (or listening to)Music Together

Oh yes, the wonders of music for all. It is a new year after all, so more challenges await us all. I started will MOG to see how hard this task would be. After signing in I was off to see what the world was listening to. Of course I was not surprised to note that very few, (ok none at all) artists were anyone that I even remotely heard of. After a few attempts I finally came across some artists that I love to listen to.I really enjoyed reading what others think of certain artists. i know that I have said it before, but it is so cool to go onto the internet, find a song, listen to it, download it to your phone and it is yours with just a click. I like how easy it became on MOG to discover other artists and people that had similar interests. If you want to connect with others with common music interest, MOG and other sites like it are the place to go. I decided not to go the route of making my own music. I will save that for another time when I want to really challenge myself.

#25 Am I a Music Pirate?

First things first. i have actually burned a song to a cd before, so this exercise was pretty easy. Yes I really do know how to burn a cd. I would be surprised to hear someone say they have not. Now on to more pressing issues. There are always two sides to every story, so lets begin. Artists work very hard to get their music out there for all to hear and hopefully enjoy. Remember this is how they make their living. I beleive that sometimes as music is illegally distributed the artist will begin to lose money. On the news in recent years you here the story of young people being arrested for stealing music and sharing it with others. They were stuck with heafty fines and humiliated in the public arena. Is this fair??? Some say there must be an example made so others will not do it. With the laws in writing now, I hope we are all aware of how borrowing songs without permission will cost more than just a few dollars. Hopefully those who download songs all the time, will remember that someone is trying to make a living by writing and performing songs.

#24 Sound:The Sound of Music

After much laughing from my husband and older boys I decided to venture out on my own with this project. My family has been using Itunes and other sites for so long that it is like going to Walmart to shop. I like Itunes because for 99 cents you can have a song downloaded to your phone or Ipod or computer. Depending on how often you will use the service will depend on who you will use. One service for a small fee of around $20 will let you have as many downloads as you want. But remember if you ever stop the service the songs are no longer yours. As i have said in the past, technology has come a long way from the days of the old 45 record. I love the idea of being able to find a song that i need right away. At Christmas time I was in desperate need of a song for a class I was teaching at church. Low and behold on Itunes it was!!!! i am so looking forward to seeing where our journey takes us with this program in 2008

Week10#23 Is This Really The End???

Wow!!!!!! What a journey we have traveled. From the very first click I was very unsure that I could even do the frist exercise. I relied on my friends to struggle through some of the challenges that laid ahead for me. I am so glad that I completed this exercise. There have been so many different ones that I loved. i really loved making my own mini me. Library Elf has to be one of my favorites. The way it is set up is great. Everything I need to know is there on one screen. It will even lets you know when you have something that is going to be late in the next few days. Getting to go through the the different websites for downloading music, books etc was a great adventure. At some point I would like to sit down and go through some of the different ones and really explore all they have to offer. Flickr was one of the most frustrating ones I did. It was so hard to do and I felt at times like giving up. hopefully, there will be a time when this program will be introduced again and we can take a ride through new technology together. Thank you to my friends that helped me through this journey.

Week 9 # 22 Downloadable Media

I loveeeeeeeeeeeeeeee the fact that you can download books right at the computer. I found so many I did a little surfing on Librivox. I found it pretty easy to access items but don't like the idea that you hav eto share personal info. So on to my next adventure. i then went to Wowio and stopped. I wanted to register to see what all they had. Several ways were to use a credit card(which stated that you would not be charged) or scan your driver's license. I will not be doing any of those choices. So on to my next stop. i went to Hcpl's site. I must site by fat my favorite. Very easy to access and on my lots of titles. I will spend more time in the next few days and download several titles to check out. As I was doing this exercise I thought how nice this is for those who do not drive or perhaps can not see very well. What better use of a computer than to download a book and listen at your convience through a computer. Yes thsi should be a site that everyone wants to keep going back to.

Week 9 #21 Podcasts, Smodcasts

I really enjoyed Podcasts. There are so many subjects to explore. It is like being at a conference without actually being there. After looking around for awhile I decided on the podcast Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul: The Real Deal Challenges. The young lady that was being interviewed was explaining about being published in the Chicken Soup series. How cool to hear how excited she was. Hopefully other teens will listen to this and be inspired to try their hand at writing. With so much exposurer of video games, it was refreshing to listen to a teen talk about her love for poems and how she hopes to get more published. We can only hope this will encourage other teens to pick up the book and read what she wrote.

Week 9 # 20 Discover You Tube & other video sharing sites

I decided to do a search of libraries. I found this really great site called Library of the Future. It is about the Stanford University Library. On it you will find all the latest technology that the library has to offer. Something I found incredible was that they had teamed up with Google. With the help of Google they were hoping to have over 8,000,000 books online to view. They also talked about with all the latest technology available at the library, they would be able to do research quicker. Along with that students would be able to access more sites than ever before. I did spend a little time looking at other videos. i must say that I am not surprised by what is there for all to view. All you have to do is pick a topic and there is a video waiting for you to view.