Podcasts

What are they? How do they work? What do they cost? How do I find good ones?

Participants shared what they know. For more, see https://computer.howstuffworks.com/internet/basics/podcasting.htm

Looking for podcasts but wanting some help?

Participants recommended Pocketcast (https://www.pocketcasts.com) and Overcast (https://overcast.fm/),

For comparison, "Pocket Casts edges out Overcast in terms of looks, app experience, and features. Overcast has support for Apple Watch, and it's perfect for those living in Apple ecosystem. Pocket Casts should be your pick if you care about the cross-platform availability and syncing your listening activities across devices." Aug 14, 2019 from https://www.guidingtech.com/pocket-casts-vs-overcast-better-podcast-app-comparison/

Someone said they enjoy podcasts they get from being subscribed to the Australian newspaper and others recommended TED talks.

A subscriber to the Sydney Morning Herald suggested the Trump vs Obama series at https://www.smh.com.au/culture/tv-and-radio/america-s-great-divide-reflects-on-a-bitterly-polarised-nation-20200724-p55f94.html

The history of podcasting is somewhat contested but see: https://internationalpodcastday.com/podcasting-history/

So what about podcasts in Australia?

The ABC has a number available from https://www.abc.net.au/radio/podcasts/

And so does the Australian museum at https://australian.museum/learn/news/podcasts/

One participant has been enjoying learning maths from Australia's amazing teacher with online videocasts, Eddie Woo. His seriously good lessons are available from https://misterwootube.com/

iMovie Tutorials?

David Dixon has offered to work out how to do a shared course on the use of iMovie online. Participants are not yet started but David will describe his modus operandi and others interested can ask questions, offer suggestions, and perhaps choose to participante in the course.

Fake News

What is 'fake' news? In an era of multiple uncontrolled news outlets, when anyone can publish almost anything, who is pretending false news is real news?

For a review of sites that offer help with fact checking and avoidance of fake news, see https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/true-5-factchecking-websites/

News streams are often just blogs - so what is a blog?

"A blog is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries. Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order, so that the most recent post appears first, at the top of the web page. Wikipedia"

That is: "a regularly updated website or web page, typically one run by an individual or small group, that is written in an informal or conversational style."

See more about the history of blogging at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_blogging

An early blog was a stream of stuff posted by a small group of people who lived near each pther (or together) in Greenwich Village in New York. They wrote up their days individually but the reader could read about the same event from the various different perspectives. Only the authors were not allowed to read the blogs!

An interesting Australian stream that has been going now for at least 30 years is the Link list: see https://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link

So back to fake news. How does the average Joe know what to believe? What should and can be done about it? Who is responsible for giving us correct news?

Participants watched a couple of 'fake' news items. Computer graphics had been used to alter original fottage and the then fake clips were posted as if they were real news.

Fun things to do with the family on Zoom?

See https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=fun+things+to+do+with+zoom