"Making Technology Accessible for
Seniors"
Their are many types of podcasts. Podcasts provided by media networks can be used as an addition to scheduled radio and television shows by allowing the user to time shift their programs. Think of it as a TiVo for your computer. Bloggers and small interest groups can send their content quickly to their subscribers. Thousands of podcasters are on the Internet hoping you will subscribe to their feeds. If you have an interest in a political party, hobby, building project or technical interest there probably is podcast for you. Schools and learning centers provide lectures for students that missed a session or need review. Public and private parks can provide audio tours or public safely messages for people. Business can record their meetings and distribute to the their employees. Or, download an audio tour of a museum and listen to it on your iPod.
It also can be a tool for seniors which takes us to the next slide.
Now that we have discussed what a podcast is and how it works. Why do seniors want to use this new technology when there are so many other ways to listen to books and view videos? Is this just another computer gimmick?
First, it is an easy way to access content on the Internet that is specific to your taste and interests and it comes to you so you don't have go looking for it on the Internet.
Second, it is also away to explore new areas of interest and learn about the subject easily. Listening to a podcast is an easy way to get a feeling for that new subject where it interests you or not. You can "peek under the hood" to see what people are talking about.
Third, to be able to access content at anytime since it is stored on your computer or a handheld device through time-shifting and portability. For seniors it is especially useful because we can control the time and the content that is of interest to us. Like I said before it's a TiVo for your own podcasts.
Fourth, share files with family and friends. If I want to share say a library book either typed or audio with a friend I guess I could hand him the CD/DVD and hope he returned it to the library. Using a iPod all he would have to do is download the file off the Internet.
And another reason seniors should use this technology you have a large portable audio library that you can carry around and listen at any time. Imagine taking all your podcasts and music with you on a trip. In bygone days, if a person wanted to listen his favorite jazz tune he would have to first find the record album in his collection, then find the track, place it on the turntable, turn the stereo on, find a place to sit, and then listen to music with cracks and pops, then get up and turn the stereo off, place the record in the album cover, and file the album back in his collection. What if he wanted to listen to six songs on different albums? Aaaah! Well, there was always tape...
Most people use CDs now but that is only a transitional stage to media players. There even CD and DVD players that can play MP3 discs. Today we can now listen and view media at anytime and practically any where. If you where walking in a California rainstorm and wanted to listen jazz songs you could do that easily today. Try that with records! Now's the time to start ripping your old vinyl records and converting them to MP3 files. It's a fun way to listen to your old records. You only have to record the LP songs one time. Once you have a digital copy there's no need to play that record again! Or if you don't want to do that just download the music from iTunes.
The basic minimum equipment needed is a computer with speakers and a high speed modem that uses DSL, cable or satellite that is connected to a internet service provider. And a media player program, for example, Windows Media Player, Quicktime or RealPlayer. For a better experience add on a portable digital audio player (iPod Nano) and/ or video player (iPod) with headphones. Also, you could play it on a home audio system or HD video entertainment center.
Or you could get an iPod Touch! The smart phones and PDAs of today and in the future with be able to download any type of podcast that any computer does. If you already have a computer and an internet connection start downloading podcasts today!
As with all new technology there are disadvantages of podcasting for the senior.
You should have basic computer skills. There are a few steps involved to listen to podcasts but after a few trys any senior that uses a computer can do this. And if you have a problem there is always this PC user group's volunteers and professionals to help you. The Oakmont Computer Learning Center next year will also be offering lots of classes on computers.
Waiting for downloads used to be a problem on a dial-up line. Only a few years ago it would have been almost impossible to download the file sizes we do today. Many of the single files I download today are bigger than the storage capacity of my first computer, a TRS80 Radio Shack computer! Today with DSL and cable modems this not as serious a problem as it was in the past.
All this slide is saying is there are two types of MP3 players. One is software and the other is hardware. If you go to BestBuy and ask for a MP3 player the clerk will take you to the display with all the portable media they have available like Apple's iPod or Microsoft's Zune.
There is some confusion by the term "MP3 player" most people think of it as the hardware device that plays only MP3 audio files. It is also the software program that converts your audio file to sound on your computer or portable player. The digital media player called Windows Media Player on your computer is an example software that can play audio and video files. For our discussion a MP3 player ( also called a Digital Audio Player or DAP) is a handheld device that plays only digital audio files, usually MP3 audio files but can include other types of formats. A portable digital media player plays most types of audio and video files. Apple's iPod Touch would be of this type.
There are many types of portable digital audio players. The Apple iPod line is probably the most well known. Apple has created a large selection of players that are easy to use and cover most of the listeners needs. Some only play audio or video files. Other types are Personal Digital Assistant or PDAs and mobile cell phones. PDAs can play audio and video, do scheduling and "surf the web" with a WiFi network connection. The Apple iPhone is a PDA, a camera, a cell phone, a web browser, and just about anything else Apple can put in it. Some players can hold up to 160gBs of content enough to hold the entire your entire library of audio files and many video files. (If the average podcast is about 20 minutes or 20 megabytes then it would be possible to store 8000 podcasts on your device!) The latest trend is to use flash memory in the players and get away from hard discs that have moving parts and that can fail if handled roughly. They can store about 16gB of media and they can be plugged into your computer's USB port. If you want something that is portable but not expensive, any of the flash drive MP3 players will do. The Nextar 1gB MP3 player is an example of this and sells for about $25 dollars on Amazon.com. Jack bought a 1GB MP3 player for 12 bucks on Woot.com!
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