Posts Tagged ‘YouTube’
E is for Extra
Posted on: November 13, 2015
‘Internet es aburrido‘ by Daniel Lobo is licensed under CC-BY-2.0.
Ebooks, ejournals, eresources…what is this ‘e’ all about? You may know ‘e’ stands for electronic. 99% of the time that means something available on the internet. But as I hope I can convince you, e also means extra. Getting your hands on the pages of a book is not the be all and end all of learning. For example, books often have recommended web links to access more information online. As they are coming from expert authors these extra resources are bound to be quite good.
You can view the Oxford University Press’ YouTube playlists to find inspiring topics and academics in many fields such as psychology, science and history. They also feature authors of their Very Short Introduction series to get you hooked on a new subject. Don’t worry about information overload they are usually only 5 minutes long and can satisfy your curiosity or send you in a new direction. Bear in mind they want you to read their book, but you don’t have to. The same goes with TED talks which are engaging summaries and snippets from academics and experts. They will often have written lots of information on their subjects but a TED talk will be a good overview and introduction. Also lots of advice for learning online. This one by Eli Pariser (2011) talks about online ‘filter bubbles’.
So keep an eye out next time you open a book for extra resources you can access online. Tell us about your favourites.
The internet is boring…*No it’s not.
YouTube is not the only video star
Posted on: April 2, 2015
British Film Institute, BFI, South Bank London by Chris Beckett licensed under CC-BY-NC-ND 2.0.
Most students in higher education are now watching videos both in the lectures and as additional learning. Often this means going to Google or Youtube but libraries also give students access to film and other media.
To prepare for university-level learning, Hillcroft long course students have subscription access to eresources like BFI InView. This is a website with videos about British history. It includes Panorama TV documentary footage and archived party political broadcasts.
Why search the library’s eresources when Google seems so easy? Let’s have a look at features of streaming BFI Inview videos:
Advantages of BFI inview over YouTube:
- Curated lists of videos under themes designed for students like documentaries with a range of perspectives (see different sides to history).
- Short introductory essays to topics written by academics who have authority in their fields (impress your tutor with your references).
- Rare footage not available on other video-sharing websites (information that you haven’t heard before).
- Tells you how long each video is (manage your time effectively).
- Less distraction from off-topic videos/no advertisements (manage your time effectively).
How to log in to OpenAthens:
Go though the Hillcroft VLE. Log in. Under the ‘Library and Learning Resources’ course page (enroll if this is your first time) go to ‘LRC eresources’ and there are links to all the resources we are subscribed to under ‘Eresources Using OpenAthens’.
or
You could go directly to http://www.bfi.org.uk/inview/ and follow the button ‘log in via your institution’.
Happy birthday dear Internet…
Posted on: May 3, 2013
The Internet became 20 years old on 30 April! Yes, afraid to say our Learning Resource Manager can say she has been using the Internet for the past 20 years. How many of you our there can remember dialling up on CompuServe which was the first online commercial Internet provider in the United States?
And the question is where would we be without it? For an LRC one of the prime uses of the Internet is the fact we can put our Online Public Access Catalogue out on it. Then there’s the fact that as librarians our response to the Internet is to of course catalogue websites and online documents that are on it…And as part of our student inductions it forms the gateway to our ebook collection…the host for material that students reference in their assignments and the place where we can upload videos to make their understanding of the LRC and its services sharper. For example our LRC basics video on YouTube.
Many Happy Returns Internet….long may you continue.
Hillcroft LRC 