Every week, someone at Apple's iTunes U
sifts through all the material submitted
by its contributors and picks a handful
of the week's best podcasts to highlight.
Eastern Michigan University became
part of iTunes U Feb. 24 and, within
a week, the Honors College Star Lecture
Series on Global Health and Wellness
was plucked from the pool to be featured
on the site's main interface alongside
content from Duke, Oxford, Brown and
Stanford universities.
Welcome to the neighborhood.
 |
ITUNES USE: Keith Damron makes a point
to his TV
Lab class, which just finished a broadcast
for its
Eastern Weekly program. In addition to
airing on
Channel 11, the campus TV channel, such
programs
will be able to be downloaded through
iTunes U,
which makes educational programming available
for
free to anyone with iTunes software. Students
pictured
(second from left) are Derek Rappuhn,
Corey Kovoch
and Nick Noel (seated). Photo
by Anthony
Gattine |
"It's an exciting project," said
Rhonda DeLong, EMU Web communications
and new media director, "It's a good
place for us to be, offering educational
content. We're in the big leagues
among some very prestigious universities.
Being in the same place and providing
content with some of these big names
helps us internally as well as externally."
iTunes U makes educational programming — lectures,
shows and demonstrations — from
hundreds of academic and cultural
institutions available for free to
anyone with iTunes software (available
for free at http://www.apple.com/downloads/) on
their computer or mobile device. Through
iTunes U, persons can subscribe to
podcasts, a series of audio or video
files that are automatically downloaded
to their computer whenever they open
iTunes. Podcasts also can be played
on any MP3 player. Universities can
designate content as private — accessible
only to faculty and students
— or public. Public content
is available to the entire wired world.
"It's a worldwide presence, and we
can show ourselves in the best light," said
Diane Lawrence, a senior instructional
technologist who was on the iTunes U
implementation team.
At last count, 1,420 tracks had been
downloaded since EMU's iTunes U site
went live. The number of downloads
nearly quadrupled from the first week
to the fourth.
The first wave of EMU content on
iTunes U includes the Honors College
Star Lecture Series, several WEMU
shows, a series of "Education Minute" snippets
produced by EMU faculty in collaboration
with WWJ; student-produced interview
and news shows; and even a podcast
on podcasting.
But that's literally just the beginning.
The next phase of the project involves
getting the 30-40 faculty who use
EMU's homegrown podcasting system,
E-podcast, switched over to iTunes
U.
In the fall, Information Technology
(IT) will open the invitation to all
faculty who want to use podcasting
via iTunes U to make information available
to their classes and/or the world.
Faculty can upload lectures and have students listen to
them before class so that more meaningful discussions can
occur in class. Live demonstrations don't always work the
way they're supposed to, but a video podcast (vodcast)
of a demonstration never changes, and students can watch
it over and over again.
Need test-taking, note-taking or study tips? EMU's iTunes U
has one-minute video nuggets with rock-solid tips for academic
success.
Students may not be able to make
it to a public lecture by a visiting
scholar but, on iTunes U, that lecture
can be preserved virtually forever.
Eastern Michigan University students are already benefiting.
The communication, media and theater arts students who've
been producing Eastern Weekly and Emag programs for campus
Channel 11 now have a much bigger stage for their work.
And knowing their class projects are destined for iTunes U
raises the bar and inspires even better work, said assistant
professor Keith Damron, who teaches CTAA 165-465, the class
commonly known as TV Lab.
"Until recently, it was only seen in the dorms. Now, we're
present on a reputable site," Damron said. "This puts EMU
students in step with the rest of the TV world, which is
also positioning its content on the Internet. And, it gives
them a chance to practice those skills on a weekly basis."
Electronic media and film studies students also will lend
their growing production expertise to professors who want
to use CMTA's studios or production equipment to create
their own video podcasts.
"What I've found is, with a lot of the content I'm getting,
they just needed a vehicle for it," Lawrence said. "They
were already doing it, and they were so excited that here's
a place we can put it and everyone can get to it. The need
was there.
"I'm absolutely confident a lot of
faculty are going to appreciate this.
Even if they're just using it privately
- for their class only. And I think
the public face is going to be phenomenal."
For more information on EMU's iTunes U launch, visit www.emich.edu/itunesu.
