Soon the iTunes U at Cortland podcasting site will be available for faculty campus wide. With the advent of this new service, provided by Apple, Inc., instructors will be able to deliver content in a variety of ways: either by audio podcast, enhanced podcast (utilizing graphics, photos, web links, etc.) and vodcast (video podcast). Some will coursecast. That is, record their lectures and/or presentations. Others may use it to have students create and post content for peer evaluation. And others may use the forum to present artwork or public presentations to a wider, global audience via the public access side of iTunes U at Cortland. Whichever use you decide upon, or invent (some of the best utilization techniques are probably yet to be dreamed.) you’ll be part of an exciting new technology that opens yet another door to educational content delivery and management.Yes, it’s true, that this service will probably not fit everyone’s needs and preferences. But, if you’re one of the people who decide to embrace it, you’ll find a very useful and rewarding tool to add to your arsenal of technology tools. So, having read all that… you may be asking, “What’s the big deal?” This posting will attempt to answer that question from a few different angles. And, hopefully, define for you some of the unique aspects of this program.Free!You have to like the sound of that. And, it’s true. This service is provided to us at no cost. “How can Apple do that?” you ask. The answer is pretty simple. First of all, Education has always been a significant partner of Apple, and continues to be a large part of their client base today. Apple has a vested interest in partnering and developing technology with, and for, Education. They also have this thing called the iTunes Music Store. That’s their online access point for the sale and distribution of digital assets like Music and Movies. It’s also the largest distributor of podcasts. They sell the music and movies (at an amazing volume: 1.2 billion songs in 2006 alone. -MacWorld Keynote Address), but the podcasts are free. The reason Apple can afford to provide all this storage space for podcasts for free is apparent when you consider what kind of an infrastructure must be necessary to provide the lightning fast service of the iTunes Music Store. It’s one big infrastructure. Apple representatives will not reveal how big the storage is for their service (it wouldn’t surprise me if it changes so frequently that nobody really knows how big it is), but it is nearly unrivaled in technology. Because of that, our measly 500 gigabytes of storage space, though significant to us, is a drop in the bucket to Apple. And, making it available for free is as much good business sense for Apple as it is a great service for us.A really big storage container for podcastsiTunes U at Cortland is providing the campus with 500 gigabytes of storage space for our podcasts. That’s a significant amount of storage that we neither have to pay for, nor maintain. Our responsibility is simply to manage the content. And, we have full control over what we allow to be posted. So, if a teacher desires to totally control the content of her/his class, they can do that. And, if another teacher wants to let his/her students post content to the class site, they can control that as well. Ultimately, the private class spaces will be created for any teacher who wants to use them, and the teacher can configure the space to operate as they deem appropriate. Apple has created a simple user interface for managing class postings. Any teacher who chooses to use the service, will be trained to manage their own space. (It’s really very simple, but a few instructions are necessary.)RSS (Really Simple Syndication)Having said all these other things about iTunes U, the most significant feature of the service is RSS, or Really Simple Syndication. For the uninitiated, RSS is a web protocol that was developed to allow users to subscribe to content on specified websites. RSS was not invented by Apple, nor is it exclusive to iTunes U or the iTunes Music Store. Many websites utilize this protocol, or similar subscription protocols like Atom syndication. But Apple has integrated it into their Music Store process and included it in the iTunes U interface.How does it work?If you’ve ever subscribed to a podcast from the iTunes Music Store, you have already used RSS. When you navigate and select your desired podcast, you’ll notice a button that accompanies the listing that says Subscribe. When you click that button, you tell your own iTunes software, installed on your computer, to keep checking with this website for new podcast postings in the specific series. When a new podcast is posted, your iTunes software will automatically download the new podcast the next time you run iTunes.Software that can use this subscription method and keep track of RSS feeds is called an aggregator. iTunes, free software available from Apple, is an aggregator. But, it is not the only one. There are many available. Most are free, or at least a lite version is usually available for free. And, they are available for all platforms, Windows, Mac, Linux, whatever.Once downloaded, the user can listen or watch the podcast at their convenience. And, if they own one, they can synchronize the podcast on their iPod or mp3 player and listen to it whenever they choose.By utilizing the RSS subscription function, teachers can easily serialize the content distribution for their class. And students can easily maintain an up to date collection of their class podcasts.And beyond…It’s inevitable that the users of this service will conceive of new and exciting ways to present and use their content. Our iTunes U site is configured to give the widest range of possible class configurations while maintaining security and integrity of the site. I expect that Apple will continually strive to improve our interface and management as well as updating new features as they are released. And we will continue to provide any necessary technical or administrative support for the site that will assist you and your classes to effectively use and manage your content.The site administrative team consists of 3 people: Josh Peluso, Administrative Computing, site administrator and programmer, Paul Leonardi, Academic Computing Services, assistant site administrator and Apple technology consultant, and Christine Widdall, Library, iTunes U interface training. In addition, Tera Doty-Blance will be coordinating any related software training for faculty. Feel free to contact one of us if you have questions regarding the site. We look forward to a smooth transition to full accessibility and a vibrant expansion of the available content on the site. Happy podcasting!More SUNY Cortland Mac information can be found at http://web.cortland.edu/leonardip
