Faculty, students embrace new opportunities through iTunes U

Professors are always looking for ways to expand education, especially outside of the classroom. And with technology becoming more and more ubiquitous, it is becoming easier for them to do so.

Apple, known for revolutionizing the way we obtain and listen to music through its iTunes software and the iPod, now is guiding technology’s future in education through iTunes University, also called iTunes U. Using the same technology as the iTunes Store, iTunes U is a free program that allows colleges and universities to create and share educational content for download.

Files can be podcasts, audio or video files, and even PDF files. Once the files are downloaded, they can be played on a computer, iPod or iPhone.

GCSU, specifically the Digital Innovation Group, began implementing iTunes U in 2004. The Digital Innovation Group is responsible for creating and publishing GCSU’s public content seen on iTunes U.

“When we first came out with it, we were using it mainly for marketing and branding the college,” Dann Hann, the assistant director of DIG, said. “But now, people are using it more to capture events that are going on on campus.”

Each school chooses what content it wants to be public, if any. Currently, podcasts touring the campus, as well as showcasing campus events, are the only GCSU content open to the public.

The other part of iTunes U includes content from individual courses at each university. For GCSU, course content is private. Students can only see uploads from the courses they are in.

Files uploaded for courses can be accessed 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

There are a few advantages to using iTunes U over other online tools. Once a student subscribes to a particular podcast, any new podcast or information is automatically downloaded. In addition, students can sync their podcast to their iPod or iPhone, making the files portable and even more accessible.

Many professors use iTunes U to give their students class notes. However, some also allow their students to upload their projects or assignments through iTunes U.

Dr. Lee Digiovanni, assistant professor of early childhood education, uses iTunes U in the classroom.

“With iTunes U, it made it just much easier for the students to submit assignments and to have things available for other students to see and use,” Digiovanni said.

Digiovanni feels that for her, the best way to utilize iTunes U is through student projects, not lectures and notes.

“Whatever project they’re doing, it’s not necessarily just for them. It could also have a broader audience,” Digiovanni said.

Rebekka Ragusa, a senior early childhood education major, worked with iTunes U in Digiovanni’s class.

“I think iTunes U was an efficient way to do (the projects) and be able to spread our knowledge to our classmates,” Ragusa said, adding that it is helpful in the learning process and “definitely worthwhile.”

However, iTunes U doesn’t always work like expected. Dr. Bryan Marshall, assistant professor of information systems, began working with iTunes U this semester with his principles of information systems class and has encountered a couple of problems.

“I thought it would be pretty good for my students to learn how to use that technology,” Marshall said. “It turned out it wasn’t as easy to use as say, YouTube.”

Working with PCs made the process of converting the video files into a Mac format difficult, he said, leading many students with no other option but to upload their video onto YouTube.

While a few of the problems Marshall faced were fixed, he said he is unsure whether he will continue using the product.

Although new technology isn’t always perfect, it is helping shape a new way of learning and more and more professors are figuring out how to embrace it to fit their classrooms.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Oct 30 2009. Filed under Health & Science. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry