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iTunes and Podcasting - classroom delivery tool?

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You've probably all heard us EDUInsight staffers ramble on about podcasts and how they are going to revolutionize everything, including the appeal of the decidedly unappealing word, "pod". You've no doubt heard by now that podcasts have officially hit the mainstream by being incorporated into Apple's mega popular iTunes, the number one digital music store in the world. This means that anyone with Internet access can go to iTunes's massive library of hundreds of thousands of podcasts from everyone from Arnold Schwarzenegger to the Fab Five from Queer Eye for the Straight Guy and download as many podcasts as they want for free.

But the question remains - what does this all mean for you?

Well, anyone can add a podcast to iTunes whenever they want. This results in the phenomenon of the average Joe who previously never had a chance to have his voice heard now being capable of getting his words out to hundreds of thousands of people. Anyone can create his or her own radio show and broadcast it over iTunes. Anyone can be heard.

This also means you can revolutionize your classroom and how your students learn.

Imagine the possibilities available to the podcast savvy professor. You can record all of your lectures as well as after-school discussions with students and dialogue with other educators. You can release all of this in iTunes (with any schedule you'd prefer - a new podcast after every class, a podcast a week, all the podcasts right before finals) and have your students subscribe to the show, meaning every time you make a new one it will automatically be updated in their iTunes. Whenever they open the program it will be right there waiting for them.

You can also appeal to potential students trying to find the ideal college for them. MIT has had a lot of success with this recently when they created an open source website that goes into great detail about the topics discussed in class (they actually go through almost every class offered at the school). If a potential student stumbles upon your podcast and finds the information interesting, you may have just secured a student at your school.

There is really nothing to lose. It is easy to do, your students will perform better in class, and you might even attract some new students to your school and your class.

The only obstacle in your way is not knowing how to add a podcast to the iTunes library. Lucky for you, you have your friendly EDUInsight writer to guide you along the way.

First, you'll need a computer with Internet access. Since you are reading this article, I'll assume you've got that step taken care of.

Next, you need to create a podcast. This is as simple as recording you speaking. That's really all it takes. Most computers come with a microphone. You can use that. You can use a digital voice recorder or a cell phone or an iPod or anything that will store your recording in a digital format (typically an MP3 file). Once your podcast is recorded, save it on your computer. The next step is a little tricky if you have limited knowledge of websites. A good strategy may be to ask someone from your tech staff for help or just grab the nearest grad student with some savvy. If you do have some knowledge, upload your audio file to the server and then link to it on the page so that users are able to access it. Something like "Listen to my Lecture - 10/31/07". They will be able to download it into iTunes which will be synchronized with their iPods or they can simply listen to it on their computer, naturally taking notes along the way and learning a lot.

You now officially have a podcast. If you want the rest of the world to listen to it, you'll need to get it onto iTunes.

If you don't already have it, you need to download iTunes. This part is easy. Simply go to http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/ and click on the big white button that says, "Download iTunes Free." In a few moments you will be as cool and hip as all your students by having iTunes on your computer.

Once the program is up and running, study the left portion of the screen. You will see a purple icon of a microphone next to the word "podcast." Click it and the main box in the middle will go to the podcast store. From here you can search any number of podcasts or check out the top 100. You may want to download and listen to some just to get a feel for how they work, but that isn't our main objective here.

Within the podcast store, on the top left, you will see a box labeled "Inside" the Music Store. Directly underneath a drop-down menu should be an option to submit a podcast. Click on that phrase.

It will ask you to provide the URL of your podcast. That is just the link that takes you to the web page you created.

Congratulations, you have just uploaded your podcast onto iTunes. If you go into the music store and search for your title you will see it available for anyone to listen or subscribe to. Now go infect the minds of our youth both in your classroom and via their computer.

Article by Matthew Ulmer