Podcasting Updates

Here is a trio of recent developments about podcasting.

1. To begin with, the LTC put out a news release through UA News Services last week. It's entitled Podcasting Meets Classrooms. Thanks to Jeff Harrison in News Services for making it read as well as it does and thanks to Tracey Hummel for putting a link to it on the UA Homepage. In the News Release Jim Austin is quoted on why podcasting is a terrific new resource to use in instruction, Leila Hudson is quoted about podcasting her lectures, Jennifer Redford shares a student's perspective, and Blake Shell about podcasting video in addition to audio. I want to note that I mistakenly associated Blake's podcasts with the UA Museum and it should be with the School of Art's Gallery. As someone once said, haste makes waste. The News Release has resulted in a couple calls from print and radio news journalists. Let's hope UA faculty and instructors also get in touch because we are supporting podcasting primarily for the benefit of UA students.


2. I am very happy to note that I am now the owner of an Apple iBook G4. This purchase is entirely due to needing to work on podcasts on the Apple platform. Apple has engineered its software, principally the new iLife suite to make recording the audio or video and exporting it to podcast, much easier than my current way on a PC -- record the MP3 and then edit the XML file. Now, that has been fine for me but it's a challenge for anyone who is looking at XML for the first time. There are still screams echoing around our halls. Also, I contacted our Apple reps about the UA becoming an iTunes U. school. Apple is proposing, as I understand it today February 8th, that through an institutional agreement, members of the UA would place their podcast content, ie, MP3 and MP4 audio content, MP4 and QuickTime video, on Apple servers. We would also, though iTunes U, be able to conveniently add authentication to any podcasts we wanted to restrict to UA access only. Just last week someone in the College of Nursing called to ask if I knew of just such a capability. As I understand it now, podcasting is open. You put it out there and that's that. If you want to restrict access, you don't podcast. You put the link to the audio or video on a webpage that has a dot htaccess set up to password protect it. We are waiting to hear from our Apple rep about meeting to explore becoming an iTunes U player. Stanford was the prototype institution and you can visit iTunes U at Stanford's webpage and follow a link to their iTunes Music Store site to see how they have developed it so far.


3. A couple weeks ago ASU's president Michael Crow began podcasting. There are three so far. Today's 2/8/06 is "University Technology Officer Adrian Sannier discusses his role as UTO, his blog, and the benefits of 1 to 1 computing at ASU." You might like to run this in the background while you are working. Subscribe to the Michael Crow's podcast or just listen to Adrian Sannier's MP3.

If you know anyone who might like to do podcasts with a course or a department that would like to share information in a new and different way with students and alumni, please point them in my direction.