An iPod can now enhance more than your music experience, thanks to iTunes U, a pilot program that allows academic material to be shared via Apple's iTunes.
Through the program - which debuted last semester at Brown and five other institutions, including Stanford and Duke universities and the University of Missouri - participating professors can upload audio material onto iTunes. Students can then transfer files onto iPods and thus have access to lectures, exercises and listening assignments wherever they go.
"I can't think of any courses in which some use of it could not be made, the question is just whether use would be pedagogical or convenience," said Andrew Ross, director of the Language Resource Center.
When Apple approached the University in May, Computing and Information Services and the LRC had to scramble to make the program operational by Fall 2005. Over 130 iPods were bought with funds pooled from six departments. Only three professors incorporated iTunes U into their lesson plans - for a total of four courses - in the fall semester.
"It was a question of tracking people down ... without a lot of lead time," Ross said, adding that many more professors were interested in using the technology. This semester, 11 courses are utilizing iTunes U.
It's too soon to tell whether the program will be adopted permanently. Last semester there "wasn't the opportunity to utilize it to its fullest," said Senior Lecturer in German Studies Jane Sokolosky, who used iTunes U for GM 30: "Intermediate German I." An evaluation and decision will be made at the end of the academic year.
The University-purchased iPods are solely auditory because video iPods weren't readily available last summer. Sokolosky and Professor of Music Jeff Titon, who used iTunes U last semester for MU 129: "American Roots Music" and MU 222: "Field Research in Ethnomusicology," both thought video availability would enhance the experience further, but they both recognized economic limitations.
As it was, Sokolosky and Titon described audio uses such as students accessing musical pieces during exams, memorizing vocabulary lists and hearing and creating podcasts, which are online feeds of audio or video material that can be downloaded to an iPod or other mobile device.
"In that way, I think it speaks to a lot of different learning styles," Sokolosky said.
Ross described the pilot as "potentially a great supplement" but thinks that the multidimensional quality of college education couldn't be replaced by audio or even video media.
Kenneth Wong, professor of education, expressed concern that some students and professors might view the program as a potential substitute for more traditional forms of learning.
"Classroom interaction among students and professors form a collective, social basis that facilitates intellectual growth and identity," Wong wrote in an e-mail to The Herald.
Some students acknowledged that having lectures constantly available might make it more tempting to stay in bed instead of attending class. The idea of constant availability, however, was also appealing.
"I think that's worth the possibility that people might not go (to class)," said Sean McGeary '09.
"I think it would have to be used in the right way, not as a replacement (of lectures)," said Artur Walther '06.
The biggest effect of iTunes U might be the change in the way students view their educational experience. "It interests me in the sense that there seems to be an assumption that what goes on in the classroom is on the same order or level as a reading assignment, that the classroom can be delivered," Titon said. "If we carried that to a logical conclusion, we wouldn't need a university," he added.
