The news that people can access iTunes U content on their iPhone and iPod Touches with the 3.0 software is such a great thing! I've wanted mobile access since the beginning of iTunes U, so seeing this work on my own iPhone was really very cool. The scenario of students having real mobile access to protected course content while they walk across campus is now a reality. We still don't have the full suite -- mobile recording, posting, and acquisition but we are getting really close.
Now that I think about it, with the new voice recorder one may be able to rig up an easy to use mobile solution that would allow one to record in the Recorder application, email it to a blog to create a new entry, feed the RSS into an iTunes U section, and make it instantly available for download. Not sure that would work, but I'll give it a try.
To get back on topic, I wonder how many students will really take advantage of this? I'm constantly trying to project my own scenarios onto the way student should use the tools we give them ... that is something I should stop. I doubt using the iTunes app on the iPhone for accessing PSU iTunes U course content is really part of their dream scenarios. I could be wrong and I am anxious to understand this a bit better. Over the next several days we'll be making it very easy for people to authenticate and get into their private courses ... and once that happens we may see some new mobile access start to happen in the fall. I am hoping that with this new capability that Apple also gives me a way to track its use through the weekly statistics we get. Only time will tell, but this is a very cool move in the right direction!
Cole,
We do not have iTunesU at Elmira College but I am intrigued by the possibilities! The new Voice Memos app nicely compresses recordings into .m4a format but my e-mail to a Blogger.com blog only posted the title and full text. Attached images post but apparently not the audio. But it may work on other Blog platforms like WordPress.
Instructors (and students) would have to create engaging and interesting materials that display and play well on mobile devices but I think that students will indeed use their iPhones and iPod touches (which I use) to subscribe to course podcasts, including chapter podcasts with timed images (using Keynote, PPT with Profcast for example).
Joe
Posted by: Joe Fahs | 06/18/2009 at 07:00 PM
Hi Joe. From what I understand once you add a Podcast Producer environment to the mix all of the mobile publishing becomes really easy. I haven't been able to test it, but I have it on good authority that when the ecosystem is complete -- iPhone, Podcast Producer, iTunes U -- everything works fine in a mobile to mobile way. I'm also interested in testing out a few of the mobile blogging apps to see if they can embed an audio file in a blog post.
Posted by: Cole Camplese | 06/18/2009 at 07:00 PM