Spring Break
Apple to serve up SJSU podcasts
Ryan Sholin
Issue date: 3/15/06 Section: News
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Apple Computer's iPod and similar MP3 players have become nearly ubiquitous on the San Jose State University campus, providing students with music and podcasts to plug into their ears between classes and during their commutes.
Now Apple and the university have announced that SJSU will be a new participant in Apple's iTunes U program, in which the Cupertino-based computer company gives universities server space and software to host audio and video content on the Web.
"It's an opportunity for a great many things," said Mary Fran Breiling, the interim associate director for academic technology at SJSU.
Breiling said faculty members will be able to post class lectures, recordings of guest speakers and video-enhanced podcasts.
Audio and video podcasts are files posted online in a feed that can be subscribed to by listeners and viewers. Apple's iTunes program manages subscriptions to podcasts, automatically downloading new content whenever it is posted.
Stanford University and the University of Michigan are among the schools that already have their own iTunes store just for educational content.
Faculty members will have a choice of posting content on a public SJSU iTunes store, where anyone can download it, or on the WebCT sites for their classes.
"It's a very simple process," Breiling said.
According to Breiling, most MP3 players should be able to play content downloaded from the SJSU iTunes store.
"It doesn't have to be an iPod," Breiling said.
Jon Udell, an information technology columnist for San Francisco-based Infoworld magazine, said he was skeptical about the Apple deal.
"Higher education doesn't really need Apple to hold its hand," Udell said.
Udell said millions of people have figured out how to create blogs and podcasts without Apple's help.
"I just don't see what's being added," Udell said.
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