I like to learn something everyday. It needn’t be an epiphany or the secret to life, but I really like the idea that every evening comes to an end with some fact or bit of knowledge that I hadn’t had that morning. I have to admit that I get a tremendous amount of these daily facts or learning from the internet. Never has such a wide variety of subjects or shear amount of information been so easily accessible to so many and so easily.
Enter iTunes U
iTunes U is a hosted resource offered by apple through iTunes. It’s a basic and very cool framework for anyone to create a comprehensive course or online learning experience to be distributed via the iTunes network. Although I am leery of closed infrastructures like iTunes, the scale of audience you can reach and the dominance of Apple’s consumer media devices makes this a fantastic new playground for educators and organizations. Content creators can apply to enter the iTunes U store, upload and create a custom page for their institution. The content can be arranged (and once published searched) by subject, topic or institution. There is space for an institution summary, class syllabus and individual class description. Classes can be distributed as audio or video. Content creators can also control the distribution and allow access by parties via controlled or free distribution. The classes can be updated real-time like a regular semester class or cumulatively as a retrospective.
Why Do I Love iTunes U?
There are a lot of educational resources available on the internet. Many universities and colleges, including my own, have offered classes and courses via video or audio files and virtually. What iTunes offers—and Apple excels at—is the ability to market good ideas and make them great. Great, in this case, making them appealing to a mass market. Apple has put a veneer on eLearning and attracted schools of all calibers and with a massive catalogue or cumulative offerings. NYU, Standford, MIT, Harvard-all offering a curriculum for anyone to download—and for FREE.
The available resources range from the typical academic pursuits to the practical. Some are a great place to start if you want to extend your career or even create a new one. My recent syllabus includes learning to
develop iPhone applications (courtesy of Standford) and some tips from NYU on psychology. If you’re just getting your start on web design and development, take a look
Julia Turner’s Design for the Web or
Motion Design using Flash.
I thought that I was going to avoid the Apple Tablet rumor bandwagon, but I couldn’t resist: After searching for and reading documentation for Apple’s iTunes Extra and iTunes LP format, I began to think about why Apple had not opened up their SDK sooner. The search for this software was instigated by asking why popular podcasters and vloggers had not begun using this extended format as a vehicle for more immersive experiences for their subscribers. Using a subscription model for the extended format would change how people engage their favorite podcasts and provide a delivery vector for content, visuals and, potentially, advertisements.
In October last year, Apple had announced their plan to introduce the enhanced format to iTunes users. The format allows end users to not only listen to audio content or watch video content, but to browse provided content and interact with the media (effectively replacing the experience large-format vinyl provided). The format is taking advantage of the already provided HTML/CSS/JS support within iTunes and provides an experience akin to a well designed website. The format was met with a luke-warm response, but there were few examples provided in the iTunes store and interest waned.
Why would Apple announce such a review-driven feature with no support or easy method of development? (Apple Rumor): To fold the adoption of this new media-driven format into an Apple Tablet release. Documentation that is provided in the iTunes LP Format SDK indicates that an automated system for submitting produced files is set for early 2010 (coinciding with a yet-to-be announced press release). A tablet device would be an ideal vehicle for browsing the LP or iTunes Extra format with a defined navigation structure and click-driven user interface. The distribution vehicle would be built-in with the Apple iTunes ecosystem already widely adopted by the audience.
I think my prediction is a conservative, but I do not think that Apple will introduce a completely alien solution to the idea of the “Tablet” as a device. What is likely is that they will provide a fantastic piece of hardware housing an adaptation of an already excellent user interface and make the tablet something it has not been since it’s introduction to the public by Microsoft in 2001: desirable.
If you are subscribing to my rumor idea, download the Apple iTunes Extra SDK and be ready for the Apple Tablet craze.
