Day: September 15, 2005

The iTunes Music Store has started supporting video podcasting (there may be a cool name for this but I have yet to discover it). For those of you who are not iTunes users, iTunes is cross-platform and free. The podcasts from the iTunes Music Store are also free. You will need to download and install iTunes on your computer (iTunes Site) to explore the podcasts available through iTunes.

I was not aware that video podcasting was going on, but I read about it in one blog and checked it out. Sure enough. If you want to see what is presently available, visit the podcasts section on the iTunes site (again podcasts are free). I find it difficult to find things that might interest me at the iTunes podcasts site, but in this case all I did was enter “video” in the “search all podcasts” text box and what I consider a significant number of feeds were revealed (try SYSTM). As you might expect, some of the programming is not suitable for children. When you select the feed for a video series, the material is sent to the iTunes system on your personal computer. The video plays in the area of the iTunes screen display where the “album art” is normally shown.

Trading student videos among classes does not require this kind of technology. I do see this is as a way for the educational technology types who enjoy creating multimedia and those who podcast already to share ideas, how-tos, etc. Look for this soon. I am too shy and will stick to blogging.

I find the trend to digitize the collections of libaries, museums and other organizations which accumulate “stuff” truly amazing (e.g., National Archives). At one point, early in this process, a curator explained that you can see many things online that you cannot see at the museum. I did not truly understand this until I had the opportunities to interact with the staff of the ND State Historical Society because of grants and wonder about a bit in the storage areas. (See People of the Upper Missouri – a recent project developed as part of the Teaching American History grant awarded to the Grand Forks Schools).

I was reminded of this again today when I read a post promoting access to the digital resources of the University of Wisconsin. There is some really cool stuff in the back rooms.