Today’s students expect constant access to information—in the classroom and beyond. Which is why more and more faculty are using iTunes U to distribute digital lessons to their students. And now, with the 3.0 software update for iPhone and iPod touch, iTunes U is directly accessible over both cellular and Wi-Fi networks through the iTunes Store.
Mobile Learning
Students are already coming to school with portable computers and devices such as an iPhone and iPod in hand. So they’re used to gathering information on the web, getting their email, watching lectures, getting directions, or pinpointing exactly where their friends are — anytime and anywhere.
Now they can learn anytime and anywhere, too. As educators all over the world are discovering, mobile learning works. Students devour engaging, customized curricula when it’s delivered on the iPod or iPhone. It’s a familiar and essential part of their lives. Audio and video podcasts let students study at their own pace, wherever and whenever they want.
How Apple Makes It Happen
From portable computers and mobile devices to software and servers to iTunes U, Apple makes all the technology you need to make mobile learning a reality for your students.
Teachers are using iLife and iWork applications on the Mac to create customized educational materials, such as language lessons that students can listen to on the bus or at home. And with the help of tools like Podcast Producer and Wiki Server — both of which come with Mac OS X Server — IT professionals at your school can help you produce and distribute all kinds of multimedia content on iTunes U or a class wiki. Once your classroom presentations and lectures have been captured and published, students can download them from iTunes. Then they can transfer them to iPod or iPhone and take it all with them. And suddenly, any place — a café, a bus stop — can be a place to learn.
Apple Hardware for Mobile Learning
iPod, iPhone, and the Mac. The go-to devices for mobile learning.
MacBook Family
From the economical white MacBook to the powerful-but-portable MacBook Pro, Apple offers plenty of notebook choices for students, teachers, administrators, and IT professionals. All come with iLife and Mac OS X. Using the included Boot Camp, you can run Windows, too. And every new Mac comes with Wi-Fi, an iSight video camera, and a microphone built in, so collaborating — and screen sharing on the go — is effortless. Which MacBook are you?
iPod nano & iPod classic
iPod nano, the world’s most popular music player does so much more than just play music. Educators and students can use the built-in video camera and mic for projects. They can store hundreds of hours of audio and up to 16 hours of video programming on an iPod nano, and even more on the 160GB iPod classic. And both models offer sharp, beautiful displays — a 2.2-inch widescreen display on iPod nano and a vivid 2.5-inch display on iPod classic. Learn more
iPod touch
iPod touch is a great iPod, but it's also a great pocket computer with Wi-Fi access and the ability to surf the web and send and receive email. With its 3.5-inch widescreen display, iPod touch is great for watching video podcasts and lectures from iTunes U. And with the thousands of educational applications available on the App Store, there’s almost no limit to what you can do with an iPod touch. Learn more
iPhone
iPhone 3GS is a revolutionary phone, a widescreen iPod, and a breakthrough Internet device, all in one product — and it's the fastest, most powerful iPhone yet. The built-in video camera and mic are perfect for shooting video for class projects, and the large, 3.5-inch widescreen display is perfect for watching them. And Internet access via Wi-Fi and AT&T's remarkably fast 3G network allows you stay connected no matter where you are. Learn more
iPhone Applications
iPhone also benefits from thousands of third-party web applications and native iPhone applications, many of which are made specifically for education — all available on the App Store. And the free iPhone Developer University Program can help you and your students learn how to create your own applications. Learn more
iTunes U
iTunes U, part of the iTunes Store, is possibly the world’s greatest collection of free educational media available to students, teachers, and lifelong learners. With over 200,000 educational audio and video files available, iTunes U* has quickly become the engine for the mobile learning movement. It puts the power of the iTunes Store in the hands of qualifying universities so they can distribute their educational media to their students or to the world.
Internal iTunes U Site
If you want to allow access only to members of your campus, you can host your own password-protected iTunes U site. This enables you to create and manage the content available on the site, while controlling who can access and download resources from it.
Because administrative access is integrated with Apple ID, it’s easy to set up and manage your site, and you can add more Apple ID accounts to share site management responsibilities. Or you can integrate with your identity management systems to scale out management and access to hundreds or thousands of users. By default, iTunes U supports Shibboleth (the standards-based, open source authentication system), or you can create customized transfer scripts to integrate with popular authentication systems, including Kerberos, LDAP, Active Directory, and others.
Apple also provides templates you can customize with your own branding, and you can use tools such as RSS to easily add and remove content. To ensure compatibility, the media you provide should be in: AAC, MP3, MPEG-4, or PDF format. Learn more
Getting Started on iTunes U
Ready to make iTunes U part of your mobile learning program? It’s easier than you think.
Apply for iTunes U
iTunes U: accessible by all students
iTunes U is fully accessible to students with different learning styles or disabilities. So your digital content is available to all students.
Learn more about Apple and accessibility
External iTunes U Site
You also have the option of making your course material available to all iTunes visitors — alongside content created by Yale, Stanford, UC Berkeley, Oxford, Cambridge, MIT, PBS stations, and some of the most creative K-12 state projects in the country. External sites are also a great recruitment tool, offering an inexpensive way to explain the benefits your school has to offer. With an open iTunes U presence, your school will gain recognition — and a competitive edge — as you reach out and share your knowledge with the world.
Media should be in AAC, MP3, MPEG-4, or PDF format.
As with internal sites, administrative access is controlled via Apple ID, and you can add more accounts to share site management responsibilities. Apple templates let you incorporate your own branding, and you can request browse/search integration to make it easier for visitors to find your content on iTunes and to extend the reach of the content you post.
External iTunes U sites are not just available to universities. Many museums, public broadcasting stations, and state education organizations also make education content available to the world through iTunes U in the iTunes Store.
A Mix of Both
Many schools choose to create both an internal site with a greater amount of course materials available exclusively to enrolled students with a user account and password; and an external site that provides a publicly accessible subset of those resources.
More to Explore on iTunes U
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Carnegie Mellon University
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Oxford University
Open in iTunes U -
Cambridge University
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Open University
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Stanford University
Open in iTunes U -
MIT
Open in iTunes U -
Edutopia
Open in iTunes U -
Texas A&M
Open in iTunes U -
Arizona IDEAL
Open in iTunes U -
WGBH/PBS
Open in iTunes U
*iTunes U is a free service available to qualifying institutions in the United States, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and United Kingdom. Apply now.
