TroyMothkovich




 * 1) Final Presentation
 * 2) Final Reflection Paper
 * 3) Annotated Bibliography
 * 4) Time Sheets
 * 5) [|USC/USCA's iTunesU Site]

November 29, 2010
http://edet650-itunesu.wikispaces.com/ Second set posted below first set of 10 entries.
 * Second set of 10 Annotated Bibliography entries posted to project wiki page at:**

Thanks!

**November 22, 2010 ** As we head towards the end of the semester, everything continues to go well with my internship. Over the past couple of weeks I have been able to work with Keith and Jody in the Center for Teaching Excellence to start helping record some professors. I worked with Jody to record one exercise science professor demonstrating different running techniques. This was a great use of video podcasting because his students will be able to refer to the video multiple times for reference and practice instead of only having one opportunity to view the professor.  I also spoke with some other professors about iTunesU, including a professor in the business department. She said she was interested in using iTunesU and would be in touch with me in the future. She said she would probably use that for her study abroad program next semester, as some students register from the Beaufort campus. This way when they have their meetings before the trip, she can upload the videos for other students to access. The way it is now, they have to go to the studio and do a recording and then have it simulcast to the Beaufort campus. This way she only needs to offer one session that she can then share with students on other campuses or those who were unable to attend the important meeting.  There have been a few “snags” here and there with my internship but nothing I couldn’t handle. For the most part they aren’t really “problems” but just delays. Part of my internship involves telling other professors about iTunesU and having those interested spread the word around. As a result I have had several faculty and staff members who are interested in using iTunesU but don’t want to start in the middle or end of a semester and so they want to begin using iTunesU next semester, which is fine with me except that it doesn’t help me get my hours for the internship this semester! However, I find that I have more than enough work now to get me past 100 hours. I just know that I’ll have more hours going toward the internship in future semesters. That’s fine with me, though, as I find it very interesting and enjoyable. One part of the internship I’m happy about is that I have uploaded several podcasts from our Wellness Center to iTunesU. The Wellness Center just released another podcast (which I’ll upload ASAP) and on the page, the director included a note telling visitors they could also find the podcasts on iTunesU. So, that’s really one of the first public mentions from a department that they are on iTunesU. I believe the Human Resources department may send a similar note out about their podcasts as well.  I had fun working in the studio recently helping record some students for a communications class. Keith sat me in front of a bunch of controls that, at first, looked like a cockpit control station in a plane. It looked a tad intimidating. However, he gave me some pointers and showed me what was what and I was getting the hang of it in no time. I was able to speak with the professor of that class about using iTunesU for her other classes as well, and she seemed receptive to the idea. Although, some professors prefer having their podcasts password-protected through Blackboard, which we can do (well, we have to contact the Columbia campus to have them set up initially) but of course that doesn’t provide me with many screenshots to show the public. However, I plan to upload more material in the next couple of weeks. I’m working now on finding a converter for swf files to another type such as mov. Now that I think of it, I may be able to import the files into Adobe Flash and then export them, rather than using third-party software. I found some free third-party applications but they all had limitations or exported a file with watermarks unless I purchased the full version of the software. So, I spent some time researching software. I also spoke with my mentor about options such as the pro version of QuickTime, which at this time I do not believe allows for the conversion of swf files.  I have also done A LOT of reading on iTunesU and distance ed in general, but again it’s something that I find enjoyable. Plus, I like having a lot of articles to choose from when I do my final annotated bibliography entries and work on my final report. Stay tuned and soon (hopefully by the end of today) I plan to upload some pictures I took at the studio and some other fun screenshots.   Stay tuned….

11/22-here are some pictures of the studio where I worked with Jody and Keith while we recorded some videos for a communications professor's course





<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Things continue to go well with my internship working with iTunesU at USCA. I must say that at times I get a little impatient and want to make quick recordings and upload them all to iTunesU but part of my internship is working with others (faculty and staff) and so sometimes our schedules don’t mesh well. I want to do some recordings with professors but because of fall break and personal scheduling conflicts I have had to settle for uploading some videos that were pre-recorded, but I was happy to be able to do that and am now rescheduling dates to do some recordings so that I can be part of the podcast experience from start to finish. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Over the last couple of weeks, though, I have been able to actually work in the iTunesU interface for really the first time, which has been interesting. I signed in and created new sections, found some images to import and upload, named the sections, converted video files, uploaded them, tested them and then met with the staff members to show them what I had done and to explain how to access them. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I first uploaded a couple of videos for our Human Resources department. Our HR department often has workshops on issues such as health, employee benefits, personal finance, etc. So, I created a new section in iTunesU named Human Resources and within that section created a “health” category so I could add more podcasts to that section in the future. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Next, I took some videos from HR that they already had recorded and used the pro version of Quicktime to convert the movie files to an ipod format. What was strange to both me and my mentor was that when we converted the movie file to an ipod format, the file size tripled or even quadrupled in size when we thought it would get smaller and more compact after the conversion. So, we decided not to use Quicktime for these movie files. Instead the iTunesU interface has a built-in converter for some file types. So, we used that function instead, which seemed to keep the files at more reasonable sizes. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I also took several videos from our Wellness Center podcast series and added them to iTunesU so that users could “subscribe” and get new podcasts as soon as they are available in iTunes, rather than having to go to the webpage to check for updates. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I have enjoyed working with iTunesU although the interface is not really as friendly as I thought an Apple interface would be. In fact it took my mentor and me quite a while to find a quick way to add a new section to the home page. There is no “new section” button and after you find a function at times it takes a while to remember how you did it so when you want to use it again. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Even though I enjoy working with iTunesU it is much more time consuming than I initially thought it would be. Usually it’s just the little things that add up in terms of time. For example, finding an image to use for the podcasts, resizing the image and cropping it if necessary and uploading the file, then creating a new section and naming it and then verifying the permissions to the files, then converting the files if necessary, adding the necessary information to the file properties (name, author, organization, etc), uploading the file and editing the name in iTunesU, adding new categories when necessary, etc. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Still, it has been a pleasure working with iTunesU and I am learning a lot. I do still have several questions about how to use certain functions and I’m going to sit down with my mentor again and go over these and I plan on working with faculty and the CTE to do some recordings. So, there is a lot to learn and so my internship continues! Stay tuned for more!
 * November 8, 2010**

update on Nov. 8 at 12:13-Great news-I just spoke with my mentor and this week I should be able to help record some more video and upload it to iTunesU. We have plans to record a professor tomorrow for use in his class, another HR sessions (waiting for permission to film for that one) and more. So stay tuned for more updates!

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">So far everything has continued to go well with my internship. I am just a little behind schedule due to Fall Break, which I didn’t account for when creating my schedule. So, I was planning on having a professor do some recordings but he was out for the break. But, I just went ahead and started writing some of my annotated bibliography entries for my 2nd group of ten entries. I was re-reading one of the articles from my 1st group of annotated entries and one of them stated that it was good to take things slowly when starting iTunesU because word about it will travel fast on its own and that has definitely been the case. It seems lately that anytime I’m speaking about iTunesU with someone at USCA, he or she inevitably will say, “Oh, you should talk to so-and-so, because they would love this” or, similarly, someone will approach me and tell me that they heard I was working on this project and that they want more info. Because of this I have a longer list of people I’m working with than when I first began the internship, but that’s great! <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">So far, I’m working with two faculty members, 2 librarians, the director of our wellness center, the human resources office and others. It’s actually great because at the beginning of the semester I thought I may have to go out and find people who were interested but instead they seem to be finding me! <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">For the past few days I have been reading some more research and writing and I have been searching for different images I can use for each section in iTunesU (for example, looking for an icon to use on the exercise sciences page, or the library page, etc.). I think I may actually use Photoshop and create some of my own icons. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Next, I plan to meet with one of the professors to do some recordings and then I plan to upload some videos. The HR office already has some videos on their webpage that I plant to upload to iTunesU, which means there will be no re-recording necessary! <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I think things are going incredibly well and pretty much on schedule except for a few things here and there (it’s always difficult to be exactly on schedule when working with others’ schedules). I’m very pleased with how things are going so far and I think it’s developing into something that I’ll be working on for a while, even after the internship ends, which is fine with me! <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Stay tuned for more updates!
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">October 25, 2010 **

So far I am very pleased with my internship project. In the beginning I was very excited to get started and almost wanted to do everything at once. However, Dr. Smyth recommended taking it slowly and proceeding through each stage of the ADDIE process thoughtfully and deliberately and I'm glad he recommended that. Later, during my research, I actually found an article about iTunesU with that very same recommendation. Sometimes I hate waiting to hear back from faculty or staff with whom I am working on this project, but thankfully I have had enough to do without them that it keeps me busy and ensures I have hours towards my internship project. I have been able to review iTunesU guides, do lots of research about iTunesU and distance education, view examples of iTunesU use by other colleges and universities and so on.
 * October 11, 2010-Midterm Report**

I began with the Analysis and moved on to the design stage. During this stage I met with faculty and discussed how iTunesU could help them and their students. I also met with staff members who were interested in using iTunesU to distribute content. Now I have entered the "development" stage and plan to meet with users soon to start the actual recording of lectures and so forth and the actual creation of content to upload.

I checked my schedule-the one I did at the beginning of the semester for my contract, and I am right on schedule! That's great. The faculty and staff I have worked with have been very helpful and seem to have a genuine interest in iTunesU, which makes my job much easier and enjoyable as well. I'm learning a lot and getting a lot done, too.

To see a list of 10 annotated bibliography entries as well as a short breeze presentation I did, you can visit this site:

iTunesU Wiki Site (edet650-itunesu.wikispaces.com)

<span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">This is my second reflection for my internship and so far everything is going very well and according to schedule. I got access to the administrator page of iTunesU for USCA and was able to peruse the editing options (Keith had already shown me a few of the available options). However, I haven't made any changes to the site yet, as I am still in the "analysis" phase of the internship project. Therefore, most of my time has been spent looking over the current site, comparing it to other iTunesU sites, reading research and articles about the development and use of iTunesU and how it can be integrated with existing curricula, and so on.
 * September 27, 2010**

At the beginning of the internship I was excited and eager to get started and I was setting a date when I would email all the faculty and staff and ask who would be interested in participating in iTunesU. However, after my 1st reflection, Dr. Smyth suggested that I begin working with just one or two faculty members and see how it goes. I think that's a great idea. If I emailed the entire campus, I'm sure I would be inundated with requests. By working with just a couple faculty members I can take things more slowly and see how things go and how well everything works before expanding the project to other faculty and staff.

So for now, I'm working with an instructor from the Exercise Science department and a professor from the Sociology department, who is teaching an online course now. I've already spoken with the 1st instructor who is brainstorming some of the material that he would like to place on iTunesU. I have an in-office meeting scheduled with the 2nd professor this Wednesday (September 29) to discuss iTunesU in further detail. So, in these next couple weeks I plan to get more information about what material the professors would like to share, how they'd like the layout to look, etc. So, that will really move me for into the "design" phase of the ADDIE model.

I'm continuing reading articles about iTunesU and distance education learning, as well as the iTunesU admin guide that one can access via the iTunesU admin page.

I'll post some of the articles I have been reading so if anyone wants to look over them as well. Some of them are very interesting. I'll also post a few screenshots of the USCA iTunesU site as well as some of the sites with which I have been comparing the USCA site. You'll notice that the USCA site has a big typo and a few other issues but I wanted to share the "original" with all of you before jumping in and making changes!

Some articles if you are interested in learning more about iTunesU and distance education (only a sample of what I've been reading!):

(2006). California College Joins iTunesU. Community College Week, 19(5), 16. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database.

Bradley, P. (2008). EDUCATION ON THE RUN. Community College Week, 20(18), 6-7. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database.

Cohen, P. (2006). iTunes U. Macworld, 23(5), 22. Retrieved from Computer Source database.

Dew, K. (2006). WHY ACADEMIA DIGS iTUNES. BusinessWeek, (3987), 14. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database.

Lindsay, J. (2008). Apple Makes iTunes More Accessible for the Blind, Aiding Students. Community College Week, 8-9. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database.

Read, B. (2007). How to Podcast Campus Lectures. Chronicle of Higher Education, 53(21), A32-A35. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database.

Read, M. (2007). Learning On-The-Go: Use of MP3 Players On Rise at Colleges. Community College Week, 19(13), 10-11. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database.

Young, J. (2006). Textbook Add-Ons Placed on iTunes. Chronicle of Higher Education, 53(10), A37. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database.

Also: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/09/business/09novel.html

Finally, here is a partial screenshot of USCA's iTunesU in its current state:



<span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">September 13, 2010 For my internship I wanted to focus on something that would create a mutually beneficial relationship for both my workplace (University of South Carolina Aiken) and me (completing the internship requirements and learning some new skills). After much consideration of a number of various opportunities and interests, I decided to focus on iTunesU for the University of South Carolina Aiken. ItunesU stands for “iTunes University” and is a section within Apple’s iTunes program. The iTunesU portion of iTunes is dedicated to colleges and universities and allows professors and other staff members to upload both audio and video podcasts, which students, members of the public, or other faculty and staff members can then download. Of course, there are many benefits to using iTunesU: First, iTunes is a very popular software application that is well-known and widely-used. Most students at universities today are familiar with using iTunes and with downloading podcasts and other media via iTunes to listen to or to watch on their computers or on portable devices such as iPods, iPhones, iPod Touches, and the iPad. Thus, iTunesU is a great way for those working in colleges and universities to get information out to students (and others) in an easy and efficient manner using a program that most of the students are already familiar and comfortable (and enjoy) using.

Working at USCA’s help desk in the Computer Services Department allows me to interact with many students, faculty, and staff, as the help desk is their first point of contact for any technical questions. Over the last couple of years I have had many professors inquire about how to create podcasts for their classes. The faculty members with whom I have spoken have expressed the desire to be able to post both audio and/or video of course lectures or review materials and allow students to access them via the internet. So, after speaking with Keith Pierce (Director of USCA’s Center for Teaching Excellence) last year about the growing desire to use podcasting at USCA we decided to jointly offer a workshop on podcasting. Many faculty members attended and seemed very interested in being able to use the technology. However, many attendees asked me later where their podcasts would be hosted. What many of them did not know was that USCA already has a page on iTunesU, as a subsidiary page of the University of South Carolina (USC) Columbia’s iTunesU site. It seemed to me that one of the biggest problems with iTunesU and USCA was that many professors simply did not know that they could publish podcasts to iTunesU. Therefore, I decided for my internship that I wanted to inform many professors about the existence of iTunesU and help them create podcasts to expand the use of iTunesU, helping students get more access to course information and eventually placing USCA in a more visible spot in iTunesU, rather than just as a subsidiary page of USC’s website.

After expressing this interest in my contract proposal to Dr. Smyth and while waiting to have the contract approved, I began to do some research on iTunesU. Surprisingly I was able to find more articles than I initially thought would be possible. Sometimes it’s difficult to find scholarly material on specific software programs, although the popularity of iTunesU seems to have made the task easier. I began by reading articles regarding the potential benefits and uses of iTunesU (e.g. allowing students who are sick to access material and not fall behind in their course, allowing courses to change from traditional, lecture-based courses to online, distance-ed courses, etc.).

After my contract was approved I began to focus more on specific goals that I outlined in my contract for the 1st two weeks of my internship. I met with my mentor, Keith Pierce, who has been doing the most work with iTunesU at USCA thus far. He and I discussed how one could access USCA’s public iTunesU site and we discussed how I could access the “administrator” portion of the program so as to be able to make edits, add categories, photos, etc. Finally, I also began to contact some faculty members who have expressed an interest to me before about using iTunesU or podcasting in general. I have not heard back from all of them yet, but one has responded and said he is very interested in coming on board. Overall, I feel like I’m off to a good start. I now see where USCA’s iTunesU is at in its present state (which isn’t that bad but there’s so much room for more material and use!), I know how to access the administrator portion of the program, I have started my research, and I have communicated with faculty.

By the end of this week I plan to speak with more faculty and set up some specific meetings so we can discuss their wants and needs and how podcasting with iTunesU could help them and their students. I plan to continue my research and investigate how other campuses are using iTunesU and how they integrated the technology into their curricula. Finally, I plan to review all the documentation that is included in the administrator portion of the program regarding rules and regulations and accessibility issues. I’m still waiting to receive a link via email for direct access to the admin portion of the program (as of the writing of this reflection) so that I can access that documentation. While waiting I plan to continue communication with faculty and more research as well as to begin brainstorming different layouts for the iTunesU page, although I think that part can be changed after we get most of the material ready and so I don’t want to get too ahead of myself. Overall I’m really happy with how much I’ve accomplished in the first few weeks of the semester and I’m excited about growing iTunesU for USCA and perhaps one day getting it so big and in such demand that USCA will have its own independent USCA site!

To be continued…