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Sept. 27, 2005
U-M Dentistry collaborates with Apple to podcast lectures
Now University of Michigan School of Dentistry and Apple Computer Inc. are collaborating on a project that uses iTunes technology for academics. U-M Dentistry offers audio of large lecture classes posted online for download by registered U-M dental students, and uses RSS, a Web syndication method, to send instructional content to students automatically. John Couch, Apple's vice president for education, visited the School of Dentistry this month for a celebration of the program. Lynn Johnson, director of dentistry informatics and information technology, said the partnership represents a major shift in how technology is used in teaching. A demonstration showed a custom iTunes site for Dentistry, offering ectures in a "music store" listing. Students who log in using a U-M identity can preview audio of a lecture, download an individual lecture or subscribe to the downloads for automated delivery to their computers and MP3 players. Duke University created buzz for spending about $500,000 to give every incoming freshman an iPod in 2004. Johnson described U-M's process as the direct opposite of Duke's. U-M's efforts started with a student need and ended with a technology, while Duke established an iPod program that encouraged faculty to incorporate it into their pedagogy. Starting in fall 2004, Johnson worked with students to test different approaches. Dental informatics staff posted lectures in three formats: video with audio, PowerPoint files with audio, and audio files alone. Then Johnson and her colleagues watched download traffic to see what students used. To Johnson's surprise, audio was most popular. She found students were listening to lectures on the move, exercising at the Central Campus Recreation Building for example, rather than sitting at a desk taking notes. "I guess I'm the Richard Simmons of the academic world. They're all sweating to the oldies," said Dennis Lopatin, senior associate dean at Dentistry, who was the first faculty member to agree to participate in recording experiments. Van Ittersum, now a second-year dental student, said that because of the course load of the graduate program, students need to use every spare moment wisely. He said he's recognized material on tests as content he freshly reviewed on his way to class. About half of the participating students used an RSS reader to subscribe to the content. RSS can automatically download recently posted lectures to students' computers, convert them to an AAC file they can bookmark, and load files onto their iPods or other audio players. This technique of pushing MP3 files out is sometimes called " podcasting," taking its name from the Apple MP3 player. Dentistry's idea could spread across U-M's campus via C-Tools, a web-based educational tool. James Hilton, U-M's associate provost for academic, information and instructional technology affairs, said the University's general approach is to provide the means to let others tap in to good ideas developed throughout the campus. He hopes it will be easy to take dentistry's standalone system and integrate it into C-Tools if other U-M schools and colleges want to try it. "We want central IT to respond quickly so schools and colleges can experiment with new initiatives get the support they need," Hilton said. Hilton said the Dentistry-Apple collaboration is an example of exactly how he hopes technology would work at U-M. "Finding ways to capitalize on the energy and creativity of students who have been raised in a very different technological space and who have a very demanding set of expectations—this is a happy story of how that enriches teaching," Hilton said.
Contact: Colleen Newvine or Contact: Laura Lessnau |
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