Santa was very good to me this year, and surprised me with a shiny new IPod under the tree. I've been known to poo-poo the whole IPod phenomenon on more than one occasion. But now that I have one I am changing my tune.
Over the last week I have transferred almost everything in my CD collection that I still listen to and have managed to fill almost half the available 20gb disk with 2,300 songs so far. And instead of carrying these CDs between the car, my office and home to listen to them, I just carry the IPod. Of course I can listen to it through headphones. But I can also connect it to the stereo at home, listen via a special adapter through my car radio, and by plugging it into my computer speakers at the office. It really makes it easy to have full access to my entire music collection anywhere I am, and I have been listening to more, and a wider variety of music than in the past.
But there is more than music. Have you heard of pod-casting? Basically a pod cast is an audio blog. With pod casting software you can subscribe to your favorite audio blog, and automatically download the latest "broadcast" into ITunes for uploading to your IPod. This will also work with Windows Media Player and other MP3 players, so the IPod is not essential to enjoy this technology. The whole pod casting thing is just getting off the ground, but it opens up a lot of interesting possibilities in an education environment. Distributing lecture programs or audio books could easily be done. You can also record on the IPod (with a special microphone) so student homework presentations, foreign language lab-work, etc. could be shared with instructors and fellow students.
Is there an IPod in your future?
Wired News: You too can be a Podcaster
Audio Education, Apple Learning Exchange
IPods at Duke University
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