ITunes
From LIS 460 Summer 2007
Contents |
What Is iTunes all about?
iTunes was developed in 2001 by Apple. Apple is a computer company that develops and manufactures consumer electronics and software products. iTunes is a digital media player application that is used to play and organize digital music and video files. The application is used to manage music and videos that can be played on Apple's iPod, which is a digital media player as well as on Apple's new invention, the iPhone. Apple also provides an iTunes Store, where digital media can be downloaded for a certain price or it may be for free.
History
iTunes was developed by Jeff and Bill Kincaid as an MP3 player. Apple purchased their software, updated the interface and released it as iTunes in 2001. iTunes has generated a billion dollars in revenue for Apple since its release.
iTunes Features
iTunes has a library, where a user can organize all of their songs and videos that they have downloaded. They can download music, movies, television shows, games, podcasts, and audiobooks from the iTunes store. Users can also create playlists with different songs and artists. Another feature is the party shuffle, where songs are randomly selected from the library or playlists and then they can be played back.
As mentioned, users may not only listen to music, they can also watch videos and download podcasts. They can also copy files and create CDs and DVDs. iTunes has a step-by-step guide to help the user import and burn music and video files. Apple has an iTunes store, where music and videos can be purchased for a particular fee. Free downloads are also available.
The current version of iTunes can read, write and convert between a variety of files, such as the following:
-MP3
-AIFF
-WAV
-MPEG-4
-Apple Lossless
Library and Classroom Use
iTunes can be used in variety of ways by teachers and librarians. Music can be downloaded and used in music classes or for school projects (bearing in mind fair use and copyright issues). Movies can be downloaded and used for classes as well. For example, maybe an English teacher wants to show the film version of To Kill A Mockingbird in class. She could easily download the movie off of iTunes, burn it onto a DVD and show it to the class. Again, teachers and librarians would have to keep in mind copyright issues when using iTunes.
Another terrific use of iTunes is podcasting. A librarian or teacher can subscribe to a podcast and have students listen to them on a weekly basis. For instance, a librarian may subscribe to Storynory, which has podcasts of fairy tales. If an elementary student has forgotten to return his or her book, they can sit and listen to the story while other children look for books in the library. It's a good way to occupy the child and not make them feel left out.
Students can also create podcasts and upload them to iTunes, as did the students at Longfellow Middle School in La Crosse, Wisconsin. The "Coulee Kids" of Longfellow, cover all kinds of topics in their podcasts, such as science projects, which anybody can listen to if they subscribe to the podcast via iTunes. The podcasts, music and videos can be used for education and entertainment, so students will enjoy the technology and teachers and librarians will find it easy to use. In order to run iTunes, the school will need computers, speakers, and headphones. iTunes is free to download. The computer systems that work best with iTunes are the following: Mac OS X, Windows Vista, Windows XP and Windows 2000.
