ITunes
From TechHelp
This overview is of iTunes 7 at this point. We want to mainly look at the podcasting feature.
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[edit] Starting iTunes
To open iTunes go to Start>All Programs>iTunes>iTunes which should be the little icon showing a CD and two quarter notes. If this is the first time that you open iTunes it is going to ask you if you agree not to use the software to pirate audio files, after you answer this question you will be asked if you would like to search for music on your computer, as well as whether you would like to retrieve the album art for the songs that you import. Then you will be asked whether you want to go to the iTunes music store or your collections. At this point you want to go to your collection for an overview of the interface.
Once you have finally loaded up iTunes you will see an interface that looks similar to this (though without my music :)
There are three areas that are important when you are working with iTunes.
- Menu bar
- Left side bar
- Main area
The first and one of the most helpful is the Menu bar with your typical file, edit, controls menu. The reason that this menu is useful is that it allows you to manipulate the way things interface with iTunes. Two places that you will likely use right away are the Edit>Preferences area which will allow you to adjust how you will interact with iTunes and the way you want things to be done for you, for example only updating a podcast once day, or setting the menu to update it every hour. The other area is the Advance>Subscribe to Podcast, which allows you to subscribe to podcasts that you can't seem to subscribe to using the iTunes music store.
The left side bar is where you will do most of your moving through your collection whether you are looking for a song podcast or even a movie. iTunes has your content listed under three main headings and then these headings are broken down. The first and foremost is your Library this is broken down into the music, movies, TV shows, Podcasts, and radio that you have saved on your computer. By simply clicking on one of these links will bring you to the desired area that you would like to see. Once in that area you will see a list of the things that are in that specific library.
The Main area is where the collected libraries are shown as you navigate through your library. If you have selected your music library for example it would display all of the music that you have in your iTunes library. Using the categories at the top of the menu you can sort your library for searching. At the top right hand side of the window you will also notice a little magnifying glass. This area allows you to search your collection. Simply start typing a word and iTunes begins to search the library.
[edit] Finding Podcast for Listening
One of the best ways to learn about podcasting is to begin to listen to podcasts. There are thousands of podcasts out there of varying degrees of quality. One great place to begin searching is right within iTunes it allows you to browse by topic and search. Since podcasts tend to be audio files that are similar to radio talk shows you will probably want to find something that is of interest to you. Perhaps you are a French teacher and want to find some lessons on French lessons for your students.
Go to the left side bar and choose podcasts from the libraries that are available to you. Then you will see at the bottom of the window you will see a button called podcast directory. By clicking on the button it will bring you to the iTunes music store section that holds the podcast collection.
In this window you will see different sections relating to the most viewed and newest podcasts in the directory. The area that you want to use to search or browse podcasts are in the upper right hand corner of this screen, under Quick links.
[edit] Searching
To search for podcasts you will want to select the Power Search link. This will open a new window inside of iTunes.
At the top of this window you will see a search bar with a list of different types of media, with Podcast highlighted in black. The search bar contains different fields that you can search by. Remember this isn't Google so you are searching only the iTunes database. The most efficient way to search for a podcast is to type a keyword into the description, such as science, and then clicking the search button.
A broad search such as science gives me 150 different podcasts in a list. If I want to listen to an episode of one of these Podcasts I can simply double clicking on a Podcast and be able to listen to the most current episode. If you would like to find out more information related to the podcast such as a description and reviews you will want to click on the small circle with the arrow inside of it 
. This will open the actual podcasts window. On the top of the page you will see a description of the podcast, a link to the web site, and other information relating to customer reviews. Below this area you will see a list of the different episodes of the podcast.
Each podcast is basically like an television show with different episodes around a specific subject.
Searching makes it much easier to look at a few podcast, as opposed to simply browsing a list. However sometimes you terms may get to specific to return any results, something like World War Two as a search term brings up very little. So in this case I may want to browse the different lists of Podcasts related to history.
[edit] Browsing
By clicking on the Browse link you will be taken to a listing of the different podcast categories. As a French teacher we would want to choose Education>Subcategory of your choice.
Once you have selected your subcategory you will see a list of different podcasts that have been submitted by different individuals. This is important that content is submitted by individuals, and not necessarily looked at critically by Apple. So what does this mean? You may or may not find a podcast that directly relates to your interest.
Now by double clicking on a Podcast you will be able to listen to the most current episode of the podcast this will give you an idea of what each podcast is about. If you would like to find out more information related to the podcast such as a description and reviews you will want to click on the small circle with the arrow inside of it . This will open the actual podcasts window. On the top of the page you will see a description of the podcast, a link to the web site, and other information relating to customer reviews. Below this area you will see a list of the different episodes of the podcast.
Each podcast is basically like an television show with different episodes around a specific subject.
[edit] Subscribing
So if you like what you hear you are ready to subscribe to the podcast. iTunes has made this easy you can simply click on the subscribe button within iTunes and you are subscribed to the podcast. You will receive an confirmation asking if you really want to subscribe to the podcast and also stating that you will only receive the most recent episode. Click the subscribe button again to complete your subscription.
Once you have done this you will see the podcasts that you have subscribed to listed under podcasts in your left menu bar.
As you can see if you haven't obtained a certain episode of the podcast you can simply click on the get button. This will then begin to download the podcast to your hard drive. Once you have downloaded the show you will see a small blue circle on the left side of the your main window. This means that the episode hasn't been listened to yet. So get listening!
[edit] Uses in the Classroom
With the amount and variety of podcasts that are out there this isn't a limit to the content that is available, but only a limit on content. For example if you are teaching language there is a wide range of content related to learning languages everything from Mandarin to Spanish. So what could you use this for? Well if you have been listening to the podcast for a while and you know that the content is related to your subject you simply might want to clue students into it. Those white buds in their ears may not just be listening to the latest album. You could use this in class if it related to an activity that you have planned.
One great example is the MAKE magazine podcast which covers all sorts of science type projects. Basically if you wanted to have students learn about everything from hover crafts to biospheres the 3 to 5 minute videos give a wealth of information and are done in a fun and humorous way. So perhaps downloading this videos and PDFs that relate to your science classroom and giving the students hands on opportunities to explore a concept would benefit a variety of students. You could also extend the project by taking and submitting photos to Flickr related to individual projects.
The best way to begin is to subscribe to a few podcasts and listen along or watch what is of interest to you.
