I tune, you tune, we all tune to iTunes

Previously we have discussed in my article on "ABCs of RSS", how you can subcribe to a Blog (RSS Feed), using FireFox. This current article deals with how you can subscribe to a Podcast (RSS Feed) using iTunes.

So, what is iTunes? Well, iTunes is a media player, written by Apple Computer, for playing and organizing digital music, video files, and purchasing digital music files in the FairPlay digital rights management format. The iTunes Music Store (also sometimes referred to simply as "iTunes" or "iTMS") is the component of iTunes through which users can purchase digital music files from within iTunes. It is available as a free download, from Apple.

Next, let's talk about why would you want to subscribe to a Podcast? Well, it's like receiving your Newspaper. You can choose to go out everyday and get your newspaper at a news-stand, or if you subscribe to it, it is delivered everyday to your doorstep. So once you subscribe to a Podcast for ex. in iTunes, you can automatically receive it, everytime there is a new podcast, on your Computer.

So what do you do to receive your podcast in iTunes? Here are the steps:

• First download iTunes on your computer (free download) and install on your computer


• Next using Internet Explorer, navigate to my blog at http://cstcctrain.blogspot.com/


• Click on the "subscribe to iTunes icon", on the right hand side of the blog, where there are a bunch of icons, immediately below the Blogger icon.


• This will automatically start iTunes, you will be automatically subscribed to my Podcast, and it will start downloading the Podcasts.

The cool thing is you only have to do this one time. Once you start receiving my Podcast in iTunes, every time there is a new episode, it will automatically download it to iTunes, and you can watch it in iTunes. If you have an iPod you can download it to your iPod from iTunes.

RSS Feeds in WebCT

This is an Advanced WebCT Class, for creating RSS Feeds in WebCT using JavaScript. The PowerPoint above provides the Overview, and the Agenda of what will be covered in class. No knowledge of JavaScript is required for the Class.

The actual screencast/video is in a wiki. You can e-mail me at Chattanooga State and I will provide you with the username and password to access this screencast/video.

Web 2.0 - Catch the Wave

Click To Play

This is a screencast on Web 2.0 from Chattanooga State

You have no doubt heard a lot of buzz about "Web 2.0" this year. Web 2.0 is the moniker for an emerging set of Internet-based tools and an emerging philosophy on how to use them.

The technologies encompassed by Web 2.0 include, but are by no means limited to, blogs, tags, RSS, social bookmarking, wikis, podcasts, and AJAX. The philosophy focuses on the idea that the people who consume media, access the Internet, and use the Web shouldn't passively absorb what's available -- rather, they should be active contributors, helping customize media and technology for their own purposes, as well as those of their communities.

This philosophy contrasts sharply with the old "Web 1.0" methodology, in which news was provided by a handful of large corporations, Web pages were static and rarely updated, and only the tech-savvy could contribute to the development of the World Wide Web.

Web 2.0 isn't just the latest new toy for geeks or the bleeding edge so beloved by entrepreneurs. It's the beginning of a new era in technology -- one that promises to help nonprofits operate more efficiently, generate more funding, and affect more lives.

In some previous posts I have discussed what Blogs, and Podcasts, and RSS Feeds are. So what is a Wiki? and what is the difference between a Blog and a Wiki?

A Blog usually has one person who authors the posts, whereas in a Wiki you can have more than one person that can manage the site. So there is more collaboration in a Wiki. More than one person can store files on a Wiki and revise documents. To watch the Screencast click on Click to Play. If the screencast does not play, install the Flash Player

ABCs of RSS

Click To Play

This is a Screencast on "RSS Feeds and Live Bookmarks in FireFox"

Just what is RSS and how can it be used in education? Depending on who you talk to, RSS stands for Rich Site Summary or Real Simple Syndication. Either way, RSS is an important technology that information specialists and educators would be wise to harness.

RSS is a type of Web Feed. Unlike conventional sites which rarely change their contents, blogs (online journal) are usually updated frequently. In order to keep up with what's happening on blogs, there are 'web feeds', 'feed readers' take the content from selected blogs and deliver it to you, all in one place. This means you can scan and select new and updated material without checking blogs all the time.

Web feeds are just a special kind of web page, designed to be read by computers rather than people. They deliver new stuff directly to you as soon as it is published online. You can subscribe to receive new stories and headlines instantly, rather than having to look for the latest updates online. The 'news' can be any kind of content - articles, essays, images, music, video... Subscribing to web feeds is also known as 'syndication' or 'aggregation'.

It uses a type of software called an "aggregator" or feed collector to check the feeds you subscribe to, usually every hour, and collect all the new content from those sites. In other words, you check one site instead of 30 — not a bad trade-off for a harried teacher.

This Blog has been set up with an RSS feed, so you can subscribe to it and receive the blog posts automatically on your computer in "Fire Fox" (add live bookmark) or in Blog Lines. Also check Donna's site on RSS