Spark (http://spark.uit.tufts.edu/index.jsp), a suite of communication and collaboration tools sponsored by University Information Technology (UIT) at Tufts University, launched a podcasting service recently. Tufts joins the ranks of other universities (Duke, Georgetown, Brown University) who are exploring how to take advantage of student's growing use of iPods and MP3 players for academic purposes: iPods as classroom tools are growing trend among national college campuses.
Relevant to this announcement were findings from various reports described in this Associated Press story - Growing number of students use MP3 players as a study tool
http://www.napavalleyregister.com/articles/2007/02/07/business/local/doc45c9e13a31a47296818650.txt
* Over half of teens owned a portable MP3 player in mid-2006
* Music and video still dominate teen downloads but 5% are now accessing podcasts and audio texts
One of the most interesting uses of podcasting in the article described Michael Barrett, a cardiologist at Temple University, putting "recordings of heart murmurs online so his medical students could download and listen to them, instead of squeezing in time with a patient."
Also mentioned was the new alliance between Audible Inc., the biggest audio book seller, and Pearson Education, the biggest textbook publisher, to launch VangoNotes, which provides "textbook chapter summaries and reviews in MP3 form."
