iTunes!

For my next topic I will be discussing the emergence of iTunes and its role in our society today. Despite being one of the most popular ways to listen to, organize, and transfer music, when compared to other software of the same genre, iTunes is relatively new. Winamp, the multimedia viewer/player I used all through high school and college, hit the scene about four or five years before iTunes's release in 2001. The grandfather of them all, Microsoft's Windows Media Player (formerly just "Media Player") began being included on each release of Windows in 1991. When iTunes did get released 10 years later, it became an instant hit. As this release pointed out (http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2001/jan/09itunes.html)iTunes now became a one-top-shop for the searching, downloading, burning, playing, and transferring of all music. No longer were users required to have seperate programs for each step, it could all be done in one basic and easy to use program. This review points out that fact and also takes an objective look at if iTunes was indeed an improvement over what was already in existence: http://arstechnica.com/reviews/01q1/macwldsf/mwsf-7.html#itunes I will go into detail about the benefits iTunes has in the education process as well as my own personal thoughts on the application in subsequent blogs. For now, I would suggest taking some time to check out some of the following links on iTunes, you may find out that there's more to this program than even you every day users were aware of.

Interesting article on how to use iTunes to organize your PDF files: http://lifehacker.com/software/pdf/geek-to-live--organize-your-pdf-library-with-itunes-240447.php
This is referring to moving all of your iTunes music but still maintaining the library data: http://hifiblog.com/past/2006/05/11/howto-move-your-itunes-music-while-preserving-library-data-when-you-dont-let-itunes-manage-your-music-library/
Some other good ones:
http://diveintomark.org/archives/2006/06/02/when-the-bough-breaks
http://lifehacker.com/software/itunes/hack-attack-automatically-sync-itunes-to-any-folders-175161.php
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2007/04/11itunes.html

Screencasting = fini!

Well, after posting my screencast, I though tI would just give you a brief rundown of how I made it before I moved on to my next topic. After downloading the free program "CamStudio" it was a fairly easy process; boot the program up, choose the area of the screen I wanted to record (I chose full screen), plug in a headset, hit record, and narrate what I was doing as I was doing it. Yeah, it was that easy. Completely pain-free and as simple as could be. Although the finished product wouldn't win me any awards, if I were to go further with some editing software and add title slides, captions, and even record over some of the narrative, I would have a pretty professional finished product. So now that you have an idea of both what a screencast is and how to make one, I am wrapping this topic up. If you have any further questions you can either contact me or refer to this website:

http://www.screencast.com/

Everyone have a great Thanksgiving, You will hear from me after the holidays.

Wow

It's been a long time since my last post, I just wanted to check in and let you know that I will be posting on my new topic in the upcoming days. Hope all is well with everyone!

My First Screencast

Well, here it is, my first ever screencast. I was able to download some software off of the internet to create it, and 15 minutes later I had finished my first screencast. Although it wasn't very difficult to do, I wouldn't say it is a masterpiece. Were I going to do these with regularity, I would look into obtaining some editing software as well, just to make it a little bit cleaner and more professional. I just used the basic hit record and do it all in one straight shot method; not the most desirable way to do it. Well, without further ado, here it is, my first (never know, possibly last) screencast:

Screencasting

I first became samiliar with screencasting when I bought the Microsoft Visio software. In an effort to learn just exactly how to use it and what it's capabilities are, I did the tutorial offered at the Microsoft website. In doing so, I had my first encounter with screencasting. More than just screenshots and pictures, a screencast is much like having a totor sitting next to you who can talk you through how something is done, while doing it by example for you. It takes away the vagueness of written instruction and adds the precision of video showing EXACTLY how something can be done. Of course, screencasting is not just limited to tutorials and instructional videos, they just happen to be the more popular uses for this media. It is such an easy way to disseminate information that most computers come equipped with the necessary software to produce, capture, save, and edit your own screencasts. For my next blog, I will attempt to make my own screencast and give you a rundown of how exactly I did it. Wish me luck!

Until next time,

Eric

Welcome!

Welcome to my first venture into the world that is weblogging, or, as we so commonly refer to it as, blogging. Although the title of this is "The Id of Eric", this will be far less id than it is ego, but I thought "The Ego of Eric" would send the wrong message :-) The purpose of this blog will be two-fold; one: it is for a class I am taking, and two: To help others understand emerging technology in the world of education as I familiarize myself with one of said technologies. Over the course of the next few weeks I will be looking into several of these mediums, but for right now I will stop short of anything other than tell you the first topic we will be looking into is: screencasting. Take some time and click on several the following link to better familiaize yourself with what screencasting is exactly, I know the link helped me immensely.

http://digitalmedia.oreilly.com/2005/11/16/what-is-screencasting.html