iTunes


 * 1. CITATION AND GENERAL INFORMATION**

Title: iTunes Developed by: Apple, Inc. Published by: Apple, Inc. ([|www.apple.com/itunes/]) Copyright: 2000-2009 Current Version: 10 Platform: Mac, Windows, Linux (through Wine); Bundled with all Macs and some HP and Dell Peripherals: Sound system (speakers), syncs with iPod, iPhone and Apple TV Ages: Early childhood through adult Class: General Music, Band, Orchestra, Choir, Theory, History


 * 2. TEACHER SUPPORT**

Educational resources can be found at:[] and []

Numerous tutorials are available on iTunes.

iTunes U offers free lectures, language lessons, audio books, and podcasts. Educators can create materials using iLife and iWork applications on Macs, specifically in podcast form.There are now over 200,000 educational audio and video files from universities, museums and PBS stations. Musical subjects that are currently included are: opera, jazz, music theory, guitar, African music, musical theater, drums, and piano. Due to the success of this iTunes feature, Apple now offers a K-12 version to offer more resources to younger students and their teachers.


 * 3. INSTRUCTIONAL CONTENT**

iTunes is a digital media player application for playing, organizing, and sharing digital music and video files. It features the abilities to organize one's personal music library, download music, ringtones, television shows, movies, audio books, and games, subscribe to podcasts and webcasts, listen to radio stations, and burn CDs. iTunes also has a new Ping feature. Ping is an iTunes version of the popular social network Twitter. You can follow both your friends and your favorite artists to get more ideas about music. Through technologies such as iPods and iPhones, people can bring all these features with them anywhere.

iTunes is an excellent tool for organizing a music library, as well as supplementing the music classroom. Through this technology, teachers have an easily accessible collection of music to share with their students. Rather than teachers needing to bring many CDs to school, specific pieces from their current collection can be downloaded for free into the music library. The iTune Library can be accessed when creating music in Garage Band and iMovie. Additionally, the iTunes Music Store offers a wide variety of musical genres that can be downloaded inexpensively and legally (around $0.99 per song or $9.99 for most albums). Samples of the pieces they are preparing can be easily played for the students. Downloaded pieces can also be burnt onto a CD for student reference (this is limited to seven copies.)

National Music Standards addressed through this program:

6. Listening to, analyzing, and describing music. 7. Evaluating music and music performances.

TI:ME Areas of Technology 7.06. The student captures musical performances for self-evaluation or evaluation by the teacher using notation or music-production software. 8.04. The student uses music production or notation software to create musical accompaniments for other art forms such as ballet, video excerpts, drama, and poetry readings.


 * 4. INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN AND PEDAGOGICAL SOUNDNESS**

iPods (or similar technologies) are very common among the current student population. Teachers could take advantage of this by including a listening log in a journal assignment. Teachers could also share with students the types of music that they have have on their own iPod Music Library. A good example of this can be found on Chris Ruge's website (Choir Director for Plainfield South High School, Plainfield, IL) : []. While this site does not break any copyright laws by actually playing the music, the choir director does have the opportunity to share his own musical listening habits with his students.

iTunes has also has iTunesU and iTunesK12. These offer even more resources to the student and teacher. Students can listen to podcasts or watch webcasts on their home computer. As more of these are offered, teachers could even assign or recommend some of these for home study. Since materials from iTunes U are not created by Apple, the quality and material presented may vary. However, many established institutions are participating in the program. The podcasts/webcasts available on iTunes can be used as tutorials or for review.


 * 5. RECORD KEEPING OF STUDENT PERFORMANCE**

Not applicable.


 * 6. OVERALL SUMMARY**

iTunes is free, cross-platform, and easy to use. It is an excellent resource for the music educator and music student. Apple continues to update this technology. It has become much more than a simple music library and now offers many more educational opportunities. For some programs, iTunes U could be used as a recruitment tool to demonstrate the success of a program as well as a great tool for integrating core subjects.

Rating: Excellent

Reviewed by: Margaret Kiehl 4/10/06 Updated by: Amber Dahlen 10/27/08 Updated by: Christina Spackey 11/12/09 Updated by: Maxine Schindler 06/16/2010 Updated by: Anna Silarski 10/31/2010