NEWS
The Michigan Daily - Monday, September 19, 2005 - 3A
* ON CAMPUS
*Profs to speak
about sex and
American culture
Professors Matt Lassiter, Valerie Traub,
Eric Rabkin and Luis Sfeir-Younis will be
speaking about how sex, American values
and popular culture intersect, interact and
affect lives. The lecture will be held in the
Kuenzel Room of the Michigan Union
from 7:00 to 9:30 p.m.
Campus ministry
explores God
and gender
The Wesley Foundation Campus Min-
istry will explore the possibility of being
faithful to both a feminine and Chris-
tian calling. They will explore issues and
obstacles of experiencing a feminine side
of God. The event will be held in the
lounge of the Wesley Foundation, from
6:30 to 7:45 p.m.
Psychological
society holds
mass meeting
The Undergraduate Psychological
Society will hold its mass meeting tomor-
row at 7 p.m. in 4448 East Hall. Students
wondering what to do with their psychol-
ogy degrees after graduation or interested
in research opportunities should stop by.
Food will be served at the event.
CRIME
NOTES
Maintenance car
vandalized on
Catherine Street
A maintenance vehicle parked in a
lot located on 1000 Catherine Street was
vandalized sometime on Friday night or
early Saturday morning, according to the
Department of Public Safety. The front
driver's side window was smashed along
with the passenger side, and the handle on
one of the doors was broken. The vehicle
was also full of tools that were not stolen.
There are no suspects at this time.
Negotiation to get
back stolen cell
phone fails
Larceny of a cell phone was reported
after the victim lost the cell phone at the
University Golf Course on Saturday morn-
ing. The victim, who was visiting Ann
Arbor, was able to use another phone to
call his stolen phone and thereby com-
municate with the suspect. However, the
victim was unable to negotiate its return.
Subsequent attempts to reach the suspect
were unsuccessful, according to DPS.
Stationary 'U,
Bus Falls Victim
to Hit and Run
A University bus driver reported that
a vehicle hit his bus while it was parked
on the 500 block of South State Street and
then drove off. The driver said the vehicle
was last seen headed down South Street
toward Hill Street. The DPS shift super-
visor could not offer a description of the
suspect or the vehicle.
THIS DAY
In Daily History
Regents approve
lower tuition hike
Sept. 19, 1980 - Over 200 faculty
members and fellow students attended
Friday's memorial service for slain Uni-
versity graduate Rebecca Greer Huff.
Huff, a recent 30-year-old graduate
who had started working on a Master's
in Business Administration at the Busi-
ness School, was tragically murdered a
week ago. She was the third woman in
the Ann Arbor area to be killed in the
last five months.
Tech-savvy university professors
offer classes, lecture via podcasts
WASHINGTON (AP) - When Suzan Harkness, a political sci-
ence professor at the University of the District of Columbia, noticed
she was repeatedly asking her young pupils to take off their iPod
headphones in class, it seemed almost obvious.
Why shouldn't they be listening to her lectures, instead of
music?
"I thought I'd become as hip as they are and use the barrier
that had come between us," Harkness said. "It's just another way
to reach them."
Harkness is one of a growing number of tech-savvy professors
across the country who are making their own podcasts - a combina-
tion of the words iPod and broadcast - by recording mini-lessons or
even full lectures and interviews. They then post them on the Inter-
net for students to download and listen to on their MP3 players.
It's the same idea radio and television broadcasters have been try-
ing in recent months by reformatting news, sports and talk shows for
the iPod generation.
Once a student finds his professor's podcast - usually posted on a
university Website - the file can be downloaded automatically each
time he plugs in his portable player. Harkness said all she needed to
get started was a microphone and a computer program to edit the
sound on her laptop computer.
So far, her students approve of the first podcast, which runs just
more than six minutes, complete with intro music.
"Sometimes reading can be difficult, but if you actually hear it,
you kind of retain it more," said Tamara Burrowes, who will com-
plete her bachelor's degree at UDC in December. "You might listen
Google execs
worry about
to it over and over again as you're riding on the subway."
The idea makes sense for students, whether they speak limited Eng-
lish or simply learn better by hearing, said American University inter-
national politics Prof. Patrick Jackson, who records his lectures with a
lapel mic plugged into his own iPod.
"You're dealing with a generation of students who grew up multi-
tasking with several IM (instant messenger) windows open, brows-
ing online and listening to their iPods," Jackson said. "If you want to
engage with them, then you need to engage with the sort of practices
they use."
There doesn't seem to be much fear that students will skip class for
some extra sleep, knowing they can download the lecture later.
"I've always thought that coming to class was sort of something
optional anyway," Jackson said.
Class time is better used for interaction, debate and one-on-one
mentoring, he said.
Jackson assigns his students to use their iPods as recording
devices to conduct interviews for his research methods class. They
play back the results over classroom speakers.
The university has arranged for Jackson to train other professors
on ways to use the new technology at a conference next month.
As appealing as it sounds, Georgetown University School of
Medicine Prof. Rochelle Tractenberg said she ran into prob-
lems recording biostatistics lectures last year. Her graduate stu-
dents told her that they liked having the lectures available, but
they weren't listening to the three-hour recordings very often,
if at all.
The experiment with Apple iPods began in earnest last fall
when Duke University spent $500,000 to hand out the 20 giga-
byte devices for free to all 1,600 freshmen. Duke reported
mixed results, with professors using them in dozens of courses but
having trouble with recording quality and sharing files.
Harkness said she never intended to make the $300 iPod a require-
ment for her class.
"I'm not promoting that they go out and get one if they can't afford
it," she said.
The files can be downloaded for listening on any computer as
well. But Harkness said most of her students already bring their
iPods to class.
College students are about three times more likely than any-
one else to own an MP3 player, according to a February study
by the Pew Internet and American Life Project. More than
21 million iPods have been sold, according to Apple, as well
as thousands of accessories made to go with them, including
microphones and car adapters.
The growing market has sparked Internet ventures, poised
to start selling lecture downloads for $5 apiece. Apple has also
added a podcast section to its latest version of iTunes, where
a growing number of colleges have submitted podcasts from
speeches on campus.
For Jackson, this all means academia will have to adapt to
the new tech culture - whether by challenging students to
express their ideas through blogs or offering more interactive
audio and video features for their lessons.
1"
book scanning
NEW YORK (AP) - Tony San- Learned and Professional Society Pub-
filippo is of two minds when it comes lishers. "Just because you do something
to Google Inc.'s ambitious program to that's not harmful or beneficial doesn't
scan millions of books and make their make it legal."
text fully searchable on the Internet. Morris and other publishers believe
On the one hand, Sanfilippo cred- Google must get their permission first, as
its the program for boosting sales of it has under the Print Publisher Program
obscure titles at Penn State University it launched in October 2004, two months
Press, where he works. On the other, before announcing the library initiative.
he's worried that Google's plans to cre- Under the publishers' program, Google
ate digital copies of books obtained has deals with most major U.S. and U.K.
directly from libraries could hurt his publishers. It scans titles they submit,
industry's long-term revenues. displays digital images of selected pages
With Google's book-scanning program triggered by search queries and gives pub-
set to resume in earnest this fall, copyright lishers a cut of revenues from accompany-
laws that long preceded the Internet look to ing ad displays.
be headed for a digital-age test. But publishers aren't submitting all their
The outcome could determine how easy titles under that program, and many of the
it will be for people with Internet access to titles Google wants to scan are out of print
benefit from knowledge that's now mostly belong to no publisher at all.
locked up - in books sitting on dusty Jim Gerber, Google's director of content
library shelves, many of them out of print. partnerships, says the company would get
"More and more people are expecting nomiore than 15, percent of all books ever
access, and they are making do with what published if it relied solely on publisher
they can get easy access to," said Brewster submissions.
Kahle, co-founder of the Internet Archive, That's why it has turned to libraries.
which runs smaller book-scanning proj- Under the Print Library Project, Google
ects, mostly for out-of-copyright works. is scanning millions of copyright books
"Let's make it so that they find great works from libraries at Harvard, Michigan and
rather than whatever just happens to be on Stanford along with out-of-copyright
the Net." materials there and at two other libraries.
To prevent the wholesale file-shar- Google has unilaterally set this rule:
ing that is plaguing the entertainment Publishers can tell it which books not
industry, Google has set some limits in to scan at all, similar to how Website
its library project: Users won't be able owners can request to be left out of
to easily print materials or read more search engine indexes. In August, the
than small portions of copyright works company halted the scanning of copy-
online. right books until Nov. 1, saying it want-
Google also says it will send readers ed to give publishers time to compile
hungry for more directly to booksellers their lists.
and libraries. Richard Hull, executive director
But many publishers remain wary. of the Text and Academic Authors
To endorse Google's library initia- Association, called Google's approach
tive is to say "it's OK to break into my backwards. Publishers shouldn't have
house because you're going to clean my to bear the burden of record-keep-
kitchen," said Sally Morris, chief execu- ing, agreed Sanfilippo, the Penn State
tive of the U.K.-based Association of press's marketing and sales director.
How far will you go?
Commitment.
It sets- us apart.
School of Information master's students
serve communities in Ann Arbor, in other
states, and on other continents. More than
70 of our students participated in Alternative
Spring Break in Washington, D.C., and New
York City. Others have organized community
information centers on Native American
lands and in Africa, South America, and the
Caribbean. Be part of it. Connect with SI.
SCIIQOL OF1iNBURMAU 011
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
Maertens for being selected
as a Microsoft scholar!
Jennifer will receive a
Before SI:
BA, Sociology and
Anthropology
At S1:
Information
Economics,
Management and
Policy
After SI:
Coordinator,
United Nations
World Food Program
scholarship, compliments of
Microsoft Corporation, for the
2005-2006 academic year.
You could be selected as a
scholar next year. Visit our
website to learn more
about our programs.
si.umich.edu/info
I I