iTunes U not a hit just yet

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell announced in late October the launch of the California Department of Education on iTunes U, the high-powered system within iTunes used to distribute educational audio, film and PDF materials for free to students and educators worldwide.

“Whether accessed through a desktop, laptop or smart phone, CDE on iTunes U will be an important tool for the continued professional development of our community of education professionals,” O’Connell said. “Educators now have more opportunities to access relevant information whenever and wherever it is convenient for them.”

There are now hundreds of media files on iTunes U from the CDE, with collections titled the “California Migrant Education Program,” the “Clearinghouse for Specialized Media and Translations” and “Common Core State Standards,” among others.

The implications of the California education system’s progress in the computerized direction are varied.

The system has some definite strengths; it’s a step above sending out a mass e-mail with an attachment to every teacher in the state. (Of course, that too is, for the most part, better than sending hard copies to every teacher in the state.)

It also has the capability to simultaneously hold and provide all the content that the CDE could care to have in one place.

Perhaps most importantly for the cash-strapped California public education system is that it costs the CDE nothing to the state to use the iTunes U platform for these purposes, meaning taxpayers and budget-stretchers alike can proclaim, “Hallelujah!”

But it does have some definite weaknesses. To begin with, it’s not very searchable; unlike a real searchable database, the content of the PDF documents are not from a consistent source or source type (such as journals, magazines, etc.) or able to be easily found based on content. One other especially inconvenient aspect of it is that one can’t simply browse all the content titles; one is limited to seeing “What’s New,” “Top Downloads” and “Top Collections.”

Perhaps its most controversial point of the CDE’s iTunes U platform use is rooted in the fact that the information on it is primarily aimed at teachers, not at students or parents.

It is encouraging that teachers will have a formalized location from which they can access some resources that would otherwise be either e-mailed or that they might not ordinarily receive.

However, based on what has been uploaded so far, it’s yet to be seen if extraneous energy is being devoted to this project by the CDE.

From what I remember about my experience in California’s public schools, I recall that most of my teachers didn’t have a lot of spare time or energy to read random educational materials for fun; most of the time they focused on getting ready for the next class, dealing with the impact of budget cuts (and the potential pink slips that might follow) and occasionally looking at the New York Stock Exchange.

If the teachers I knew from high school had the time to read anything, it would be something in their field of study.

Yet much of the content on the iTunes U as of now seems nonessential, some of it fluffy and cute but not very purposeful, and some of it exceedingly heavy and pedantic, such as the supposedly popular School Attendance Improvement Handbook, a 92-page document that I can’t imagine a single one of my teachers spending the time to read.

As it currently stands, the new iTunes U CDE platform will at most be the place for teachers to go only on the occasion that one of their colleagues recommends something on it, or that they’re required to read or access something from it.

This, however, will be the extent of the program until more organization, increased accessibility and greater relevance are made a priority.

Unfortunately, the old and tired question must be raised: Who is responsible for our lacking educational system — the students, the teachers, the state or the parents?

Based on the iTunes U CDE platform’s exclusive aim toward teachers, it seems doubtful that the state considers the teachers responsible and is actively trying to improve their performance. This is a growing movement in the United States today, as is evidenced by the Los Angeles Times’ value-added analysis teacher ratings and the emulative procedure taken in New York.

But it’s a lopsided path; after all, the typical, eager young teachers are eventually beaten down by the system and their lackluster students.

Although the CDE was trying to do a good thing by launching the iTunes U CDE platform, it definitely needs to be balanced by providing a similar platform for student self-improvement. Even if it’s just multiplication table songs for students to listen to on their iPods, that would be a step in the right direction.

Besides, isn’t iTunes and the Internet more the world of the 21st-century youth than of their teachers?

It only makes sense that if one is considering a resource of the sort that the CDE has attempted that one would consider making it pertinent to students, perhaps more than to teachers.

Natalie Millman is a junior majoring in philosophy and English.