iPods, Podcasts and the future of eXe

The exponential growth in the popularity of iPods combined with the multimedia capabilities of asynchronous podcasts suggests a number of interesting opportunities for eXe as an e-learning technology.

See for for example Brent's Blog post. Podcasts can include metadata, such as dates, titles, and descriptions. Using RSS it will be possible to search, find, and store relevant Podcasts for local courses.

eXe's multimode graphic iDevice lends itself to become an authoring tool (not unlike itunes) for an educational Podcast. An iPod Photo device will be able to display a graphic (photo, slide or diagramme) linked to a specific audio snippet. With the smart generation of a playlist, it should be possible to author a sequence of slides with synchronised audio. With an iTalk voice recorder, it is now possible for the user to record an audio response. Lets assume that the Podcast includes an engaging question - the learner records an audio response. When the learner syncs with the client learning environment using an iPod dock all audio responses are upoaded to the client learning environment. The next time the learner check's for e-mail, personal audio responses are automatically sent to the learners participating in the same class. This suggests the possibility for an asynchronous voice discussion forum - which itself can be packaged as a Podcast. mmmmm.

This clearly identifies the growing need for personal learning environments (medium weight clients as opposed to a fat client solution <smile>) combined with growing capabilities of peer-to-peer technologies (Why aren't we using technologies like Skype instead of synchronous chat?). The successful implementation of the e-learning framework project (ELF)should make this possible. eXe's approach of using a localhost web sever creates interesting opportunities for developing a personal learning environment solution building on ELFs strategic directions. The eXe project should take a close look at Colloquia - an OSS project built on the vision of a distributed learning environment. In what ways can projects like eXe and Colloquia be combined for realising next generation systems?