Podcasting is a rather recent phenomena but has very quickly found acceptance in education as a way to accommodate teaching and learning to elements of popular culture thereby leveraging the considerable interest among learners in the iPod and Podcasting. However, adapting podcasting to the pursuit of educational objectives requires a number of adjustments both to the technology and to the use of podcasting techniques.

To facilitate these adjustments, the Web Enabled Resources (WER) unit at GCSU developed a specialized Podcasting server. Initially, it was to serve a single institution, GCSU, but its success there led to financial and in-kind support from the University System of Georgia (USG) to expand the model to serve all 35 institutions in the system. The USG Podcasting Server provides a number of features that address goals that are specific to education such as Educational Fair Use. The server also aims to make the publishing and promotion of podcast channels as quick and easy as possible which is key to adoption by faculty whose teaching and advising loads are already substantial.

The subscription buttons to the right will, when clicked on, automatically subscribe one to the named podcast channel and download at least the latest episode to the iTunes application (free, cross-platform and required). Synchronizing podcasts to an iPod is optional and not strictly required for educational podcasting unless the portability of the iPod is critical to one's objectives.

Since that time, Apple has made a free podcasting service called " "iTunes U" available. Combining the strengths of each has been a major objective that has seen considerable success recently.

Thus, the research and development chronicled here centers on the USG Podcasting Server, iTunes U and their use by faculty at GCSU and throughout the USG.

Since this research is also concerned with podcasting as a means for the discovery and aggregation of on-line learning materials, it has focused on the free, cross-platform iTunes and QuickTime Player applications plus the technologies they support. Currently, the iTunes application from Apple is the most flexible aggregator of on-line media and is the exclusive gateway to the iPod, iPhone, iPod touch and AppleTV. The iPod is, by far, the most popular media player of its kind. The iPhone, iPod touch and AppleTV seem positioned to become equally widespread. The QuickTime Player is bundled with iTunes for Windows and is an integral part of the MacOS X operating system. The hardware cited is not free but not strictly necessary to the podcasting model either.