With tiny iPods in backpacks, Missouri Southern seems bare without a few dozen people stepping to a beat on their way to class.

The most popular MP3 player on the market, the iPod, has taken off in sales despite their cost. The most common 20 gigabyte iPod costs around $299. The iPod Shuffles and Nanos range from $99 to $299.

More money buys special features such as an engraving, armbands, speakers, a better screen, different colors and more storage space.

Students are now able to shuffle between Kanye West’s latest song. In the future, students will be able to download their latest class lecture on an iPod. This would enable students to learn while at home, in the gym or anywhere else on campus or around town.

“We don’t have any professors using [podcasting] right now,” said Betty Baker, instructional technologist for Internet-based courses. “Though, a few professors have expressed interest for future semesters. I expect we’ll have that technology available in the near future.”

iPod’s have varying sizes of hard drives depending on the model, but can hold anywhere from 120 songs on the 512-megabyte model to 15,000 songs and color photos on the 60-gigabyte model.

This allows students to fit their entire music collections onto one piece of equipment and eliminate the need to lug around CD binders.

This also cuts down on the wear and tear on CDs since they can stay at home.

Plus, Griffin Technologies offers the iTrip add-on feature that allows users to hook an iPod into their car stereos for a safe listen while on the road.

The hand-held players, which are changing the way people listen to music, are now making their mark on academia across the country.

Instructors at universities all over have started making podcasts of their lectures available for download.

“Podcasting” is becoming a buzzword in some circles, while others haven’t heard the first thing about it.

Podcasting gets its name from the Apple iPod, but it has no direct connection to Apple. They are like radio broadcasts for MP3 players, but that’s where the similarity ends. Podcasts are digital audio files anyone can download to an iPod or other player or if it is set up for that technology.

In the case of college classes, the audio from a lecture would be recorded, uploaded to a Web site and almost instantaneously available for students to download.

It would be another way to provide lecture material for students to review on their own time besides the popular Internet courses.

Students at Southern have yet to see podcasting, but some students are willing to try when it becomes available.

“I don’t have an iPod or MP3 player now,” said Vanessa Rodriguez, freshman sociology major. “But, if [podcasting] was available to us, I would definitely use it.”