iTunes University

www.newscientist.com/article/dn16624-itunes-university-better-than-the-real-thing.html




Even before I was enrolled in this Microcomputing class I knew about iTunes University. I saw a segment about it on the news and thought it was the coolest idea! It gives you an inside view into classrooms across the nation, and for free!!! You can go into iTunes and type in any subject that interests you and there will probably be a few college lectures on it! I found a website called newscientist.com and it found that students who downloaded lectures and then took tests scored higher than students who actually attended class! I think that this is so because students do better when studying on their own time. They make the argument that online learning is better than the real thing. Colleges all over the US are on iTunes U! I found podcasts from Harvard, Berkley, and Yale. I think that it really opens up education to the whole world!

As a teacher this tool would be useful for students who were homebound or absent. The teacher could post lectures and make them available to only the students that have an excused absence so they wont fall behind. Teachers could also post extra credit lectures or program enrichment opportunities.