iTunes University Online Learning

iTunes, they're offering so much more than your favorite music. iTunes University offers a huge repository of digital content created by educators which can be downloaded and viewed on your iPod or iPhone as well as your Mac or PC. It's the next variation on the Open Courseware initiatives.

Major institutions, including Cambridge, MIT, Oxford, Stanford, UC Berkeley and Yale are distributing free educational materials on iTunes U. Over 800 universities are actively participating. Institutions have the option of creating public materials or an internal site restricted by password for their students. Beyond Campus offers content from organizations such as the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, the New York Public Library, Public Radio International and many PBS stations.

Some of the most successful offerings are those which teach a foreign language. As much as 95% of the downloads on the Emory University iTunes U site are for language content. Podcasts are offered in Chinese, Arabic, Kanji Japanese penmanship and Cherokee as well as a variety of other languages.

Apple is also helping educators share audiobooks, books, exhibit tours, films and PDFs. Professors can create videos about exotic places like the Galapagos Islands to take their students on virtual field-trips.

iTunes U opens up a world of learning for students with disabilities. Vision-impaired students can use either the VoiceOver screen reader on their Mac or one of the compatible PC screen readers. Students can also use spoken feedback on iPod nanos and with iPod shuffle. Students with other physical limitations can access materials in their own homes and at their own pace.

The day I wrote this article, the top ten downloads included a Rhetoric lesson from UC Berkeley, rehearsals of the Royal Opera House's production of Sleeping Beauty and a course from Yale on how to write a business plan.

So the next time someone you know can't bear to tear themselves away from their iPod, it might just be because they're learning something from iTunes download.