Those people at Apple really do think of everything. Now, among all of there applications, they have developed iTunes U, or iTunes University.
This program allows university faculty to distribute digital lessons on iTunes for students to access in the iTunes store.
According to the article Welcome to the University of iTunes, hundreds of universities are making recordings of lectures and conferences on web sites such as iTunes and YouTube. Even top-rate business schools such as University of Cambridge Judge Business School and Yale School of Management are utilizing these resources. The article mentions a French business school HEC Paris that has engaged in a partnership with Apple, so that all new MBAs are provided with an iPod Touch. Half of their lectures are filmed using an automatic camera system and then footage is made for students to download.
This the iTunes U page for Yale University.
Granted I have many professors who put their Power Point lectures online, I have never had the privilege of being able to listen or watch my lectures online. What a wonderful concept! If I knew my lectures were being recorded at my undergrad university, I could have easily saved myself some time from class and listened to the lecture when it was convenient for me.
The author of this article even suggests that those who don’t have the money to pay for an MBA program can still acquire some of the knowledge through iTunes U. Granted that is a great intention of iTunes, I don’t quite see how listening to a business school lecture would really benefit someone who is not actually going to get a degree. If someone is keen for some self-education, however, that is a great benefit to point out.
My only concern when it comes to web sites like iTunes U is that students may stop going to class all together. I mean really, if lectures are online, if students can just email their professors with questions, is there really any need to go to class (at the university level that is)? What are those lovely, massive brick institutions for if not to attend?
I decided to try to find some statistics on university student attendance especially with the proliferation of so much internet technology making it so students don’t really have to attend class. To be honest, not much research was to be found, unless you count 1993 as an acceptable year for internet research.
I did however land on a University of Dublin blog, asking the same question as I. According to the University of Leeds, the Royal Veterinary College and Carnegie Mellon University, “the provision of podcasts or lecture recordings seemed to have little effect on lecture attendance.” In fact, a survey taken by Politics students in Leeds found that only 7% of the students would choose to listen to a podcast instead of going to class.
This percentage seems a bit low to me for I suspect a few more students would choose to listen to podcasts, but that’s just my suspicion. It does seem though that if everything from a lecture can be captured in a podcast, then perhaps professors need to think about incentives for their students to want to come to class or else eventually the number of students who don’t go to class will be increase drastically.
1 Comment
20/10/2009 at 2:52 AM
Interesting post! I think this is the case with every distance-learning educational program as well. They were developed cause there was (obviously) a market for programs like this. With itunes however, apart from there being a market, it’ll be a first in innovation as well. Considering that time and place have certainly become an obstacle for so many, it might just help having podacasts for lectures. My opinion on this is just like reading using kindle vs. a book. There’s no discounting kindle is innovative, but it’s not as awesome as a paper book
I hope there are more like me out there who’ll enjoy meeting people, discussing and learning it live in class!