FAP545: iTunesU is a glimpse at the future of higher education, Black Lab
FAP545: iTunesU is a glimpse at the future of higher education, Black Lab
I was going to do a regular episode today until I saw an article on the Chronicle of Higher Education about something amazing.
+ The big news, the amazing news - iTunesU.
+ Go there in iTunes now
+ I’m pretty much going to rave about this for days.
+ Academic implications - what is the value of a college degree if the academic components are rapidly approaching free?
+ Colleges as communities
+ Colleges as certification bodies
+ MIT degrees certify a standard of academic quality - even if your knowledge didn’t come from MIT
+ Imagine if you showed up at Trenton State College in New Jersey for a physics course, having taken the same course at MIT through iTunesU
+ Best of the best are available
+ Professors as media rockstars - create a best of the best university on your iPod
+ Anyone with broadband can get access to world class educational content now
+ Financial aid implications
+ Would you pay for a 4 year college degree if you could walk in and test out of 3/4 of the course load?
+ Would the college be justified in charging the same price if all they do is certify that you know your stuff?
+ Would you as a student be tempted to take these courses rather than a regular degree if you could test out of most of the courseload?
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Chris, thanks for pointing this out. I knew MIT was distributiing their courses, but hadn’t heard about the iTunesU. It’s exciting, and it does raise a lot of questions.
I’m in an online graduate program from a school in New York City (while I live in Boston), which is not the same thing, but is parallel in that it’s much more difficult to make connections and to network with other students (and faculty and career couselors, etc.). I have to go and find the local connections here on my own without the help of the university. I can imagine brick and mortar universities selling the networking aspects of themselves more and more. “Who you know” is always going to be important, and many people make those lasting and vital connections while attending college.
May 31st, 2007 | #
Hey, Chris! Thanks for pointing this out. I had previously seen that colleges had put up some of their courses online, but iTunesU puts it all together all in one place.
I totally agree with all that you said in the podcast, and it also helps in another way: If you don’t like your professor, who says that he has to be your instructor. Hint hint, nudge nudge, wink wink.
May 31st, 2007 | #