Ever heard of iTunes U?  It’s a new service of iTunes where they do something really, really awesome.  If you like podcasts, and if you like knowledge.

iTunes U presents course lectures from 45 colleges and universities that have donated audio and video files of lectures that can be downloaded free.  Among the contributors are Carnegie Mellon, Duke, MIT, Texas A&M, University of Southern California, Stanford, and Yale. Each posts dozens, hundreds, and sometimes thousands of tracks of material.   People listen generally for the sake of learning something.  Apple isn’t testing anyone, and the courses don’t come with academic credit. 

Woah!  Granted, Neil Postman (quoted in the linked article, and one of my supercool most favorite of all time non-fiction authors) will be shuddering in his grave to think about students getting education in the same way they get their entertainment (through the iPod, invented about a decade after his death), but woah.  This could be a breakthrough for lots of people.  Homeschoolers, people who are tired of talk radio, lots of people.  And, it’s free.  Totally free.

The database is a wealth of information with complete open access; it is to the classroom what Wikipedia is to the encyclopedia. Anyone can listen to and watch lessons from elite schools, no tuition necessary - not even a download fee. Of course, the difference between iTunes U and Wikipedia is that here, the contributors are scholars and professors, whereas anyone can edit a Wikipedia article.  The grandparent, the stay-at-home mom, the curious 14-year-old can all drink from this well.  Let’s not exaggerate the novelty.  They could also go to the public library and read books by many of the same scholars, and by reading those books, they might learn more than would by listening to the recorded lectures.  It just wouldn’t be as much fun.

As you’d expect, there are always problems.

iTunes U’s probably will accentuate the atomistic individualism of contemporary students.  The listener inside the headphones is typically in a world apart, and likes it that way.   In headphones world, you are separate from discussions, questions, answers, eye contact, and that helpless guilty feeling when you haven’t done the reading and you’ve just been called on to talk. Because you’re alone now, you don’t need anyone else.  But to be fair, there are plenty of students already living in this world without any need of headphones.

I like the idea.  I’m not saying we grant degrees to people who listen to lots of free podcasted lectures.  I just like the idea that I can hear an Ivy League lecture during my afternoon walk, and that I might learn something.  Check out iTunes U here.

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