Between coming up with a curriculum, teaching, assigning homework and getting important info to students, teachers have it rough. The iTunes U app is going to let them do all of that from an iPad. Which means students can basically take entire courses from their tablets.
Using iTunes U, teachers can stream lectures to all of their students, regardless of where they are. They can also be downloaded later if they’re too busy streaking the quad. Professors can post assignments for their students, field questions as they come in and get important messages out. It’ll never be as good as learning in a room surrounded by your peers, but it’s a good alternative for students who can’t be there for whatever reason, or for online coursework. Plus, if you missed what your professor said, you can just rewind and check it again. Organising your stuff and referring to notes should be easier too, since it has deep integration with the new iBooks 2 notes.
Six universities including Duke, Stanford, Yale, MIT, The Open University and HACC have already adopted this, and K through 12 can now sign up as well, which is huge. iTunes U currently has over 100 complete courses already, and it would be prudent to expect that number to skyrocket in the very near future as adoption grows. On the downside, playing sick now means you still have to go to school. The iTunes U app is now available for iPad and iPhone.
ogre
Friday, January 20, 2012 at 7:04 AMIf this is only available for iOS devices, I don’t see it superseding the system that the uni I went to (and a few others) already use: Blackboard.
twitchy
Friday, January 20, 2012 at 9:20 AMi’ve had a quick play with the app and so far everything i can access through that i can also access through itunes
Antonia
Friday, January 20, 2012 at 7:29 AMWhen I studied I had a number of texts open and spread out before me on my desk. I guess it was a crude way of hyperlinking but I had direct simultaneous access to significantly more information with a smaller cognitive load that any single small screen possibly could match. At least it will save a few trees.
Esophagus
Friday, January 20, 2012 at 8:11 AMHow the shit do you type assignments up on an on screen keyboard? Like fuck I’d leave education to an idevice when the accessories are ridiculously overpriced.
Commander Sheppard
Friday, January 20, 2012 at 11:17 AMHOW MUCH does the average parent spend on text books each year? 500 dollars, 1000 dollars easy…. the cost of an iPad is 500 dollars (you don’t need 3g) and 15 bucks max for textbooks… this is a clear winning strategy! Amazon is toast!
Kris
Friday, January 20, 2012 at 8:14 AMNo, no, no. I’m not having the biggest electronics dictatorship control my learning material. Next they’ll start controlling my bowel movements.
Random
Friday, January 20, 2012 at 9:21 AMThis is what evolution is all about. It is definitely not a bad move, but the way we approach to adopt this new learning technique will determine it’s use or misuse.
Image the number of trees that can be saved by reducing the use of paper, ink and the carbon. This should be used to complement the traditional means of teaching and learning and not as a replacement. Traditional means themselves have huge benefits and it is important to retain them. With the use of an iPad, the gaps in traditional means can be reduced and advance towards a better future.
If this is used as a replacement, then there is a problem. Change is inevitable, and this change can be good or bad based on how we approach to face this change.
Esophagus
Friday, January 20, 2012 at 9:52 AMTrees are irrelevant when you consider plantations…
Rossco
Friday, January 20, 2012 at 1:20 PM+9001 for this comment. I wish people would wake up to this fact. You don’t make paper out of old growth forest.
mattt
Friday, January 20, 2012 at 1:01 PMThis won’t work for my course at least, where we have several open book exams throughout the degree (Data sheets etc required for engineering).
red t-rex
Friday, January 20, 2012 at 4:26 PMActually Teachers don’t have it too rough. I come from a family of teachers. They get 12 weeks of leave at least a year, equivalent to long service leave every year for the rest of us. They knock off around 3.30 every day, sure there is occasional marking of assignments mostly near the end of the term but the peaks equate with what most us have to do on a regular basis in other jobs. Starting off is not easy but once you have a “year plan” done you just rinse and repeat most years except for the odd curriculum change.
KP
Wednesday, April 11, 2012 at 11:40 PMThis would be totally sweet to have on Android.