Torbay RTC: iTunes U

Live blog from #torbayrtc

John Hickey talked about iTunes U and how it came from Dukes University who provided their students with iPods but wanted to give them a way to use them educationally. Originally started just by recording their classes but this meant students had to keep going back to the site many times a week - so much information that it becomes too hard to deal with.

• Basic Literacy
• Information Literacy (How do people cope with the sheer amount of information?)
• Media Literacy (From consumer to participant)

New students expect learning environments that support and accommodate the way they interact online outside of school.

Duke University came to Apple and talked them into making minor adaptations to iTunes that ultimately allowed the creation of iTunes U. This is not something Apple planned but they believe that iTunes U is now the largest repository of online educational content. Not Apple content - comes from and is controlled by the institutions themselves. Cambridge University, Teachers TV, LTScotland, Open University, and many others are on iTunes U. It has over 5,000 public courses from (currently) 77 countries.

For use in schools, it s possible to turn off the commercial side of iTunes and just leave iTunes U.

What are the tools for 21st Century learners?