The Internet is an amazing source of knowledge. In our days we can get all kind of information we need through the Internet. Sometimes the information is very superficial but sometimes it is very depth.
There are many tools that able you to find the information you’re looking for. Today I’m going to talk about iTunes U. iTunes U is a tool where we can access educational contents from hundreds of top colleges, universities and educationally focused organizations across the world. This tool is such a dream. Did you ever imagine to listen a Harvard or MIT class? Did you ever imagine make an entire course through the Internet? Knowledge is the key not a diploma or certification. If you have interests about renewable energies, management, marketing, strategies, logistics, information technology or languages you can easily find these topics with iTunes U. More than that, all this content can be listened or watched without doubt since it is produced by organizations with huge reputation.
Through iTunes U we can access contents from most famous universities and colleges around the world such as: Carnegie Mellon Institute, Medical College of Georgia, Scholl of Virtual Arts, Stanford, UC Berkeley, UC Davis, Université de Montréal, Yale University and much more.
We can access contents by category too. Instead of choosing a single organization we can quickly find the right content we are looking for. In this case we can simply browse by category. The available categories are: Business, Engineering, Fine Arts, Health and Medicine, History, Humanities, Languages, Literature, Mathematics, Science, Social Science, Society and Teaching & Education. There are lots topics inside each category. They are like subtopics where you can refine your search. For instance, if we go to the Business area, we can see the following subjects: Economy and Jobs, Business & Economics, Essentials of Advertising and Marketing Communications, Production – Quality and Manufacturing, Human Resources Management, Leadership and Managements and so forth.
Personally speaking, for me iTunes U is being very helpful to learn English. In the Language’s category you can find a huge variety of language courses that helps you improve your language studies even faster. Don’t worry, if you are learning Chinese you will find it too. German also is not a problem. By the way, Italian is easy to find.
Another type of podcast I have being listening to in the last few days is about Marketing and Strategic Management. Currently this subject is very interesting to me because I’m going to do my Master Degree in Marketing and Strategic Management. So in order to familiarize myself with the matter I’m listening and watching some podcasts and video podcasts respectively.
Very often I have curiosity about a determined subject. Then I go to iTunes to listen some podcast about the issue. For instance, some weeks ago I was worried about the climate changes and the impact of the renewable energies in the world production of energy. I just went to Stanford University through iTunes U and I listened a lecture about the subject and got myself up-to-date with the issue. It is great and very helpful too. Sometimes I ask myself how could I access that amount of information without internet? It probably will take months of library researching. Or maybe it wont be possible at all. But today it is far of a click.
I could write a complete book over this subject. However my time does not allow me to do so. If I were you I spent some time taking a look in iTunes U. I am sure any kind of interest can be satisfied by the huge and trustable information available through iTunes U.
For any further information please visit the following website: http://www.apple.com/education/itunesu_mobilelearning/itunesu.html.
I hope this post helps you,
Thiago Brito.
