University of Michigan (U-M) and iTunes - "Born to Be Together" U-M dental students can access a custom iTunes music store using their university ID/password and subscribe to the classes they want.
Using the special iTunes Music Store, students will "download classroom lectures, transfer the information onto an iPod, and then listen to the lectures in their apartments, walking around on campus, or even while jogging or working out." (U-M, Ann Arbor)
The podcasts/lectures issue was raised by a second-year dental student, who wanted to reinforce what he learned by listening to recordings of classroom lectures. He contacted the Dental Informatics Department and they conducted three pilot studies with 60 dental students to ask for feedback. The overwhelming majority of students preferred listening to the audio recordings saying that the iPods gave them flexibility to listen to lectures at their convenience.
More Universities Are Using Podcasts in Teaching
Duke University describe their experience in Duke Academic and Course iPod Projects - Fall 2004. You can download the PDF summary here.
University of California Berkeley has a special podcasts page (podcast.berkeley.edu) built with the open source blogging tool Wordpress. All podcasts are free.
Berkeley also has a very cool page with free video lectures (webcasts) ranging from Human Anatomy and Psychology of Personality to Astronomy. They actually offer whole courses online as streaming videos.
Make Your Own Lectures with Text-to-Speech
You can make your own lectures from the best sources available online by using a simple text-to-speech program.
References:
U-M School of Dentistry and Apple Computer in Partnership iTunes Music Store to Help Provide Information Access 24/7 (via Digg)
University of Michigan School of Dentistry, Ann Arbor, MI
iPods provide students with recorded lectures - The Michigan Daily
Text-to-Speech Programs and Continuous Medical Education
When iPod goes collegiate - The Christian Science Monitor
Lectures coming to an iPod near you - dailypennsylvanian.com
Classroom lectures go mobile with podcasting - Yale Daily News
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