Oxbridge lectures now on iTunes
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The universities of Oxford and Cambridge are to make lectures by well-known academics available through Apple's iTunes.
Oxford will publish 150 hours of free video and audio podcasts of lectures and ideas from what it described as "world-leading thinkers".
Academic types can now get their hands on education downloads that include a film about the University of Oxford's fundraising campaign "Oxford Thinking", featuring ex-Python and seasoned traveller Michael Palin.
Oxford lecture and interview highlights include the former Chief Economist of the World Bank Professor Joseph Stiglitz speaking about the global financial crisis, Dr Craig Venter on genomics, Sir Nicholas Stern on the economics of climate change, and Professor Julian Savulescu on ethics.
"We hope that this service will make Oxford’s diverse range of audio and video material more widely accessible to applicants, alumni, supporters of the University, and the intellectually curious," said Dr John Hood, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford.
Meanwhile the University of Cambridge, which prefers the tag "world-leading experts" for the range of material it's offering through iTunes, is making more than 300 podcasts available for free download.
Celebrity historian Dr David Starkey features in a podcast about the history of the university, Cambridge said. Other highlights include interviews with some of Cambridge's Nobel prize winners and an exploration of the university's codebreaking efforts during World War II.
COMMENTS
iTunes not required for Oxford's podcasts
Anonymous Coward writes: "iTunes only runs under OSX and Windows, so those of us with a proper operating system are stuffed anyway. I don't particularly want to run one of those O/S's *and/or* iTunes at all. I just want free, simple, access to the files." Later he/she adds: "If it was MP3, then it would have been better."
The podcasts from the University of Oxford are being made available through two routes. If you have iTunes, then, yes, they can be accessed through iTunes U. If you are unable/unwilling to use iTunes, you just need a web browser and software to play the mp3/mp4 files. Links for both routes are provided at http://itunes.ox.ac.uk
I'll follow Julian's example: Declaration of interest - I was involved with the Oxford system.
@@ First poster...
So iPod are providing the interface for the severely impoverished British universities?
I stand connected.
So instead of just giving them little tiddly computers, couldn't the humongous US firm see its way to supplying Britain's elite with real computers so that the dons could have the opportunity to put the stuff online for the rest of humanity that don't have teeny tiny tinnitus brains.
I think it is disgraceful that theird r#ate tschnical colleges at the back of beyonf like the ones I had to frequent in my irredeemable, should have huge big servers and top class internet connection but these universities have to go cap in hand to that crapware warrior.
But what do I know. Maybe it's a protection for the rest of us that only losers will get access to all the thinking that has brought us what we now have?
Crooked bank managers, crooked politicians, illegal wars, out of control society. A chimpanzee in the wit house.
OK not all of the above is computer powered and very little of what is wrong is directly related to...
as far as we know ...not all of the above is computer powered and very little of what is wrong is directly related to....
OK maybe we could have...
ummm.
It *is* free
Universities are legally obliged to not disadvantage blind or deaf people, so pretty much all of the content on iTunesU from UK universities should be available via some other route. In the case of Cambridge it is. Mostly in a number of formats so as to not exclude particular OSes either.
Declaration of interest - I was involved with the Cambridge system:
http://sms.csx.cam.ac.uk/
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