iTunes U has Many Good Resources We Can Use

Have you examined the resources available at iTunes U? To navigate there, launch iTunes. (It’s a free download.) Then click on iTunes U in the iTunes Store.

Several options are provided for us to search for content.

On the left side is a list of categories (business, engineering, fine arts, health and medicine, history, humanities, language, literature, mathematics, science, social science, society, teaching and education). We can explore through the offerings in each category.

Educational providers are listed in three types: universities and colleges, beyond campus, and K-12. (Beyond Campus consists of educational providers such as the Brooklyn Museum, Edutopia, the Indianapolis Museum of Art, WETA, and the New York Public Library.) We can wander through the offerings in each of these three types to find some great resources.

Some examples of what I found follow.

In the K-12 type, I found these interesting podcasts:

• Paradise Valley USD: Information Literacy > The SMHS Media Center > How to use our library for 9th-graders
• (book) … A Day No Pigs Would Die > circle map > main character
• Tempe Elementary Mathematics > Quantitative Quandries > description of a unit for students strong in mathematics
• (student work) Conexiones > Catch the Dream opening video > community outreach program for children in under-served communities, K12 outreach of Arizona State University
• Maine > Inquiry in Science > PD enhanced podcast
• … Teaching and Learning with Digital Text > PD enhanced podcast

As I wandered through the categories, I found these:

• Meet the Author: Interviews with Children’s Books Authors and Illustrators… video interviews / audio interviews / transcripts…
• Nanotechnology… University of Oxford… explore the nanoworld… look at the research…
• Indianapolis Museum of Art… American Art… the earliest art of the Americas with approximately 200 more recent works…
• The Great Depression and WWII… short video clips with audio lectures… discussion of the Great Depression, Franklin D. Roosevelt, the New Deal, and World War II… links to Great Depression resources including primary source documents, learning tools, visual aids, and resources

Some of the podcasts I found were simple without sophisticated techniques… and still they managed to serve their purposes. Others were quite impressive and instructive and used very skilled techniques. Having access to these podcasts and videos for free allows us to supplement our courses with some outstanding resources. This is also a great way for us to keep learning!

Photo: http://flickr.com/photos/15319336@N07/2060971197/
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en