300,000 Free Lectures From The World's Top Universities

hi
A site definitely worth checking if your searching for free lectures

http://www.openculture.com/

enjoy

@Barry Downes

The Khan Academy is enough to make anyone cry twice. First, Tears of rage because this young guy created this fantastic resource out of nothing - something that billions wasted on universities have NEVER done.
Second, because he did it -alone- with nothing but intelligence and what a great gift to the real world! Tears of appreciation that there are people like him out there. still. Despite the destructive social systems of today.

The man is worth more than his weight in Saffron! Support him, pass this amazing resource on. Send him $5 or at least say thanks.

iTunes works fine as long as you don't let it take over. And there's shed loads of free stuff if you dig around

Having started off with Apple many years ago with the Music Search programs I developed for my companies (it is the largest program in the world to search for matching or similar melodic ideas in music and has been used in hundreds of cases involving complaints about infringement of intellectual property (music), still I totally had to leave Apple and go to Windows to further develop the program because of the far greater resources and special programs I could find there. 95% of my working time is now done away from Apple.

I'm sure iTunes has had problems and Apple does try to push itself into too many places, still there is an enormous amount of valuable free content with iTunes that you will not find elsewhere. I am particular grateful for some of the free podcasts available through their system. Among my favorites is the daily hour-long shows on a San Francisco station KALW titled "Your Call." Particularly their Media Roundtable show is exceptional (if you don't mind being a bit depressed by how much you don't know is going on in this world). Another show on my list is NPR's "On The Media," a very different one hour show with its own style and interest.

Talking about lectures and Universities (which I will certainly check out because of today's tip) but the greatest (and I mean greatest innovation in teaching in this world today) is taking place on a free site known as the Khan Academy. Do a Google search and you'll find it easily. If you have a child, or know someone with children, this may be the most valuable visit they could ever take.

This human miracle worker called Sal Khan, who transformed his closet and his computer into the main video recording center for literally 1000's of short lectures, is a treasure. Take a look at a list of his subjects - it will blow your mind. And also note who is singing his praises - rather bright guys like Bill Gates and many, many others. Sal students all over the world now number in the hundreds of thousands, if not millions.

Pick a subject yourself, maybe on Algebra, or try his first lecture in Physics, which I think is on the Atom, or away from mathematics and sciences, see how this genius of a teacher takes you into a bit of French History - whatever. Each free video is available on uTube and most are only about ten minutes in length.

If you're not delighted with what you see, you have my e-mail address and this is a money-back guarantee that you'll be amazed by what he has accomplished. Of course the courses are all free so I'm not sure whether the guarantee means all that much, but you get the idea.

And tell your friends ... I now pop into a given class on subjects I may or may not know every couple of days just to take me away from all I'm doing and give my brain a chance to breathe and get a little bit challenged. Have fun!

I'd rather be an illiterate, uneducated sop than have to go through the horror of installing any type of apple software within a 20 mile radius of my machine.

Yeah seems like a great deal, but not even that would tempt me to download and install the horrific iTunes again.
I use MediaMonkey to update my ipod, itunes is one of the worst windows programmes ever.

Anyone wanting to install iTunes on their computer, without the bloatware that comes with it, should follow this article :

www.zdnet.com/blog/bott/the-unofficial-guide-to-installing-itunes-10-wit...

I have used this article to install iTunes, and it works great. Now I do not have the bloat that comes with it.

"free account"? Does that mean I have to give them a credit card number?

Nice find. Like many others, I loathe and detest iTunes on Windows, and only use it to sync my Touch. I don't hang around to explore. As you say though, credit where it's due, this looks a useful facility.

Thanks. I'd never noticed the iTunes U at the top.
While we are on the iTunes topic does anyone know how to solve a problem I have with TED Talks? For the last 6 months or so i can't get the Talks to work on my iPod classic.
I highly recommend TED Talks whatever way you access them.

The last time I had Itunes on my computer, I got quickly disgusted with their updates, which are pretty much every week, and each update requires a full download of the whole of ITunes (not just a patch of some dll's). When Apple learns how to produce proper windows software with the right update mechanisms, I will use their software on my windows machines. Until then, even Itunes U is not going to get me to touch this rubbish.

Is there any way to get these without going through iTunes? I would hate to install additional software just to get podcasts

Looks interesting - thanks for the idea and linky !

The install does try to add msconfig-type-startup items and several processes as well as make iTunes and Quicktime default programs so beware ! I ditched the startup items and left the processes... hope it still works lol.