Smarten Up with iTunes U

iTunes U is the place to look if you are motivated to learn but don't have money or time to go to classes. Maybe even if you do.

Just open iTunes, go to the iTunes Store and look down the column to the bottom and you'll see iTunes U. Click on this and you'll discover hundreds if of courses, lectures and seminars offered in audio and or video format by no fewer than 45 top colleges and universities and the list is growing daily. All for free. Just be careful not to exceed your download limit but that's between you and your service provider. That happened to me, so now I go to the library or a coffee shop with my laptop and download all I want, for free.

I go to sleep listening to courses. I burn CDs and listen when I'm in the car and I have a portable CD player that I use when I'm walking the dog or waiting at the clinic. Even long automobile trips are short as far as I'm concerned. (You'll notice I've made some changes. That's because I wrote this piece some years ago. I have an ipod now, but a tablet or iphone or any number of devices may be used at this point in time. The basic idea is still the same while the possibilities are even greater. With imagination, one or more people could get a group of youngsters  together and teach them any number of things.)

Also in iTunes and equally free and no less informative and or entertaining, are thousands and thousands of podcasts, covering more topics than you can even think of, so practise using their power search and before you know it you'll get the hang of it. The same goes for podcasts with regards to teaching young folks.

The only downside for me is the cost of AA batteries and that's been taken care of by buying bulk alkaline AA cells at Costco I'm told they're manufactured by a well known manufacturer of batteries and they last just as long so I believe it. It just keeps getting better, doesn't in? Now my devices all have rechargeable batteries. Who knows? Soon they may be solar, if they are not already.

The last lecture I listened to was called, "How Unequal Can America Get Before We Snap?"

by Robert Reich, UC Berkeley. I can't wait for the next one. (That "last lecture" at this time, was literally hundreds of lectures ago. Not to mention the hundreds of podcasts. On top of this my local library has made available thousands of audio/digital books that can be downloaded at high speed right onto my device. I readily use this service. If you're buying any of these device for your very young ones, be sure to train them early on to take full advantage of these resources.)