Thursday, August 5, 2010

iTunes U Elearning Online for Developing Countries

Education is such an expensive commodity; coming from an Ivy League school, educational costs could be exponentially higher. So when I heard about iTunes U elearning online or iTunes University where in a number of Ivy League universities enabled their class lectures to be accessed for free, I had to see what its all about.

As a student in a developing country like the Philippines, quality education is hard to come by especially if you’re just an ordinary student with no rich daddy to pay for college tuition. Unlike in the United States where students are given student loans that they can repay later after they graduate, in this country, you would be lucky to qualify for student aid that only covers a fraction of the cost of tuition.

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Another criticism I have of the educational system here is the lack of libraries especially for students like me who study in a public university. Private universities have their libraries stocked with all the latest books but you’d be hard-pressed to find reliable public libraries that aren’t dilapidated and didn’t look like it was about to be condemned. Needless to say, there are no public Internet stations where poor students can browse the net for free like in the US. We all had to rely on the expensive Internet cafes strewn across the city. This is why I think students like me should take advantage of this free but reliable educational program.

Lectures from actual classes at prestigious universities around the world can be accessed through iTunes. I had iTunes in my old computer because I was given a second hand iPod Nano with video for my birthday. The content in these classes were amazing and I can hardly believe that all these are free! There were open courses on almost every subject imaginable. I especially liked the linguistics classes because I’m interested in languages.

I highly recommend this elearning online course especially for university students in developing countries. I hope the government can provide more internet facilities for free because students would truly benefit from free courses. iTunes U truly opened my mind to the possibilities of studying interesting courses that does not even exist in my country.

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