This may be old news to some, but I was delighted to discover iTunesU on the iTunes store. There are already hundreds of podcasts and vodcasts on a huge range of topics, ranging from student presentations and class discussions to actually, full length lectures on topics such as global warming, MDGs and human rights.
I’ve downloaded quite a few and while there is a huge variance in quality (content as well as video / audio quality) it’s undeniable that this is a superb resource for those just interested in accessing some academic / serious content on a topic.
Most of the ivy league university in the US already have a lot of lectures put up and you also discover that some smaller universities and public service broadcasting stations. There topics like Fine Arts, Humanities, Literature and Social Science to choose from or you can go with what’s offered by the various universities. There’s also wonderful stuff in here from MoMA and US Holocaust Memorial Museum, to name but two.
Well worth a visit, provided you have broadband. Really does demonstrate both the potential of new media to reach audiences in engaging ways and also just how much technology has changed education and the economics of education.
Academic Earth is well worth checking out: http://academicearth.org/