More and more Colleges and Universities are releasing class lectures as pod-casts. UC Berkeley in particular offers more than 20 classes ranging from Art History, Economics, Computer Science, Geography, and Physics. I'm not sure how this affects class attendance, but it's definitely a nice service for students (and the public). The production values aren't always there on these podcasts, but hey it's a lecture, not a full on radio show. The title will take you to their portal.
I know listening to lectures isn't everyone's idea of a good time, but there's plenty of stuff to learn. If you'd like to get on the podcast bandwagon I suggest checking out the iTunes music store podcast section (if you use iTunes... what else would you expect me to pimp right?). Juice Podcast receiver is also a great open source alternative designed solely for downloading podcasts. Its got a bunch of built in directories, allowing you to quickly find a pod-cast that suits your interests.
http://webcast.berkeley.edu/courses/feeds.php
Wow - that's really cool.. if you run into any computer security classes let me know - we've got some people here who would probably be interested.
ReplyDeleteIn a similar vein, a site I've been really impressed by is called www.chinesepod.com - It's set up to teach Chinese through a daily podcast (newbie, beginner, intermediate) - The podcast is free and for $5-$20 a month, you have access to transcripts, vocab lists, flashcards etc. It's pretty amazing - and potentially replaces all those Learn a Foreign Language While Driving To Work type cds. Rumor has it that there is a similar site for Italian too.
I'll keep an eye out, most of the classes I've seen appear to be lower level (i.e. 200 and below) so something as specific as security may be hard to find... although check out http://grc.com/securitynow.htm
ReplyDeleteIt's a more personal / consumer oriented show so probably won't go into great detail.
The lanuage thing sounds cool, I may have to work on my Spanish while I drive to work (or pick up some "Your Momma Jokes" to drop on Ka).