Stanford launches iTunes support for university services

Now this is truly cool. In yet another shining example why kids should study their butts off and get into a good college, Stanford (my first choice for a college at which to pursue my Ph.D if I had the money) has announced a customized view within iTunes to access various digital audio content for students and alumni through the iTunes Music Store. "Stanford on iTunes" is basically a pilot project for audio coursework in 2006, should it prove successful.

Stanford on iTunes will provide alumni—as well as the general public—with a new and versatile way of staying connected to the university through downloads of faculty lectures, campus events, performances, book readings, music recorded by Stanford students and even podcasts of Stanford football games.

At launch, the service will contain close to 400 distinct audio programs, and the university will continue to add new content as it becomes available.

Given that description, it's going to be a hell of a recruiting gimmick. Digitized audio, whether distributed as standalone MP3s or subscribable podcasts, is going to have the immediacy, cost-efficiency and survivability for new student orientation and campus tours what PDFs did for college catalogs and HTML did for course schedules.

My dad's been integrating multimedia and Internet products into his lectures at the University of Guam, but in so doing noticed how students are skipping class and just downloading PowerPoint slide decks, visiting his blog and accessing MP3s. I told him it's a matter of proper course design, that the total media experience would provide a full view of the topic at hand, not an alternative to a classroom lecture.