Go to university for free

Have you ever wanted to attend Oxford, MIT or Yale for free and without applying for admission? You can catch lectures from some of the most respected and noted professors at these and lots more institutions of higher learning online. Check out iTunes U or YouTube Edu for lectures on all sorts of topics. I looked up “transportation” on both of these sites and found some interesting and informative lectures from UC Berkeley, Northwestern, George Mason University and international universities. Another source of university lectures is iTunes, which I originally used for orientation to online learning and class lectures at Drexel University. A recent article in Time magazine piqued my interest in the visual side of audio-visual. By making lectures available online, universities can use this as a recruiting tool, professors can distribute their lectures to students, and most importantly, students can catch up on their class work instead of getting notes from someone who actually attended the class.
How could we use this new technology in technology transfer? Several scenarios come to mind:

• Raise awareness of transportation, and transportation research results
• Certificate programs using educational videos online
• The ability to comment on videos could spark conversations about transportation
• And, of course, using this technology to teach students.

Anyway, check these out and I hope they spark some ideas in you.