Students plug into iLectures

The Detriot News reports:

There's no such thing as a missed lecture for University of Michigan dentistry students, who are transforming their personal iPods into the latest college learning tool.

Slept through the talk on craniofacial biology? Go to an Internet iTunes store set up exclusively for future dentists in Ann Arbor. There, students can download the professor's recorded wisdom to an MP3 player for easy listening while strolling across campus, working out or cramming for an exam.

For years, tech-savvy professors have made recordings of lectures available on the Internet. But the dental school is among a wave of colleges now offering lectures in the MP3 compressed digital data files that make classes portable.

"It's not a better way of learning or a worse way. It's just a new way. Our way," said Jared Van Ittersum, 24, a second-year dental student from Spring Lake. "It's about maximizing our time. But, frankly, there have been a couple of lectures, early morning ones, where I just didn't get up."

The need for so many bricks and mortar universities should be going down.Way down.