B DesignStudio Idea Lab: Clouding: Apple and his (Steve Jobs) Apple university

When a leader is deeply connected to a company, he can impact it in many ways. Such is the case of its iconic leader Steve jobs and Apple, and many speculates what will happen to Apple when Jobs leave the company. The company found a solution in Apple University.

Apple University was created in 2008 to teach apple employees how to think like him and made decisions he would make. Make a clone of him. Apple university has been called the solution to Apple after Steve jobs. The goal is to teach his team, meaning its executive the thought process to future leaders.

There are also consortium that fosters Apple technologies in Universities. Who uses it?

There are 37 member universities including Australian National university, University of Melbourne, University of Queensland. It offers low cost technologies innovation grants and scholarships. Jobs oversees the process.
Jobs ensures according to Forbes, that his teachings are being collected, curated, and preserved so that future generations of Apple's leaders can consult and interpret him.
According to some friends, structure may vary as little is known about Apple University.
Joel Podolny formerly a Yale professor is the Apple University manager.

Apple University is not the only educational initiative of Apple. There is also the Apple University consortium, ITunes and a special store developed specially for students and educational institutions.

This may sound pretty hilarious to some people, but it's a fact that many big corporations have similar programs. Just one example is McDonald's one, which is called Hamburger University, though we are not sure that the guys enlisted there are learning the McDonald brothers way of thinking.

All these things aside, Apple seems to be pretty serious about its university - it's managed by Joel Podolny, formerly a Yale professor, while other notable minds - like Andy Grove (of the Stanford Business School) and Richard Tedlow (of Harvard Business School) - are writing thesis on "significant decisions in Apple’s recent history". It's said that the pupils at this university are learning directly from senior Apple executives like Tim Cook, COO and, at the moment, acting CEO of Apple, and Ron Johnson, Senior Vice President of Retail Operations at the company.

However, it seems everything in this particular university is based around the decisions and thoughts of Steve Jobs:

"Jobs is ensuring that his teachings are being collected, curated, and preserved so that future generations of Apple’s leaders can consult and interpret them."

iTunes U — a powerful distribution system for everything from lectures to language lessons, films to labs, audiobooks to tours — is an innovative way to get educational content into the hands of students. Is it free education media files? Yes and can be download to your Iphone device and starts learning. Is it in the Cloud, yes. Is it a pay as you go? These are lectures from popular high learning universities like MIT, Harvard, UC Berkeley.

Is our university going to be online these days? It remains to be seen for higher Learning. There's lot of debates on this issue of online learning and time will tell how effective that would be down the road. I still believe face to face and social networking with classmates are much more effective (I come form traditional learning school!) I would click on this video if Online courses are for you and see if it something that you would like to do for your dream career. Before you decide, I want you to listen carefully on lectures about " What is the Internet doing to your brain?" This video shows you what happens to our brain:

As I ponder on all the devices, IPAD2, IPod, TV and Macbook Air and how they are all interconnected to the I Cloud and linked to each other. "It Just Works"

More than 800 universities have active iTunes U sites. About half of these institutions — including Stanford, Yale, MIT, Oxford, and UC Berkeley — distribute their content publicly on the iTunes Store.

In the Beyond Campus section of iTunes U, students and faculty can access a wealth of content from distinguished entities such as MoMA, the New York Public Library, Public Radio International, and PBS stations.

Lectures are just the beginning.

While iTunes U is ideal for accessing and replaying lectures, it’s also great for sharing other types of content — including slideshows, PDFs, books, films, exhibit tours, and audiobooks. (Media formats supported include AAC, MP3, MPEG-4, PDF, and ePub.) Biologist David Robinson, for example, takes students on a virtual visit to the Galapagos Islands in his video for Open University.

Similar to Amazon, ITunes U

THERE IS NO LIMIT ON WHAT YOU CAN LEARN. WHEREVER AND WHENEVER YOU ARE! This short video below is an intro on how to use and acess I Tunes U.

Course materials and more.

With support for both the PDF and ePub file formats, iTunes U can also be used to distribute schedules, syllabi, lecture outlines, study guides, notes, maps — even entire books. And because ePub is an open standard, your ePub documents will open not just on iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch but any compatible e-reader. (Kindle?)

Create content.

"The surest way to generate interest in your iTunes U site is by creating unique educational content — anything that makes you distinctive and reflects your expertise, academics, or mission. At a minimum, your institution should have 150 audio and video files of acceptable quality ready to go on day one, with a plan for posting updated content on a regular basis. Is it safe and secured. It should be, but is anyone have access to it and control"

At the site it says:

"Include your IT department in planning, developing, and maintaining your iTunes U site — their technical proficiency is crucial to your success. Site administrators need to understand content types, file-compression tools, and metadata requirements. They also need to be able to manage storage, perform backup, and utilize RSS feeds to notify iTunes U about your updated content. For internal iTunes U sites, the technical lead needs to know how to write scripts, manage server-side applications, and integrate with authentication systems." These are cool ideas and let's see when it will take off and looking forward to see how it gain ground!

It is truly an innovative way to store , distribute lectures, lessons, books, podcast, primary source materials, and other educational content. Across the globe people turn to Itunes and you have access to it too.
There are downloadable PDF guidelines that will help you create an ITunes U provider page, that's well organized and inviting. It gives you tips how to attract "bees" and retain users. Like a newspaper stand or even better your personalized Library! Isn't this blog is all about? Similar but could be improved as you put more time and effort just like anything else. Learn more from Apple Itunes U.

I could only reflect on how the ITunes U will be like in the next generation when Steve finally says goodbye to all of us...Steve Jobs legacy will be remembered and loved.

I included this site for university and students platform and feel free to check it for your group of students and professors. Short video shows us some innovations on educational systems.