Attending class may not be the most exciting part of college life, but missing a class may no longer mean scrambling to borrow a friend's notes.
Texas Tech and Apple Inc. announced an agreement Friday to create an interactive Web site for use by both students and faculty members called iTunes U at Texas Tech University, which has launched at itunes.ttu.edu.
Tech President Jon Whitmore said he believes the world of communication has changed in recent years and in order to stay on the cutting edge, this agreement was necessary.
"Apple was named (on April 20) as the most trusted brand among the members of generation Y," Whitmore said. "Beginning last year, it became apparent that Texas Tech needed to enter into a conversation with Apple about how we could merge our brands and help our students."
He said other Web sites Tech has utilized in the past are not as effective as they used to be.
"Electronic media is more important now than it ever has been before," Whitmore said. "Text and image-based Web sites are no longer as dynamic and innovative and handy as they used to be before. YouTube, Facebook and Myspace are proof that our students and potential students demand tools for producing their own content and social networks for sharing that content."
Whitmore said the agreement will assist the entire Tech community in sharing information.
"This is a partnership that will be useful for our academic programs as well as for our student services," Whitmore said. "We will now be able to host student-generated content, such as videos and podcasts. We will now distribute athletic videos in a different way. We will now host course lectures from our professors who choose to submit their work."
Examples of student-made content on the Web site include a story about how a football game is organized, including interviews with venders, public address announcers and security personnel.
Mason Moses, president of the Student Government Association, said he anticipates students utilizing the Web site when they are feeling ill or have other issues that prevent them from going to class.
"People get sick," Moses said. "People have things that happen, and this gives them a chance that, if they miss a lecture or if they miss something, they can go on here and look at it."
Whitmore said the Web site will eventually feature readings of authors and poets who are also faculty members and students.
ITunes U will be available for use on both computers and iPods.
The Tech University Library has made an agreement with Apple that will allow for 30 video iPods to be checked out from the library for use.
Jack Neinken, gulf states higher education regional manager for Apple Inc., said iTunes U began as an experiment at the University of California at Berkeley, Duke University and Michigan Dental School. The Web sites are now available for any university to create when they can come to an agreement with Apple Inc.
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