In recent years Apple has become a behemoth, known for its unrelenting release of new products and software innovation. (Also well known for forcing the lower-case "i" onto the world and Steve Jobs' love of black turtlenecks. All that money, where's the style Jobsy?)

Though now the iPhone is their dominant product and catching the most attention, you could argue that iTunes has been one of their most important creations in the last several years.

Coupled with the iPod (there goes that lower-case "i" again), iTunes has changed how we purchase and listen to music, as well as TV shows and movies.

You have to wonder why it took so long for someone to say, "Hey - you know who uses iTunes and iPods? College students is who. Why don't we find some way of reaching them directly."

This should be no surprise considering Apple has tried hard to have a strong grip on schools. If you think back to elementary school, you'd always find Macs in computer labs. In my case it was the old Apple IIe, but now it's iMacs.

And now we have iTunes U.

So far Bowdoin College is the only school in Maine that is on the iTunes U network.

Again, the idea seems almost too simple when you think about it. Students are already producing podcasts and colleges have hours of recorded speeches, games and concerts, only to get replayed on the campus channel before going off to sit on a shelf somewhere.

Now all of that is getting thrown online and is FREE on iTunes U.

Of course this is all happening as colleges and universities are scrambling to find ways to move more things online, including blogs on campus life, Facebook groups and the obligatory virtual tour.

The University of California, Berkeley, recently announced it is putting lectures up on YouTube, and students at Stanford are among the first in the country to have a course on creating Facebook applications.

But moving back to Apple, iTunes U does raise some questions like, what's in it for Apple? They provide iTunes U for free to colleges and the content is free as well. Also, if you know you can regularly find a lecture from one of your classes as a podcast, does that encourage people to ditch classroom time?

UPDATE: I got separate e-mails this afternoon from officials at Bates College and the University of New England, and both schools are in the process of creating a presence on iTunes U in the near future.
Keep an eye out for both.

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