I like to think that if I suddenly found myself extremely wealthy I wouldn’t be much different than I am today. Who knows? Money sometimes changes people, but I think I’d still hate buying clothing, I’d keep eating $3 low-carb breakfast bowls at Hardees and get my movies for a dollar at Redbox. There are, however, a couple of changes I’d make. One, I’d take my daughters to amazing places they’ve never seen and two, I’d spend most of my remaining free time learning and tinkering. I’d be like Belle’s crazy inventor father in Beauty and the Beast. I love to learn and create. Luckily my profession and the fast pace of technology give me much opportunity to keep learning.

    Apple and its partners give you wonderful opportunities to learn also. It’s amazing. There are tens of thousands of files available for you to download and use to enrich your life. How about Saturday Morning Physics? Okay, that one’s for me. What about “Building a Business” from the University of Oxford? Or “The Art of Asking the Right Questions”? Or “Start writing fiction”? This is the way education should be. Free.

    What if the best educators, scholars, and professors from all over the world recorded lectures and provided lecture material free of charge on a centralized site that made it easy for potential students to access it? It’s reality. Back in 2007, Apple announced iTunes U. iTunes U is a free service provided by Apple and educational organizations like Stanford, MIT, Yale, Harvard, Dallas Theological Seminary (an alma mater of mine), and others.

    Here’s how you get started. First, download iTunes from Apple (it’s free, Google “download iTunes”). iTunes is  an Apple application that helps you organize music and video on your Windows or Apple computer or Apple mobile device. iTunes is most often used to transfer and organize and transfer files to an iPod, iPhone, or iPad. The greatest aspect of the application is, of course, the content it provides. You can buy music, buy or rent movies, and subscribe to podcasts and iTunes U courses. You can also use iTunes to sync contacts, photos, phone applications, and more, but our focus today is learning, not playing.

    After you install iTunes, one of the Library options is iTunes U (you can also find a link at the bottom of the iTunes store home page). Once you’ve landed at iTunes U, search and explore. You can view the top downloads, noteworthy courses, or browse collections like Fine Arts, History, Mathematics, etc.

    Once you find a course that interests you, download a few sessions and review them. If they continue to interest you, subscribe and all the instances of that course will be downloaded to your iTunes folder on your computer. From there you can use iTunes to create an audio CD to play in your car or create a playlist and transfer the courses to your iPod, iPad, or iPhone.

    We’re undoubtedly the first generation in history that can acquire the greatest intelligence in the world and put it in a pocket-sized device to watch anytime it suits us — while waiting in the school pick up line or while stuck in traffic.

    I remain amazed at technology. Take advantage of it or it’s useless. Grow–go learn something today you didn’t know yesterday.

    Greg Bott may be reached via e-mail at gregbott@bottinc.com or at 601-207-0509.