Listen to ITunes U for free or Pay $200,000+ to go to Yale.

Back in January 2006, I did a column at What They Think called, iPods and Textbooks. Today, on twitter, I found a link to a story about Yale delivering complete courses to iPods for free. Apple is calling it iTunes U.

The thing about listening to lectures is that it takes too long. Reading the highlights in print would be much faster. Instead of the "To learn more" section, it would be "learn more by clicking here."

I got lucky with the iPod stuff, I might just be right about clickable newspapers as the reinvention of textbooks. Add CodeZ QR and some kids with smart phones, and it will create most of the real time data a teacher needs.

Back then my jargon was the UPP - the Ubiquitous Print Platform. These days, I'm testing out the Printernet. They both are tyring to point to the same thing.

Standards based massive parallel production of smart print products

Maybe a better term would be Print 4.0. As in Print 1.0 was Guttenberg. Print 2.0 was steam driven presses. Print 3.0 was Postcript + digital printing. Print 4.0 = Printernet.

Complete Yale courses now on iTunes U:

"What a great opportunity to brush up on controversies in Astrophysics, Game Theory, or France since 1871. Apple and Yale University have partnered to bring complete Yale courses to iTunes U and they are free for the clicking.

Apple was already offering significant quantities of lectures and interviews from Yale, but now complete courses are being offered for free. For now, there are 13 complete courses online, one subject area is composed of about 40-50 separate podcasts. That's a lot of information and precious knowledge."

The value is the network. If you decide to pay for your children to go to Yale you are paying for connecting your child into the Yale network and the Yale certificate.

From a business point of view, the Yale cert gives access to many more opportunities. From a life long learning point of view that means four years of engaging with some of the best and brightest from all over the world.

But the value is not in sitting in a lecture hall listening to the great teachers talk. Not to say that doesn't have a great value. It's just to say that it's not worth money. If you want to spend the time, that's free.

It's the same thing for print. Read for free. Pay for Print.