Apparently Apple isn't content with virtually every student on every campus walking around listing to music and podcasts through their iPods. Now, according to a recent Associated Press article, Apple wants to get into the education game too.

In partnership with Stanford University, the University of Missouri, and four other schools, Apple will make college lectures and related content available via its new iTunes U product. Apple is creating customized versions of its iTunes software so schools willl be able to post podcasts, audio books, videos, and other content to their web sites. Students will be able to download the material to their PC or Mac computers and then rip it to their iPods or other such portable audio players.

Unlike material posted to the regular iTunes site, this material need not be made available to the general public. The schools will be able to decide what material is made available which groups or even to the general public. Stanford, for example, has chosen to give the public free access to some lectures and also audio broadcasts of its sporting events.

According to Chris Bell, Apple's director of product marketing for iTunes, iTunes U allows Apple to leverage “the ubiquity that we've established on campuses with iPods and iTunes.” For those of us who weren't English majors, that basically translates into Apple plans to extend its near monopoly in music being played on portable devices to the educational materials being played on portable devices.