Virtual Classrooms and IRC Chat Channels

I had a great idea for how St. John's College in Annapolis Md (and in Sante Fe NM) could place a webcam and a mic in each and every seminar classroom, where in Tuesday and Thursday evenings, for 2 or 3 hours, the 100 Great Books readings are discussed over the 4 years. They could have channels in ustream.tv with a show broadcast for each seminar. All that wonderful conversation is, in some sense going to waste, because people around the world who would like to participate in such readings and seminars, cannot participate in person.

Broadcasting these seminars would cost almost nothing, except the effort of someone caring enough to implement it, but the benefits to society would be enormous.

http://www.csun.edu/~webteach/mirc/whatis.html