DVDs for sore eyes
Aha. In my search for DVDs that would rest my eyes without rotting my brain, I found my public library has most of this series:
http://www.thegreatcourses.com/
I'd seen The Great Courses around in ads for years, but always at heart-stopping prices that daunted my curiosity. I wonder how many other library systems have them, too?
I'm partway through one on Geological Wonders, one on Ancient Greece, and one on English word origins. (Focus, governor...)
It's sort of like having your own private professor/s in a box. So far, just about PBS Special level, nothing too hard.
The lecture format doesn't have quite the information-density of something with more pictures, like a PBS show. Having just read a book on the rise of medieval universities, it gives me much to think about the continuity of pedagogical culture -- and how it may be on the verge of being blown away by modern data systems. Meanwhile, though, it's so soothing... and, of course, free.
Ta, L.
http://www.thegreatcourses.com/
I'd seen The Great Courses around in ads for years, but always at heart-stopping prices that daunted my curiosity. I wonder how many other library systems have them, too?
I'm partway through one on Geological Wonders, one on Ancient Greece, and one on English word origins. (Focus, governor...)
It's sort of like having your own private professor/s in a box. So far, just about PBS Special level, nothing too hard.
The lecture format doesn't have quite the information-density of something with more pictures, like a PBS show. Having just read a book on the rise of medieval universities, it gives me much to think about the continuity of pedagogical culture -- and how it may be on the verge of being blown away by modern data systems. Meanwhile, though, it's so soothing... and, of course, free.
Ta, L.
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Sue
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Mar 05, 2016 06:53AM
I work in a public library, and we have many courses that have been donated. Often there is a link to further resources online, if there is not a course book with the item.
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There's some interesting stuff on iTunes U, if you have an iThing. I watched some philosophy/ethics lectures done by Oxford University a while back.
I have several of the Great Courses -- the one on Egypt is my favourite so far, and the cooking ones are great for those looking to expand their skills.
"Having just read a book on the rise of medieval universities, it gives me much to think about the continuity of pedagogical culture -- and how it may be on the verge of being blown away by modern data systems."That is a very interesting statement. I have been working at a high school for a few months on their network and wi-fi system. Sometimes it looks to me as though educators are using computers to make education even more boring.
A 32 gigabyte USB stick could hold 32,000 books if each book was 500 pages. Of course format and graphics or video would change that. Our society now has a kind of science fictional problem of how to implement and distribute this technology. But the teachers and students do not know about Project Gutenberg. How is that even possible when I have known about it for 10 years.
I admit that is one of the problems I have with your science fiction stories. 700 years in the future and everyone isn't carrying a pocket computer and your educational systems seem very out of date. But the stories are great! Oh yeah, no robots.
Karl wrote: ""Having just read a book on the rise of medieval universities, it gives me much to think about the continuity of pedagogical culture -- and how it may be on the verge of being blown away by modern ..."This book gives a good overview:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
Even most participants in educational institutions -- teachers as well as students -- have no idea where the culture in which they are embedded comes from, and how interestingly arbitrary it is, or driven by patterns created by much older technology (scribes, ferex). I certainly didn't. At the same time, the culture couldn't have survived so long if it weren't playing nice with underlying human biology and psychology (but I repeat myself); new systems need to take that substrate into account.
Or, schools will never be abolished until a new universal system of babysitting and childcare comes into existence... one has to do something to get them out of the house.
(There are robotics all over the place in the VK verse; just very few androids. Maybe people decided they didn't like machines to talk back...)
Ta, L.
Lois wrote: "Karl wrote: ""Having just read a book on the rise of medieval universities, it gives me much to think about the continuity of pedagogical culture -- and how it may be on the verge of being blown aw..."I should add, just on the Great Courses DVDs I've seen so far, one can watch the evolution of their presentations from just sticking a professor up behind a podium and training a camera on him while he talks, from the late 90s, to much more sophisticated camera work and use of visual aids such as slides and quotes, addressing more learning modes than just the audio, in more recent offerings. They haven't quite reinvented the PBS Special -- that would be much too expensive, I expect -- but they do seem to be getting more out of their low budgets as they advance through time and gain experience.
Ta, L.
"(There are robotics all over the place in the VK verse; just very few androids. Maybe people decided they didn't like machines to talk back...)"I agree android robots are mostly a silly ego trip. But where were the non-android robots cleaning the corridors in Beta Colony? LOL
KS
Karl wrote: ""(There are robotics all over the place in the VK verse; just very few androids. Maybe people decided they didn't like machines to talk back...)"I agree android robots are mostly a silly ego trip..."
There was one in a space station hostel room, iirc. The protagonist had a brief, frustrating conversation with it. (Can't remember which book offhand.)
But for most of the protags, it would be like noticing light switches.
Ta, L.
There's a cleaning robot on Kline Station in Chapter 6 of ETHAN OF ATHOS.
Robert Sapolsky, neurobiologist at Stanford U., has a lively one on neurobiology in the teaching courses. I think you and your readers would love it. It was a bit easier than Power, Sex , Suicide by Nick Lane. I'm finding that interesting but rough going. (My biology study was in 9th grade in 1937.)
Margaret wrote: "Robert Sapolsky, neurobiologist at Stanford U., has a lively one on neurobiology in the teaching courses. I think you and your readers would love it. It was a bit easier than Power, Sex , Suicide b..."Ah, thanks for the rec.
Confronting the entire course listing at once is, as a friend of mine phrased it over dinner tonight, "like trying to drink the ocean through a straw."
Speaking of which, there's a cool-looking one on oceanography...
The Lane book is, indeed, challenging, but I kept reminding myself that he makes a living teaching this stuff to raw undergrads... if they can I can, etc. And the sense of understanding afterwards is very powerful. (Oxygen might be slightly easier to start with, though.)
Ta, L.
For Economics there is Age of Uncertainty that John Kenneth Galbraith did with the BBC in 1977. It's on Youtube.The funny thing is that Milton Friedman did a series after he found out about Galbraith's called Free to Choose. Galbraith blew Milt away.
//"Having just read a book on the rise of medieval universities, it gives me much to think about the continuity of pedagogical culture -- and how it may be on the verge of being blown away by modern data systems". //'Ready Player One' https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9... has an interesting take on the future of pedagogical culture which is, in certain respects, depressingly realistic.
Back on our timeline, the phenomenon of Ted Talks https://www.ted.com/talks maybe suggests how the pedagogical culture will adapt to avoid disappearing.
Celtic wrote: "'Ready Player One' https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9... has an interesting take on the future of pedagogical culture which is, in certain respects, depressingly realistic."I think a lot of people just do not admit how mediocre to bad most teachers are.
One thing I don't think many people who don't deal with small children in groups appreciate is how much basic socialization is done by the schools. I started volunteering this january at my local elementary school library, and the youngest grades are still working on the basic ideas of standing in line, taking turns and giving your name clearly when you reach the librarian.
