Podcasts at the Fitzwilliam Museum

I just discovered this little collection to add to our lifelong learning resources. It's a series of podcasts--audio with slides--about the treasures in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, UK.

You can either listen to the lectures and watch the slideshow online or download the podcast. Be sure if you're downloading, that after you grab the media file, you scroll down and save the pdf containing the slides for the lecture.

If you're interested in museums at all, you'll really find these lectures to be exceptional.

UC Berkeley Podcast Schedule Up

Now we know which Fall 2008 courses Berkeley has chosen to podcast. In fact, the first lectures are already online. This time frame between lecture and posting is much-improved over previous years.

So, what's available? Check it out here. You will find biology, chemistry, computer science, cyber culture, economics, education, electrical engineering, engineering, English (literature), geography, history, international studies, law, mechanical engineering, philosophy, physics, political science, psychology, public health, sociology and statistics.

Of course, as you see, my favorites professors, George Brimhall and Nathan Sayre, are no where to be found. I'm hoping they will be back on the list soon.

California History Lectures

Take a look at these Bancroft Library (UC Berkeley) lectures. They're one-hour audio lectures about the history of California--seven of them:

• The California Mission as Symbol and Myth
• Like America Only More So: The Origins and Power of California's Image
• Heaven on the Half-shell: Mark Twain in California
• California's Greatest Thirst: A Glance at the Contentious History of California's Water
• An Entrepreneurial Genius: Henry J. Kaiser
• Kick Out the Southern Pacific
• A Library for California

This is an exceptional collection to supplement any lifelong learner's California history resources.

Biology at University of Hawaii

Offered by the University of Hawaii, Biology 101 Biology and Society is taught by Dr. George Wong, Botany Department.

This course website makes available 41 lecture pdf's and 18 sets of background links for some of the lectures. The only broken links found are for the Blue Planet Biomes in Lecture 7. I will see what site can be substituted for these and do an update shortly.

These materials will make a nice supplement for the lifelong learner's ecology projects.

International Relations at University of Oregon

Here's an interesting course taught by Professor Ronald Mitchell, PS205: Introduction to International Relations, at the University of Oregon.

What's available? Excellent resources, including:

• Syllabus
• Lecture notes for 20 class sessions
• Case study assignment, including a pdf of materials for assignment and links to use (great assignment for lifelong learners)
• Targeted links to websites pertinent to the course

This is definitely a course you will want to add to your independent learning resources for understanding how our world works today.

History of Science at Princeton

Take a look at History 398 Technologies and Their Societies: Historical Perspectives, taught by Professor Michael S. Mahoney.

This 2006 course website offers an enormous amount of information on the history of science, focusing on technology. Almost all of the links are active, though sadly, a few are broken. Each week has extensive readings and links to material pertinent to the current topic.

One link of note is to The Emergence of Advertising in America: 1850 - 1920 at Duke University. I was not familiar with this archive that contains over 9,000 images in this one collection, plus many more collections. One area which I found very interesting was the collection of advertising cookbooks from 1878 to 1929.

Lifelong learners should find this course an interesting addition to learning resources.

Geobiology at MIT

One of MIT Open Courseware offerings is 12.007 Geobiology. This course uses Steven Stanley's Earth System History and additional readings are recommended. Lecture slides (pdf's) and text lecture notes are available. Several assignments give lifelong learners guidance on how to structure learning projects. "Take-home" exams top off the materials offered.

The course home page uses this description: "The interactive Earth system: Biology in geologic, environmental and climate change throughout Earth history. Since life began it has continually shaped and re-shaped the atmosphere, hydrosphere, cryosphere and the solid earth. Introduces the concept of "life as a geological agent" and examines the interaction between biology and the earth system during the roughly 4 billion years since life first appeared. Topics include the origin of the solar system and the early Earth atmosphere; the origin and evolution of life and its influence on climate up through and including the modern age and the problem of global warming; the global carbon cycle; and astrobiology."

Even without podcasts, which we are always expecting in our courses now, this is an excellent independent scholar's resource.

Just a side note: The image used on the course home page is one of Ron Blakey's great maps. See this post on The Coconino Chronicles.

Seeing in the Dark

The Astronomical Society of the Pacific has a great e-newsletter called The Universe in the Classroom. The archive contains a lot of good overview material on astronomy topics.

The Fall 2007, Special Issue: Seeing in the Dark, is about the PBS special done by Timothy Ferris which aired on September 19, 2007. In the program Ferris explores amateur astronomy and highlights some of the contributions that those amateurs have made and are making to our body of astronomical knowledge.

The PBS companion website, in addition to information about the program, the people behind it and its filming, has several study topics listed, appropriately enough, under "Astronomy Topics."

It's a good starting point for lifelong learners wanting to add amateur astronomy to their learning projects.

The Ancient Olympics

Since the 2008 Olympics is taking place right now, here's a nice little diversion for you from the Perseus Digital Library Project, called The Ancient Olympics.

It's a really easy read, but quite a few "just so you know" bits of information, like the different views on how the Olympics got started. It's a little dated on the modern side as it talks about the "coming Atlanta games." But, since it focuses on the ancient games, that really isn't a problem.

Take a peek and see if you can find a little lifelong learner's nugget about the Olympics that you didn't know. Oh, and enjoy the remainder of the 2008 modern Games.

Natural History at Dickinson College

Romantic Natural History: A website designed to survey relationships between literary works and natural history in the century before Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species (1859) is not a course, but it is a nice resource for lifelong learners interested in natural history.

Most of all it is a visual feast and it will only get better, since it is a work in progress, with materials added often.

This is one resource to visit again and again. Ashton Nichols and student researchers are doing a great job at Dickinson College.

Romantic Natural Histories--the book was published in 2003 by Houghton Mifflin Company.

Astrobiology at University of Hawaii

This Spring 2008 course, A281 -- Astrobiology, taught by astronomer Karen Meech, is a great course, with syllabus, lecture slides, handouts and homeworks available for download.

The textbook used is Life in the Universe, 2nd edition, by Bennett and Shostak.

The extensive handouts include a 79-page Astrobiology Primer: An Outline of General Knowledge--Version 1, 2006.

Professor Meech is a working astronomer, involved, with the 8th NASA Discovery mission, Deep Impact and many other projects.

You may also want to check out the Institute for Astonomy and the Astrobiology Institute at the University of Hawaii.

Astronomy Lecture Podcasts

The Silicon Valley Astronomy Lectures presented at Foothill College are available as audio podcasts. You can get some of them as video from iTunes. These lectures have been given since 1999, but only 2 sets of podcasts are accessible, twelve lectures. It appears that this year's lectures will be added as they occur.

The lectures include many very interesting topics by notable speakers. The speaker on Oct. 4, 2006, Dr. Alex Filippenko (U. of California, Berkeley): Dark Energy and the Runaway Universe will be familiar. Everyday Scholar profiled his course, Astro C10 / LS C70U Introduction to General Astronomy, at Berkeley, on August 3, 2008.

Thanks to the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, Foothill College and Andrew Fraknoi for this great resource for lifelong learners.

Conservation Biology at UIUC

IB 451 (ENVST 420, CPSC 436) Conservation Biology is Professor Ken Paige's Spring 2007, course at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His course website contains excellent lecture slides and lab readings. All resources are accessible. The lectures are in PowerPoint, with lecture notes in Word, and the readings are pdf's, so they're all easy to download.

He uses the textbook: Principles of Conservation Biology, Martha J. Groom, Gary K. Meffe, C. Ronald Carroll, 3rd edition.

All in all, lots of good information for lifelong learners studying conservation biology.

Physical Geography at Sofia

Here's a really well structured Physical Geography course at Sophia Open Content, by Allison Lenkeit-Meezan, Foothill College.

Textbooks used are:

• Geosystems 5th edition (Christopherson)
• Goode’s World Atlas 20th edition (Hudson)

This is a complete introduction to geography course which includes:

• Syllabus
• Schedule--A frame-work for lessons, readings, labs, quizzes and finals
• Lessons--Eleven
• Assignments (labs)--Six
• Exams--Eleven quizzes, two study reviews, a midterm exam and a final

Everything you need to guide you through a "semester" of physical geography. This is expecially beneficial to lifelong learners who like to have all the pieces in one place.

Land Use History of North America at USGS

From Mars Hill

Flagstaff, Arizona

Credit Marilyn Crain

This time we get "two for the price of one." Go visit Land Use History of North America (LUHNA) and Colorado Plateau-Land Use History of North America (CP-LUHNA) for a good contribution to your resources on the environmental history of the United States. It goes a long way toward explaining the delicate balance between the viability of our environment and its plant and animal inhabitants and the needs of our human population.

The CP-LUHNA is exceptional in the quality and quantity of material available. These two sites are definite assets to be added to your learning toolbox.

Lifelong learners, enjoy.

The Royal Society Podcasts

This is so fantastic! Check out the Royal Society Library Events and Archive - complete list of webstreams. You'll find audio and video of Royal Society lectures back through 2006. Many of the lectures are also available as podcasts, ready to download. It doesn't get any better than this.

How about hearing a lecture from Bill Bryson: A short history of nearly everything or John Gribbin: The roots of the "Royal" and the Scottish connection or John Heilbron: Benjamin Franklin in Europe?

These are full-length lectures by the people we want to hear, on the subjects we're interested in. Can't wait to see who's coming up next.

Berkeley Book List

Here's another one of those "take a break and enjoy" resources. Ralph Hexter, executive dean of the College of Letters & Science, introduces the new Berkeley Book List by saying, "In this first annual edition of the list, distinguished faculty recommend a feast of books — some topical, some classics, others just favorites — across a range of subject areas. For those of you who are avid readers and who relish staying abreast of a particular field of knowledge, the Berkeley Book List is your ticket to indulge your curiosity."

This site is an easy read, profiling the the book lists of 15 (of more than 800) professors from the College of Letters & Science. My favorite, George Brimhall, who teaches EPS 170 (L&S 170AC) Crossroads of Earth Resources and Society isn't here, but you can meet him via the podcasts of the course. You'll see why I think he is the coolest professor around. Can't wait to listen to his Fall 2008 lectures.

Alex Filippenko, professor, Astronomy and Walter Alvarez, professor, Geology are here with their lists of books. You'll remember Professor Filippenko from our post on Introduction to General Astronomy.

Just a nice break to see what these academics consider a good read.

Introduction to General Astronomy

Alex Filippenko says that his class, Astro C10 / LS C70U Introduction to General Astronomy, is a description of the entire cosmos. He also says that this is one of the golden ages of astronomy because there are so many discoveries being made.

This is an excellent overview of the universe and introduction to Astronomy.

This course has video podcasts, as well as mp3's. Each video presents excellent slides in addition to the instructor's powerful lecture. This is one case where you can say, "He knows his astronomy so thoroughly that he wrote the book." Literally, he is the co-author, with Jay M. Pasachoff, of the textbook used in this course, The Cosmos: Astronomy in the New Millennium.

The companion website to this book provides some additional study materials, plus a link out to Jay Pasachoff's Astronomy 101 The Cosmos course at Williams College. I just discovered this additional resource while preparing for this post, so I have not yet looked at any of these videos. This will be interesting to see the difference in the presentations of these two professors. Let's rethink this--after further review, it appears both of them may be doing these lectures. I'll update this post after I have time to explore these lectures.

So far, I have not found a course website for either of these.

Looking Forward to Fall

While doing the dinosaur post yesterday, I discovered that the course had already been updated for Fall 2008. It's always so much fun to see what the new semester will bring from our favorite professors.

Hopefully, this fall will also bring more new courses to the podcast world. I am especially looking forward to the Fall 2008 update to UC Berkeley Webcasts. For the last week, I have been checking every day. The shell is usually up early, with the names of the courses that will be podcast during the new semester. For the last few years, more courses have been added each semester, so I am hoping that will be the case this fall.

I know that I sometimes (often) repeat myself about how fortunate we are to have access to ever-increasing resources on the Internet. But, it is true and I know that we lifelong learners do appreciate the opportunities that we have.

If you want to share your favorite resources, please post a comment.