History of China At UC Berkeley

If you're searching for a framework within which to put your introductory study of the history of China, you might want to consider a course at the University of California at Berkeley. Professor Michael Nylan teaches this course, History 6A - Fall 2008 History of China: Origins to the Mongols.

This course is not podcast, so it is actually just a framework, but it does have a complete reading list, including books for further reading. With a little Google research, you should be able to find some of the additional reading material from the course reader which is not available, but the author and title of the articles are given.

This should be a good resource for lifelong learners interested in the history of China.

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.

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.

Americans and the Global Forest at UC Berkeley

Professor Lynn Huntsinger has an impressive amount of material on the website for her course at Berkeley, ESPM C11: Americans and the Global Forest. She says that the "course explores different ways of thinking about forests and our relationship to them." It does indeed do that. I especially like that she uses Simon Schama's Landscape and Memory. Now, if I can only pull out of storage, that one box holding this book captive.

There are notes available for 15 lectures. A few of the pdf's are password protected, but most of them are not. These pdf's are lecture slides and readings. Even with the few files that are unavailable to us, this is an excellent addition to the lifelong learner's resources for environmental history.

Gems at UC Berkeley

Are you interested in gemology, but don't have a strong background in science? Then, according to Professor Jill Banfield, this introductory earth science course at UC Berkeley should give you what you need.

The EPS 2 Gems and Gem Minerals course website provides all the basics that you need online. There is no required textbook, however Gemology by Hurlbut and Kammerling is recommended for additional information.

Just click on the "students arrow" and dive right in. There are six modules, with extensive materials in each. Starting with "What is a gem?" each section is loaded with information, beautiful illustrations and movie clips to show how things work.

Lifelong learners wanting to find out about gems will definitely benefit from this course. The only negative about this online course, if there is one, is no audio or video of the lectures. We are very quickly becoming spoiled with the so many available resources.

Astrobiology Course at Berkeley

Something else from Berkeley. Integrative Biology 167, Fall 2004, Astrobiology: The Scientific Search for Life in the Universe. No podcasts as far as I can tell, but this is a course website with the syllabus, lecture pdf's, readings and some excellent links (a few of the links are broken, but for the most part they are active and lead to lots of information.)

Sometimes older course lectures are a bit, well old, but I think you'll find these lecture slides extremely helpful if you're looking for astrobiology study resources.

Also, check out the book companion website, Life in the Universe by Bennett, Shostak, Jakosky.

UC Berkeley Course Podcasts

Want to study at Berkeley? Think that it's out of reach? Well, think again. Go here to see just how many courses you "take" using either audio or video podcast. Some courses are also available on iTunes U or YouTube.

From the Spring 2008 list, you can choose courses ranging from Introduction to Archaeology to Globalization to Introduction to Practical Reasoning and Critical Analysis of Argument. How's that for a range of subjects?

My personal favorite is Geog 130 Natural Resources and Population. Professor Sayre is a great! And you really must check out the Fall 2007 course, EPS 170 Crossroads of Earth Resources and Society. George Brimhall is the coolest Prof. This course has a website with lecture pdf's available, plus lots of other interesting course information.

Please note that some of the older courses are going to be archived and will not be available on this site, but I'm not sure what the time frame is.

Have fun! Just be aware that you're going to face a problem here. It's extremely difficult to decide what course to tackle first. This is as good as it gets, if you are not looking to get credit for courses.