Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Appetitive: Fun Online Classes

So while I've been reviewing my languages (and working a lot), I also decided that I should take a couple of courses online to keep myself engaged with the learning process in a more parametrized environment.

iTunes U, David O'Connor's Ancient and Medieval Philosophy: Professor O'Connor is the author of one of my favorite article's on Plato. He uses his incredible insight on Plato to provide an introduction for the beginning philosophy student. Although I love my Alma Mater, O'Connor's lectures are so much better than the first lectures I had on Plato. The class online is missing some of the lectures, but it's one of the things I've been listening to while I clean my room.

Corsera, Sue Alcock's Archaeology's Dirty Little Secrets: Professor Alcock gave the Keynote Lecture at the Getty's "Cultural Memories in the Roman Empire." I noticed, when I heard her speak, that she was very engaging in a way that would make her the perfect person to teach undergraduate classes to inspire budding archaeologists. It seems fitting, then, that she's teaching this basic archaeology class. I've never taken an archaeology class, although I think archaeology is pretty cool. So this is a perfect course for me. Unfortunately, the book is super expensive, so I bought the previous edition and I'm going to hope that it is sufficiently similar.

EdX CB22X, Gregory Nagy's The Ancient Greek Hero: According to one of my friends, at Harvard, this class is known as "Heroes for Zeros" on the modal of the stereotypical "Rocks for Jocks" or Berkeley's "Physics for Presidents." And indeed, the class doesn't require a lot of work. However, despite the pejorative nickname, the class is a lot of fun and is quite engaging. Professor Nagy gives some fabulous insight into Ancient Greek song culture and the text of the Iliad.

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