Archive for November 2007

Another site I came across for free audiobooks, Audiobooks.net has more than 400 free choices available. While you do have to make an account to download the materials, the choices available are worth the 2-seconds of link activation. Want more? Two of my favorite other resources and the forementioned LearnOutLoud and the education digg-clone qoolsqool. Qoolsqool has a category of ipod materials full of some of the best links available. Oh yeah, one more good site worth mentioning is Podiobooks, which offers many fresh new materials, in contrast to the many open domain classics you usually come across. (PS, thanks to Nelshael for the image)

For you academics seriously interested in how open and distance learning is affecting education, take a look at the IIRODL.org. Active since 2000, the tri-annual journal covers topics such as mobile learning, OCWs and open-source software on education. The articles are available as html, pdf and mp3 and many other useful links go out to other free and open textbooks and peer journals. The current issue focuses on mobile learning and includes such topics as Mobile Learning and Student Retention, Integrating Mobile Learning into Nomadic Education Programme in Nigeria and The World-Wide Inaccessible Web.

Geosense is an awesomely interactive geography battle game. Logon (or just go on as a guest) and challenge online opponents to locate worldwide cities. Some of the challengers on here are pretty amazing - certainly beat me hands down…

Win or lose, this is a fun and addictive way to brush on your geo-knowledge. US, Europe and worldwide challenges are available.

Been on a bit of poetry kick this week and have been surprised to see all of the good materials on YouTube. Here’s a selection of some of the better video that I’ve come across. As you can imagine, most of the best stuff available relates to the American Beats:

Allen Ginsberg - “Ballad of the Skeletons” (click on link for better audio)

Billy Collins - “The Dead”

Jack Kerouac - Explaining why he wrote on the road…

William S. Burroughs - “Thanksgiving Prayer”

Oscar Wilde - Tribute Animation (also, here is audio of him reading some lines from Ballad of Reading Gaol)

Some more are listed over here at MeFi though many of the links are dead.

While there are lots of great poetry pages on the web, the Poetry Archive is one of the most continually compelling. The site features historical and modern recordings of poets reading their poems, incluing the likes of Langston Hughes, T.S. Eliot and Allen Ginsberg.

The site has lesson plans for teachers, a children’s corner, glossaries and many excellent links. Slightly edgier teachers/students may also wish to check out some of the best “alternative” poetry and arts pages on the web: ubuweb and greylodge.

In response to this post I did on the Top 10 Firefox Research Tools, several readers brought Zotero to my attention. I’ve been using this tool over the past few months and have found it indispensible. The Zotero plug-in allows you to create folders, organising interesting webpages along with tags, notes and inter-linking. Most useful (for me at least) is the ability to save a webpage, highlight and sticky relevant info and export the contents to Word. Zotero is one of the most robust firefox research plug-ins around, and this lengthy video is a good introduction to all you can do with it. Don’t take my word for it. Watch and try for yourself.

Back in 2005 when Stanford first rolled out with their iTunes initiative, it was hailed as a great step towards openness in education. I remembering downloading lectures and listening to them during the workday. Some were good, some were not so good. Many of the materials were focused on alumni and of little interest to the general listener. The less “campus-life” and more academic lectures seemed haphazardly selected and poorly organized. There were no complete courses. All-in-all I was unimpressed by the site and didn’t see why it was compared with MIT and other more developed OCWs.

Two years down the line, the site has developed quite a bit, little resembling how it started. Let’s take a closer look.

Number and Variety of Courses Offered: B

One of the biggest changes on the site is the introduction of courses. Although there are only 13 currently available, they are good selections on interesting topics and appealing to a wide base of users. For instance, “Historical Jesus”, “Virgil’s Aeneid” and “Straight Talk About Stem Cells” could as easily appear on the iPod of my aunt as my old thesis advisor.

Furthermore, the limited number of courses doesn’t communicate the quantity of materials available. By browsing through the “Categories” index to the left of the homepage, you can see all of the audio available under topics such as “Law and Politics” or “Health and Medicine”. These categories list courses but also group materials together under areas of study, making it easy for a user to find relevant audio and video. Also listed are materials by featured contributors (mainly institutes within the university).

I’m really impressed by the quantity and variety of materials on the Stanford iTunes site. While not too many full courses are currently available, I’d expect to see more and more appearing soon. If not for this lack of full courses, Stanford would certainly get an “A” in this category.

Course Substance: B+

With so much material on the site, there’s bound to be some stuff better than others. As regards the actual courses, I found the ones I’ve listened to the be quite weighty and substantive while also easy to understand without being an expert on the topics. For instance, although “Hannibal”only has 7 lectures, each is between an hour and one-half to two hours and full of content. Other courses such as “The Literature of Crisis” has 20 tracks of the same length and “Modern Theoretical Physics” has 17 videos (iPod ready) between two semesters.

Meanwhile, the hodgepodge of lectures organised by topic is a goldmine when it comes to content. Head to International Relations > International Security and you’ll find 31 lectures ranging from “Children in Combat” to “The CIA and It’s Secret War in Tibet”. Institutes such as the Stanford Health Library offers 59 lectures such as “Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers”.

Once again, I’d love to offer a better grade, but this materials is not enough to really simulate being in the classroom. Sure, there’s lots of good stuff on here, but other than the handfull of courses there’s not too much really focused on one topic. And although the courses are really great (don’t get me wrong), 7 lectures or so doesn’t approximate a full semester of studies.

Material Mix & Accessibility: C+

Sadly, this is the area where Stanford most suffers. Although the iTunes platform makes it easy to download and enjoy the audio/video on your iPod, the material is, unfortunately, very tailored to iPod use. Although some materials have some brief pdf lists of recommended materials (eg, the Benjamin Franklin course), there are no textbooks or accompanying readings.

Overall Score: B 

I think that Stanford probably deserves a better grade than “B”. They certainly get an “A” for effort - the site is light years beyond where it was when it started. But the site is very much “stuff to put on your iPod” and not so much “open coursewares simulating university courses”.

The university is moving in the right direction and can only improve. My recommendations to them: move beyond the iTunes platform, create a companion website with space for comments and interaction and open textbooks. Go for the “A” and the gold ring - you can do it!

Next week we’ll be talking about Berkeley - there’s just so much material on it that I need a little more time to do it justice.

The Blue Rectangle book seller/exchange site has created a professionally recorded video reviews of people discussing books that they’ve read. With more than 200 reviews currently available, this is a good place to get ideas on something new to read. The reviews are short, clocking in on under a minute and focused - the interviewees are asked several questions and their answers are clipped together in the video edit.

Unfortunately, there are several downsides to the site. You cannot comment on the reviews, stifling what could be an interesting conversation with the speaker. Additionally, some of the reviews are somewhat bland and lacking in energy. Many of the books discussed are well-known and it could be nice to slip in some more obscure and interesting materials. All that being said, this is a nice and fun site, appealing to a wide audience.

Song stuck in your head? Can’t remember what it’s called? With Musipedia, the Open Music Encyclopedia, you can sing, whistle, tap or key in the melody to search through a user-created melody database. If you plan to use this regularly, try out the firefox and konquerer add-ins.

If you’re looking for a ton of free books - especially for computer programming - try this new site which has been popping up on del.icio.us, digg and the likes… Giuciao.com has topics on operating systems, programming languages, office apps as well as other miscellaneous topics such as combat, medicine, foreign languages and “love” (tantric sex, swedish massage, etc.). Although the site has an ugly 90’s style interface there is a surprising quantity of materials available - most topics have at least 30 links and often more than 100. By the way, the photo above is from the fun, borderline NSFW site Babes With Books.

I’ve been stumbling upon lots of good mythology sites over the past week and Theoi.com is my favorite. The site is thorough with a long encyclopedia, detailed diety family trees and lots of special focuses such as the bestiary and fabulous tribes. The site also has a gallery of sculpture and pottery and a searchable library with text from Homer to Seneca. Although there are many great mythology sites on the web, this site from New Zealand does a great job of assembling interesting topics and detailed info in an aesthetic, modern and easy to navigate interface.

If you’re looking to waste a large chunk of your work day, visit the Free Information Society, a site dedicated to free tech, art, history and much more. With such a broad range of topics, some areas are more developed than others…but some parts are truly excellent. For instance, the historical sounds on mp3 is full of original great speeches (eg, Apollo 11). The math section is quite complete with good resources, especially the calculus section which I’ve been using this week. The site’s not always so educational - art and fun has roms, funny photos and walkthroughs… check it out.