edX: Friend or Foe?

A few years ago, when I wasn't in school, I talked a lot about different forms of self-education platforms (when i wasn't talking about bread). Over the years I've had a lot of fun listening to lectures on iTunes U and sometimes doing the reading along with the courses. One can learn a lot from these classes. However, I find that I sometimes fail to listen to the whole thing or fail to do it on a regular schedule. Part of the reasoning is that a lot of the courses don't have access to readings (or put syllabi and other information on other websites) and almost none of them allow access to exam materials, etc.

The other day, I read this article in the New York Times about a new educational group known as edΧ. Harvard and MIT started the program called edX for designed online learning. One of the major features of edX is the new ability for the software to read and grade essay and short answer questions as well as True/False and multiple choice. This feature was the main feature of the New York Times article, which made it seem as though professors were going to use this to free up time. As someone who will spend much of the next 6 years TAing, the idea of machine grading seemed to put my job at stake as well as being pedagogically problematic. However, looking at the edX website, it seems that the software is designed primarily for allowing students access to classes for free online, unlike current systems where classes are either free (with no ability to test or receive credit) or expensive (taken through the universities). While online classes can be great, a noted classicist who runs one of the biggest online classical databases told me that she taught an experimental online mythology class last year that had troubling results. Half the class enrolled online while half enrolled for an in-person class. While the students who were there in person had an average grade of a B+, the online class had a C average. While this is just one instance, I can imagine that there would be a greater disconnect for students doing online learning.

edX seems to be endeavoring to fix some of these problems. Those student motivated enough to use resources like iTunes U have the ability to test themselves on the material they learn which may promote greater retention. Furthermore, students have the ability to rewrite and gain additional feedback making testing about improvement as well as assessment. Since no institution could afford to make these classes free if they were graded by humans, the grading software can provide the ability for free learning. Students earning a passing grade will get a certificate, although obviously these won't count for much in the academic world, at least it will provide a small sense of achievement and a record of classes completed.

News on the Return of Some Berkeley Webcasts

Just over a month ago, I visited Berkeley's Webcast archive looking for an archaeology course I had seen previously only to find it had been removed when Berkeley upgraded its server. I posted a very angry note. Recently, Berkeley has just reloaded 169 of its classics courses-- Yay! Thank you Berkeley!-- and claims that it is going to attempt to upload several more.

Modern Astrophysics for Non-Scientists

iTunes U triumphs again. As I mentioned previously, I have been working (rather slowly) through the Ancient Greek history class given by Yale's Donald Kagan. He is quite enjoyable and it's forcing me to read through Pomoroy et al's Ancient Greece: A Political, Social, and Cultural History. While I was thinking about these lectures, I thought I might look at some of Yale's other courses. I downloaded the first lecture of "Astrophysics Frontiers and Controversies" (Yale Website) taught by Charles Bailyn and I am totally addicted. Although my attention has been divided (he has a very soothing voice so I have been listening to him while I do things like clean my room or work on my Greek study guide), I still understand the concepts he discusses. The class is supposed to introduce non-science majors to modern topics in astrophysics with little math. It's fabulously enjoyable and fun for someone like me who loves astronomy but couldn't get through physics because I only like classical mechanics as they apply to space.

It makes me wonder whether I should have gone into astrophysics as I had originally planned. However, I don't know if I could have spent my entire life crunching data hoping desperately for interesting mathematical irregularities.

Writing and the Gift

The ability to write well is a gift. I do not mean that some people are born with talent and others are not and only those with talent write well. I think some can gain the gift with diligent reading and practice. In fact, I recently listened to a magnificent interview with Leonard Susskind on this very subject (the Standford "How I Write" lectures from iTunes U). It always amazes me the way in which two textbooks of pieces of scholarship can relate precisely the same information and one is exciting and inspiring while the other is insipid and dull. I do not have the gift. I flatter myself to think that I have flashes of it from time to time, but my style is always slightly uncomfortable and self conscious as it stands one foot in the formal and one in the conversational sphere.

This comes to mind for two reasons. First, because I recently read some writing of a few of my friends. Each one has a distinct flourish to his style and each voice speaks distinctly from the text. Even though the writing is unpolished or not perfectly expressed in places, there is an engaging unifying principle: a real person speaks out of the page. Just as my art never found a stylistic guiding principle, I fear my writing is the same. Second, I just tonight finished reading Lévi-Strauss's Totemism, and I found his style absolutely enthralling. This is amusing because Totemism clearly aims at an audience other than the casual reader. Most of the work is comprised of either a detailed analysis of the history of anthropological and sociological scholarship concerning totemism and a detailed description of what cultural practices were misrepresented as totemism by previous writers. My background in this was minimal: I took one introductory level anthropology class a few years ago and that is the sum total of my experience. However, despite my lack of background, Lévi-Strauss was riveting. His writing style reminded me of the way an engaging professor might lecture; he leads his audience through his point of view, explicitly enough so that the audience follows, but subtlety enough that, in realizing his point, the members of the audience feel almost as though they have discovered the truth for themselves. That is a magnificent gift.

Busy Days

It's been a busy day. I made some bread which is proofing overnight in the refrigerator. I read some Homer and realize once again how much work I have to do. I have also been addicted to listening to iTunes U classes from Berkeley and various other places.

Earlier today, Servia sent me a clip from the Tony Awards. I didn't watch it since I'm not much of a fan of musical theater post the 1960s (I am a big Fred Astaire fan). This, however, was pretty funny. Especially Brooke Shields, who apparently has some minor stage fright (or so she claimed when she spoke at a graduation at my high school a few years after my own-- but that is a story for another time).

Enjoy!