Secrets of the Silk Road - More Online Lectures...

In honor of their Silk Road exhibition, The University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology has created a 9 part lecture series dedicated to the Silk Road.  Once a month from October through June 2011, a different Silk Road scholar shares their view of the famous trade route.

http://penn.museum/silkroad/events_lectures.php

For those that live in the Philadelphia area, you can still reserve a ticket for the last 3 lectures.

March 2, 2011
Samarkand in the Age of Tamerlane (Timur Lang
 
April 6, 2011
Afghanistan

May 4, 2011
Looking East from Constantinople: Byzantium and the Silk Road 

June 1, 2011
From Venice to Xanadu: Marco Polo's Silk Road Adventure


 As a baseball coach and father of an 18 month old son, the 6pm time frame is a little tight for me, but perhaps I can have short practice and miss the bedtime routine in exchange for some knowledge.

How to Go to Harvard for Free: Harvard Online Lectures

As I develop my craft of teaching 9th grade World History, I find myself more and more interested in all the aspects of my subject area.  I read more about world history topics, I always look for connections in everyday life to my history classes and my magazine subscriptions are for the sole purpose of bringing ideas to the classroom.  In other words, I'm a student of my own profession.  Additionally, I want to be able to answer any question a student brings me.

At this point in my life I can't answer every question. (I probably never will be able to answer every question...but at least I can try.) Students are curious and will always ask questions that I can't answer.  I usually then offer them extra credit if they do the research and come back to class with the answer.  Students love to do this.

One way I've been learning more is by listening to many online lectures.  The David Kalivas lectures are amazing, and now I've just found a small gold mine of more through Harvard's Open Learning Initiative.

The Open Learning Initiative is part of Harvard University's Extension School which is basically a series of 650 classes open to the public.  That's right... you don't need a perfect SAT score to learn from Harvard professors.

The Open Learning Initiative offers many of the class lectures from Harvard faculty online to the public for free.

I haven't listened to any in full yet, but am looking forward to it.

Here's the link to all the lectures: http://www.extension.harvard.edu/openlearning/


Important Note: When selecting which type of video/audio to watch/listen to select LAN as it seems like the DSL/Cable Connection was crashing my browser (Safari, Mac OS X 10.5.8)

Byzantine Podcasts: Lars Brownworth's Lost to the West

In doing some De facto research on the Byzantine Empire I found an excellent series of podcasts from author Lars Brownworth.  The site was set up as a means to promote his book Lost to the West: The Forgotten Byzantine Empire That Rescued Western Civilization

Besides making his lectures accessible in this way, Brownworth makes them palatable and entertaining for the layman.  My wife thinks I'm cute for listening to history lectures while doing the dishes, but hey, I'm a world history teacher.  It's my job, but I love it.  My point is that with a little knowledge of Roman history, even mechanics and marketing execs would benefit from his lectures.   

I've already listened to two of them...  The introduction is a great as a follow up to the Roman Empire and an introduces the Byzantine Empire from a straightforward approach. 

Tonight I listened to Diocletian.  Again, Brownworth's tone and cadence are pleasing.  It sounds like he's talking to you, instead of lecturing at you.  A conversational style, if you will.  His theory on Diocletian and why's he's responsible for the fall of the Roman Empire is interesting.  Can't wait to listen to more...

If you've the time, Brown explains things in such a way that it's palatable to most.
Enjoy the link.

http://anders.com/lectures/lars_brownworth/12_byzantine_rulers/

Brownworth introduces his book with a short video on Amazon, which you can see here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/mpd/permalink/m1UO03EL2EAINK/ref=ent_fb_link