Why are there lectures? Could we live without them? Who ordered them anyway? These are important questions that many students have thought about vaguely, but they deserve more serious consideration. The “lecture” derives from the medieval university. In those days, before the printing press, access to educational materials was defined by a model of scarcity:…
Want to know what’s new in classroom technology? On August 16th the Bok Multimedia team visited the End-of-Summer PITF fair to scope out the projects that were developed for the Fall term. The PITF (Presidential Instructional Technology Fellowship) program supports Harvard courses by developing digital and technological materials to be integrated into the curriculum. This…
Today’s guest post comes from Anna Mudd, Curriculum Coordinator at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies Outreach Center and MTS ’09. Last month, I helped convene two workshops focused on exploring visual representation of academic ideas, work, and research. The workshops were held by the Outreach Center at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies and the Prince…
Nicole Mills, coordinator of the Beginning French language Program at Harvard, will be presenting a webinar hosted by the National Middle East Language Resource Center (NMELRC), and you’re invited! Dr. Mills will be discussing how to implement situated learning theory in the classroom. The webinar will include an overview of situationist and experiential learning theory, and will then…
What’s the role of politics in the academy? This Week in Education reports on some recent liberal arguments that sending your children to private school or homeschooling them is anti-progressive. Matthew Woessner, a Republican and a professor at Penn State, rebuts Rick Santorum’s critiques of higher education, suggesting that it might be Santorum’s penchant for vivid…
Open Culture has compiled a list of 425 courses at top universities that are available online, for free, in audio or video format. The courses are organized by subject, with links throughout to free online textbooks, and the list includes 24 Harvard courses. Get cracking!
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