Armchair Scholarship, Ahoy!
Both UC Berkeley and Stanford University are offering free lectures and courses for download through iTunes. I don't know how you could ever legitimize anything you gained from listening/watching these lectures, but how can anyone deny the chance to take a class, however passively, from two fine institutions such as these? How fun would it be, in a road rage situation, to yell out the window at some idiot who just cut you off, "I'm trying to take my Biochem final in here, you jerk!" I'd enjoy it.
Anyways, one course that has caught my eye is UC Berkeley Schools of Information and Law's Open Source Development and Distribution of Digital Information: Technical, Economic, Social, and Legal Perspectives which covers topics such as Open Access Journals, Wikipedia, and digital music. These are topics we glazed over in my library school lectures, but it wouldn't hurt to refresh. And it's free, right? Not a terribly bad alternative to listening to an audiobook while commuting. Now I just need a job in which to commute to the city for, right?
Another "course" that looks like a gas to take is from BoingBoing contributer Cory Doctorow's PNWED: Is everyone on campus a copyright criminal? from USC, which he might Podcast, but for now has a really nifty list of reading material on his syllabus. Copyright is definitely something I'm weak on, and is clearly being redefined in the digital age. It would be nice to have some opinions of my own on it besides "But I have no money and I like downloading music for freeeee!"
So apparently this is what I do, or at least hope to do, when I have far too much time on my hands. And I would have never found all this stuff without my handy Bloglines aggregator bringing all this information to me! Web 2.0 is awesome!!!
Anyways, one course that has caught my eye is UC Berkeley Schools of Information and Law's Open Source Development and Distribution of Digital Information: Technical, Economic, Social, and Legal Perspectives which covers topics such as Open Access Journals, Wikipedia, and digital music. These are topics we glazed over in my library school lectures, but it wouldn't hurt to refresh. And it's free, right? Not a terribly bad alternative to listening to an audiobook while commuting. Now I just need a job in which to commute to the city for, right?
Another "course" that looks like a gas to take is from BoingBoing contributer Cory Doctorow's PNWED: Is everyone on campus a copyright criminal? from USC, which he might Podcast, but for now has a really nifty list of reading material on his syllabus. Copyright is definitely something I'm weak on, and is clearly being redefined in the digital age. It would be nice to have some opinions of my own on it besides "But I have no money and I like downloading music for freeeee!"
So apparently this is what I do, or at least hope to do, when I have far too much time on my hands. And I would have never found all this stuff without my handy Bloglines aggregator bringing all this information to me! Web 2.0 is awesome!!!