Ed-Tech List Members,
[I know you may be terribly busy at the moment. If so, hold onto this until your grades are turned in and your semester is completed. Then come back and check it out.]
I have been listening to the most incredible lectures on a wide-range of subjects lately. These lectures are an a variety of subjects and, to my surprise, I am completely captivated by well more than half of them.
- I listed to an incredibly interesting presentation on the historical connection between the Cuban people and America. It was ironic to be walking my dog in Miami, listening to a professor from Univ. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, giving a lecture in Toronto, Ontario, about a subject so relevant to me in Miami.
- I listened to a number of speakers talk about Venezuela under Hugo Chavez: how it came to be, what it means, and what is happening: an absolutely fascinating discussion about a topic in which I thought I had no interest, and certainly had no previous knowledge.
- I listened to two talks about the Muslim religion, including one that was a dialog with Daniel Pearl's father and a professor of Islamic studies. How wonderful to be able to hear about this religion, what it values, and how most Muslims view the acts of the more radical fringe.
- Last night I heard the most amazing presentation on creating the "God experience" in the laboratory: the ability to generate a sense of an "other" through electro-magnetic stimulation. This was a brilliant presentation on belief and science, and how they are coming together.
You may know all of this and find it boring, or even sad that I am just learning about it these topics. You may even be an expert in one of these fields, disagree with the presenter's viewpoint, and wish I wasn't being influenced by these people. For me, these recordings are opening my understanding of a wide-range of subjects. I listen to these exciting lectures as I walk our dog or ride to/from work on the Bus/Rail each day. Each week I look forward to the two new lectures that get downloaded to my iPod.
The series of produced by TVO, the TV Ontario educational television station, located in Toronto. Here is their description of the series:
Big Ideas offers lectures on a variety of thought-provoking topics which range across politics, culture, economics, art history, science.... By nature of its lecture format, pacing and inquisitive approach, it is the antithesis of the prevailing sound-bite television norm. Engaging, articulate speakers stand behind lecterns across Ontario addressing audiences - a stark, on-air aesthetic running counter to fast edits and whizzy sound effects.
I would think that many of you might be able to find material here that could be incorporated into your courses. The students could all listen to the lecture before class and then they could discuss it and apply what you are teaching to it during class, or something like that. What do you think?
The web site for the show is http://www.tvo.org/bigideas and the easiest way to listen to the shows is to use iTunes. There is a button on the TVO home page that you can use to access the Big Ideas page in iTunes. Then you can click on any episode to select it and click on the Play button to listen to it. No need to even download the files or subscribe to the feed, if you don't want to. If you want to try this and run into problems, let me know and I will try to help, OK?
Bill Vilberg
