Free lectures from top-notch universities

Have you ever wished you could attend lectures at famous universities at no charge? Now you can, thanks to the Internet. More and more schools are posting lectures on Youtube, iTunesU and other multimedia distribution lines.

We're talking big schools here - MIT, Stanford, Berkely, Duke, Yale, Tufts and more. Most are in the USA, but there are some in the UK and Australia.

To find a lecture that suits your interests you can do a simple Google search. Include the words: free lecture video in your search.

Or, you can browse lists of universities and topics at

• Education Portal
  
• World Lecture Hall
• Fathom
  
• LectureFox (The main site was down when I wrote this, but here's the cached version, which shows links to the various schools.)
  

A recent article on Wired.com discusses the implications of this trend. For the intellectually curious, the selection is a goldmine. But the free lectures are also helpful to people in remote areas of the world that would not otherwise have access to quality education. Also, for high-school students exploring college options, it's a great way to sample the courses and the professors.

More educational video sources are listed in my blog post of June 24.

Pauline
teachmeinternet.com

Online videos for your mind and soul

When it comes to online videos, most people think of You Tube. I do enjoy some of their clever and entertaining clips, but if I want something more serious and educational, YouTube is not the best option.

Recently the Wall St. Journal published an article on "highbrow" videos - documentaries, speeches, panel discussions and other scholarly content. For example, many shows from the Frontline and Nova science series are available online, as are lectures from the Brookings Intstitution, arts, current events and academic research.

If you can't access the WSJ article from the link above (many newspapers archive content to a paid service after a couple of weeks) here are the websites mentioned:

ForaTV - Contains lectures, panel discussions and more, on a variety of topics. Includes forums for vewier comments.

The Research Channel - A consortium of major universities with over 3,000 video presentations of academic research and technical topics.

University Channel - Another group of university lectures, coordinated by Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. Offers downloadable audio as well as video.

Research-TV - Most videos are from UK-based universities.

Traditional Fine Arts Organization - Emphasis on American representational art and artists

TED.com - One of my favorite sources for mind-stimulating presentations

Energy Policy TV - Videos on all aspects of fuel and "green" energy consumption


Pauline
teachmeinternet.com