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Lancelot Schaubert

M.I.T. Free

No, that’s not a typo. Thanks to Logan K. Stewart’s suggestion, I’m now going to take on M.I.T. free at the same time as my Harvard Classics readings. Basically, there’s a list of classes:

Courses by Department

Each with their own assignments and reading lists and lecture notes.

I chose “Literature,” copied the roster into the new page and found overlap with HVC. For instance, there’s a 900-level class on John Milton’s Paradise Lost. Instead of a blog post, I’ll write the assignment.

TO MIX IT UP FOR YOU…

I will also add a “what I care about” and “what you care about” portion to every M.I.T./Harvard Classic post. Basically, you get to watch me patch together an undergraduate-graduate hybrid in literature. In addition, I’ve added my Lewis and Rothfuss SciFi/Fantasy lists. I figure if I’m working on something epic, you all should know.

Of course the point isn’t so much to finish these lists as to benefit from the process, I hop around on what I’m reading but like to know I’m progressing on something. I’m MUCH more interested in your contribution to the discussions and dialogs around the works I keep reading. Some of these classes, especially the higher ones, depend on dialog so tear me apart if I say something dumb. You all teach me. Join me as I throw down my Academic gloves and go no-holds barred with M.I.T. and Harvard. Together, we can take ’em.

(That’s your cue to choose your weapon, Player One).

PS> Tackling any epic tasks or reading any hard books?

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Lancelot Schaubert

Lancelot Schaubert authored Bell Hammers, which Publisher’s Weekly called “a hoot.” He edits anthologies and journals; produces albums, films, and photo novels; raises funds, friends, and minds for artists. Learn more here.

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  1. logankstewart

    Glad I could help. Enjoy the course work. Should be at least as challenging as Harvard’s, I wager.

    My current “epic task” is getting Stewartland fit to sell. The house has been a millstone about my neck, and I’m ready to sell it. Alas, there is much to do in the cleaning/packing stage.

    Reply
    1. lanceschaubert

      Dude, it will be amazing. Also, your letter will get in the mail as soon as I pony up for stamps.

      Praying it sells fast for you. Stewartland–I like that. We go by “Schaubert Abbey” ourselves.

      Reply
  2. christina1987

    Very cool! I just recently heard about a collaboration between Harvard and MIT to make this sort of open-source education even more accessible and complete. Here’s a link to that new project, entitled “edX”: http://www.edxonline.org/about.html. I think the biggest difference between MIT and Harvard’s free, online courses and edX is that the latter will also include live quizzes, tests, and discussion boards. I believe they are supposed to be much more like a traditional course – only free! Sounds like good news for autodictats everywhere!

    Reply
    1. lanceschaubert

      Awesome! Yeah, I knew about the arrival of Edx but knew little about it. Glad that I will be able to get together with others like me online in course work like that!

      As for Harvard, I didn’t know they offered free classes, I was just reading through their classics shelf , the one started by their twenty first pres. What do they do?

      Reply
      1. christina1987

        Harvard’s offerings are much more slim, but do include video and audio lectures, reading lists, etc. For the courses currently offered for free, this one looks most appealing to me: http://www.extension.harvard.edu/open-learning-initiative/world-war-history. Mostly because I have read Charles Maier’s _Among Empires_.

        I also found it very interesting to see that the reading list for MIT’s “Seminar in Historical Methods” graduate class are relatively identical to the readings I had in my “History and Theory” course a couple of years ago. Brings to mind the old debate about the standardized nature of formal education, one which is often not even purposefully perpetuated.

        Reply
        1. lanceschaubert

          Awesome. Yeah, Yale’s was scarce as well compared to MIT, but then again, MIT was always the technological pace setter.

          History and Theory– sounds interesting. What debate? Flesh that out for me… standardized verses formal? I think I know what you mean, but I’m curious for more thoughts…

          Reply
        2. christina1987

          I am referring to the idea that academics at a higher level is very much about speaking to other academics, not about being accessible to the general population. The thought arose from the MIT course listing because, even though I attended a grad school vastly different from MIT, the introductory courses for Historical Studies both pull from the same “canonical” historical texts. In other words, historians read other historians who read other historians, and so on and so forth. It’s not so much standardized vs formal, as the idea that formal education is very standardized — even when professors don’t mean for it to be standardized. Lucky for me, my History and Theory prof was awesome and had us read Borges and Tolstoy along with some of the famous historians/historical theorists.

          In historical circles at least, the debate between public and academic histories is huge, as history museums attempt to reach people with historical narratives, but academic historians try to preserve the integrity of historical research. …And then there is also “popular” history from the likes of people such as David McCullough who reach wide audiences, yet have no formal historical training. At any rate, it’s a looooonnnggg story, one that can’t really be covered in a comment, and certainly not by someone with limited experience like me!

          Reply
        3. lanceschaubert

          Sure it can! At the higher levels it’s just academics talking to academics, right? That’s all we’re doing here, just not in some circle of desks in an obscure classroom somewhere. Unless, of course, you mean “it would be better in person,” in which case, I agree.

          I see what you mean, though. It tends to be a very closed discussion, like if you have been mentored and honed enough by a given institution for a certain course of study, they confer their degree upon you. I find it interesting that some of my british friends finish their PhDs by 23 and then define their career not by their course of study or their Alma Mater, but by their life’s work. Shouldn’t that be the point in the first place?

          As for popular (even alternate) history, what do you think about Howard Zinn?

          Reply
        4. christina1987

          Hmmm…I wasn’t really commenting on talking about courses here (or in person). I think that can be done, and should be done!

          Howard Zinn is incredible, and, generally, historians love Howard Zinn. Much as they love Foucault or others who have transformed the study of history. But Howard Zinn was a historian, with a PhD and academic street cred (which kind of sounds like an oxymoron…or a bad joke). A popular historian would be one who writes historical books that are popular, but not really revolutionary or with new research (eg: McCullough, who really just re-writes with better prose the same old political history every high school text book covers). It’s a bit hard to explain, but the best place to start when learning about the American historical profession is Peter Novick’s _That Noble Dream: The ‘Objectivity’ Question and the American Historical Profession_.

          And I agree, what you do with a degree is what really matters, not where you received it!

          Reply
        5. lanceschaubert

          I see, you just didn’t want to get into a long rant. No prob.

          Yeah, I’m a big time Zinn fan–we watched “The People Speak” at a friends house last month. Brilliant stuff. I’ll have to add Novick to my Goodreads! Thanks for those suggestions.

          Reply
  3. alicethroughthemacrolens

    Ooooh, you’ve gone and got me started too!
    I’ve decided to plunge into a bit of Anthropology myself – although I actually used to teach 101 as a graduateTA at Syracuse.
    Oh, and while you’re all on the Ivy League freebie train, there’s Open Yale courses too. I’m currently watching some of the African American History lectures.
    http://oyc.yale.edu/courses

    Reply
    1. lanceschaubert

      Woot!

      Anthropology, nice choice, nice. You taught at Syracuse?! I. Am. So. Jealous. Yeah, my bride just told me about the open Yale stuff. I’ll probably have to tack those on.

      You guys will have to keep me up on what you’re taking. Maybe we can do a pseud-masters dialog on here, ask tough questions and the like.

      Reply
  4. lanceschaubert

    After checking out the page, there’s a 200-level class just on Milton. I might combine those assignments with the 900-level MIT course. One post on Paradise Lost, one post summarizing Milton with the Yale course.

    Sound fair?

    Reply
    1. Doberman

      One post on Paradise Lost huh? One. Hehehehehehe…*rubs hands together gleefully* of course that is fair. Fairly succinct! I look forward to some Milton musings. Game on! Okay that was so non-academic of me. Righty-ho old chap, on with the Milton.

      Reply
      1. lanceschaubert

        Sure that was academic of you. American, but academic all the same. And I n!ever set myself a word limit for the assignment posts. MWAHAHAHAHA

        Cheerio.

        Reply
  5. lanceschaubert

    Okay, after downloading those Yale lectures and taking a look at the course work, I have that feeling I get when I’m playing Risk and just made my first game-changing set, the feeling like I’m preparing to take over the world.

    Reply



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