Continuing Education

I love my iPod (thanks, Mom!). Obviously, I use it to listen to music and podcasts, and it's a great tool for playing the flute. But those of you who follow my Facebook posts or Twitter tweets know that I'm also listening to lectures and courses from iTunes U. I've listened to lectures about J.R.R. Tolkien and Johnson's Dictionary.

This week I finished a course available from Open Yale Courses, Diana Kleiner's course on Roman Architecture. I listened to it on the train back and forth to work, and then I'd check out the pictures provided as part of the course material online. I enjoyed it so much that I sent Professor Kleiner an email:

Dear Dr. Kleiner,

I've just finished listening to your course on Roman Architecture on my iPod. Thank you for making it available. The lectures have been my commuting companion for the past few weeks, and I found them both enjoyable and informative. Your enthusiasm for the subject comes through quite clearly on the audio versions of the lectures. I also appreciated being able to go online and look at the pictures you discussed, and often I was surprised at how closely I could visualize what you described without the pictures in front of me.

Thank you again for a great experience.

Sincerely,

Jeffri Harre

Much to my surprise, I received a very nice reply from her:

Jeffri--If I may?

Many thanks for your note. And what you say is very high praise--if you can actually visualize what I am talking about without seeing the images! That said, I'm glad you also checked the pictures out online because I think they came out very well and certainly offer an enhancement. And, in any case, as the saying goes: "a picture is worth a thousand words."

Thanks again for writing and all best.--Diana

Now I'm listening to Professor Dale Martin's Introduction to New Testament History and Literature. Although after four years of EfM, I seem to be a bit better informed than some of his students (the lectures were taped during actual classes), I am learning a lot. I recommended it to my current EfM group and will recommend it to next year's group as well. There's also an Introduction to the Old Testament that I plan on listening to next.

One of the nice things about the Open Yale Courses is that they make available some of the supplemental material for the courses. Check them out.

Peace,
Jeff