145 educational lecture podcasts

December 27, 2006 12:26 PM

The Productive Strategies blog links directly to 145 podcast feeds from universities.
posted by jbickers (12 comments total)

cool.. you might enjoy this one too:

http://movielibrary.lynda.com/html/modPage.asp?ID=327

photoshop CS3 tutorials
posted by specialk420 at 12:32 PM on December 27, 2006 [1 favorite]

I'd argue that linking me to 145 interesting podcasts is clearly reducing my productivity, and thus is a Counter-Productive Strategy.
posted by Plutor at 12:37 PM on December 27, 2006 [1 favorite]

I'm listening to the first lecture of the Perdue General Chemistry course now. Five minutes for the class to settle down, five minutes for the lecturer to present her life story, five minutes describing the weighting and frequency of quizzes, tests, and labs, five minutes to talk about their honor policy, five minutes about prerequisites... is there a word for when you're bored into a flashback, and then bored right out of it again?

This stuff is far more tolerable with a fast-forward button. Nice find.
posted by phooky at 1:15 PM on December 27, 2006

They have six feeds for six different sessions of General Chem at Purdue. Someone needs to diff those.
posted by cortex at 1:26 PM on December 27, 2006

Physics for Future Presidents is indeed an awesome class and podcast. I'm about 1/3 the way through the semester, listening whenever I take a long drive anywhere. The professor really does a great job putting the history and fundamentals of science in an everyday perspective. I have a masters degree in science and there are still a-ha! moments in every lecture that break down complex processes into simple descriptions that I can share and use when discussing science topics with others.
posted by mathowie at 1:55 PM on December 27, 2006

Here's the direct link to Berkeley's Intro To Astronomy podcasts by assistant professor of astronomy Josh Bloom. Jump forward to 9:50 on the first class, then let it spin...yea!
posted by humannaire at 1:56 PM on December 27, 2006

Mathowie: I have a masters degree in science

You'd have to be a Dr. Science fan to know why that just made me laugh out loud.
posted by Horace Rumpole at 3:17 PM on December 27, 2006

I want to listen to these, but I have only a vague idea what an RSS feed is, and I do not have an iPod. I have listened to other podcasts elsewhere, but they were in, I think, mp3 format. What's an easy way to access these lectures, from my situation? Also, I totally agree with the person who says one needs to be able to fast forward to make the most of this type of material.
posted by Listener at 4:42 PM on December 27, 2006

Good resource, thanks.

Listener, the short answer is iTunes for going the RSS route. Or if you're just going to get one or two, you can do a View Source on the RSS window and a little searching, get the direct link of the MP3 and paste it back into your browser - it's the "enclosure" url referred to in the feed code, which will end in ".mp3."

However, it may help more with their grant-writing or something if you go the front-door way (RSS), so keep that in mind.
posted by soyjoy at 12:25 AM on December 28, 2006

Thanks for that, soyjoy.
posted by Listener at 12:26 PM on December 28, 2006

Open Culture catalogues university courses, audiobooks, lecture series and other interesting podcasts. The editor is an Associate Dean at Stanford and is a reliable guide to all the material out there.
posted by grahamwell at 2:01 PM on December 28, 2006 [1 favorite]

Well, I now have a way to download all the mp3s off an xml page at once with one command. It's a little thing coded in python called "getter." Anyone who wants it, just email me.
posted by Listener at 4:07 PM on December 29, 2006