Summer School

Now that the two MOOCs I enrolled in finished, it seemed time to move on to other things... like more MOOCs.  I was sad to see no courses on Copyright, even an intro one, on either Coursera or Canvas. I don't care that I've taken Intro to Copyright courses before, I will keep taking them when offered (or a more advanced one if possible) because it is such a convoluted subject.  Two courses did snag my attention:
I also found a third course through a friend, Building a Basic Website, which should actually be a basic course so I am excited.  I can do some basic site design working within templates but I remain incredibly conscious of everything I still do not know.  My hope is to gain more confidence with my base level of web design knowledge to grow into more advanced aspects.  This class just started and marks a first for UMass as they explore offering MOOCs.
My personal interests really do align with my profession rather well.  

The first class includes recommended readings already on my "to-read" list, including Where Wizards Stay Up Late: The Origins Of The Internet by Katie Hafner.  I feel that Tubes: A Journey to the Center of the Internet by Andrey Blum might also fit well within the scope of this course.  Unlike previous computer science MOOCs I have attempted, this one looks well within reach of my skill set rather than likely to quickly accelerate out of it.

As for the Fantasy & SciFi class, the syllabus consists of many seminal books, both contemporary and classic.  I cannot begin to express how happy I am to take a fiction class that deals with literature published post-1965 (the approximate end point of the "modernist" period in English literature).  Nothing personal against modernist literature overall, I just have encountered a few more modern literature courses taught without a solid context than I really can appreciate.

Between these two classes I have a rather ambitious reading list (even with the amount I read).  In addition to variously assigned articles and online readings here is my summer assigned reading list:
  • Weaving the Web : the original design and ultimate destiny of the World Wide Web / Tim Berners-Lee
  • How the Web was born : the story of the World Wide Web / Robert Cailliau
  • Where wizards stay up late : the origins of the Internet / Katie Hafner
  • Household stories / Brothers Grimm
  • Alice's adventures in Wonderland / Lewis Carroll
  • Through the looking glass / Lewis Carroll
  • Dracula / Bram Stoker
  • Frankenstein or the modern prometheus / Mary Shelley
  • The portable Edgar Allen Poe / Edgar Allen Poe, J. Gerald Kennedy (ed)
  • Twice-told tales / Nathaniel Hawthorne
  • Mosses from an old manse / Nathaniel Hawthorne
  • The island of Dr. Moreau / H. G. Wells
  • The invisible man / H. G. Wells
  • "Country of the blind" / H. G. Wells
  • "The Star" / H. G. Wells
  • A princess of Mars / Edgar Rice Burroughs
  • Herland / Charlotte Perkins Gilman
  • The Martian Chronicles / Ray Bradbury
  • The left hand of darkness / Ursula LeGuin
  • Little Brother / Corey Doctorow
If I really work at it I should be able to finish all of these within the 11 weeks of the course.  Of the books I have previously read some I can tear through quickly, others take a bit more effort for me to focus and finish them.  I will need to reread any previously read in order to adequately write short essay responses and to participate in discussion.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

[Book Review] Battle of the Linguist Mages

Image
Battle of the Linguist Mages   / Scotto Moore The description of this book caught my attention immediately , and a cover blurb from one of my favorite authors?  Sign me up! The book isn't quite what is promised, and that's not necessarily a bad thing, it's just that it has so much potential.  It's like how Ready Player One  reads a lot different in a post Gamer Gate environment.  (Also, to be fair, the description I first read when looking through review copies is different than what is up  now.) Now, don't get me wrong, the premise is phenomenal.  I love a good SF that takes seeds of the here and now and goes "what if?"  It looks at where VR gaming is now, where streaming and MMOs are now, the balance between real life skills and game controls, and launches into a believable continuation.  Then we get a little seasoning of magic and more.  It made me laugh and has some neat ideas that it develops. But writing and tone wise, it feels a lot like Ready Playe
Read more

[Book Review] When Sorrows Come

Image
When Sorrows Come (October Daye #15)  / Seanan McGuire Previously reviewed: Rosemary and Rue Once Broken Faith The Brightest Fell Night and Silence The Unkindest Tide A Killing Frost After... we'll kindly say many books of dodging the inevitable, Toby's finally getting married.  In her defense, at the start of the book even she did not know the date chosen for the event.  There's a little too much significance in this marriage to allow for a simple document signing in front of the local Justice of the Peace.  A marriage between a member of the Divided Courts and a King of Cats, and of course Toby has been anything but "just" a changeling for some time now.  A hero of the realm, daughter of a First Born, king-breaker, kingdom maker, finder of lost things, and, most importantly, one of the few members of Fairie that understands crime scene investigation and procedure. This is  October Daye, of course something is going to go Horribly Wrong, likely involving blood, w
Read more

[Book Review] The Olympian Affair

Image
The Olympian Affair (Cinder Spires #2)  / Jim Butcher  Previously Reviewed: The Aeronaut's Windlass It's been a long haul waiting for book two, and one that I didn't think was going to end.  In 2016, I described book one as an "air-ship filled rollicking adventure that brings to mind a mash-up of Shakespeare and The Princess Bride.  We have heroics, tempers, swashbuckling, dastardly villains, battles of wits, revenge, and maybe a little true love on the side.  This tome drops you into the story from page one and seems much shorter than its 750 pages." So where are we in 2023? Before reading this, I strongly advise you reread book one.  The cast is large,  the book thick, and the two main warring governments are Spire Albion and Spire Aurora , so if you're like me and names blend together, remind yourself of who everyone is and the stage that has been set. The Olympian Affair  is a story of the maneuvering and politics after the war has started but before it ha
Read more