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This archival content was written, edited, and published prior to LAist's acquisition by its current owner, Southern California Public Radio ("SCPR"). Content, such as language choice and subject matter, in archival articles therefore may not align with SCPR's current editorial standards. To learn more about those standards and why we make this distinction, please click here.
5 Reasons You're Never Too Cool For School
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（Or too geeky. Or too broke. Or too old. Or drunk.)
As long as you've got access to a computer, you needn't leave the house or spend another dime to get some university enrichment.Your friend the Internet is here to provide the ultimate in affirmative action at the click of a mouse.
Here are 5 choice picks to enrich your commute, impress your friends, inspire hallucinations, or maybe even help you get smart:
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1) Sci-Fi author and BoingBoing co-editor Cory Doctorow's USC COMM499: PWNED:
The DRM basher who brought us "Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom," is a visiting professor for the '06-'07 school year at USC. He poses the following question to his class: "Is Everyone on Campus a Copyright Criminal?"
For our sake, we can proudly report that none of the universities in LAist metro managed to make the RIAA's just-released list of the Top 25 universities handing out piracy notices.
The first six podcasts of PWNED class lectures (still in progress) are posted for streaming, download, or podcast subscription. There's also a class blog.
2) UCLA's video archive of Media Arts and Design events and lectures.
Recent lectures include (RealMedia only):
-- Nicholas Negroponte, founder and chairman of The One Laptop per Child initiative.
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-- Peter Sellars, professor of "Art as Moral/Social Action" and a 1983 recipient of a MacArthur "genius" fellowship.
-- Rene Daalder, Dutch filmmaker on the life of Bas Jan Ader
3) USC Annenberg Center Speaker Series:
Audio and video podcasts available for download/viewing here (QuickTime/MP3)
-- Recent events include:
* Henry Jenkins - founder and director of MIT's Comparative Media Studies Program.
* Emily Thompson on "The Boys Upstairs: Projecting Change in the American Film Industry, 1926-1933"
* Justin Hall and danah boyd -- DIY Media, Passively Multiplayer Online Gaming, Creating Culture Through Collective Identity Performance
4) iTunes User? Check Out iTunes U.
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-- this rather new and underused service offers audio and video podcasts of everything from "Heard on Campus" to "Arts & Music" to Faculty Lectures and some courses. At the moment it seems only Stanford and UC Berkeley. (Other Berkeley podcasts - iTunes not necessary - available here).
5) Wanna study abroad? Check out The University of Bath Public Lectures audio MP3s (site | feed).
All-over-the-place topics including:
"Vortex flows: from insects to aircraft"
"Stabilising peace in a troubled world"
"Why creationism is wrong and evolution is right"
"From Rasputin to Putin and back again"
"Astronomy and Poetry"
photo by Álvaro Ibáñez via flickr.
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