Things to do in spring: 10 exciting online courses
Text: Veronika Kushnaryova
Spring is the time for everything new including knowledge and skills. We have gathered ten online courses on simple (and not so) topics that will help pass the time while waiting for warm days.
Moralities of Everyday Life
YEL UNIVERSITY, FROM FEBRUARY 27
It is believed that in the spring we all want to be a little kinder. Is this not a reason to understand the nature of good and evil, how feelings of resentment and justice arise, and why the questions of morality and ethics still cause so much controversy? The course is dedicated to what is the concept of morality today and how it is due. Our actions are predetermined by a mass of factors - the situation in which we find ourselves, biological features, genes - so the question arises: can our behavior be considered a consequence of free will? Why is it so tempting to hide behind a mask of prejudice, to blame all the problems on racial or religious differences - and how to forever refuse it? Lectures focus on psychology, affecting aspects of philosophy and behavioral economics.
Childhood in the Digital Age
The Open University, from March 20
We have long been accustomed to navigate the sea of information and use a whole range of devices and interfaces - while all adult people became acquainted with this environment already at a conscious age. A new generation - our children, younger brothers and sisters - were born in this environment. What threats and advantages new technologies bring to them and what restrictions they impose - this course should answer these questions. Based on modern research, lecturers will tell what forms the information field of modern children today and how this generation communicates, thinks and learns thanks to technology. Most of all the topic will be interesting to parents and teachers, but the course will be the way of all those who are not indifferent to the fate of children and teenagers.
Learning Online: Managing Your Identity
University of Leeds, from March 6 and from April 3
Curious course-tip, which, however, a bit like the consultants in the rating of the TV series "Black Mirror". His task is to identify and evaluate the image that you somehow broadcast on social networks to your colleagues, friends, subscribers, weigh everything and realize how what you do and say on the Web affects your daily life. The course should help to understand how you form your image on the Web; analyze how to get the most out of a thoughtful and balanced presentation of yourself online, while remaining yourself.
Living processes of Russian speaking
St. Petersburg State University, from April 1
Modern Russian language causes a lot of controversy. Internet communication, written communication and, of course, an abundance of foreign words add particular urgency to the issue. This academic course, prepared by Natalia Bogdanova-Beglaryan, professor at St. Petersburg State University, calls for a critical look at modern oral speech and passing it through the lens of linguistic analysis. Are all these rapid changes unnatural? How should they be studied and what does modern linguistics think about them? The course contains many examples and illustrations that, together with the lecture material, will explain the reasons for the transformations and answer the question of what the culture of speech will be tomorrow.
The history of Russian theater as the history of Russia
Moscow State University, since February 20
The lecturer of this course - the current Rector of GITIS, Grigory Zaslavsky, - citing historical examples, discusses the role of the Russian theater in society, the relationship between the artist and the audience, the Moscow public, and the social prerequisites for the emergence of a theater. Here we are talking not only about the classical repertoire theater, but also about new spontaneously arising experiments in the spirit of the times. How the theater can influence the change of tradition, theatrical language, history and society as a whole, as well as other features of the development of theater in Russia, can be found in this eight-week course. Although it has already begun, it is still possible to catch up with the program.
First Nights: Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring: Modernism, Ballet, and Riots
Harvard University, free schedule
This course, like no other, is suitable for the early Russian spring and helps to bring at least a little life and energy into the gloomy everyday life. A hundred and four years ago, the premiere of Igor Stravinsky’s most famous ballet, “The Spring is Holy”, an incredibly avant-garde production for its time, which is still impressive, took place. Harvard Professor Thomas Kelly will talk about the basics of orchestral music and choreography of the beginning of the 20th century, as well as about the ballet traditions that existed then, not forgetting about the cultural and historical context. The course does not require special musical knowledge or skills.
Learn to Code Electronic Music Tools with Javascript
Goldsmith College, March 27
If you have long wanted to write electronic music, but for some reason you haven’t started it yet, this course will suit you. This is not just an attempt to collect individual bits and samples into a coherent and voluminous audio track, but programming in JavaScript, the purpose of which in this case is the processing of sound elements using a simple but multifunctional Web Audio API toolkit (most sounds in browsers and applications are recorded today using this interface).
Course author Matthew Ye-king promises not only to teach how to synthesize and process sounds using coding, but also to tell you how to create your digital drum machine and algorithms that automatically generate music. A bonus to the course is a story about the main effects of playing music. And even if you don’t start a producer’s career afterwards, this course will certainly change your view of electronics and make it more meaningful to listen to. Basic JavaScript knowledge is welcome.
Design Thinking for Innovation
University of Virginia, from February 27
If we all possessed design thinking, we would live in a completely different world. Fortunately, humanity is gradually coming to this. It doesn’t matter whether you are self-employed or run your own business, a course on innovative and effective design thinking will be useful in any case. Various techniques and practices, which are described in lectures, will help to take a creative look at familiar things and come up with new ideas. The authors of the course emphasize that design thinking is an approach aimed at solving problems. How it works, you will understand with the help of a number of practical examples.
American Capitalism: A History
Cornell University, free schedule
We do not imagine our life outside the framework of capitalism. Throughout the existence of this system, people experienced many economic crises and shocks: the new economy opens up great opportunities, but it is inseparable from risks. Two scientists from Cornell University are immersed in the origins of American capitalism as a fundamental market model. Those who are new to American history are promised additional materials that will help sort out the topic. The critical approach of researchers will help you better understand the economic programs of politicians, the essence of the market and its subjects. Special economic knowledge for the course is not required.
Architecture as a means of communication
Arzamas, free schedule
What drives today's architectural thought and what can a modern building tell about itself? How has the worldview of architects changed since antiquity, how has attitude to space, time, history and political context changed? Vadim Bass, an art historian and teacher at the European University in St. Petersburg, in eight lectures, talks about architecture as a social tool, the meaning of which has changed over the ages — from the building-organism of antiquity to the modern-text building — through history, names and styles. The course will appeal to all those who are interested in the history of architecture and cultural studies.
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