An Interactive Map of the Roman Empire

A few years ago I wrote about a must-bookmark resource from Stanford University for history teachers and students. That resource is called ORBIS and it has been updated since the last time that I wrote about it. ORBIS is Stanford University's Geospatial Network Model of the Roman Empire. 

On ORBIS students can calculate the distance and travel times between hundreds of settlements in the Roman Empire. The calculations happen according to the modes of travel that would have been used during the time of the Roman Empire's greatest height. For example, I calculated the time and cost to travel by foot, wagon, and boat between Roma and Londonium in the summer and winter. The calculations include the cost of feeding donkeys along the way. 

In this new video I provide an introduction to using ORBIS. 

Applications for Education
While you could certainly have students use Google Earth to map distances between settlements in the Roman Empire, ORBIS is a step above that because students can calculate travel times and distances according the modes of transportation that were available during the Roman Empire.

Use SlideRule to Find an Online Course This Summer

SlideRule is a search tool designed to help you find an online course. SlideRule has indexed instructional offerings from nearly one hundred content providers including MIT, Yale, and Stanford. You can search for courses according to subject, topic, and content providers. You can filter results to display only free content. Results can also be filtered to include only the courses that offer video instruction.

Applications for Education
There is not a shortage of institutions offering various online courses this summer. Finding the course that is right for you can take a lot of time if you're just jumping from site to site looking for a course. SlideRule could be helpful in finding a course that you want to take or for finding a course to recommend to your students.

H/T to Lifehacker.

Stanford Mini Med - An Online Introduction to Med School

MOOCs and other similar online resources have made it possible to learn more than ever without ever leaving your house if you don't want to. A good example of this can be found in the breadth and depth of the free course materials that Stanford has put online over the last few years.

The Stanford School of Medicine has made available three semesters worth of lectures on human biology, health and disease, medical research, and health care. The lectures are available through iTunes, YouTube, and on the Stanford Mini Med School website. Click here for winter term, here for spring term, and here for fall term.

More Free and Open Stanford Courses

Eleven days ago I mentioned a free and open Computer Science 101 course being offered through Stanford University. Today, through Open Culture, I learned that Stanford is offering thirteen other free and open online courses during the spring semester. One of the courses that might be appropriate for high school juniors and seniors interested in pursuing college programs in healthcare is an introductory anatomy course. The course description promises quizzes that students can use for self-assessment and self-pacing through the course. You can watch an introduction to the course in the video below.

Applications for Education
Open courses like the above mentioned Stanford courses can be a good way for high school students to further their education before leaving high school and moving on to college. If you're interested in discovering more free and open courses, Open Culture has a list of more than 400 courses organized by content area.

Computer Science 101 - A Free Open Course

Starting in February 2012 Stanford University lecturer Nick Parlante will be conducting a free Computer Science 101 course. As you probably guessed by the title, Computer Science 101 is an introduction to the basics of computer science. The course requires no prior knowledge and does not require anything more than a modern web browser in order to participate. Learn more about the course from Nick Parlante himself in the video below.



Applications for Education
If you have high school students considering studying computer science in college, this course could be a good way for those students to obtain some good baseline knowledge about the field.

Learn iPhone & iPad App Development

iPhones and iPads are sure to be on some students' holiday present wish list. If you have students that receive one of those as a holiday present or if you buy one for yourself or someone on your shopping list, turn that present into an educational opportunity by send them this link to a free iTunes U course about developing apps for iOS. Developing Apps for iOS is a twenty-three part course offered by Stanford through iTunes U. Each segment of the course is a video lecture with diagrams when appropriate. You can also access the course's website for PDFs of the hand-outs from the course.

Thanks to Open Culture for the information.

Five Notable Commencement Addresses

My youngest brother is graduating from the University of Connecticut this weekend. I'm not sure who will be delivering the commencement keynote. Thinking about graduation ceremonies gave me the idea for creating this list of five notable commencement addresses.

Steve Jobs gave the commencement keynote at Stanford in 2005. I've watched this video a few times in the last couple of years. Each time I watch it I pick up on something new and gain more appreciation for his message. The video is embedded below.


Bill Cosby gave the commencement keynote at Carnegie Mellon University in 2007. I watched the video for the first time today. In typical Bill Cosby fashion he entertains while congratulating the graduates for "being nerds" and offering advice from his experiences.


Google co-founder Larry Page delivered the commencement keynote at the University of Michigan last weekend. Mr. Page is not quite as dynamic in his delivery as Cosby and Jobs, but his message is a timely one for students graduating into a tough economic climate.


In 2006 Tom Brokaw delivered the commencement keynote at Stanford. What I really appreciated about Brokaw's speech is that he reminds the audience that as impressive as 21st century technology is, "it will do us little good if we wire the world, but short circuit our souls."


Not your typical commencement speaker, but an entertaining one none-the-less, Adam Sandler "crashed" a high school graduation in New Hampshire.

Learn to Build an iPhone App

Stanford University produces some great, free, online content in a wide array of areas. In the past I've shared some links to Stanford courses and Stanford's iTunes U collection. The latest free offering from Stanford teaches you how to build an iPhone App. The course lectures can be viewed on iTunes U and the course notes and handouts are available as pdf files from the course website.

Applications for Education
This course is not for beginners, but if you have some advanced computer science students, using this course and building an iPhone App could be a very engaging project for them. At my school all seniors have to complete a large independent project prior to graduation, building an iPhone App might be something that one of the students in the computer science program might want to try.

Here are three other Stanford iTunes U courses that may be of interest to you:
Free US History Course from Stanford
Understanding Einstein
The Geography of US Elections

FREE National Geographic map with purchases $65+!

Free US History Course from Stanford via iTunes

Once again through the great Open Culture blog, I learned about a free Stanford University course being published on iTunes U. Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Jack Rakove is teaching a course about Colonial and Revolutionary America. The course will cover all of the topics typical of early American history survey courses. You can find the course here or look in the Stanford section of iTunes U. When the course is complete there will be 30 lectures available, currently there are seven lecutures posted.

Applications for Education
This course will cover topics that students have heard about from elementary school history teachers through high school history teachers. iTunes U provides high school students with an opportunity to learn in more depth about topics with which they are already familiar.

Understanding Einstein

Open Culture brings us another great opportunity to learn from Stanford professors online. Stanford is posting on YouTube and iTunes Leonard Susskind's lectures from his fall course about Einstein's Theory of Relativity. The course is part of a larger sequence of continuing education courses titled Understanding Modern Physics. The first lecture in the series is now posted and the others are scheduled to follow on a weekly basis. You can subscribe to the YouTube playlist to get all of the lectures in sequence. I've embedded below the first lecture from Dr. Susskind's fall course.



Applications for Education
This course, just as with most courses in Open Culture's collection of free online courses, is a good opportunity for college bound high school students to get a good preview of the type of material they will see in college. Theses courses also provide good supplementary materials for advanced placement courses as well as home school curriculum.

Free Stanford University Political Science Course

Dan Colman at Open Culture and some of his colleagues have developed a free course presented by Stanford University. The course will explore the geography of US Elections and explore the idea of "Red States" versus "Blue States." The course starts October 15th and runs for five weeks to include reflection on the outcome of the 2008 election. Professor Martin Lewis will be the moderator of discussions. You can read more about the course here or watch the introductory video below.



Applications for Education
If you're a high school teacher looking for a way to challenge students interested in the 2008 US Presidential Election or your looking for some professional development for yourself this free Stanford Course may be for you.