some of my favorite MOOCS start new sessions this week

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I just became aware that some of my favorite online classes start new sessions this week!

The Brain and Space -- "This course is about how the brain creates our sense of spatial location from a variety of sensory and motor sources, and how this spatial sense in turn shapes our cognitive abilities."

Dino 101 -- "Dinosaur Paleobiology is a 12-lesson course teaching a comprehensive overview of non-avian dinosaurs. Topics covered: anatomy, eating, locomotion, growth, environmental and behavioral adaptations, origins and extinction. Lessons are delivered from museums, fossil-preparation labs and dig sites."

The Science of Happiness --  "The first MOOC to teach positive psychology. Learn science-based principles and practices for a happy, meaningful life."

I can heartily recommend any or all of these classes.  All different, all interesting.  So glad they are still available for anyone who might like to participate.

(And all for free -- sit in and listen to as many, or as few, lectures as you like.  No risk, no obligation.  :-)  )

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Brain and Space

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The Brain and Space class I took earlier this year is being offered again soon.

I highly recommend this class, which is about how we know where we are, and where things around us are.  The teacher is very organized and thoughtful about the way she presents the material.

Lots of interesting info, very nicely taught.

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echoes.................

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You know those moments where it seems that things line up and the universe is speaking directly to you?

This morning I'm listening to The Brain in Space.  Dr. G. is talking about the info we use to estimate our distance from the source of a sound.  One of the ways we gather info about sound is by paying attention to echoes.

As she talked about echoes and sound, she mentioned how hard it can be to determine exactly WHICH smoke detector's battery is going dead and causing the smoke detector to chirp from time to time.

Guess who has been dealing with that exact issue this morning?

We have a batch of 9-volt batteries in a drawer, and I swapped out the battery in the smoke alarm I thought was chirping, but then I think it chirped again.  The batteries are not all that new -- it's entirely likely that I replaced one moribund battery with another.

Or, it's possible that it was another smoke detector that was chirping.  There are two that are in the same basic direction from the location of the computer I'm using (one on the stairs to upstairs, and one on the stairs to the basement).

I've moved the smoke detector I think is chirping.  It is now to my left, instead of behind me.  If the next chirp comes from my left, I'll change out the battery I just put in.  If the next chirp comes from behind me, I'll give the smoke detector over the basement stairs a new battery.  A newER battery.....

The battery I put in 20 minutes ago (or so) was the second one in an opened package.  There are two unopened packages of 9-volts in the drawer, which, I hope, are newer than the opened package......

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note to self, in re trying to figure out tricky stuff.....

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When I'm watching a MOOC video, and can't figure out what the professor means, I should take a break, and when I come back to the video to approach it again, I should start before the confusion point.

Because -- while listening to the confusing sentence (or three) over and over may not help, listening to the few minutes before the confusion, and then the confusing place, may help.

I should try to pay attention to the information in the bigger picture, when trying to understand the details.....................



The inability to ask questions of the prof is definitely the most frustrating thing about the MOOC way of learning. 

And when Google doesn't respond usefully to any of the ways I can think of to ask my questions, there's no help there, either.

I think that the thing I'm confused about today is not really well-understood yet.  I think we're being told about what is currently thought likely, but not generally accepted as true (which is why there's not much supporting evidence out there on the web.............)

It's cool to be learning brand-new stuff, but it does make it harder to find another source saying what she's saying in different words (and with different pictures) that might make more sense to me at this moment in time.....

At least I think I know what she was telling us, now, and I'm not as confused by it as I was, though I still have half a dozen more questions about it that I would absolutely go see her about in office hours, were I paying brick&mortar prices for her time!



Another thought for today is that Mother Nature is amazingly canny!  This week we are learning (in The Brain in Space) about how we can tell where something is in space from the evidence provided by our ears.  Are you aware that we constantly move our heads to get more information (up-and-down-wise and front-to-back-wise) about the location of a sound?  I wasn't, either.  And yet all of us are constantly doing it........................

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a quote from The Brain in Space

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Here's a quote from Jennifer Groh, who is teaching The Brain in Space:

Whenever you interpret something, there's a risk of just simply making stuff up.



Good to keep in mind!

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The Brain and Space

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My newest class is The Brain and Space.  (Yes, I'm enrolled in three classes now.  Science of Happiness, Geospatial Intelligence, and The Brain and Space.  One thing that makes this comfortably do-able is that SoH and BaS are both "do at your own pace" over many months.  There are deadlines, but they are months away.  Only GEOINT is mired in anachronistic bricks&mortar-style constricting weekly deadlines.  Ask me how I feel about these gratuitous tight deadlines..........)

This week in The Brain and Space we are learning how the eye works.  How our eyes enable us to collect light.  One of the things that baffled early scientists (including Leonardo da Vinci) who looked at vision is that the lens puts an upside-down image on the retina.

How does the image get right-side-up again, so we can see up and down properly?  Our brains flip the image for us, so what we perceive is a right-side-up world..........  Pretty complex and amazing.

This is a drawing by Decartes -- it doesn't show that the image is upside-down (and backwards!) when it hits the retina, but I think it is cool..........

It does show that there is light reflected from any particular point in multiple directions, many of which make it through our pupils into our eyes, and shows that our lenses focus the light so that light from one particular point ends up on one particular point of our retinas (assuming our eyes are able to focus properly).

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