One of those occasional posts from my friend Lois about Hadrian’s Wall and exciting open on-line courses offered from universities around the world
Many people are enjoying leaning new subjects or exploring topics they know already about but in more depth, and they may be doing this at home by studying a MOOC. MOOC… a massive open on-line course run by a variety of universities across the world in every subject you could imagine.
Earlier this year I studied a ten week MOOC run by Brown University in Pennsylvania, and now I am following ‘Hadrian’s Wall: Life on the Roman Frontier’, run by Newcastle University.
It is fascinating; much of the material we are looking at and reading about is to do with the Roman soldiers who were stationed along the wall, and the life they lived. However, what is in a way more interesting, is the different perspective we are offered on what most of us would generally just take for granted.
I guess most of us have an image of what life was like along the wall, a desolate place; dreadful no doubt in winter, with soldiers who may have come from anywhere in the empire to serve their time guarding this distant outpost.
I guess we would imagine life to be tough at certain times, rough weather and attacks from the 'barbarians'; we might also imagine that in between the fighting, life might be much the same as anywhere else in the empire.
The soldiers would buy and trade with locals, be provisioned by them, have them as servants and slaves, maybe marry local women and have families. All the time, I guess we would think of the fortresses along the wall as the place of safety, where these hardy men could retreat to when they were under attack.
Professor Simon James from the University of Leicester offers a different view; maybe the forts were to contain the soldiers, 'wolf cages' as he describes them.
Initially I thought it meant that the forts kept the soldiers under control and prevented them from going out looting and preying on the local villages and settlements; however, many of the soldiers actually didn't want to be there at all.
Soldiers would desert, riot, and even mutiny. These ‘cages’ were to keep the soldiers in, not to keep them safe but to keep them virtually imprisoned.
This is what so many MOOCs do; they make you look at things the other way round, make you look at something from a differently perspective. Wolf cages... to keep the enemy out, or to keep the soldiers in?
Future Learn, https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/upcoming
https://www.coursera.org/courses?orderby=upcomin
© loiselsden.co.uk
And there are plenty more stories on archaeology, writing, history, food and beer at Lois Elsden Writer, http://loiselden.com/
Earlier this year I studied a ten week MOOC run by Brown University in Pennsylvania, and now I am following ‘Hadrian’s Wall: Life on the Roman Frontier’, run by Newcastle University.
It is fascinating; much of the material we are looking at and reading about is to do with the Roman soldiers who were stationed along the wall, and the life they lived. However, what is in a way more interesting, is the different perspective we are offered on what most of us would generally just take for granted.
I guess most of us have an image of what life was like along the wall, a desolate place; dreadful no doubt in winter, with soldiers who may have come from anywhere in the empire to serve their time guarding this distant outpost.
I guess we would imagine life to be tough at certain times, rough weather and attacks from the 'barbarians'; we might also imagine that in between the fighting, life might be much the same as anywhere else in the empire.
Professor Simon James from the University of Leicester offers a different view; maybe the forts were to contain the soldiers, 'wolf cages' as he describes them.
Initially I thought it meant that the forts kept the soldiers under control and prevented them from going out looting and preying on the local villages and settlements; however, many of the soldiers actually didn't want to be there at all.
Soldiers would desert, riot, and even mutiny. These ‘cages’ were to keep the soldiers in, not to keep them safe but to keep them virtually imprisoned.
This is what so many MOOCs do; they make you look at things the other way round, make you look at something from a differently perspective. Wolf cages... to keep the enemy out, or to keep the soldiers in?
https://www.coursera.org/courses?orderby=upcomin
© loiselsden.co.uk
And there are plenty more stories on archaeology, writing, history, food and beer at Lois Elsden Writer, http://loiselden.com/
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