Thursday, August 9, 2018

From NPR —
The Design Of Childhood
How The Material World Shapes
Independent Kids, by Alexandra Lange


From NPR : Alexandra Lange's interest in school design started in her childhood, when she read Little House on the Prairie, with its indelible depiction of Laura's one-room schoolhouse in Wisconsin. 

Today, she's an architecture and design critic. Her new book, The Design of Childhood, considers the physical spaces where our children learn and grow: from the living room rug crowded with toys, to the streets, welcoming or dangerous, to classrooms, bright and new or dilapidated.  

"I felt like a lot of the contemporary discussion about education was really focused on content," she tells NPR. "In that really tight space in front of the kid's face. And as someone interested in design I'm always interested in, what kind of room are you in? How much natural light does it get? What kind of materials is it made of? What kind of a chair are you sitting in?" 

One of the most contentious issues in education today is how much our schools have, or haven't, kept up with the times. The physical plants of schools represent the biggest capital investment in the provision of education, so they tend to stay in use as long as possible. And, Lange's book shows how everything from the dimensions of a room to the height and placement of windows can make certain kinds of learning easier or harder. More at https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2018/06/09/611079188/century-old-decisions-that-impact-children-every-day



Monday, June 4, 2018

: @edXOnline : #CitiesX :
The Past, Present and Future of Urban Life
: 4.3.3 The French Origins of the Restaurant



4.3.4 The Napoleonic Era & the Expansion of the Restaurant

Friday, April 13, 2018

: @edXOnline : #CitiesX :
The Past, Present and Future of Urban Life
: 3.4 : Industry in the New World :
3.4.4 : Somerville: Past, Present, and Future

Thursday, April 12, 2018

: @edXOnline : #CitiesX :
The Past, Present and Future of Urban Life :
3.4 Industry in the New World :
3.4.2 : The Fall of New York



3.4.3 The Rebirth of New York


: @edXOnline : #CitiesX :
The Past, Present and Future of Urban Life :
3.4 Industry in the New World :
3.4.1 : Buenos Aires and Chicago

Thursday, March 15, 2018

: @edXOnline : #CitiesX :
The Past, Present and Future of Urban Life :
3 : City of Industry :
3.3.1 Industrial Soviet Cities

Tuesday, March 13, 2018

: @edXOnline : #CitiesX :
The Past, Present and Future of Urban Life :
3 : City of Industry : 3.1 Manchester :
Water & the Industrial Revolution

: @edXOnline : #CitiesX :
The Past, Present and Future of Urban Life :
2 : Trade and the City : 2.4 Shanghai

Thursday, March 8, 2018

: @edXOnline : #CitiesX :
The Past, Present and Future of Urban Life :
2 : Trade and the City : 2.3 : Dubai

Friday, March 2, 2018

: @edXOnline : #CitiesX :
The Past, Present and Future of Urban Life :
2 : Trade and the City : 2.2 : Venice

: @edXOnline : #CitiesX :
The Past, Present and Future of Urban Life :
2.1 : Trade and the City

: @edXOnline : #CitiesX : The Past, Present and Future of Urban Life : 10 : Catete Palace (Rio de Janeiro)

Thursday, March 1, 2018

: @edXOnline : #CitiesX : The Past, Present and Future of Urban Life : 9 : Paris

: @edXOnline : #CitiesX : The Past, Present and Future of Urban Life : 8 : Beijing.

: @edXOnline : #CitiesX : The Past, Present and Future of Urban Life 7. Washington D.C.

: @edXOnline : #CitiesX : The Past, Present and Future of Urban Life 6. Tokyo

Tuesday, February 27, 2018

: @edXOnline : #CitiesX : The Past, Present and Future of Urban Life 5. Kaifeng

: @edXOnline : #CitiesX : The Past, Present and Future of Urban Life 4. Xi'an

Saturday, February 24, 2018

: @edXOnline : #CitiesX : The Past, Present and Future of Urban Life 3. Baghdad

Friday, February 23, 2018

@edXOnline : CitiesX:
The Past, Present and Future of Urban Life
2. Rome

Part One : Power and the City

Tuesday, February 20, 2018

@edXOnline : CitiesX:
The Past, Present and Future of Urban Life
1. Introduction

CitiesX: an exploration of the past, present, and future of humanity’s greatest invention: the city. The material in this course is a combination of Harvard Professor Edward Glaeser’s direct-to-camera lectures and interviews with experts on a variety of topics, ranging from ancient Mesopotamian cities to the challenges of fighting crime sewer systems in modern day Brazil — and everything in-between.

Fundamental Readings
  • Triumph of the City by Edward Glaeser
  • The Streets Were Paved With Gold by Ken Auletta
  • Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo
  • Nature's Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West by William Cronon
  • Cities in Civilization by Peter Hall
  • The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs
  • The Economy of Cities by Jane Jacobs
  • Crabgrass Frontier: The Suburbanization of the United States  by Kenneth T. Jackson
  • The Urban Transportation Problem by John R. Meyer, John F. Kain, and Martin Wohl
  •  Regional Advantage by AnnaLee Saxenian
CitiesX: The Past, Present and Future of Urban Life Explore what makes cities energizing, amazing, challenging, and perhaps humanity’s greatest invention. @edxonline #mooc https://www.edx.org/course/citiesx-past-present-future-urban-life-harvardx-urban101x