Recordings from the whole lecture series by “born teacher” Leonard Bernstein has been “making the rounds”, thanks in part to YouTubers like Adam Neely who has been linking to those videos in descriptions of some of his episodes.

Part of the reason the series interests me for its #PedagogicalHeritage is that it extend Bernstein’s role, who’s been mostly known as a composer and conductor. These really are lectures, delivered on campus. At the beginning of the first lecture, Bernstein explicitly described his relationship to Harvard and his being “petrified” at lecturing there. His outside status is important. In music, it’s not uncommon for lectures to be given by renowned musical experts without the academic #credentials which usually serve to “qualify” a prof. According to his bio (archive), LB was a visiting prof at Brandeis in the 1950s. When he delivered those lectures on campus, he was “Charles Eliot Norton Professor of Poetry at Harvard”. The lectures were a significant part of the deal. There’s a direct continuity between the lecturer’s experience and the delivery of “teaching material”. In another context, the research behind those lectures might not have qualified a prof for tenure.

There’s quite a bit about prestige to unpack, there. And more than a little about “The Canon”. If I use excerpts from this series in my teaching, I’ll likely start from that: who was Bernstein? Why does it matter that we hear his voice instead of somebody else’s? What learning affordances from these recordings, including the musical examples performed on the piano? The context would likely be my beloved ethnomusicology course. Otherwise, some kind of course about “broad approaches to music theorization”.

What strikes me in this comment (and in the “well, actually…” reply) is the very notion that the Internet gives us access to something valuable. Yet this access might be taken away at a moment’s notice (the ways of the DMCA are impenetrable). Yes, DVDs exist and the content might be retrieved. It’s technically possible to make backups of those videos. Yet the 5Rs of Open Content aren’t obvious, here.

Although, Neely did remix some of the content.

Item for #OEweek 2021 Voices from Beyond: Michael Silverstein #OE2021vfb

I would use this video in a broad course on language sciences, at the time we would move from established notions of languages as systems to culturally-sensitive language theories, probably in the second class meeting.

Michael Silverstein passed away last Summer. Having learners hear his voice would bring life to his words. Were this content fully open, I would likely remix the track containing Silverstein's voice, without the background music, and get learners to add comments about their own experiences.