5# Learning On Your Own & Top Free Resources for Learning and Development

Is it possible for us to learn any subject that we have no idea about by working on it only by ourselves? In my opinion one of the best examples that proves this is possible; is Professor Sugata Mitra’s “Hole in the Wall” experiment.

 

Sugata Mitra is Professor of Educational Technology at Newcastle University in England and is described as a polymath owing to his researches spanning in a wide range of disciplines. In an experiment he conducted in 1999, known as the Hole in the Wall, he placed a computer in a wall in a slum at Kalkaji, Delhi and children were allowed to use it freely. The experiment aimed at proving that children could be taught by computers very easily without any formal training. After this first one in Kalaji, the experiment was repeated in many places and the results demonstrated that groups of children, irrespectively of who or where they are, can learn to use computers and the Internet on their own with public computers in open spaces such as roads and playgrounds, even without knowing English. In these studies the children also managed to learn how to speak in English, how to use Google to prepare their homework and even the topics in the field of biotechnology, on their own.

 

It was possible for children to learn many subjects, even the ones in the field of biotechnology, in a language they did not know. I believe it is possible for all of us to learn anything we want by ourselves. Today there are hundreds of articles, blogs, websites and other resources on the web that we can use for learning. I would like to share my favorite free learning and development resources on the web.

 

Coursera

Coursera is an education company that partners with the top universities and organizations in the world to offer courses online for anyone to take, for free. The web site offers courses on various subjects such as business management, information, and social sciences. Courses are offered on a regular basis, and are done more like a traditional college with weekly lessons and assignments. Duration of the courses vary from four weeks up to 20 weeks or more. Coursera

 

 

TED

TED Conferences have become phenomena in recent years. Everyday around 340,000 users visit www.ted.com website and monitor the speeches. On the platform there are many informative speeches that generally last less than 18 minutes. With its content the website is a great training and development resource.

 

 

Quora

Quora is a question-and-answer website created, edited and organized by its community of users. The website aggregates questions and answers according to topics. Users can collaborate by editing questions and suggesting edits to other users' answers. With its rich and up-to-date content the website is a source for knowledge. Quora

 

 

EdX

EdX is a non-profit created by founding partners Harvard and MIT. The website aims to bring the best of higher education to students around the world. EdX offers massive open online courses (MOOCs) and interactive online classes in subjects including law, history, science, engineering, business, social sciences, computer science, public health, and artificial intelligence. EdX

 

 

Khan Academy

 The Khan Academy is a non-profit educational website created in 2006 by educator Salman Khan, a graduate of MIT and Harvard Business School. The stated mission is to provide a free world-class education for anyone anywhere. The website supplies a free online collection of more than 4,500 micro lectures via video tutorials stored on YouTube teaching subjects such as mathematics, history, healthcare, medicine, finance, physics and computer science. Khan Academy has delivered over 260 million lessons. Khan Academy

 

 

 

Resources

Coursera. Retrieved 08 16, 2013, from https://www.coursera.org/#courses

 

EdX. Retrieved 08 16, 2013, from https://www.edx.org/

 

Khan Academy. Retrieved 08 16, 2013, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khan_Academy

 

Quora. Retrieved 08 16, 2013, from www.quora.com

 

TED. Retrieved 08 16, 2013, from http://www.ted.com/talks/sugata_mitra_build_a_school_in_the_cloud.html

 

TED. Retrieved 08 16, 2013, from www.ted.com

 

Wikipedia. Retrieved 08 16, 2013, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugata_Mitra



1# Top 5 TED Speeches for Trainers

TED Conferences have become a phenomenon  in recent years. Everyday around 340,000 users visit www.ted.com website and monitor the speeches. On the platform there are many examples of effective and informative speeches that generally last less than 18 minutes. With its content which is free of charge, the website is a unique training and development resource.

Representing initial letters of Technology, Entertainment and Design; first TED meeting was organized in 1984. Conferences started be organized annually after 1990 and the recorded sessions are published on the web since 2006. As of June 2013, 1.537 videos are uploaded on the web site with a varying content such as economy, health, education and technology.

Nowadays many users of the web site make “Top 10 TED Speeches” lists for the videos on the web site. In this post I would like to share with you my “Top 5 TED Videos for Trainers” list. In my opinion these videos should be watched to understand the future of training.

My first video suggestion is by Sir Ken Robinson, who is an expert in the field of creativity and education. In his talk “Schools Kill Creativity” Robinson discusses and challenges today’s education system. He suggests a radical rethink of our school systems to cultivate creativity. Video has been viewed over 17 million users as of June, 2013. http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html 

The second video I would like to suggest is entitled “Let’s use video to reinvent education” and the speaker is Salman Khan. He is the founder and the faculty of the Khan Academy www.khanacademy.org - a not-for-profit organization with the mission of providing a free world-class education to anyone, anywhere. In this video Khan talks about how and why he created the Khan Academy, he shows the power of interactive exercises, and calls for teachers to consider flipping the traditional classroom script -- give students video lectures to watch at home, and do "homework" in the classroom with the teacher available to help.

http://www.ted.com/talks/salman_khan_let_s_use_video_to_reinvent_education.html  

The third video is a speech delivered by Peter Norvig, who is an expert on artificial intelligence and the Director of Research at Google Inc. In 2011; Norvig taught a class with Sebastian Thrun on artificial intelligence at Stanford attended by 175 students -- and over 100,000 via an interactive webcast. In this speech he shares what he learned about teaching to a global classroom.

http://www.ted.com/talks/peter_norvig_the_100_000_student_classroom.html

My fourth suggestion is the video entitled “What we’re learning from online education” by Daphne Koller. She is a professor of Stanford University and is the co-founder of Coursera. www.coursera.org is a web site that broadcasts online and free courses from academicians of top colleges. In this video Koller shares what she has learned from her Coursera experience.

http://www.ted.com/talks/daphne_koller_what_we_re_learning_from_online_education.html

My last video suggestion is Sugata Mitra’s “Build a School in the Cloud”. In this speech Mitra talks about his project that made him win 2013 TED Prize wish. Mitra wants to design a School in the Cloud, a learning lab in India, where children can explore and learn from each other -- using resources and mentoring from the Cloud. I strongly recommend you to watch this inspirational talk about SOLE (Self Organized Learning Environments) and his project. http://www.ted.com/talks/sugata_mitra_build_a_school_in_the_cloud.html

Resources

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TED_(conference) 24.06.2013

http://ted.com.hypestat.com/ 24.06.2013