Shortly after I have written the blog about Educational Youtube, and what effective role it can play in the future education. I have been introduced to an amazing website that offers free educational courses using videos hosted by Youtube. Did I mention for free? Well it is for FREE.
This site is done by only one man; he made some 1600 videos separated into three main categories: Math, Science and Others. He made his videos in such manner that they are short and easy to understand; in another word you get the essential of each course in just 10minutes which is very efficient and straight forward. You don’t have to sit in a class room and listen to a lengthy and boring lecture. All what you have to do is pick a subject from the long list and pay attention to the explanation for few minutes and that’s it. Later on you can return to stay another ten minutes and continue the course.
But that’s not all! The story does not end here. Sal Khan, the creator of this video library www.KhanAcademy.com got a really unexpected and unusual fan: Bill Gates. According to Fortune when Bill Gates knew about Khan he said “this guy is amazing”.
He actually is; he might become a leader in innovative education with his stock of videos. He is surely able to reach a large base of potential students and change the way they are learning.
Of course this is also made possible because of the infrastructure laid down by Youtube service.
However, what is missing in this system as a whole is the interaction between student and teacher which is also a building block to the comprehension. But we are only seeing the beginning of the evolution, the tip of the iceberg. The technology will soon catch up and try to fill the gap.
Check the following link fo more details about the story of Sal Khan http://money.cnn.com/2010/08/23/technology/sal_khan_academy.fortune/index.htm
Monday, August 30, 2010
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Educational Youtube
The conventional way to learn new materials is either enroll into a course or read a book. However these are no more the only options that we have nowadays.
Actually the previous two methods have certainly their advantages such as getting some sort of certification after the completion of the course and this gives you credibility that you really know what you claim to know. As for reading a book it is still a handy and convenient way since you can take it with you while travelling in the train, plane or even on the beach. Note that even with these features books are being challenged by technology with the advent of IPad.
However, there are disadvantages related to those methods. Course involves displacement to a certain location on a certain date at a certain hour. For working people this is not always easy to do and even when done they might not be in shape to fully assimilate the explanation especially after having a bad day. On the other hand, books also require some energy to read and assimilate. In addition, if the content needs to be practiced there will be switching from reading to practicing and vice-versa.
Luckily, this seems to be changed by Youtube! Until recently I used Youtube to watch some funny movies. But the other day I had the idea to search for a technology related subject and I was surprised to see tens of videos to that topic.
When running few of them I realized how efficient this method is. The explanations are directly backed by a demonstration, so the viewer won’t lose focus switching from book to computer. When, in doubt or you miss something you can repeat the clip as much as you need. You can pause to have some rest and resume later. In short you have all the advantages that you don’t have when you take a real life course. Plus it is totally FREE.
This reminds me of the open-source model, where people spend considerable amount of time and efforts to build software only to give it away for free. Same thing seems to happen in here; people are doing a series of learning videos and put them on YouTube for free. Surely they expect to get something in return by becoming well known in the domain they are talking about, but nevertheless the public is profiting from this model to get free learning and educational stuff.
Could we see in the future students logging to their Youtube class?! Nobody knows for sure, but one thing is certain; technology is reaching every aspect of the human life.
Actually the previous two methods have certainly their advantages such as getting some sort of certification after the completion of the course and this gives you credibility that you really know what you claim to know. As for reading a book it is still a handy and convenient way since you can take it with you while travelling in the train, plane or even on the beach. Note that even with these features books are being challenged by technology with the advent of IPad.
However, there are disadvantages related to those methods. Course involves displacement to a certain location on a certain date at a certain hour. For working people this is not always easy to do and even when done they might not be in shape to fully assimilate the explanation especially after having a bad day. On the other hand, books also require some energy to read and assimilate. In addition, if the content needs to be practiced there will be switching from reading to practicing and vice-versa.
Luckily, this seems to be changed by Youtube! Until recently I used Youtube to watch some funny movies. But the other day I had the idea to search for a technology related subject and I was surprised to see tens of videos to that topic.
When running few of them I realized how efficient this method is. The explanations are directly backed by a demonstration, so the viewer won’t lose focus switching from book to computer. When, in doubt or you miss something you can repeat the clip as much as you need. You can pause to have some rest and resume later. In short you have all the advantages that you don’t have when you take a real life course. Plus it is totally FREE.
This reminds me of the open-source model, where people spend considerable amount of time and efforts to build software only to give it away for free. Same thing seems to happen in here; people are doing a series of learning videos and put them on YouTube for free. Surely they expect to get something in return by becoming well known in the domain they are talking about, but nevertheless the public is profiting from this model to get free learning and educational stuff.
Could we see in the future students logging to their Youtube class?! Nobody knows for sure, but one thing is certain; technology is reaching every aspect of the human life.
Twitter Source of Discussion
Beyond any doubt Twitter is the number one service in microblogging. With its 50million tweets a day it sits on top of “traffic chain” (term borrowed from “food chain”) and constitutes an enormous source of information.
Actually Twitter stream is a mixture of information and opinions, where a measure of the information popularity is possible thanks to the retweeting. However there is a gap in this system! Tweets are not long living. In fact their life expectation does not exceed few seconds. So catching a tweet among 50millions is like searching for a needle in a hay stack.
Because tweets carry information and information might be useful to different other people, they might use it in different ways according to their needs and objectives.
One of these objectives is to discuss information contained in the tweets and exchange opinions about them. One method to that is to reply to the original tweet with a comment. The drawback of this method is the lack of interactivity. The source of the tweet might not be available for replying or might be simply uninterested. On the other hand some other people might be happy to discuss it, but the problem is how to find them?
Besides of information a tweet carry an opinion. People interested in some news or information are logically tempted to tweet them. In other words what they do is bind their own preferences within the tweets. These people are more likely ready to talk about their tweets and discuss them.
Many products and services are trying to benefit from these two features. One of them is www.SimpleConnexion.com that tries to create discussions between people around a certain tweet.
Actually Twitter stream is a mixture of information and opinions, where a measure of the information popularity is possible thanks to the retweeting. However there is a gap in this system! Tweets are not long living. In fact their life expectation does not exceed few seconds. So catching a tweet among 50millions is like searching for a needle in a hay stack.
Because tweets carry information and information might be useful to different other people, they might use it in different ways according to their needs and objectives.
One of these objectives is to discuss information contained in the tweets and exchange opinions about them. One method to that is to reply to the original tweet with a comment. The drawback of this method is the lack of interactivity. The source of the tweet might not be available for replying or might be simply uninterested. On the other hand some other people might be happy to discuss it, but the problem is how to find them?
Besides of information a tweet carry an opinion. People interested in some news or information are logically tempted to tweet them. In other words what they do is bind their own preferences within the tweets. These people are more likely ready to talk about their tweets and discuss them.
Many products and services are trying to benefit from these two features. One of them is www.SimpleConnexion.com that tries to create discussions between people around a certain tweet.
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Q&A websites review
Social networking ideas are hatching everywhere. Basically there are endless ways to bring people together, the aim is to let people meet, discuss and interact.
The new trend nowadays is the Questions & Answers websites. People with questions go there ask them and people who have answers, whether right or wrong, reply.
Forums have been doing that for ages, but with a major difference. Forums are most of the time specialized, so you find IT forums, medical forums, parental forums etc… If you have a question first you need to find the right forum for yourself. Then you have to subscribe, create a thread and post your question. This might seem tedious for those who need a fast answer.
Questions & Answers websites have another approach to the problem. You go find any of these websites, you still have to subscribe or login using your Facebook account for those who support Facebook Connect. Then you ask your question. The website will take charge of finding people who might answer it. It alleviates the task of finding the right place and the right people.
Forums are still very efficient when you have a very specific question. For example if you are a developer and looking to solve a problem, it is by far better if you search for it in a specialized forum, because all its members are IT professionals.
Conversely if you have general question related to an event, celebrity or broad business Q&A sites will be useful for you, because they gather people from different domains and backgrounds.
Another major benefit of the Q&A is socializing. Because people might have general questions there is a better chance to create a discussion. While specific question means that you are mostly interested in a good answer that solves your problem without having the time to chitchat.
There are many Q&A websites out there but the most known are Quora.com and Vark.com.
However the drawback that lacks behind is the absence of direct one to one discussion with interesting people. This is where http://www.simpleconnexion.com/ is trying to solve.
The new trend nowadays is the Questions & Answers websites. People with questions go there ask them and people who have answers, whether right or wrong, reply.
Forums have been doing that for ages, but with a major difference. Forums are most of the time specialized, so you find IT forums, medical forums, parental forums etc… If you have a question first you need to find the right forum for yourself. Then you have to subscribe, create a thread and post your question. This might seem tedious for those who need a fast answer.
Questions & Answers websites have another approach to the problem. You go find any of these websites, you still have to subscribe or login using your Facebook account for those who support Facebook Connect. Then you ask your question. The website will take charge of finding people who might answer it. It alleviates the task of finding the right place and the right people.
Forums are still very efficient when you have a very specific question. For example if you are a developer and looking to solve a problem, it is by far better if you search for it in a specialized forum, because all its members are IT professionals.
Conversely if you have general question related to an event, celebrity or broad business Q&A sites will be useful for you, because they gather people from different domains and backgrounds.
Another major benefit of the Q&A is socializing. Because people might have general questions there is a better chance to create a discussion. While specific question means that you are mostly interested in a good answer that solves your problem without having the time to chitchat.
There are many Q&A websites out there but the most known are Quora.com and Vark.com.
However the drawback that lacks behind is the absence of direct one to one discussion with interesting people. This is where http://www.simpleconnexion.com/ is trying to solve.
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