Kahn Academy

[honda03842]

At the Kahn Acadamey, an on-line site

"You only have to know one thing:
You can learn anything
For free. For everyone. Forever."

I had heard of this site but only began exploring it today. Right now I'm ding the Big History Project, taking me from the beginning of time to today, I assume.

It is extremely well done and a lot of fun. They began the history with the traditions of the beginning of the earth from the perspective of different cultures and religions..... really very good.

Every one should be able to find something to interest them... I went to geology and the big history first. It's written to be used by beginners, definitely not college level but fun.

https://www.khanacademy.org/

[PC Steve]

I didn't think Norm could get any smarter....

Well presented material without the pressure of a test is enjoyable. In the same vein, Bill Bryson does a good job on several books. I particularly like A Short History of Nearly Everything (great Yellowstone chapter). He interjects just enough humor to keep it from being dry.

[librarianocnj]

Bryson is a great writer and speaker. I had the pleasure of seeing him at the Philadelphia speaker series. Now that I'm retired from my former job as a high school librarian, I'm hoping to be able to read some books without the angst of 16-year-old boys and girls in them. Bryson is on my list.

[honda03842]

Originally Posted by PC Steve

I didn't think Norm could get any smarter....

Well presented material without the pressure of a test is enjoyable. In the same vein, Bill Bryson does a good job on several books. I particularly like A Short History of Nearly Everything (great Yellowstone chapter). He interjects just enough humor to keep it from being dry.

They do have tests and I'm always trying to know more. Learning is like RV travel you can never see it all and certainly never learn it all.

[Darrell in Al]

Thanks that is a great site ...now I've got more stuff to read and learn

[piperjim]

There's a growing universe of educational opportunities online!

MOOCs are probably the hottest trend right now, as far as I know. What's a MOOC?

"A massive open online course (MOOC) is an online course aimed at unlimited participation and open access via the web. In addition to traditional course materials such as filmed lectures, readings, and problem sets, many MOOCs provide interactive user forums to support community interactions between students, professors, and teaching assistants. MOOCs are a recent and widely researched development in distance education which was first introduced in 2008 and emerged as a popular mode of learning in 2012."

Coursera.org and EdX.org appear to be the largest, each offering courses from a variety of universities around the world!! Most are free, some charge a nominal fee.

[honda03842]

Originally Posted by piperjim

There's a growing universe of educational opportunities online!

MOOCs are probably the hottest trend right now, as far as I know. What's a MOOC?

"A massive open online course (MOOC) is an online course aimed at unlimited participation and open access via the web. In addition to traditional course materials such as filmed lectures, readings, and problem sets, many MOOCs provide interactive user forums to support community interactions between students, professors, and teaching assistants. MOOCs are a recent and widely researched development in distance education which was first introduced in 2008 and emerged as a popular mode of learning in 2012."

Coursera.org and EdX.org appear to be the largest, each offering courses from a variety of universities around the world!! Most are free, some charge a nominal fee.

Thanks Jim,

I rushing thru Khan right now but plan to check out MOOCs as well. I feel like 'Five Alive'

[John Linck]

Itunes university offers hundreds of free name brand college video courses as well.

So much to learn, so little time.

[Evergreengirl]

Thanks, Norm, for the tip about Kahn Academy. I'd heard about it before, but had never checked it out. Now I'm going to. As I recall, Kahn got started on this to help his sister learn calculus or some other math course that she was struggling with. That may be apocryphal, but that's what I remember hearing somewhere. The MOOC sound good too! Our local senior center offers TED talk get-togethers once a week. They show two or three TED talks and then people are welcome to hang around and discuss them. So many opportunities out there to learn new stuff (of which you are never too old to take advantage). I don't understand how anyone can be bored in their retirement!

Oh, and I second the recommendation for Bryson's book "A Brief History of Nearly Everything". I enjoyed it too, especially the chapter on Yellowstone.

[honda03842]

Kathy,

I've read the 'Brief History...' and did enjoy it. As to Ted videos, I have the app on my smart phone and use it when I have to wait for nieces, grandkids, ... a nice 15 minute education or thought provoker.

Before we started RVing we were religiously active, Unitarians, more thought provoking than doctrine. That's mostly gone, though the remnants remain, and Ted now serves the purpose.

Ted is like travel, impossible to see them all.

Between Ted, MOOC and Khan it seems I can spend the year in school. I typically wake up at 5:30 do my exercises and go on the Internet until Ginny gets up at 7:00, We eat out usual, assuming we're stationary spend another hour reading. SOmething to talk about over breakfast.

I bought Ginny a new laptop, a Chromebook $169, a very reasonable price. We both have Chromebooks. Ginny's looks the same as mine except she has dual processors.

The Chromebook has been very tugged, partially because it has no moving parts. I've had mine for a number of years. We have the same phones and computers allowing us to teach each other. The Chromebooks are not super powerful but very Internet adequate, great for writing, reading and education. It's nice how it updates automatically, no requirement to add anti-virus software, and nicely weighs little with long battery life.

I'm really excited about online education, before RVing I thought about returning to school and studying with no purpose other than gaining knowledge.