29 March 2009

Free Online University Lecture Video Central

Google has created "YouTube EDU", a You Tube channel that provides thousands of free online university lecture videos from over a hundred universities.
This robust collection gives you access to lectures by professors and world-renowned thought leaders, new research and campus tours. At the moment, you can access over 200 full courses from leading universities, including MIT, Stanford, UC Berkeley, UCLA, Yale and IIT/IISc. And it’s all searchable within YouTube EDU. SimoleonSense
Be sure to bookmark the link. While you are at it, bookmark "LectureFox" and World Lecture Hall as well. And don't forget Merlot.org, the granddaddy of autodidact online educational resources.

Face it: These days a Harvard education is simply a waste of time and money. More indoctrination than education these days. Smothered in grade inflation, narcissistic, ideology-blinded professors, and a political correctness that kills original thought.

Everyone has the resources available to provide a better education to high school and pre-high school students than is available to virtually any university student. Online education is relatively new, so it will take time to create the means to deliver the wide range of educational experiences that bricks and mortar campuses can provide -- at their rare best.

Homeschool coops are becoming more creative by the week. These coops take parental involvement to its logical conclusion -- and who cares more about the education of a child? Not a teachers' union, not a department of education bureaucrat, and certainly not a burned out embittered teacher barely hanging on for that precious pension. As alternative learning coops grow, expect them to network across regions, states, provinces, and nations.

Bonus update 30March09: This PLOS Biology book review of "Opening Up Education" provides several links to open source learning resources, for anyone with a more than superficial interest in the topic of open education.

Consider checking out Connexions and Scribd, two information sharing sites with rapidly expanding downloadable content.

Labels: , ,

Bookmark and Share

2 Comments:

Blogger SwampWoman said...

Hmmmm. Since my employment will end in June (downsizing), I'm considering taking on homeschooling the (3) grandkids or using the several thousands of dollars' worth of woodworking equipment I've acquired hoping to have time to use someday.

The children are making a (nice) living with skills they learned at home, not at school (we used to have a construction business as well as livestock). I need to look at those online resources carefully. Thanks for posting them.

Sunday, 29 March, 2009  
Blogger al fin said...

Yes, homeschool the grandkids, and by all means teach them practical skills.

The self confidence they get from being able to do things for themselves is worth a million times more than all the smarmy "self-esteem" garbage the PC schools will feed them.

Saturday, 02 May, 2009  

Post a Comment

“During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act” _George Orwell

<< Home

Newer Posts Older Posts
``