Education Freedom

2008-05-15T17:35:00.000-07:00

MIT's Opencourseware is a fine way to learn freely in an open resource setting.

This video series is a great way to learn the computer language JavaScript.

The first 10 are here:
I
II
III
IV

V
VI
VII

VIII
IX
X

All free, all available from home for functional educational and economic production.

Educating Yourself

2007-07-25T00:33:00.000-07:00

Autodidact

http://www.dumblittleman.com/2007/07/become-autodidact-10-ways-to-become.html

Some of the greatest people in history have educated themselves to a large degree using a process known as autodidacticism. This is something that's more easily undertaken these days with the great wealth of online tools available to anyone.

Whether you've gone to college or not, you can learn just about anything these days on your own. Want to learn about the classics? Carpentry and home maintenance? Philosophy or cooking? Chess or computer programming? It's all online, and with a little bit of excitement, you can motivate yourself to learn a subject in a growing number of ways.

Why self-education? Well, besides the obvious reasons of wanting to improve yourself, prepare yourself for success, and just learn as much as you can, self-education offers a few extra benefits: you can learn at your own pace, and in your own way. You can follow your passions, and learn about things that excite you. There's no price for failure, but there's every reward for success.

How do you go about becoming an autodidact? The answer is simple: any way you want. I would suggest you set aside just a little time each day to learn a specific subject, but that really depends on your learning style. Some people learn all in one great rush: they'll stay up late hours for a few days in a row, consuming everything they possibly can about a subject. Others are overwhelmed by an approach like that, and would rather learn a little each day.

However you go about it, here are some of the best tools for the modern autodidact:

1. Wikipedia. A vast repository of great and useful articles, Wikipedia is the autodidact's dream. You could surf it for hours, days on end, or you could use one of many tools to make daily learning a breeze. One of the best is the Articles of the Day feature --sign up to get it in your email box. Another great option that I've tried is making Wikipedia's random page your home page.

2. Online Courses. Today you can learn from the best colleges and universities, from the comfort of your own home. Just a few of the online offerings: Berkeley, MIT, Carnegie Mellon, Johns Hopkins, Notre Dame.

3. Chapter a day. Don't have time for books? Read them the easy way: a chapter a day is emailed to you or added to your RSS reader by DailyLit.com, which has a growing selection of free books.

4. Word a day. Improve your vocabulary by leaps and bounds through the FreeDictionary, which has some great features you can subscribe to,including these RSS feeds: Article of the Day, In the News, and This Day in History.

5. Take quizzes. One of the most fun ways of learning is through games and quizzes. If you do a quick Google search, you can find quizzes on just about any topic, including math, grammar, the U.S. Constitution ... you name it. Also try flashcards for effective learning.

6. Art a day. If you'd like to learn about art, one of the best tools is Your Daily Art. Subscribe to the feed, and every day you'll get a famous piece of art, along with some notes to help your contemplation.

7. Podcasts. Not a fan of heavy reading? Get your knowledge through listening. You can listen to a course while driving, while relaxing in the bath, or while your boss thinks you're working. Just kidding about that last one. Here are just a few of the
available podcasts: UCLA podcasts, Berkeley on iTunes, Stanford on iTunes, Purdue University Podcasts, University
Channel (Princeton).

8. Free ebooks. Of course, there are thousands of great books online, available for free. Read them during your spare time, print them out for bathroom reading ... it doesn't matter how you use them, they're free! Here are some sites to start you out:
Project Gutenberg, Wikibooks, Free Audio Books, Free Academic Textbooks.

9. Learn languages. Tons of language courses are available online (BBC languages, FSI Language Courses to name a couple), and you can even learn them through iTunes: Chinese, Arabic, French, German, Italian, Greek and much more.

10. Wikiversity. A growing number of courses are being offered through a great resource, Wikiversity. Also try BBC Learning.

Written for Dumb Little Man by Leo Babuata of Zen Habits

2007-06-26T00:41:00.000-07:00

Our Department of Education is so poor that many Americans don't view education as a help. HS is so crappy and gives us such a load of HS that it's often disdained. Education, including much media, is scorned in favor of whatever relieves us of our duties to it. They may view the recombinant job market beseiged by profiteering corporations and high cost of living as a place of competition and unfairness.

Giving a people a great set of laws and society is one thing, but like any great machine it requires maintenance. Without maintenance this society divides and loses a great portion of itself to winnow.

Virtual Learning, Accreditation

2007-06-14T19:59:00.000-07:00

I believe we have the computational ability to hold classrooms in virtual environments such as Second Life. This would provide an excellent opportunity to capitalize on virtual education and combination visual / written and hands on /virtual programs and minisets to make advanced and simple education easier.

This can make the virtual world a classroom and connect humans from every part of earth together. This can reduce the cost and disruption of education and provide many more opportunities for students and teachers.

Examine what fantastic virtual lessons Bradley has set up through Second Life, and imagine an auditorium sized virtual space/classroom filled with 500 such virtual students.

Certain tests could be taken in an environment such as this. Virtual modular programs, e.g. a surgical scenario, electrician test, or pharmacological experiment could be performed here.

It might also be logical to physics-simulate a standard human genome to make a virtual human complete with medical biology. See Human 2.0, Technopickle.

This is What We're Shooting For

2006-12-20T20:49:00.000-08:00

"The report from Vanderbilt University reveals that complex mix includes such factors as cognitive ability, educational opportunity, investigative interest and old-fashioned hard work.

The talent and commitment necessary to develop as a scientific leader require both personal attributes and learning environments that are truly beyond the norm," study authors Camilla Benbow and Professor David Lubinski said.

Not surprisingly, the personal attributes of future science, mathematics, engineering and technology leaders reveal that it takes much more than exceptional abilities to truly develop exceptional scientific expertise," the researchers added. "

This kind of intelligence cultivation is what a school should account for. Schools should challenge their best and brightest to the extent of their curiosity. Schools should be places where curiosity goes to become filled. Interpret this in any way.

Methods of Education

2006-10-28T22:40:00.000-07:00

It seems beneficial to acquire technical skills by opening a technical text to a topic that jumps out at the student and begin going through it despite its potentially advanced nature. Go over every term or procedure that is unfamiliar to the student in great depth and detail until it is well understood or identified. This may be a very slow way to progress through the technical text, but it will actively engage lack of knowledge in a student and give it greater context in practice, and can delve quickly through numerous fields and topics depending on the technical nature of the text.

This method can also be used in apprenticeships. The student would be given full authority of his desired post under the supervision of an affirmed position holder. For example, a student training to be a doctor would be given the position of doctor and paired with a standing doctor. They would then observe the doctor's actions and attempt to duplicate his ability. Wherever the student is unaware of what is happening or the correct action, the doctor will take command and handle the situation as a doctor would, and also teach the student what he is doing when there is time.

This is an apprenticeship, and is the preferred pretext to certification or licensure, after primary non-technical education and aforementioned technical text analysis, followed by interview or written test of the technical material. Once the articulation of the knowledge is acquired through an apprenticeship, the student is ready to take the licensure exam and become a fully trained and able skilled practitioner.

Methods of Education

2006-10-28T22:34:00.000-07:00

Methods of Education

2006-10-28T22:19:00.000-07:00

Cheaper Education

2006-10-08T00:32:00.000-07:00

This just in, free tech and engineering books are available online.

http://www.freetechbooks.com/

Textbooks for schoolchildren should not cost $150 each. I can buy a book of any length at Barnes & Noble for under $50. $150 for a textbook is inappropriate.

Skills vs Education

2006-08-13T11:12:00.000-07:00

In a way, buying a PhD or other degree is paying for signage.

Modern Education

2006-08-09T05:30:00.000-07:00

I recently was stimulated by a speech from the governor's association by an Englishman advocating creativity-based learning and adaptation education. I believe that for life-education in the modern era [for the 2006-2070], individuals should be training in their own curiosity of education field and specialize in what they love more than be trained in conventional mandatory liberal education fields. The 'market' and world will be changing too dramatically and grandly in the future to adequately train individuals to specifically do what will be most productive for them. For this reason, we must train them to train themselves, and to make better use of education and trianing exercises.

Individuals should be given a strong code of ethics that they have formed and founded based on example and experience. This code of ethics will guide them in whatever situation they may encounter. Accompanied by their own curiosity and the great accomplishment of their curiosity, they will become skilled and ethical and be able to adapt well to the new technology and new market and weigh in on world challenges in a necessarily civic manner.

Furthermore, education should not cease once a user leaves high school, and primary college is not a suitable solution to life learning, nor is it even truly adequate among technical specialization, although post-colleigate education systems seem functional in a professional and scientific respect. We should integrate post-colleigate education with middle and high school education, and adjust our classroom programs from group lectures to individual and small group based learning, bunching by topic and social preference.

We will change grading from an A-F scale, normally suited to lectures and an even-ground grading based on uniform information distributed to an individual-based encouraged accomplishment assessment. Students will be graded on tests they have chosen to take in topics they have chosen to study and their performance will be based on that performance. This could also be measured in a level of 'A's per week', where the rate of achievement is measured along with the level of achievement or performance on tests. This will more accurately judge how quickly the student learns, how much they know, and also find their preference, aptitude, and ability in their chosen fields, leadingh to professional degrees and accreditations.

These models will better equip youngsters for a life of changing markets and environments to keep them strong, able, and well rooted in what is right regardless of what happens.

Totally Free Math

2006-07-30T15:44:00.000-07:00

http://www.totallyfreemath.com has released an elementary algebra book that costs $0. I highly recommend that every school district in America and the world begin using this textbook, and that it be translated into every language. Education should be free to all.

They also have featured videos and other assistance at their website. This kind of educational resource and many others are available free even to students who are not enrolled in professional institutions.

Towns and states across the world can reduce their education expense while *improving* their educational offerings by using these resources and supporting student-led research.

Education Requirements

2006-07-13T23:59:00.000-07:00

=)

Education reform is important so people can learn to be kind and love one another. More than any assemblage of facts, it is important for people to learn to love and get along. The technology behind that will always exist.

$$$$

2006-06-28T12:22:00.000-07:00

Education reform and accreditation reform can reduce the cost of college, one of the largest steeply rising costs of non-rich families. It can help students learn more and help them contribute more meaningfully and happily to business.

Education Reform

2006-06-10T20:30:00.000-07:00

Today's education system forces students to learn at the school's pace without allowing the student to study what they want. A high school education does not afford youths any level of job training, and college can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Unfortuately, homeschooling is not a realistic option for many families because of the constraints of workplace environments and social activity.

We can change the way youths are educated and build closer social bonds by engaging in group homeschooling. Together, groups of students work with tutors to study anything they want at their own encouraged pace through curiosity. Groups form based on study preference and social enjoyment. Tutors provide students with excellent educational resources and experiences, and support them in learning anything they choose to.

Students in these programs learn quickly and enjoy 'school'. By using internet and public library resources and time, students advance to exceptional levels of learning and skill and can be ready to begin advanced studies years before their conventional school counterparts, enabling them to begin social service in the work world in their late teens instead of mid twenties. Furthermore, learning never ends as curiosity takes root in their minds and learning is no longer institutionalized. Applying knowledge is part of life, not just for passing tests.

Students are given access to the internet, to subject books and journals, news and current events, jobsites and associated professionals, learn history and events in the community, absorb current events and culture, and can arrange and fundraise for any other trip or experience they choose to undertake. Students are encouraged to contact their governments, write letters and emails to professionals and industry personnel, visit offices and factories, attend conventional training seminars, study for technical licensures, and become familiar with tools, procedures, and equipment that form our society, state, and industry. This makes well rounded students and citizens.

Students measure their learning by taking prepared tests throughout every field of knowledge, so the tests are prepared for the student's curiosity, rather than students prepared for tests. While students follow their curiosity in any direction, to advance to gain their basic graduation degree, they must pass certain combinations of tests in many basic categories. However, this kind of education is focused more on building students' specialty of education and method of learning. Most students have little difficulty meeting the basic requirements of a general group homeschooling diploma.

Advancing through all optional work-study programs starting at age 16 and on-site training starting even earlier, students will be much better prepared, confident, and emotionally well equipped for anywhere in life they choose to go.

Read more at Better Godliness Through Chemistry. Chapter 5: Better Godliness Through Education. [reposted below]

Better Educations

2006-06-10T20:27:00.000-07:00

Better Love Through Education

Section 5 Education Reform

The current systems of education can be remodeled to give the greatest benefit to all students, to reduce pressure to perform, cultivate and harvest curiosity, and provide the world with better more motivated, interested, and caring leaders, researchers, servicepeople, and craftsmen with less waste and cost for all.

What is the education system supposed to do for us? It helps people learn new things and gives license to practice to those who have demonstrated knowledge in their field. This does not require indoctrination or institutionalization.

Instead of crowding children into a classroom where they are forced to learn together about a single topic that may not primarily interest them, children and students shall be encouraged to learn and study what piques their curiosity from a young age. All kinds of knowledge can be sorted into a series of ‘chapters’, for each of which there shall be a test to determine mastery of the chapter. When the student passes the chapter test they have the topic grasped. They shall be free to study any arrangement of chapters they choose to in any order, and can take the test of mastery at any time they feel comfortable to do so.

Once they have completed a certain quantity of chapter tests [eg. 2300], containing a certain number of certain kinds of topics indicating a reasonably current, advanced, and well rounded knowledge [eg 400/2300 core and critically acclaimed chapters on important and broadly basic topics], they will be given a general diploma, equivalent to a highschool diploma. They may qualify for additional honors or special chapter grouping awards indicating usefulness in certain fields in the same way that Boy Scouts earn merit badges. Some Scout badges are required to become an Eagle Scout and the remainder are freestyle. Since this system takes varying amounts of time depending on the gusto and intelligence of the student, some may earn their diploma at early ages and swiftly move on to more advanced studies.

This is what many young people desperately want to do. By the time many people have reached 20 years of age, their minds and bodies expect to be social landowners, heads of families, successful individuals, as it has been since man was created. This system will allow students to learn as quickly as they desire in any direction they choose to, and be rewarded accordingly.

Today’s colleges exert a prohibitively expensive force on students and the economy. The standard 4-year college does not give a license to practice in any field, although many businesses use it as the new high school standard. Most Americans do not go to college, but education should not be only for the rich.

This is why professional and technical fields must come up with fair assessment tests for all new applicants to pass, regardless of length, including for advanced doctoral and research fields, and equate passing those tests with professional licensure and permit to practice, regardless of how long it took them to pass the test or at what age they did it, although certain adulthood level age minimums will be required for permit to practice, not to exceed 18 years and allowable before on a case by case basis. Skills dictate ability, not having passed a liberalized institutional education system.

Section 5.01 Research

Teachers, professors, and educational institutions will become research materials for students to use and be challenged by, in order to pass chapter tests and earn licensure and accreditations. Teachers will take and pass chapter tests and gain their educational licensures, acquired either by having a preexisting state licensure or by passing the series of chapter tests that make up the educator licensure and meeting the age limitations, and then be hirable at state run schools.

Schoolrooms will have a forum setting where students can posit hypotheses and debate them with other students and teachers. These teachers will then provide presentations on topic for any student to join in, assist individual and small groups of independently interested students in their chosen studies, and encourage other learners to engage in their field of educational curiosity. Counselors will advise students on what fields to enter and chapter groupings to pursue and about work-study and study groups available for them to join or participate in.

Since the classroom setting is more suited for lectures and certain containable activities, students will more and more find themselves learning outside the classroom, at museums, theaters, jobsites and industry meetings, meeting and learning from craftsmen both in the school and at workshops, attending presentations, engaging in and witnessing experiments and phenomenon, experiencing and analyzing culture and communications, and bridging the gaps between learning and doing. All such activities will be optional to the student and family and all should contribute to achievement of a chapter test pursuant to their certificate, degree or licensure.

Students may also choose to join and participate with special education or performance groups that focus on certain areas of education. A student may join the science team and engage in teacher assisted scientific study and research and experiments and outings of that nature, or the equivalent for engineering, music, theater, construction, sports, or any field. A student may belong to several of these groups at once and choose to advance through them by personal choice and preference.

A free form curiosity based educational setting provides the ability for students to spend far more unstructured time learning what they choose to in social transparency instead of trying to accomplish their personal educational goals around their scheduled learning appointments. Since they also must pass chapter tests for each topic they study with credit, their daydreaming will be measured by the vast and constantly expanding realm of possible chapters of knowledge. Students may pioneer new chapters of learning with teachers and professors to be considered and included in the realms of its field and to be included in possible accreditation for licensure.

After several such years of fulfilling and proficient personalized study, students will have acquired enough chapter tests to demonstrate that their level of understanding is advanced and mature and that they are intellectually ready to move on to other opportunities, such as college or work, or more advanced study groups.

“When a traveller [sic] asked Wordsworth’s servant to show him her master’s study, she answered, ‘Here is his library, but his study is out of doors.’” –Atlantic Monthly May 2006 page 54. The study is in the mind.

Section 5.02 Group Homeschooling and Early Education

Since some students can learn more effectively through their family and their own research than through public education, homeschooling groups will be formed to augment standard private homeschoolers of varying age groups. Homeschooling groups will form around topics of study, age groups, and regional association. They may be augmented by private tutors and normal classroom resources and out of the classroom learning situations.

Homeschooling groups will be more possible than normal homeschooling because parents of group homeschooled students will not need to personally educate their children as well as work at a normal job. They can send the student to the group, host the homeschooling group if they choose to perhaps one or several days weekly, at their appointment-based convenience and still provide their student(s) with specialized learning experiences.

Early education options should be presented to everyone. A British study demonstrated that every unit of currency spent on early childhood education saves 8 units of currency in remedial social efforts. They did not count the bonuses and advances generated by the additional social health and intellectual development cultivated by early education.

Early education groups may be best modeled after group homeschooling groups, but for a very young age range. Curiosity based learning methods, called ‘play’ at this age, can be guided and augmented by introduction to languages, reading opportunities with stories, numbers with toys, and peaceful and effective social organization through youth kindness and compassion sensitivity training and religious lessons.

Section 5.03 Testing

Testing will be performed on the internet to accommodate private students, homeschoolers, and international students. It can also be performed at testing centers. A person can pass a test by completing certain and randomized questions necessitating knowledge of all portions of the topic. Other kinds of students can pass the test by demonstrating this knowledge or by a process of necessarily recorded interviews.

A testing center, often in the form of a library, will also be an employment center for those who have just gained their new accreditations. Since homeschooling groups and private students will come to the testing center on a semi-regular basis they will engage in the open forum on site, participate in the research center associated with the testing center.

As well, the testing center shall become a business office where all businesses should be contactable and contractible. The building should have a finance wing available for potential businessmen and entrepreneurs. Associations of entrepreneurs can invest tax-free in these small business projects and recover through loan repayment schedules and corporate profit-sharing.

The testing center is also to be a community learning center, hosting numerous speakers as well as forums on a variety of advertised or sequential topics. They may present useful information in various fields or civil matters, and may prepare audiences for taking and passing chapter tests. They may advertise a new topic they are submitting to the field for testable status, or they may be advertising a new and little-known chapter test group that they have pioneered or championed. They may take the form of Powerpoint presentations or merely scheduled debates. This is the new town square.

Section 5.04 The New Institution

Colleges will become akin to semi-research semi-factory institutions. The place for attaining basic and unspecified degrees is in high school, which even very rapidly advanced students can continue to attend through age 18. It is more suitable for students to study specializationcentric topics at these advanced universities and accomplish all general knowledge topics at primary schools. Students attending universities should enroll in specialized field courses from the get go, and have spent their high school careers following their educational curiosities.

A primary education will be sufficiently customizable to perform in many crafts and services, and any specific degrees that one chooses to get there shall be programs designed to train for their long test. Colleges and universities should be Bachelor of Science style institutions and teach advanced scientific topics of the field and research new methods. Arts colleges should help people produce such crafts as are pleasing and to produce them often, better, and well. General study should be accomplished in high school until age 18 or in private study or 18+ (30+, 40+, 50+) category homeschooling groups or non- or semi-institutional study groups differentiated from research based and skill or craft focused institutions.

As well, colleges may harbor well equipped and advanced research and development teams and industry companies may desire to hire from them or solicit their services. This is an excellent way for industry and research to wed. In the same way, colleges may choose to turn some of their research devices and robotics into manufacturing elements and begin spin-off or custom industries. A well studied individual may be a professor at the college, a researcher and foreman at both the college and in industry, an industry advisor, and a private tutor and private group lecturer or speaker all at the same time.

In the same way, teachers without licensure can apply to become tutors to private individuals, homeschooled groups, early youth groups, or can expand their skill and reputation by providing seminar tours at regional testing centers.