Free Online Instructional Videos for K-12
This is can be helpful for a student because if they are struggling with a certain subject or lesson within a subject they can watch the video as many times as needed or as they are doing their homework. They can be done by the teacher and there are even full websites full of videos, such as Khan Academy. Here is a video about Khan Academy and how it works. This is by far one of my favorites because as a back up resource this is genius. A student can use it to refresh their memory or when they are doing their homework and it just doesn't make sense.
Free online University classes and MOOCs
This could be good for those who cannot afford to go to college but still have the passion of learning. MOOC has a whole list of courses that can be taken. They are courses taken from many different universities and are for anyone to take over a lot of different subjects. Harvard and MIT have this video about free courses
Plans for free online degrees
This to me is a little sketchy, because it is commonly known that nothing in life is free. But it again would be very good for those who could not afford to go University otherwise. Here is a TED talk about free education. Again, it is just too good to be true as well as where would funding come from for those who teach?
New writers/sources of textbooks.
This could be good because sometimes text books just have the thing teachers are looking for. Sometimes a text book is half good or is mostly great. As a teacher, the idea of getting to fix up your own textbook to be exactly what you need it to be is like... heaven! This link, here, is in the iTunes store. It allows the teacher to basically create the perfect textbook. Which like I said is FANTASTIC!!!!
As a teacher, I look up at the list and I sort of grimace. Partially because getting to pick what goes into a textbook sounds exciting. Getting to choose between authors and then combining your favorites. Which allows you to really give the students what they need. But I am also grimacing because some of this seems way too good to be true. And one thing that I have learned in my young life is that if it seems that way, it probably is too good to be true. I will admit that I do hold an account with Khan Academy because I feel that it is a wonderful resource to use when something a teacher has taught doesn't make sense when you are doing homework by yourself; or for a refresher course in something. I think it is great for that. I am also worried that people will try using that to teach instead of just teaching it themselves. In each of these categories, one has to watch and make sure that the laziness monster does not take over and these become solely relied upon. Otherwise, these are fantastic, wonderful resources that we have been blessed with.
Thank you to the following resources:
- http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/khan-academy-the-future-of-education-50121400/
- http://www.mooc-list.com/
- http://epic2020.org/
- http://www.ted.com/talks/daphne_koller_what_we_re_learning_from_online_education
- http://www.apple.com/education/ipad/itunes-u/
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