The other day, I came across the following website: www.khanacademy.org
Their motto is "A free world-class education for anyone anywhere."
It's a great site that aims to educate everyone, no matter what their age or previous education experience:
"Khan Academy is an organization on a mission. We're a not-for-profit with the goal of changing education for the better by providing a free world-class education for anyone anywhere.
All of the site's resources are available to anyone. It doesn't matter if you are a student, teacher, home-schooler, principal, adult returning to the classroom after 20 years, or a friendly alien just trying to get a leg up in earthly biology. Khan Academy's materials and resources are available to you completely free of charge."
They also help teachers incorporate their technology into the classroom. So far I have been watching a lot of the history subjects. It's something I was always interested in but I stopped studying it when I was 14. So far they have subjects ranging from maths and science, to history and art. No languages yet but I think we're all witnesses that we can learn online.
So is this how future schools will look?
katrina, he was embraced by Bill Gates! A genius was mentioned
Thanks for the other sites. What I love about the Khan Academy site is that all the subjects are broken down into bitesize chunks. This week I have been doing the 1900 history module. The longest video I have watched so far is 12 minutes and you can save your progress and come back later. I think it's also useful for people learning English, although you would probaby need to be at an upper intermediate level.
If you haven't seen MIT's it is great also. I used to refresh my chemistry and organic chemistry when delving deeper into nutrition etc
I can't post a link from my phone bu Google "MIT Open Coursware "
Oh no, I'm not saying these will ever replace degrees, but for those who find it difficult to attend school for any reason, these can help a lot. Another one I have found is www.coursera.org
It also has many courses and some of them can be certified to prove that you did it. The majority are free and run by lecturers from lots of excellent universities.
With that site and other resources like TED and the other online academies like MIT Open Coursware, somebody with a passion for learning can educate themselves in a number of interesting topics. But these will never substitute an accredited school when it comes to finding a career. No employer in their right mind would hire someone who learned the subject on a free website and "thinks" they probably should have earned a degree by now.
