Archive for December, 2015

Prepare Your Children For The Future NOW

December 5, 2015 · Filed under Online Learning, Teaching Kids, University · Tagged , , , , , , , , , , ,

FoEucation

The future of education, as well as nearly everything we do is changing, and to be a part of the change your children need to be internet savvy. And one of the best ways to be internet savvy, is to let your children get onto the internet as young as they can. Then when they go onto school, university and beyond they will be prepared for the future. The alternative is quite simple, they will be overtaken by the children who have been brought up on the internet.
Let the internet be the teacher. Show your children how to search the internet to find what they are looking for. Youtube.com, khanacademy.com and whatever the internet can provide, will be the teacher. Then if you want more, find it on search. And if you can’t find it, put it on the internet yourself, and you can become the teacher to any child who wants to learn.
That is the future of education, where anybody and everybody can be the teacher, and the internet is the classroom.
The world is changing so fast it is nearly impossible to keep up. The internet is changing life as we know it. Your children are growing up in a Brave New World. And we the parents and your children’s teacher are just not keeping up. Everything your children will learn at school, is available at the click of a mouse, or just a touch on a screen. But are they learning how to click a mouse or touch a screen. Are we really teaching them, what they need to know to survive the future.
To survive the future your children need to know how to read and read fast. At the moment we are still teaching them to read. If they are learning phonics, so much the better. But can they understand what they are reading. Reading comprehension is the key to the internet. Nearly everything your children will do on the internet, will have something to do with reading, understanding what they are reading and typing something.
You have all this information at your fingertips. And the internet is information, but your children have to read and understand to make use of it. Also to survive the future, your children have to be able to find the information they are looking for on the internet. And that means SEARCH. They must know how to search the internet to get the information they are looking for.
These are the skills for the future. Are your children learning them? If your children can master these skills, they can find and understand everything they want to know. Everything else at school is just a click away. But your children can learn these two skills by themselves on the internet. There are learn to read programs on the internet. And you can search to find out how to search the internet.
The Internet is changing everything we know.

To find out more click here

Prepareyourchildren

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MOOCs And What To Do With Them – From a MOOCer

December 1, 2015 · Filed under Online Learning · Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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MOOCs are what the internet is all about. They epitomize the internet as it is – a library at your fingertips. And they are amazing. They say the half life of information is getting very short. By the time you have finished four years at university, half of what you have learned is already obsolete. Now MOOCs come in to keep you up to date. Since the MOOCs are so new they are very up to date. I was on one MOOC about archaeology and the videos were taken on a archaeological dig nearly in real time. If MOOCs evolve to instant information you’ll be getting live cams in real time. Now that is education.

Anyway what is a MOOC what do you do with them?

MOOCs are the future, but with the internet some fads are just passing phases that don’t last very long, One minute they are all the rage, and the next they have been replaced with the next major fad. I hope MOOCs don’t go the way of the dinosaur, then I’ll have nothing to do in my spare time. I’m really selfish.

Doing a MOOC is about you and your time management skills, your ability to juggle –
job,
wife,
kids,
time
and whatever else makes up your life.

And setting short term goals that last about a week, so you do everything you have to complete the MOOC.

It also means reading instructions
and interpreting them correctly,
so you know what you are doing,
and what has to be completed,
and when it has to be handed in,
so as to speak.

Just like being at school except it is all up to you. No one is breathing down your neck.

Just the thought of getting a “Certificate of Accomplishment”
That could be all you do a MOOC for.
And or the satisfaction of learning something new or old.
Or you are into life long learning, and need something to show for it.
Or you are sick of MMOGs and now what to try the next best thing.
Or you need a few extra papers to put on your CV, just to add a bit of color to your CV.

And the “Certificate of Accomplishment” is an impressive looking piece of paper, as long as you have a half way decent color printer. It has the name of the university in big letters, so it looks like you have done some serious study. And to be honest you have.

You have to set aside at least 2 to 4 hours each week just to cover the workload. But if you get trapped in the forums you could spend a lot more time on the paper. Forums are really fun and you meet many new people, but they come under the virtual friend category. Once the class is over that is goodbye to your classmates, same as in real life. Anyway you can have some wonderful discussions when in the class.

To Find Out More

MOOC

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