With the pandemic knocking a big hole in work with a lot of workers getting laid off. Getting a job is not going to be easy and the cost of labor will come down. So expect less pay and take any job you can get. I recommend enrolling at as many temp agencies as you can because that is where you get the jobs. At most temp agencies all you have to do is pass a drug test, have a reliable car, get to work on time and do more that you are asked and they will keep giving you more jobs. These jobs will include all shifts so you could end up on night shift or any shift for that matter. Now some agencies are a lot better than others so check out as many agencies as you can join. Usually the easiest jobs to get are the most physical or jobs others do not wont to do. Age doesn’t seem to matter as they know most people who have been working all their lives know how to work and know how to get to work on time. There are some agencies who will give you a chance and others who will just shelve your application. I’ve been very fortunate with the agencies I joined in different cities as I have always got work. It was all factory work and they were good factories to work at but the work was hard, loading conveyor belts or unloading a belt, very tedious but good people to work with.
As soon as you get laid off head for the temp agencies or ask around to find out the best agency to join. I talked to one guy at a factory and he must have joined all the agencies and he got a job where I worked through the same agency, so join many. I went to another city and I asked around and went to the agency everybody recommended and basically had a job before I left. I already had a Police Clearance Certificate from my other job so I was good to go and I started the next day. When you are changing cities ask the agency you work for if they have any work in the new city and if you are a good worker they’ll get you a job. They don’t wont to lose good staff to another agency.
While this is going on start upskilling your career prospects by reading books or ebooks, taking cheap courses online through Udemy when they are on special or have a look at MOOCs (Massive Open Online Course). If you have never studied online take a free course on How To Study Online and see how you do.
First you need to decide on a career you can do and would like to do. You can learn more about your present occupation or learn something new. The learning curve will take time so start as early as you can and that means getting on amazon kindle and buying one ebook and reading it then buying another then another and another. The more you read the more you will learn about your chosen field.
In the dying 20th century superpowers, universities lived of government funding and government guaranteed student loans. So the price of education kept increasing, and that has priced them out of the market place. Now if you want an education it is cheaper to leave the dying 20th century superpowers, except Germany, and go to the East. There you can learn the language of the future as well as get a degree.
Singapore did something to combat the rise of China and that is why they are where they are today. They have positioned themselves as a financial center and an educational center, but they are only a pimple on the very edge of Asia. Their rise is partly due to the fall of the 20th century superpowers of the USA, Europe and Japan. If these super powers were not drowning in debt then Singapore would not be as important in the world as it is today. It is very possible that Shanghai and Singapore will be the leading financial centers in the world very soon.
In the past it seems foreign universities flocked to set up in Singapore, but now I think the flocking is to China. They have to flock away from the dying 20th century superpowers to survive. And the only places to go are the far east, the near east, the middle east, the eastern bloc and a few out of the way places that no one wants to go to. Now Russia could be the next education center competing with China, or more likely they will be working together.
When you have to learn Mandarin and Russian to go to university then the balance of power is complete.
If America keeps finding oil and natural gas on their soil and Europe does the same we could wave goodbye to the Middle East as an up and coming education center, where I think education is free.
Free education could have been the start of the demise of education in the west. When the government pays, the price goes up.
In the dying 20th century superpowers, universities lived of government funding and government guaranteed student loans. So the price of education kept increasing, and that has priced them out of the market place. Now if you want an education it is cheaper to leave the dying 20th century superpowers, except Germany, and go to the East. There you can learn the language of the future as well as get a degree. And if you play it right you can get a scholarship from their government, or your government as is the case in NZ.
Then you can stay on and work in one of the 21st century superpowers.
Now the biggest change to hit mankind since the printing press or fire for that matter, is heading to a university near you. And when it gets there, change is the word. Will the universities of the 20th century upgrade or downsize, or go extinct to accommodate the new generation. The generation who have been brought up in front of a screen, in cyber space. The generation who can get what they want at the click of a mouse, or the touch of a screen. Are they going to go to a physical campus or a virtual campus? Are their internet friends who they have never met going to influence them to go to a virtual campus. Or will their classmates from school drag them off to a physical campus. Only time will tell.
MOOCs are an introduction to courses at a physical university, but they are also an introduction to the virtual university world of the future. And they introduce the MOOCers to what they can do in cyber space. How many MOOCers will now attempt an online university instead of going to a physical campus. The change MOOCs are inflicting on the future hasn’t got here yet, not surprising they have only been around for a couple of years. Give them time.
Now with the after affects of the 2020 pandemic still with us. Where lots of graduates still haven’t got jobs, maybe the mindset of get into university at any cost is no longer relevant. And cost is the factor and so is the major. So where can you get a world class education at a price you can afford. Try going to the East or cyberspace. It is still cheaper to go to the East now, but that might change as the internet generation comes of age. Also as universities have priced themselves out of the market place and the half-life of what you learn at university is getting shorter, why go to university. All you need is a diploma in a specific subject and you could get a job. Better still get the diploma while you are working. Not four years later and anything from $20,000 to over $100,000 in debt. And when companies accept MOOCs on a CV then education is free, anyway so far.
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.
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.
Singapore did something to combat the rise of China and that is why they are where they are today. They have positioned themselves as a financial center and an educational center, but they are only a pimple on the very edge of Asia. Their rise is partly due to the fall of the 20th century superpowers of the USA, Europe and Japan. If these super powers were not drowning in debt then Singapore would not be as important in the world as it is today. It is very possible that Shanghai and Singapore will be the leading financial centers in the world very soon.
In the past it seems foreign universities flocked to set up in Singapore, but now I think the flocking is to China. They have to flock away from the dying 20th century superpowers to survive. And the only places to go are the far east, the near east, the middle east, the eastern bloc and a few out of the way places that no one wants to go to. Now Russia could be the next education center competing with China, or more likely they will be working together.
When you have to learn Mandarin and Russian to go to university then the balance of power is complete.
If America keeps finding oil and natural gas on their soil and Europe does the same we could wave goodbye to the Middle East as an up and coming education center, where I think education is free.
Free education could have been the start of the demise of education in the west. When the government pays, the price goes up.
In the dying 20th century superpowers, universities lived of government funding and government guaranteed student loans. So the price of education kept increasing, and that has priced them out of the market place. Now if you want an education it is cheaper to leave the dying 20th century superpowers, except Germany, and go to the East. There you can learn the language of the future as well as get a degree. And if you play it right you can get a scholarship from their government, or your government as is the case in NZ.
Then you can stay on and work in one of the 21st century superpowers.
Now the biggest change to hit mankind since the printing press or fire for that matter, is heading to a university near you. And when it gets there, change is the word. Will the universities of the 20th century upgrade or downsize, or go extinct to accommodate the new generation. The generation who have been brought up in front of a screen, in cyber space. The generation who can get what they want at the click of a mouse, or the touch of a screen. Are they going to go to a physical campus or a virtual campus? Are their internet friends who they have never met going to influence them to go to a virtual campus. Or will their classmates from school drag them off to a physical campus. Only time will tell. http://www.dcl.niu.edu/index.php/labs/virtual-world-lab/124-niu-glidden-campus-in-second-life
MOOCs are an introduction to courses at a physical university, but they are also an introduction to the virtual university world of the future. And they introduce the MOOCers to what they can do in cyber space. How many MOOCers will now attempt an online university instead of going to a physical campus. The change MOOCs are inflicting on the future hasn’t got here yet, not surprising they have only been around for a couple of years. Give them time.
Now with the after affects of the 2007 economic crisis still with us. Where lots of graduates still haven’t got jobs, maybe the mindset of get into university at any cost is no longer relevant. And cost is the factor and so is the major. So where can you get a world class education at a price you can afford. Try going to the East or cyberspace. It is still cheaper to go to the east now, but that might change as the internet generation comes of age. Also as universities have priced themselves out of the market place and the half-life of what you learn at university is getting shorter, why go to university. All you need is a diploma in a specific subject and you could get a job. Better still get the diploma while you are working. Not four years later and anything from $20,000 to over $100,000 in debt. And when companies accept MOOCs on a CV then education is free, anyway so far.
It is about the trials and tribulations and how having young modern teachers with internet experience and a principle who wanted to use technology even though she didn’t know very much about it herself.
The young teachers were using power point in the classrooms and the classes all had internet access. Just standard stuff nothing spectacular.
I’ve been teaching ESL to kids for a number of years so I know what I am doing. But in China you, as a foreign teacher are expected to do the unusual without any warning.
I started off my China experience in the standard classroom in a primary school with anywhere between 30 and 70 kids in a classroom. That was standard and i perfected my flashcard and drawing on the blackboard teaching.
But then In China nearly every school has a lecture hall they call a multi media classroom, seats probably 300 and you have a book projector and a white board at the front plus a hand held microphone. It is like a lecture hall with the teacher at the bottom and most students staring down at you. To save money they figured if they put me in there I could teach all the classes at once, except they forgot to tell me that they had changed the schedule. When I got there there was every grade one student, 6 year olds, about 400 of them sitting everywhere. On the stairs and they brought in extra seats for the gap at the front. The kids were actually seated in their class, in the big hall with their English teacher controlling them. I think there was 8 classes in there.
It was a very successful class, i turned it into an entertainment event and the kids loved it, but they all knew me so that was a plus. I taught all the kids in the whole school this way. That was from grade one to six. This was my first experience of teaching a very large class.
Now we get onto the internet bit. I was back to teaching one class at a time and the school, being a private school had to upgrade to get a higher rating in the private school list in the city. So they put these huge 2 meter TV screens hooked up to the internet in all the classroom. There was one young English teacher there who spoke perfect English and had never left China, but she spent a lot of time on the internet. And she figured with my help we could join up all the classes in one grade and i could teach one class and the other classes could watch the class on the TV.
That was easier said than done as the principle said we could give it a go as long as it cost nothing. First we tried secondlife.com. I had a strange feeling that is where she went to speak English. It looked good but not really very engrossing and the kids faded out very early on in the class. It was easy to set up we just downloaded the software to most of the computers in grade 1 – 5 and 6 year olds. We had one avatar on each computer. Secondlife dropped the under 13 level I think so we were all on the main virtual world. The little kids were fascinated but the parents were not to impressed, which is nothing unusual.
But in secondlife I couldn’t do anything like the flash cards or writing on the board. So the kids could only repeat what I said. And they could yell and scream as much as they liked and they could hear themselves and they loved it. I used to call out the class number so they could repeat what I said, instead of all the classes answering at once. We all met at the Library of Primitives Sandpit in secondlife. And we could make as much noise as we wanted and nobody cared. The underlying learning theory
The only learning theory we struck was Collaborative Intelligence where the class functioned together and followed me the teacher. The mass brain of everybody in the class made the learning memorable. We could have used a bit of the Multimodel Meaning with flash cards and chalk and voice. The other learning theories fell by the wayside. That was because the classes were all kids and all Chinese and they were learning English words and simple sentences.
It was really good and we did what we set out to do. Which was one teacher over many classes. To be honest I faded out before the students as I was just repeating myself. After 15 minutes i think we were all pretty bored, so we started looking for something else.
So we tried ustream.tv. Now ustream.tv has two big glearing issues, one the screen size is fixed, you can’t go to full screen and there is no return audio, everything is done through a chat box. But it is very easy to set up and very easy for the classes to hook up to ustream.tv and watch the class. But they couldn’t join in. It was live and I could use the flash cards and write on the whiteboard, which kept me happy. The size was an issue and after the kids realized that I couldn’t hear them they lost interest. When we were on secondlife the kids knew I could hear them so they yelled as loud as they could, and they tried to drown out the other classes. The Technology in practice
So we went looking for a free audio and video conference call with as many windows as we could get. To teach all the classes in one grade we needed seven screens. I already had an account with oovoo.com and had used them before when they had 6 screens. Now they have 12 screens, just what we were looking for. We had to download the software just like secondlife, but the learning curve to get it all set up was pretty easy. That meant showing the other teachers how to get online and join in the class. In most of the grades there was an internet apt student that could put it all together.
Anyway we played around with the screen sizes and somehow managed to keep my screen on top so I hogged most of the screen, while the classes videos were on the side bar. Anyway the kids loved it as they could see themselves and me and they knew they were live. In most cases there was just my screen and the class screen visible to one class. We started off with all the classes on the one screen but then we slowly cut a few off. Also we could record my screen and the kids could watch it again whenever they liked.
We thought we were set and we were. The principle took a liking to ustream.tv since the whole school was linked on ustream. And the principle could give talks live to every class and to the whole school. Before she used to use the speakers now she used both. Critical reflection
We finally got all the bugs out of the system and everything was back to normal until. I worked for a private school company and they had a number of schools scattered around the edge of the city. The owners came and had a look at what we were doing and they were very impressed. They wanted to make sure we were not breaking any rules to do with putting stuff up on the internet. Then when they realized we were not uploading anything except me they were quiet happy.
Everything was going well until the foreign teacher left one of the other schools. Then we had to go and set up that school, so they could also receive the video lesson. It was just enough as there were 6 classes in each grade. We had a few more teething problems but we got it together. I first had to go to the other school to give lessons so the kids got to know me. And this way I could alternate between the schools to give the main lesson to different classes. I was doing that now at the main school, so I was actually teaching a different class each time.
When we had a guest teacher in who was just going to give a talk. We would either hook them up to secondlife, so the whole school could join in and listen and ask questions or ustream it. And the kids could just listen.
Having all the classes linked together gave the school a lot more options. Some teachers were worried they would lose their jobs but they were still needed to keep control of the classes during the video lessons. Conclusions and recommendations
Follow Nike and just do it and learn as you go. If you don’t know something “Google it” As the process evolved we changed to keep up. It was a process but it was more about learning what was available as opposed to following a set pattern. We knew what the end product was to be, all we had to do was get the tech so we would get the end result. We basically started with the end in mind and worked backwards. We re engineered the tech to suit the end outcome. We looked at lots of different tech but since we had the end in mind it was easy to ditch what wouldn’t work like Moodle or other LMS platforms.
Teaching Kids whether kindergarten or primary school in China is a wonderful experience. So start your working life after you leave university by going to China to teach kids. Or for that matter you can go at any age or anytime you need a change. Getting a job is really no problem, whether you get one before you leave your home country or after you arrive. Check out this book about getting a teaching job in China, and you will see how easy it is.
Now when you go for a job the first thing you have to do is a free demo class. You are put in front of a class and you teach it with a few teachers and administrators watching. So be prepared. If your demo class is good they expect all your classes to be similar.
Some demo classes are daunting. I don’t know if that is deliberate, or the school just wants to see what you can do. In some cases you are doing a demo in front of nearly the whole school. In some out of the way places that will happen, especially if you are volunteering and end up in a village. You could end up doing a demo in the village square, with the whole village watching.
I’ve had to do demo classes in a park with whoever wants to watch, watching. Quite embarrassing to say the least, but you have to soldier on.
It might be an idea to upgrade your public speaking skills. As I have had to do demo classes in lecture halls in front of around 1000 parents, teachers and whoever just dropped in. In one primary school they put me in the multimedia classroom and gave me a microphone. All I had was an overhead projector and a whiteboard. In front of me there were all the students from grade one, about 500 of them, sitting in their class groups. So expect the unexpected. For this class I used flashcards. The whiteboard was no good, because the pens where not dark enough, and the kids were too young to read. I used class groupings and the class turned out excellent. The students loved me, and that is what you want.
To find out how other teachers teach search ‘teach kindergarten and primary school’ in youtube and see what pops up. Watch some videos and get some ideas and start practicing. Master what you like so you can reproduce it in a class. Just remember it doesn’t have to be perfect, it should keep the kids happy and then your administrators are happy. I would spend a lot of time on youtube, Dave’s ESL cafe, jobteachworld and other ESL sites until you have a portfolio of material you can regurgitate in any class. Then over time you will perfect your style.
To practice your demo class stand in front of a full length mirror, so you can see what you look like, and teach to the mirror. If you do not have a mirror, turn your video cam on you and record your demo class, then watch what you look like. This way you can see what your students see and improve on it. Anyway it is a good idea to record you, so you can put your best video up on youtube or your favorite video site.
Youtube is blocked in China so use another video site. Also gmail and possibly google are blocked too now, so use another email site or take an unblocker with you, like ultrasurf. In China you can use youku and tudou, these are China youtube.
I put my video up on this site, so far it is not blocked in China – www.jobteachworld.com. This site has a section for video CVs. Watch a few of the other videos on the site to see how other teachers do their video CVs. When you have got it all together, put a video CV up so you can show the world and prospective employers your teaching style.
Your craft is teaching so perfect it. It makes life easier if you know what you are doing. And youtube can give you the ideas, you just have to practice them.
In the growth economies of the world most parents want their children to learn English. And they are prepared to pay cold hard cash for after school and weekend classes even though the children learn English in school. While in the supposedly Developed English speaking world the experts have changed the way children learn to read and now kids are leaving school with below standard reading levels.
They changed the system from a very effective reading method to what we have nowadays. Yet in most foreign countries where English is taught in the classroom, the children are taught English using phonics. It is no wonder the children are leaving school better educated that we are in the west. English is a part of their way of life, and if they want to get ahead in the future they must know English. So children and English go together.
Now when children start to learn English as a second language they usually learn it very early. In Asia that usually means while they are still at kindergarten. Then at school they bring in the phonics in grade 5 when the children are 10 to 11 years old. Which is a good time to start the serious learning of English.
In families where the parents speak different languages you usually find the children struggle at school learning the language that is taught at school. But when they get to high school they are proficient in both languages. It is no wonder that Asian children are some of the best students even though English is not their first language. So it looks like English as a second language and children go together overseas. But here in the English speaking world the powers to be are doing their best try and stop struggling learners learning to read English.
Peter Legrove will be giving a speech to his daughter’s school about the future of education as it could evolve. The internet has changed the world as we know it, but education is a bit slow to change. Just remember the mighty dinosaur was replaced by a rodent the size of a cat. At the moment we do not know what is the dinosaur or what is the cat.
Hello parents, students, teachers, Members of the Board, I’m after a bit of information, thank you.
Has anybody here had anything to do with the Khan Academy, please? Khan spelled K H A N, Thank you, thank you. Has anyone taken part in the Khan Academy, please?
Now, we are at school so you can raise your hands. Thank you, thank you.
Now. What about OpenCourseWare please. Has anyone here had anything to do with opencourseware, like know what it is, or what it does, or have you doen anything from opencourseware. Thank you, thank you.
Now has anyone got any idea what a MOOC is, please. M O O C thank you. Has anybody actually done a MOOC. Thank you.
Raise your hands please we are at school, thank you.
One more thing ‘have you heard of “The Hole in the Wall Project” thank you.
OK thanks.
Now my question to you is. “How can you steer this school into the future, when you do not even know what the present situation in education is?
We are at school now, so for homework preferable this week, but definitely before you make any decisions on the future of this school, google, yahoo, bing or whatever search engine you use.
Khan Academy and watch one of the videos, or better still watch one with your daughter. Khan academy was one of the first threats to the schooling system of today. It started when one person wanted to help his school age relatives to get better at math. And it has now gone around the world. Khan Academy started in 2006.
Next up google MOOCS and find out what they are, then do one or better still, you and your daughters do a different one each. So you know what the present situation in education is. MOOCs are a disruptive technology, that is upsetting the entrenched bureaucracy of the established education industry around the world. MOOCs are changing education as we speak. They are less than three years old. If you do not understand what a Disruptive Technology is, there is a MOOC about it. Do it and find out the future.
Opencourseware is a free online lectures for world class universities around the world, We are talking M.I.T. Yale, Harvard. To be honest Massey is not there.
Now we move onto the “Hole in the Wall Project” An internet connected computer was put in a slum in India to see how the slum kids would react. And they taught themselves English with no teachers, no textbooks and no classroom. They knew English was important so they learned it. The kids taught themselves and each other. Do you know what this means for your daughters? It means your daughters are competing with the slim kids of Calcutta. To find out more, google it. This project was the winner of the TED talks award in 2013. To find out more go to TED talks and listen in on some of the videos, they are usually only 15 minutes long and are very informative.
Your daughters are up against the lifelong learners who learn math from the Khan academy, get qualifications doing MOOCs.
The internet has leveled the playing field in ways you cannot even imagine.
The top 10 most in demand jobs in 2013 did not exist in 2006.
That means life long learning is the future. The jobs your daughters do after they start their working life have not been invented yet. There are two skills your daughters need to survive the future in any profession. Does anybody know what they are? The first one is typing at 60 words a minute plus. Can your daughters type at over 60 words per minute? It looks like video is taking over the future, but the internet is still text on a page. And you have to type to put it there.
The internet is information and to absorb the information you need to survive the future. Your daughters need to be able to read fast and understand what they are reading. Therefore speed reading is part of your daughter’s arsenal for the future. And these two skills you have to learn yourself. Your daughters should start learning these skills now in their spare time, because they will need them.
After the financial crisis of 2007 the world changed. The middle class was destroyed, now the middle class is dead. How does that affect your daughters? Primary school prepared kids for secondary school, secondary school prepared students for university and university prepared young adults for the middle class. Now there is no middle class. If you want to find the middle class you have to go to Asia, Russia, China and India and possible South America. In Europe, America and possible in the Pacific the middle class is dying.
So you can ask, why send your daughters to university, when about half what they learn is obsolete before they graduate. Why let your daughters go into student debt when there is no guarantee of a job. The future is lifelong learning. So what are your daughters going to do. At present university is still on the road to the future and it is still recommended. But for how long.
The system we have in place now does not prepare you for the future. To become a master in your chosen field you need to do 5,000 hours of learning. To become a grand master you need 10,000 hours of learning. So start reading now and doing MOOCs.
The future is Asia. After your daughters graduate from university let them have the option to go to China, Russia, India or possibly South America, to teach English so they can also learn the language. The languages of your daughters generation are Mandarin Chinese, Russian and Spanish, and Portuguese for Brazil.
The future of this school is in the choices you make, but before you make them, google it.
Thank you for your time.
Peter Legrove will now talk about how to use the internet to get an education even if you are physically and learning disabled. The internet and internet education have opened up a brave new world where the slum kids of Calcutta, and wheel chair bound persons, are competing with university educated young adults. All on a level playing field. It is up to you the individual to make a difference in your life. And you can with an internet connected computer. The “Hole in the Wall Project” showed that slum kids can teach themselves English with no teachers, no classrooms and no textbooks. So that means you can too.
If you are physically able to use a computer and a keyboard then education is yours for the asking. Being disabled should not stop you from getting an education. There is a whole world out there in cyberspace that wants to teach you. Admittedly money could be a problem depending on which country you live in and your government programs. You should pick a subject that you like and most importantly a subject you can do with your disability. Don’t try and limit yourself and don’t say you can’t do it before you even try. But with the internet you have to be able to write, so that means sitting on a keyboard, and typing the day away and thinking about what to write. If you can do that you’ll be set up for life. The internet is still text on a page and to put it there you have to type. Video seems to be catching up fast but I don’t think it will surpass the written word. Because you can read faster, a lot faster that watching a video. When I listen to podcasts or educational videos, I use vlc video player and I set the speed at 1.5 or 1.6 times, so I can speed listen and that way it doesn’t take so much time.
If nothing else write a book. If you can write a book and sell it then you will have an income. You should first look at how to sell a book because that is the hard part. On the internet there is heaps of free stuff, but you have to work out yourself what is good and what is a waste of time. Very hard to do. Writing a book is the easy part. Selling it is when the problems arise so that is what you have to learn. But it is a good experience. Anyway nearly everything is free on the internet. I use blinkweb.com for my website and with their website builder you can easily make beautiful websites like http://onlinechurch.blinkweb.com/ and it costs you nothing.
Also I am into teaching so http://secondlife.com/ is the place to go. You can set yourself up and meet in http://secondlife.com/ to teach. It is an amazing place. I went to an inworld teaching conference and there were avatars everywhere. In secondlife avatars are real people so when you see an avatar there is a real person there. If you want to set up a shop or a place to teach on secondlife you will have to pay something but if you just meet in secondlife it is free. I’ve been on secondlife for years now and it has always been free.
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The internet is the future and education on the internet is the future. So become part of the future by learning what you want to be, from the internet and setting yourself up on the internet. The best skill I learned on the internet was http://copyrighting.blinkweb.com/ and now I have set myself up and am trying to get ahead http://copywritercv.blinkweb.com/ It takes time but it is worth it. So have a go. Get on the internet and see what you can find. On the internet you will find something you can do. You don’t need to work for the man, you can now work for yourself.
The internet is information. You can learn anything you want from the internet. Everything you have wanted to know is only a click away. And if you can’t find what you are looking for, just ask. As they say in the Bible, “Ask and you shall receive.” There are many places to ask, just a click away, like the new site quero.com, or the old site askjeeves.com, or just plain old Yahoo.com. There is somebody out there in cyberspace who knows the answer, you just have to ask. Or find a related forum or blog and drop the question. People love helping others and there are some beautiful people out there.
To add more colour to you CV or resume start doing MOOCs. MOOCs are mini courses set up from some of the world’s most famous universities. And they are excellent. I use coursera.org for all my MOOC needs. There are other MOOC suppliers out there in cyberspace but I like coursera. I have passed the learning curve, so I can get things done with their interface. Just google MOOCs and see what comes up, then pick one that is about ready to start and have a go. Go for the “Certification of Completion with Distinction” and put it up on your CV. A word of warning they can be addictive, but it is better to be addicted to MOOCs than being addicted to MOGs. In my view MOOCs are the future. They seem to have taken on a life off their own, so expect them to be around a bit longer. Anyway check them out and give one a go, they could transform your future.
After you have added to your online CV and or portfolio, you are in the marketplace for work. Set up a profile on Linkedin then head over to Elance and start looking for work. Except on Elance you have to quote for the jobs. There are jobs out there that only require a keyboard and an internet computer and skills and that is it. They don’t even want to know what you look like, or where you live. All they want is the completed task, and if you do it well they will ask for more. But first you need to upgrade your skills, learn to speed type and speed read then cyberspace is yours for the asking.
At the moment we are catching up fast with the future, so be a part of the future. http://www.animalsdinosaursandbugs.com/Online-Infographic.html
Teach Your Child To Read 