Learn By Doing

A Lifelong Learner Shares Thoughts About Education

  • This just published from OpenCulture, I am looking forward to signing up for a number of these.

    During the past two days, our list of Free Online Movies has been getting some good exposure. And we’ve got no complaints. But while assembling the movie list, we were also busy putting together a list of 500 Free Online Courses from top universities. Here’s the lowdown: This master list lets you download free courses from schools like Stanford, Yale, MIT, Oxford, Harvard and UC Berkeley. Generally, the courses can be accessed via YouTube, iTunes or university web sites. Right now you’ll find 55 courses in Philosophy, 50 in History, 50 in Computer Science, 35 in Physics, and that’s just beginning to scratch the surface. Most of the courses were recently produced. But, in some cases, we’ve layered in lecture series by famous intellectuals recorded years ago. Here are some highlights from the complete list.

    • African-American History: Modern Freedom Struggle – YouTube– iTunes – Clay Carson, Stanford
    • Financial Markets 2011 – YouTube – iTunes – Web Site – Robert Shiller, Yale
    • Growing Up in the Universe – YouTube – Richard Dawkins, Oxford
    • Human Behavioral Biology – iTunes Video – YouTube – Robert Sapolsky, Stanford
    • Introduction to the Old Testament (Hebrew Bible) – Download Course – Christine Hayes, Yale.
    • Heidegger’s Being & Time – iTunes – Hubert Dreyfus, UC Berkeley
    • Intensive Introduction to Computer Science Using C, PHP, and JavaScript – Multiple Formats – iTunes – David Malan, Harvard
    • Introduction to Cosmology and Particle Physics – YouTube – Sean Carroll, Caltech
    • Invitation to World Literature – Web Site – David Damrosch, Harvard
    • iPhone Application Development in iOS5 – HD Video iTunes – Standard-Def Video iTunes – Paul Hegarty, Stanford
    • Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do? – YouTube – Web Site– Michael Sandel, Harvard
    • Philosophy of Language – iTunes – John Searle, UC Berkeley
    • Physics for Future Presidents – YouTube – Richard Muller, UC Berkeley
    • Quantum Electrodynamics – Web Site – Richard Feynman, Presented at University of Auckland
    • Science, Magic and Religion – iTunes – YouTube – Courtenay Raiai, UCLA
    • The American Novel Since 1945 – YouTube – iTunes Audio – iTunes Video – Download Course – Amy Hungerford, Yale
    • The Art of Living – Web Site – Team taught, Stanford

    Visit this list of Free Courses for many more hours of free enrichment. Separately, you might also want to check out our collection of Free Language Lessons. It offers free lessons in over 40 languages.

  • "Scientists have long been criticized of their inability to communicate complex ideas adequately to the rest of society. Similar to his questions on PBS’ Scientific American Frontiers, actor Alan Alda wrote to the journal Science with a proposition called The Flame Challenge (PDF). Contestants would have to explain a flame to an eleven-year-old kid, and the entries would be judged by thousands of children across the country. The winner of The Flame Challenge is quantum physics grad student Ben Ames, whose animated video covers concepts like pyrolysis, chemiluminescence, oxidation and incandescence boiled into a humorous video, complete with song. Now they are asking children age 10-12 to suggest the next question for the Flame Challenge. Kids out there, what would you like scientists to explain?"

    What is a Flame from Ben Ames on Vimeo.

  • From Teach.com comes this infographic highlighting the decline of STEM interest in the US.

    “If you want to make a difference in the life of our nation, if you want to make a difference in the life of a child, become a teacher. Your country needs you.”

    – President Obama, 2011 State of the Union Address

    Sometimes the full breadth of the conversation around Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) education is hard to take in all at once. For this reason, Teach.com has put together an infographic highlighting the beginnings of the STEM focus in America, the decline in STEM interest, and its recent resurgence as we strive for global competitive advantage through mastery of STEM research and education. Share this infographic with others to help us highlight the continued need for a serious focus on STEM teachers and STEM education.

    Teach.com-STEM-Infographic

  • Building a generation of webmakers

    Mozilla Webmaker wants to help you make something amazing on the web. With TOOLS, PROJECTS and EVENTS that help you create, learn and connect. Our goal: move millions of people from using the web to actively making the web. Creating a new generation of webmakers, and a more web literate world.

    Join the Summer Code Party

    This summer, we’re inviting everyone to join us to meet up, make something cool, and learn how the code behind the web works. It’s called the Summer Code Party, and it starts June 23.

    Mozilla is joining with dozens of other organizations to make this happen. Want to make a prettier template for your blog? Or level up your latest YouTube video? Or just learn a bit of HTML? We’ll have tools, tutorials, and activites to help.

  • Because when they are in court they can either look like they possess a High School education or not.  The judge got one, Oracle’s attorney didn’t even get the respect from Oracle’s programmers to explain how code works.  From Slashdot:

    "One month into the Oracle v Google trial, Judge William Alsup has revealed that he has, and still does, write code. Will this affect the outcome? I think so! After trying to establish that the nine lines in rangeCheck that were copied saved Google time in getting Android to market the lawyer making the case is interrupted by the judge which indicates he at least does understand how straightforward it would be to program rangeCheck from scratch: ‘rangeCheck! All it does is make sure the numbers you’re inputting are within a range, and gives them some sort of exceptional treatment. That witness, when he said a high school student could do it — ‘ And the lawyer reveals he doesn’t: ‘I’m not an expert on Java — this is my second case on Java, but I’m not an expert, and I probably couldn’t program that in six months.’ Perhaps every judge should be a coding judge — it must make the law seem a lot simpler…"