Online Education

As a continuation on my last article on learning the Korean language I would like to add another more entertaining resource to your toolbox. Seemingly a staple in almost all Asian entertainment the drama series holds millions of Koreans on the edge of their seats each week.

Similiar to the American soap opera, Korean dramas offer a large amount of spoken word training. Don’t get excited though, these are not your typical soap operas. They differ from their American counterparts in many ways.

• Production value tends to be higher.
• Limited runs - most shows tend to be 10-16 episodes long.
• Cultural differences.

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I recently posted an entry outlining some free math textbooks for an undergraduate math refresher for new students getting ready to start their first semester of college. For those wanting a bit more, MIT is offering a few 100% free math courses on their OpenCourseWare platform. Each of these classes includes syllabus, calender, lecture notes, assignments, and even exams to evaluate what you learned.

MIT is providing all of this for free of charge. Each of these listed includes everything you need to pass the course just as the students who originally took them did.

1. Algebra I
2. Algebra II
3. Linear Algebra
4. Linear Algebra

I would love to hear from anyone who decides to follow one of these courses. I plan to start running a calendar for Algebra I-II  here on the blog for anyone who wishes to participate.

While no tool can do the learning for you, using the right tools can help you excel and be productive. Some of the best web based tools available are from Google. Google Notebook allows you to add, edit, comment, label, and print notes you take in your browser.

To use Google Notebook you need to have a Google account. Registering for a google account will allow you to use all Google’s services. Once you have registered you will be presented with an empty notebook.

To add notes you will first need to add a new notebook by clicking “Create a new notebook…” You will be prompted with a text box to name your new notebook. I will just stick with the default names for this tutorial. After naming your new notebook click the OK button or hit enter.

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One of the topics I wanted to cover here was new students entering college. It’s a tough time for us and with most students taking next to nothing of value their senior year, thats almost a year with no review of your math skills. I wanted to take the time to outline a few resources for reviewing your basic algebra skills before you take your placement tests.

1. College Algebra with Applications, 2e
2. Principles of Elem. Algebra with Applications,2e
3. Principles of Intermediate Algebra with App.,2e
4. A First Course in Linear Algebra

These are just a few resources to get you started. One of the sad things about public schools that I remember was not getting to keep my books. Who wouldn’t want to have such resources. Giving them back was always hard.

I wanted to take the time to highlight one of the greatest and oldest resources for literature on the Internet, Project Gutenberg. PG is a collection of public domain works digitized and posted for free. PG is the oldest digital library on the internet. Started in 1971 by Michael Hart at the University of Illinois. Hart started the project as an effort to pay back the community for the computer time he was given free of charge at the university.

Today PG contains more than 30,000 items including books, periodicals, and reference works available free of charge to the public. It can easily be searched by author and title, and all the books are readable by anyone with a web browser.

To get you started using PG I wanted to list a few classic publications that are available and currently used in undergrad literature classes. One caveat to keep in mind is that not all books on PG are the current ’scholarly’ edition. The most recent editions of these books would be copyrighted. That said, I have used the texts from PG for school and had no problems.

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So you want to get a college education without spending the dough huh? Well apart from the tuition one of the biggest costs is, you guessed it, textbooks. From my experience some books can cost you upward for $180 and you only use them for one class! Some of the books are available as a pdf download while others can only be read online. Most of the material here is targeted to under-grad studies, but the site contains some post-grad material

Enter Textbook Revolution!

Textbook Revolution is the web’s source for free educational materials. This is a student-run, volunteer-operated website started in response to the textbook industry’s constant drive to maximize profits instead of educational value.

TBR’s mission is to drive the adoption of free textbooks by teachers and professors. We want to get these books into classrooms. Our approach is to bring all of the free textbooks we can find together in one place, review them, and let the best rise to the top and find their way into the hands of students in classrooms around the world.

Their goal is to get as many teachers and students as they can to adopt free textbooks and save the students and schools millions of dollars a year. There are tons of informative books on this site. Have a look today, and remember to tell your professor about it if you are currently enrolled in college courses.

Introduction

One of the first things I want to tackle here is language. Its one of those things that we all want to do, learning another language can be sexy or at least make you seem more cultured. Learning a new language can also expand your cultural insight a lot. Imagine being able to watch all the movies and listen to all the music of another culture with different ideas, themes, and characters.

Learning a new language also opens up the opportunity to travel. With a sound knowledge of a foreign language you can enter another county with confidence and meet new and interesting people and do things you never dreamed of.

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