11031 Self Education

I was happy as a child with my toys in my nursery. I have been happier every year since I became a man. But this interlude of school makes a somber grey patch upon the chart of my journey. It was a unending spell of worries that did not then seem petty, and of toil uncheered by fruition; a time of discomfort, restriction and purposeless monotony. — Winston Churchill

If you decide that pursuing a college degree is not the path for you, or “not right now”, this does not mean an end to your education. The leading edge of education these days is online and crowd-sourced. There are a growing number of websites and programs offering high quality instruction for free or at low cost. There is a whole "Uncollege" movement, growing like wildfire. Just google Uncollege and check it out in Wikipedia, about which movement the online encyclopedia sayeth. . .

UnCollege is a social movement that aims to change the notion that going to college is the only path to success. . . The UnCollege movement is founded on these principles:

  • Many people pay too much for university and learn too little.
  • You can get an amazing education anywhere — but you’ll have to stop writing papers and start doing things.
  • You need an excellent education to survive in a world where 50% of the population is under 30.
  • Subjects taught in traditional universities are often contrived, theoretical, and irrelevant, promoting conformity and regurgitation rather than innovation and learning.
  • You don’t have to decide what to do with your life at age 18.
  • You can contribute to society without necessarily having a university degree.
  • You cannot rely on university to give you a complete and relevant education when professors are often more interested in researching than teaching.
  • If you want to gain the skills requisite for success, you must hack your education.

An outline of the self-education process —

  • Pursue your passions.
  • Put what you learn into praxis (action with contemplation).
  • Talk about/publicize what you do.
  • Join or create a peer learning community.
  • Market yourself.

Online Educational Resources

12 Dozen Places to Educate Yourself Online for Free http://www.marcandangel.com/2010/11/15/12-dozen-places-to-self-educate-yourself-online/

Uncollege Resources http://www.uncollege.org/resources/ Compilation of resources from the uncollege movement.

Zero Tuition College http://www.ztcollege.com/

Coursera http://www.cs101-class.org/hub.php Coursera commits to making the best education in the world freely available to any person who seeks it.

Udemy http://www.udemy.com/ Take and build online courses on any subject. Our goal is to disrupt and democratize education by enabling anyone to learn from the world's experts.

Open Courseware Consortium http://www.ocwconsortium.org/ Sponsored by MIT, a collaboration of universities and colleges offering freeware educational resources.

Khan Academy http://www.khanacademy.org/ Over 3,000 free online videos teaching everything from arithmetic to venture capital and many points between. Strong on math and science.

Academic Earth http://academicearth.org/ Aggregating video lectures from major universities.

Stanford Engineering Everywhere http://see.stanford.edu/default.aspx Accesses courses in Stanford’s engineering department.

Online Education from the University of Washington http://www.pce.uw.edu/online-learning/ Not everything is free, but there is plenty of open material here.

Annenberg Learning http://www.learner.org/resources/browse.html Free materials from a supplier of online resources to teachers.

Whatcom College Math Center http://math.whatcom.ctc.edu/content/Links.phtml?cat=3 Free online math courses.

Carnegie Mellon Open Courses http://oli.web.cmu.edu/openlearning/ Engineering, statistics, biology, and more.

Free Online Italian Lessons http://www.oggi-domani.com/

John Hopkins School of Public Health Open Courseware http://ocw.jhsph.edu/

NYU Free Courseware https://files.nyu.edu/jmg336/public/html/mathematics.html Textbooks, lectures, notes, and videos on mathematics

Tufts Open Courseware http://ocw.tufts.edu/

Sofia Open Content Initiative http://sofia.fhda.edu/ 8 classes offered by a consortium of California community colleges.

Economic Research Institute Distance Learning http://www.eridlc.com/?FuseAction=Main.Home#List 52 classes on human resources.

Stanford Computer Science Library http://cslibrary.stanford.edu/ Free access to texts and other materials.

University of Pennsylvania Online Library http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/

iTunes University http://www.apple.com/education/itunes-u/

Wikiversity http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Wikiversity:Main_Page Text based learning resources online

Textbook Revolution http://www.textbookrevolution.org/index.php/Main_Page Free textbooks online.