Internet. Education. Free. Where and what can be learned on the Internet

Internet - a dimensionless mine of information. If you live in a Western country, or even just speak English well, do not use this opportunity to improve their education simply a sin.

It offers lecture notes on YouTube, and lecture notes, and additional materials. Especially in the U.S. have succeeded. And, presumably, will succeed even more: President Barack Obama never tires of talking about the need to improve the education system and mass adoption of its capabilities online. In Russia the situation is somewhat different, but not hopeless.Perhaps the most famous in the world of the initiative in the field of Internet education belongs to Apple. The project, the speaker called iTunes U for almost three years allows students all over the world to download, watch and listen to the lectures of the most famous professors in the world. The origins of this initiative takes in 1985, when Steve Jobs, who left (as it turned out, temporarily) from Apple, founded NeXT.
She began to cooperate with U.S. universities. Later, when Jobs returned to the 'apple' company, Apple began offering discounts on their equipment to universities and students themselves, and then opened the project iTunes U. It happened May 30, 2007. Leading universities in the world have their own sections in the center of the distribution of digital content iTunes. There, they put their audio and video. Lectures, lessons on language, information about laboratory experiments, sports highlights, video tour of the campus - it's all there is. Users only need to have iTunes, with access to the network. It seems that all is well and in epplovski simple, but not for the Russians. First, the vast majority of material here - in English. Second, the Russian universities the lectures here are not spread. In addition, to get to iTunes U, one must have an American account. This extra confusion, though, and easy to get it.Another interesting initiative is the West European - Association of Open University, which combines educational institutions that provide the opportunity to receive an education remotely. This organization is funded by the UK government. Become a student of one of these virtual universities and get with the English education would be very interesting. True, only if you are interested in this knowledge, rather than a crust of a university: for admission to distance learning courses are not required to take any entrance exams. In addition, over the Internet, and students will not be such a tight control of what is on the student clinic. Part of the Open University courses freely available in the project OpenLearn.The first university to offer free materials available to users of its courses, began the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). His project Open Courseware was launched in 2002, when public access was laid plans, notes and additional materials are 50 real university courses. Now MIT project, new materials of almost all courses taught at the institute - their 1925. Similar projects have at Harvard, Oxford, Yale and many other world-class institutions. Some enthusiasts have even started collecting these materials and distribute free of charge. One of the most interesting, in my view, libraries of this kind - Lecturefox. There is a lecture at Princeton, Yale, Massachusetts and other universities. If you prefer the text of the video, go to the Education section of YouTube - YouTube EDU.On that same user can expect Runet, owning only one language - the native? As it turns out, the list offers a lot, but they often repeat each other, and therefore a large range can not count. In addition, a large number of national training courses for the type of foundations paradistsiplin time-or stress-management. But with the Russian language and literature, or elementary particle physics is much more complicated. As, however, and attempt to learn using the Internet quantum physics ...But with the programming and mathematics is simple. In the Internet Information Technologies University will tell you about the basics of HTML, PHP, C + + and other languages ​​will be offered to learn the basics of Web layout and discrete analysis. Importantly, virtually all that there is available free of charge. For the money - video courses. Less, in fact, only one, other than computer science and related disciplines, there is nothing to learn here.Significantly greater choice of subjects for self you will find on the open educational video portals Univer.tv, probably the largest such service in RuNet. In terms of device it is almost indistinguishable from the YouTube EDU: lectures of teachers of Russian universities are filled by enthusiasts on the site, and foreign - are translated into Russian.For business people (not only) there is also a useful resource: "The remote business education." The rarity of this resource is that it's free. In total there are 71 module on the basics of business, law, economics, management, finance, accounting and taxes, marketing, and much more. At the end of each module there is a test to test the knowledge gained. And, you can get a certificate of course completion. Maybe it will be important to your employer.With Web services, dedicated to the study of foreign languages, a little bit easier. Find sites where you can learn English free of charge, such as Bell English, or any of 36 languages, such as LiveMocha. It offers voluntary speakers, well-chosen exercises. The level of proficiency you can check the relevant tests. Games determining language proficiency is also in place: it is proposed to find the treasure, then guess who the picture, then demonstrate knowledge of English history. What also matters is the interface of the site, which is made entirely in English. Do not give the possibility of distractions. If you find it difficult to start learning the language, "so soon", you can use the resource "Four of the flag": it's all in Russian and is designed for those who are in English does not know anything but the expression «My name is ...». However, before you learn a foreign language, a good mother to bring up. Resource "My Language - Russian" - here is free to raise your level of proficiency in Russian.It is important to remember that in the era of the Internet to get an education, even without a diploma, which can be anywhere. You can watch lectures of scientists from Harvard, sitting, for example, in Ufa. What are the benefits of this university? Marketing. It is quite logical that the way universities are showing a high class of its professors and lure potential new students. Well, we are only in favor: often in Russia, people simply do not have the physical opportunity to learn not so much in the West, but even in the Russian capital. So the Internet is - a good alternative. Education via the Internet is beginning to replace the absentee. In the development of distance learning technologies seriously interested organizations: mastermind behind the idea of ​​online education in America, for example, was the Pentagon, which said that distance training courses soldiers outside the U.S. - this is a very effective way to keep them in shape, and in full engaged in the development of a common standard for educational materials. "Private correspondent," of course, no one to campaign in favor of Harvard or refresher courses the Pentagon is not going to. But it's never too late to learn, especially if free.