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Week 6 (16-22.11) - Internet is made for... education

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The Internet was created to educate. Do you agree with this statement?  Before you will answer this question, let me show you several reasons:

Wikipedia
When our parents were learning at school to find some additional information they had to visit a library, sometimes sign up to a waitlist for some book and browse huge toms of encyclopedias. We are in a much better situation now - we are literally a few key presses away from every information we are looking for and, what is even better, this information is free and available in several languages. Can you imagine (or do you remember) life without Wikipedia? Even before elections people tend to search information about candidates on Wikipedia:
http://stats.grok.se/

I remember that in high school, my biology teacher was not good at explaining most of processes we had to learn. I found better explanation on Wikipedia and it was the first time I obtained the best mark on a test!
There are of course some issues, Wikipedia hooligans modify articles and publish fake information to, for example, discredit someone - but there are other places where we are able to verify if a given article is trustworthy. Wikipedia editors put great work in adding sources to articles from popular books or other Internet sources  so everyone can verify if information is correct.

Foreign languages
The Internet is also a great tool to help you learn foreign languages. One of learning techniques is about getting the language you want to learn appear around you - to change the language of the operating system, There are also great language courses and applications like Busuu or DuoLingo.

Do you want to learn BigData https://www.coursera.org/specializations/big-data, know something new about Roman Architecture from the University of Yale (https://www.coursera.org/course/romanarchitecture), or learn clinical terminology from the staff of the University of Pittsburgh (https://www.coursera.org/course/clinicalterminology) or you are interested in the Machine Learning course offered  by Stanford University (https://www.coursera.org/learn/machine-learning)? Everything is for you and… free! Yes, we can participate in the world’s best academic courses without paying a dime just investing our spare time. If you pay some low fee you can even obtain a certificate.
Can you imagine how our parents could utilise such an opportunity?
Edit 2015-11-18: Even our university is going to create something like Coursera clone: http://www.pja.edu.pl/aktualnosci/powstanie-polska-wersja-mooc-a-kilka-uczelni-zawiazalo-konsorcjum
YouTube
Another great example is YouTube. Yes, this popular video service is not only full of funny cats and music videos - actually you can learn a lot from it.
My brother (he was born in the late 90’s) learned from YouTube how to start and drive a car (manual transmission of course) and when he had his first problem on a road (flat tire) he found a video instruction how to change a wheel and followed it.

Do you actively use the  Internet to educate yourselves?

Comments

Unknown said…
Of course power of the internet is huge and it made every students life much easier for sure. Nowadays we have open access to information anywhere we are and any time we need- it speeded up the process of gaining knowledge, however it also has some disadvantages. At first, we consume information very fast – because of that we’re it mostly stays in our short-memory and we forget it quickly. Also (unfortunately) most of us consider everything written in internet as truth, even thou we all know that everyone can put any information about anything in internet . The best example is Wikipedia which is being changed by regular users every minute and most of the new information are not checked by experts. Nevertheless I think internet made education easier, but it should be used with thinking.
19 November 2015 at 00:18
Cezary Góralski said…
Well… In my opinion internet was rather made for distribution of content like text, attachments, photos and so on. Also the easy way of communication was good. I would love to believe that internet is so wonderful that is only made for education. In my opinion indeed everyone gain knowledge from internet. It is amazing ease for learning or just quickly looking for something. We are “old” enough to remember that in times of primary school it wasn’t so easy. For instance I used vocabulary in form of book (yeah… now it is hard to believe that we used them instead on using google translate). And definitely it took much longer that visiting website in the internet and just typing. When I learned history events I read books, watched documentary movies and now? There is just wikipedia. And except of the great advantage in form of easy, free access to knowledge we have to answer the question: how many valuable sources of information are in the internet? Who edited those sites? I found many incorrect information in wikipedia, and of course article there are quite short and young people think that this is enough for them to know about the subject.
19 November 2015 at 07:10
Julia Osiak said…
I guess you can say that internet was made for education. It's main purpose was to share information and that in fact is educating others. Everytime we read something new, we learn and it doesn't matter what is the subject.
I use different portals for learning different things. I've heard about coursera. but I haven't had the chance to try it out yet. I got most of my baking knowledge off youtube and other websites. However. when it comes to academics, I still prefer learning for books. It's easier to concentrate and the knowledge is more tangible for me. Also, books don't have access to facebook, so I don't procrastinate as much :p
19 November 2015 at 14:18
Unknown said…
I agree with your argument, but not quite. Firstly Wikipedia is not good example, because it is totally free encyclopedia. What does it mean? It means that everyone can write there and create it. Effects unfortunately may be false information. In my opinion this is the biggest danger in virtual educate and information which we can find in the internet.
regarding with foreign languages I totally agree with you. I think that internet and many applications like just Busuu and DuoLingo are the best way to learning languages.
Wow, I have never heard about Coursera, but it seems to be great thing. I’m sure that from now I will try it and I will look for there courses good for me.
I use the Internet to educate myself. It is great but unfortunately there are many lures - stupid lures which still steal our precious time.
That’s why I have a problem with educate from the internet. We must have a big strong will and a big motivation.
BTW great topic for the article. Thanks! :)
19 November 2015 at 18:26
Michal Kulesza said…
Great point, aren't you a little bit overwhelmed by amount of information found on the internet? Do you have any idea how this problem may be solved?
20 November 2015 at 01:00
Michal Kulesza said…
When looking for vocabulary in dictionary - didn't you remember it faster? I think that it was easier to learn when you had to look through several analog (:P) pages.

Could you give me some example of invalid information in wikipedia you found? Have you discussed this issue with Wikipedia editors?
20 November 2015 at 01:01
Michal Kulesza said…
Great point, recently I've had option to buy paper copy of book for 200$ and ebook for 100$ - I've took paper version because I knew that it will be harder to procastrinate when reading it :)
20 November 2015 at 01:03
Michal Kulesza said…
I'm glad you enjoyed it!
Well, as I wrote - you can still validate information that is on Wikipedia - it's easier with linked source information. However this 'validation of information' is valid for whole Internet. Sadly we can't trust anything.
20 November 2015 at 01:06
Unknown said…
I think this is one of the best things in internet, that you can easily find and learn whatever you want. I am a big fan of many internet websites that are offering courses etc. I love youtube for free, short tutorials (thanks youtubers!), I love coursera and teachers all over the world for not being selfish, I love wikipedia for everything it offers (and for it's contrubutors = US, because WE as society are creating it!), and internet dictionaries that are so helpful nowadays! This is amazing how we created a place, where we can do so much things! And sometimes I wonder how it is possible that many people doesn't use all of these, because it is a treasure. I really can't imagine a world before internet haha
20 November 2015 at 12:52
Paulina Zabokrzycka said…
I didn’t have an Internet access until I was in middle school. I used various encyclopedias, many manual dictionaries and books like “most common mistakes in Polish language”. Later on I used some CD encyclopedias, dictionaries and education programs. Obviously Internet is an infinite source of wonderful educational and inspirational materials. Of course education and inspiration are good things, but they may also be dangerous if the intentions are bad. However, this is more of an upbringing matter and I don’t think that limiting the Internet access is a good thing. Children should be taught how to use it responsibly. We should also remember that anything we post or search stays online forever and net anonymity is not a real thing. Did you know that Google saves all your search queries history when you are logged in with your Google account?
Coming back to the educational purposes of the Internet I would like to share with you a website I recently found out about – creativelive. You can watch classes on many different subjects in various areas of interest. The main categories are: Photo & Video, Art & Design, Music & Audio, Craft & Maker and Money & Life. There you may find many recorded professional academical classes. You may watch on air (live) classes for free (there is a calendar available, so you can adjust your plans accordingly) and if you like them and would like to watch them again (or access the ones that were already aired) you have to pay to download them. It is a wonderful source of knowledge.
21 November 2015 at 18:17
Unknown said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
22 November 2015 at 00:16
Unknown said…
For me the most amazing fact about the internet is that it provides us with unlimited knowledge resources and at the same time gives opportunity to pick form of this knowledge presentation. Written courses in form of blogs, video tutorials and even audio lessons, all are accessible over the internet. This great variety allows us to match suitable form of learning to different activities during daily routine. While learning I usually combine most of mentioned forms mostly focusing on reading blogs. Unfortunately we are so used to having instant access to all the knowledge stored in the internet that we often don't even bother remembering simple facts. Such phenomenon in long term may favour stupefying of society.
22 November 2015 at 00:19
Michal Kulesza said…
Nice conclusion. Do you have any idea how to prevent this? I believe that limiting access is not a way but I don't have any other idea.
22 November 2015 at 01:26
Michal Kulesza said…
Great one, bookmarked, thank you! I would just add confreaks.tv - great video database with videos from conferences.

I know that Google saves all search queries when you are logged in - moreover - it saves it even if you are not logged in identifying you by other sources. When you are using Google Chrome it sends unique identifier (even in incognito mode!) so Google can store your activity even if you are not logged in.
22 November 2015 at 01:29
Michal Kulesza said…
It's not that easy because less and less people are contributing to Wikipedia. I've edited 2 or 3 articles in my life, so I tend to call editors 'THEY' not 'US' :)
Are you active Wikipedia editor?
22 November 2015 at 01:30
Unknown said…
Internet is really great tool to education but for some pepople is only one way to learn. We can't forget about books, because not everything is on the Internet (yet). Worse if instead of learning begin to copy someone else's work. I remeber when my friends in High School copy essays on Polish. In that way they learn nothing and also they cheat teacher.
For me the best thing in Internet are toturials! I think every graphic designer probably knows how helpful they are for learning many programs or techniques. It's easier to learn something when you see how someone is doing something than read about it.
22 November 2015 at 10:48
Unknown said…
The purpose of creating anything what is commonly called the Internet was laudable and I agree with what you wrote in your article that Internet was created for education. Today is a bit different because of fact that everyone has access to it. Information must be sort and distinguish the true from the false. Unfortunately, the admission of all to Internet is connected with this fact. Let me quote the words of Stanislaw Lem, which perfectly reflect what I think about today's Internet era: Until I took advantage of the internet, I didn't know that in the world there are so many idiots.
22 November 2015 at 10:57
Unknown said…
I think you can learn a lot while using internet websites, it's a simple way to get information we need and we can do it really quickly.
If you want to learn languages online, you can use youtube tutorials or online dictionary, you have the same information with lower costs. A good way to practice language is watching movies or listening music in this language.
You have to choose it carefully because people are lazy these days and they think that everything they can find its true, but it's not.
But if we use it right its very helpful in everyday life.
22 November 2015 at 13:20
Paulina Zabokrzycka said…
I didn't know that. Noted - thanks. The other interesting thing about data collecting is why Google Maps shows you the traffic - it gathers location information from all Android smartphones and tracks how fast they move.
22 November 2015 at 13:22
Unknown said…
I agree that Internet is made for education, certainly for me. I can’t imagine living without YouTube’s scientific channels. Of course there are still a bunch of great printed publications that I enjoy. But channels such as “Periodic Videos” or “MinutePhysics” or “DeepSkyVideos” give me a solid portion of a knowledge in a really interesting way.
22 November 2015 at 14:09
Unknown said…
Internet in my opinion isn't only for education, it's for information in general. Good for both news from the world and academic data that can teach us something. This can be a great thing, but also a bad thing. I love Internet for providing me a chance to learn new things, but on the other hand, there is soooo many of these it's sometimes hard to concentrate on what you want. You probably know this situation when you check an article on Wikipedia (or something similar) needed for study etc. and you end up reading something completely different and absolutely unassociated with the original subject. I'm not really complaining though. I love tutorials of all kinds or step-by-steps of painting techniques I'd like to understand. Great way to expand ones knowledge and skills.
22 November 2015 at 15:24
Unknown said…
I think that the internet is a source of knowledge but we should consider how we look for information. For example in wikipedia could be false information. Every internet user ( even those who are not experts ) can write an article there. Of course wikipedia and whole internet help us in our education. It depends on how we use web Browsers and what sites we visit. It is amazing that the Internet enables us to learn new languages. There are many dictionaries and online courses. We can expand our knowledge.
22 November 2015 at 15:24
Patrycja Marciniak said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
22 November 2015 at 19:27
Patrycja Marciniak said…
I think Internet's just a medium and it's all up to you whether you use it for recreation, knowledge, advertising, information, etc etc. :) It's the same with books, magazines, TV, and many more - each medium can be used whatever you'd like.

It's true that there are many great sites where you can learn a lot! Personally, I have a constant hunger for knowledge and sometimes I come up with a random question about genetics or physics and end up browsing articles on wikipedia till 3 in the morning :)

By the way, if you like knowledge, there is a great YouTube channel called ASAPscience with short, simple videos with scientific responses for everyday problems :)
22 November 2015 at 19:29
Unknown said…
I think oportunites that we have now are awsome. We can check, watch, listen, read and talk with other peoples about almost eveything. This is much more better than before. Ofcourse now we can have problem with amount of informations that we can see and becouse of this we cant be sure about each informations. Each opinion in internet can be fake or changed by someone perspective.
I think solution for this can be to have list of autorities that are wright by most of time, and to check most of time what is source of information.
Moreover we can use some nice aplications to aggregate only good news and focus only on real informations and opinions
22 November 2015 at 19:41
Unknown said…
Thats true, sometimes on wikipedia informations are wrong but most of time this issues will be fixed in period of few days.
I think now you can use other sources of informations like sjp.pl or http://ipn.gov.pl/zasoby-cyfrowe where we have certainty about reliability of this informations.
Sometimes there are plenty of amazing blog about some subject and these peoples dont make any bugs becouse they are pasionate about this kind of matter.
22 November 2015 at 19:47
Unknown said…
Thats true, some type of informations better looks on paper. I like a lot to read newspapers in the old way, this is fun for me but in case of read academics papers I prefrer to read pdf. I can push this ebook on tablet and then read it mulitple times when I have time for this. Tablet is smaller and I can put there many more books and use them when I will need this. I like to have app that can mark some quotes that I will use later. this is very important in matter of some topics
22 November 2015 at 19:54
Unknown said…
Internet is a really good thing if you want to learn something new. As for me, firstly it is a great tool in learning foreign languages. There are a lot of channels on YouTube, where you can improve your listening skills in different languages by watching vlogs and so on.
I am a big fan of online education such as online-courses, conferences etc. I think that it is a really interesting and useful source to learn something new and even get a certificate that proves your skills so you can always add it to your CV.
Also you can use internet to find a lot of tutorials that are super helpful in learning.
22 November 2015 at 19:55
Unknown said…
I do not agree with you. We can trust facts and documents that are confirmed by few well known companies. Some companies do what they can to have only valid informations and peoples from this companies multiples times try to help wikipedia to upgrade quality of content
If we cant trust peoples that create wiki then who we can trust?
22 November 2015 at 20:01
Unknown said…
Wow! Nice. These links are awsome. I dont know creativelive.com and confreaks.tv. There are plenty of nice content. I will bookmark them.
About google this is true. I dont like this. This is real problem with information right now. This company can have too many information even we dont want to do it.
22 November 2015 at 20:06
Unknown said…
Yes, thats true. I like to way of lear new languages now. Each country have they youtube specyfic channels, blog or portals. Now you can have access to this type of informations and these comunications are now in two ways. This is awsome. You can send comment to author or just commend some thread that you like or dislike. You can chat with someone just in time. This is upgading learning to new level and I cant wait for nex level :)
22 November 2015 at 20:10
Michal Kulesza said…
This idea with authorities is nice, however don't you think that it can influence internet neutrality in some way?
22 November 2015 at 20:12
Michal Kulesza said…
These words of Stanislaw Lem are always in my head when I read comments on Polish news portals :)
22 November 2015 at 20:14
Michal Kulesza said…
Thanks for MinutePhysics! I didn't know that one!
22 November 2015 at 20:15
Michal Kulesza said…
Are these certificates from online courses meaningful? Do you have any experience with these?
22 November 2015 at 20:17
Michal Kulesza said…
You can not only learn languages but also foreign cultures - you can see how people live, how they behave what are their habits - and it's great - it's another way of 'upgrading learning' :)
22 November 2015 at 20:18
Unknown said…
Thanks for link I dont know this before. This can be very nice, I watch few of them and I add sub for this channel.
Thats true there are of resources to build and learn you skills. Personaly I love to watch and listen. I like to listen some podcast when Im running or when im in the train. I can listen some opinions and based on them I can think what can consequences about some decisions and listen to other perspectives to problems.
Some time ago I realiste that I need to learn all the time and this is unchangeable for now. If so I need to try to learn as much I can.
22 November 2015 at 20:19
Unknown said…
I think that you too much generalize putting such a hypothesis.
Looking at how content is presented on the Internet they can be divided into many more categories than just education. I bet that there are those who do not even think about using the Internet for educational purposes but only such information or entertainment.
Of course, ambitious people that tend to their development, have a great help in this thanks to the educational content inserted by others.
22 November 2015 at 21:19
Aleksander M said…
Yes I do! I'm a firm believer in e-learning and I'm willing to bet that sooner or later (think 20-30 years) this will become the main source of knowledge.

Also, I happen to work at eduweb.pl, which I do believe is the best e-learning site available in polish language - have you ever heard of us? Feel free to share your thoughs! :)
22 November 2015 at 21:39
Sebastian Żakowski said…
In my opinion the internet is excellent way to learn foreign languages. You can use all this new technology to improve your performance. An important Predisposition is to have an academic or minimal requirement to learn at material internet move out class room teacher. This is not for everybody, and usually 50 percent people learning new languages online. On the other hand it’s good start for people to introduce themselves to foregin languages. For example i was trying learn Japanese on the internet. It was difficult at first but now it’s much easier and step by step i’m fulfilming my goals.
22 November 2015 at 22:41
Unknown said…
Today, the internet is the best tool for learning, but I can't agree with sentence that Internet is made for education. The Internet is used much more often for entertainment and communication.
Personally, I use all the possibilities of learning on the Internet, which are contained in the article. As a programmer, I must also mention the stackoverflow.com, which I use every day to solving problems.
22 November 2015 at 22:43
Unknown said…
Internet is a huge trash. But if you know where to search you gonna learn something. Wikipedia and other similar pages will give you a lot of knowledge but there are also websites where people say that Chopin was a "Guitar Hero". So we have to be really careful when we use Internet as a source of wisdom. In the end want to say that's the only source I use.
22 November 2015 at 22:55
Unknown said…
I don't know about you, but I remember when I used to grab an encyclopedia to find the information I needed. I also frequently visited the library, even when I already could freely use the internet. But of course it's great that now, most of the information we need can be easily found on the internet, and that there are so many possibilities for free education and self development - all you need is the will to do it. I wish I had enough persistence to learn something from internet courses and I admire people who actually do learn new things that way, even new languages. I admire that tyeh can find enought determination, maybe one day I too will manage to get there. Sadly, I think I'm spending a lot of time using the internet badly... all those videos of funny cats.
23 November 2015 at 00:05
Krzysztof Lichota said…
I spend a lot of time in the Internet and I learn so many new things thanks to it. The best part is that all you need to do is just click little button "Search" and you have millions of links where you can find whatever you want. I basically use it to read website for programmers and to take some additional courses but it is also great to learn languages. But most of the time it is also a trap! It would be lovely if Internet was only used to study because there are so many interesting things that you can read about. But Internet is a huge distraction! There are many videos and websites that are great at distracting you. So yes, Internet isgreat place to learn and study but you have to use it carefully to not loose your mind.
14 December 2015 at 23:01
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