Comments on: Because learning is sexy

Because learning is sexy

jonson — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 18:32:10 -0800

Librarian Chick is a blogger who has put together a wiki of literally hundreds of online learning sources with over twenty categories for "students, educators & anyone else who's hip to learning."

Also by the same author, a similarly vast collection of open source software resources. All found via.

By: nickyskye

nickyskye — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 18:56:17 -0800

Wow, that wiki is a generous, easy to use resource. A labor of love. Librarian Chick rocks! Totally enjoying her rich blog too. And thanks for the post jonson.

By: Alvy Ampersand

Alvy Ampersand — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 19:01:54 -0800

Wow indeed, nickyskye. Wow indeed.

By: Jody Tresidder

Jody Tresidder — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 19:17:33 -0800

Thanks very much, jonson. This looks terrific.

By: carsonb

carsonb — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 19:33:29 -0800

There've been a few of these online learning resource aggregations that I've seen (excellent every time), and between these and the "What other MeFi subsites would you like to see" question on MeTa a while back I had an idea: It would be awesome if there was a site that compiled free online courses and then matched up interested parties into a 'class' of 2 or more. Sort of like a dating site, or better yet an online chess forum, but for study partners. You could indicate a course you want to take and then wait for someone who's interested in the same topic to come along, then work through the material together. Or, peruse the courses with someone waiting for a study partner. Does this exist? If not, does anyone want to take the idea and run with it so I can sign up?

By: DU

DU — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 19:35:54 -0800

Great resource...but did you only include the word "sexy" because it's a female?

By: RussHy

RussHy — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 19:45:19 -0800

Five comments and 10 favorites, wow! I see why. great post.

By: LeLiLo

LeLiLo — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 19:54:35 -0800

did you only include the word "sexy" because it's a female? He was just quoting her — that's what she calls her own wiki.

By: kavasa

kavasa — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 19:55:31 -0800

DU, please. Click the link again, then look at the title bar of your browser. And if you're going to be hyper-sensitive, at least try not to refer to women as its. Annnnnnnnnnnyway! Thanks jonson! Man. Am going to melt my brain with this site.

By: stbalbach

stbalbach — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 20:00:43 -0800

Carsonb, sounds like an interesting idea! When I first got involved with Wikipedia three years ago I had a utopian ideal of learned and like-minded strangers cordially working together on a scholarly project. Man was my bubble burst! I'm convinced the teacher/student model of learning is still the best way - the University system has remained resilient for almost 900 years despite every generation trying new ways. So the question is how does one create a free online University system - I have not seen it yet and the response to Wikipedia suggests there is a huge pent up demand for it, but Wikipedia is a nightmare, probably because it is an honor system and "cultures of honor" breed intractable civility problems. In Bologna, where the first European University started in the 11th century, the studently would form groups and pool their money and decide what they wanted to learn and then hire a teacher to teach them, with the power to fire that teacher at any time. Perhaps there is a market for freelance teachers and student designed courses.

By: SassHat

SassHat — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 20:08:54 -0800

Someone's sucking up to the mods...what's next Johnson, a post about cyclists who wear glasses? Or maybe musical Jesus-alikes.

By: miss lynnster

miss lynnster — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 20:28:59 -0800

I keep clicking her links to applications that sound like something I could really use... but inevitably the application isn't Mac-friendly. Not Librarian Chick's fault of course. But... wah.

By: delmoi

delmoi — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 20:32:57 -0800

When I first got involved with Wikipedia three years ago I had a utopian ideal of learned and like-minded strangers cordially working together on a scholarly project. Man was my bubble burst! Well, wikipedia may not be some platonic ideal of whatever, and the wikipedia litigation process certainly seems insane, with all the layers of beurocracy, but the ultimate product is pretty fucking useful. I mean, can you imagine metafilter with 150 times as many visitors and no $5 fee to post? because that's wikipedia. To put that into perspective, it's more popular then myspace. So I don't know what you had in mind, but the result is pretty fucking sweet.

By: Danila

Danila — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 21:27:47 -0800

Thank you very much for this post. I never went to college, but I have a deep love of learning. Resources like this are why I love the internet. I also love your idea carsonb.

By: Lynsey

Lynsey — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 21:49:58 -0800

Posts like this are what make me wanna say, "I ♥ jonson!"

By: caddis

caddis — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 04:57:16 -0800

Cool. (Also, this reminds me of the interweb in 1994 or so.)

By: Biblio

Biblio — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 07:11:51 -0800

In Bologna, where the first European University started in the 11th century, the studently would form groups and pool their money and decide what they wanted to learn and then hire a teacher to teach them, with the power to fire that teacher at any time. Perhaps there is a market for freelance teachers and student designed courses. posted by stbalbach This happens all the time among homeschoolers. Sometimes the teacher is a parent with an expertise in the subject, and sometimes it's a third-party teacher, often a grad student or a retired educator.

By: stbalbach

stbalbach — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 07:31:36 -0800

the ultimate product is pretty fucking useful It's ok. I mean, take Bibliographies for example. There are a handful of Bibliographies that are any good. Creating a useful Bibliography is one of the more difficult things to do - it takes an expert who is familiar with the corpus of works and who can distill them down into the most important. That takes years or reading and experience. Meanwhile, Joe Bob adds his favorite book to the list (or worse, the book he wrote). Then take footnotes. What a joke! I can find a footnote that will support just about anything, footnotes don't make it right. And who checks these footnotes to make sure they actually say it? I often see accurate and well written articles that have no footnotes get trashed by well meaning but ignorant users - meanwhile articles with footnotes expose all sorts of strange and non-mainstream views. Wikipedia gives the appearance of being scholarly and useful but in fact is often just the opposite. Sorry I didn't mean to derail this thread into a rant against Wikipedia. My original point is the demand for Wikipedia suggests a huge pent-up demand for online education with more substance.

By: philomathoholic

philomathoholic — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 02:49:05 -0800

People who click on your 'via' link while at work might be unhappily surprised.