Itunes U, Post four

The Hidden Value Of "Free" Education

There are many advantages to universities giving away free material.  Although it appears that there is little advantage to the universities, the real advantage is hidden. 

The Iceberg Concept

The Iceberg concept?  Right.  The true value of giving away free education is a lot like observing an iceberg.   Only a small fraction of it's monstrous size is visible.

What is Seen? (the tip of the iceberg)

Universities that give out free material and courses appear to be very generous.  We know that the courses must be taught whether we (the general public) look at the material or not,  so what harm does it cause the universities to share?

What hidden value's there are? (All the underwater hidden values)

Universities have many advantages of providing courses in an online library, such as Itunes U.  By providing this free information, universities gain free publicity,  have a potential to make money, and can maintain a more diverse student base.

1.  Free Advertising

Some of the universities that put out courses online are not widely known.  Since students now see these courses, they may consider enrolling in the university.  Other universities may already have a prestigious reputation.  Regardless, universities are getting free publicity.

2.  To Make Money


It is possible to access these courses however, universities do not supply the degree or certificate of completion... at least not for free.  For many of the courses it is possible to write exams on the material which would, upon completion, reward you with a certificate.  These exams are not free, and universities make more money off of a course that's already been taught.  This means that a new professor need not be hired.  In addition,  the potential money that they can make is limitless, since the lectures are recorded and may be distributed an unlimited amount of times.

3.  Provide more opportunity and choice for students


The volume of applications vary year to year and university to university.  Sometimes there are not enough students that applied to a course to run it.  Since a university will have recorded all of the lectures from the last time the course ran, it is possible to just have the students do the course online.  Students may now still do a certain course at their university of choice, instead of resorting to switching universities.  This means universities can sustain a bigger student body, regardless of application volume.

My Course

To be honest, I have only listened to six lectures.  To defend this,  I must state that these six lectures however add up to just under three hours of my time and I have been very busy with my regular school schedule.  My apologies.  

Reflection

Personally I think it is a wise move by Universities to give away the information as there are many different advantages that can occur because of it.  It is evident that free information can potentially be profitable for universities. At the same time these universities acquire the reputation of being generous.  As far as I'm concerned it's a win-win situation.

On another note, from what I've listened to, owning a business is going to be a lot more complex than I thought.  I will need to keep a day job to pay for living, whilst attempting to start up my business... and that's if I even get funding.  Seriously I'm going to have to organize my time better in the future, in order to make owning a business a worthwhile consideration.

And Finally on a completely unrelated note... this video is hilarious.  Business competition at it's finest.

Itunes U, Post three

Yale Entrepreneurial Institute

First off, this Picture sums up how I felt listening to these lectures brilliantly...

The Yale Entrepreneurial Institute (YEI) was formed to help undergraduate and graduate Yale students start scalable new ventures.  The YEI podcast series features talks given at the summer institute's leadership lecture series.  The Itune's U course can be found Here.  So far, my two favourite lectures are "How to write a business plan" lectured by Maureen Burke, and "starting a startup" lectured by Chris Penner.

Lectures

How To Write A Business Plan

Laureen Burke, of the Yale School of Management, and the Yale School of forestry environmental science lectures aspiring entrepreneurs about the importance of a business plan.

After listening to this lecture I have learned that as an entrepreneur, a good, well written business plan is essential if one is expecting to get funding for a project.  According to Laureen Burke, seventy-five percent of business plans she's received lack one or more of the essential qualities of a good business plan.  5-7 minute's in the audio,  Laureen state's that a well written business plan must be exciting, entertaining, knowledgable and, have proper format.  Plans should include a market: a market section, management section, sources section, a detailed description of the production of your product, and most importantly an executive summary.  Laureen describes how to make each of these sections good at twenty-one to twenty-eight minutes in.  


Maureen closes her lecture stating that a good business plan should be totally realistic.  Investors are not going to believe hyped up projected stats, and this will definitely not help a business plan get picked in fact the unrealistic plan may actually even decrease the chances of getting selected.   Finally, it is stressed that a good plan will not be subjective in the sense of saying, it's products will be "better".  It must be stressed how the product will be better, it is simply not enough to state that it is better just because.  


If one wishes to find this lecture it is the first clip in the series, found Here

Starting a Startup

Chris Penner, president and CEO of RemoTV, discusses how to start a startup. 

In this lecture, Chris Penner describes both the positive's and negatives about the entrepreneurial lifestyle.  Being a CEO and owner of many various company's, Chris speaks from personal experience.  When starting a business, there are three main parts which must be reviewed  at startup to ensure success: the team, the market and, the technology.

1.  The team

As an entrepreneur you must make sure that you have a team that is knowledgeable, and devoted.  It takes a lot of commitment for a business to explode, so a genuine team is a necessity.

2. The Market

An entrepreneur must check that there is a market for his business before the business goes public.  It is stated that, the only way sale's are going to happen is if there is a demand.

3. The Technology

In chris' case he had various digital businesses.  In his businesses he had to make sure that the newest technologies were acquired.  This is because people hate change and he had to give them reason to.  Although not all businesses will require the newest tech,  the idea of a quality product is a universal necessity among successful businesses.

Chris describe's how an idea can explode into a thriving business that reaches millions and I thought the above picture was fitting.

Reflection

Next year I will hopefully be attending Western University for their business program for two years.  Following that hopefully I will be accepted into Richard Ivey's School of Business to get an HBA.  I have always considered the possibility of starting a business and I thought this program would enlighten in the idea.  

Itunes U, Post Two

                              The World's A busy place!

Schooling - Problem and solution.  

There are time management issues in classic school environments.  These issue's are solved when put online, because students may look at material whenever they choose to.  Here are some qualities of the different environments. 

Old School

Traditionally, schools ran at specific times during the day.  People attended the classes to get the knowledge they needed to pass their exams.  If for some reason, a student missed a class, it was entirely their responsibility to figure out what they missed, and learn it.  When teacher's missed classes, the class was left with a supply teacher.... that usually knows absolutely nothing on the subject they are supposed to be teaching. 

Time was, and still is a problem in the classic school environment.  Many tough situations arise with this old system such as,  when teachers or students missing vital classes such as review periods.  Communication is missed, and it's not fair to either party to be responsible for problems related to time.   

New School, "Always on" Schooling

The new school experience provides students with freedom.  With their course being on Itune's, students are able to learn the material on their own time, and at their own pace.  They may take as long as they need to thoroughly understand a material, and always have the opportunity to watch their lecture again and again and again.    For teachers, I'm assuming this new method helps with time management as well.  This way as long as students take responsibility and do their learning, they will never miss any material because of other commitments.  I find this a much fairer environment where everyone is provided with the same opportunities.

Reflection

Using new technology available,  it is possible to learn online.  Many different industries could use this technology to reduce costs.  For example: businesses can now do all their training online, which prevents the need to pay a trainer and  schools no longer need to limit class sizes anymore, which reduces the need to pay an extra professor.

Looking forward, the new learning technologies that are available overcome various barriers such as time, distance, and quantity.  Training and learning can now be done on one's own time, regardless of where they are in the world, and as many people as like may participate.

Overall I feel that Itunes U courses are going to be increasingly more popular in the next few years because of the advantages they provide to everyone.  

Itunes U, Post One

Online learning

This is going to be a comparison and personal reflection between a tradition learning style, and a new learning tactic found online.  The Khan academy is a collection of video's that provide an alternative to the classic in class learning style.

Khan Academy

I actually discovered Khan academy earlier this semester when I joined a data class extremely late.  All of the concepts that I missed, were available on the youtube channel as mini video lessons.  These little lessons taught me how to solve permutations & combinations better than any standard teacher could have, as far as I'm concerned.  I feel that because I have self initiative, these lessons are able to teach me concepts extremely effectively, without the need to be in class.

With these lessons, I could actually go back and review any material that I found confusing  whereas, in a classic setting, the class will wait for no one.  I also found that the Khan Academy displayed math concepts in their most basic forms, this provided me with a quick learning curve.

Here is the video, that saved my life!

Personal Results

Personally, I aced my data test.  In fact, I only managed to have a 2% margin of error.  Compared to the class that learned the concepts in class for weeks, I got the second highest mark.  Somehow this new learning method taught me Permutations & combinations more effectively than the teacher in front of the class could.  

Since I originally discovered Khan Academy, I've used it's video's  to study and learn in various subject areas.  A problem that arose from the academy however is that,  you need to have initiative to actually be productive.  Unlike a standard classroom, there is no obligation to "attend" Khan Academy's study session. 

Reflection

Overall I feel like the Khan Academy's a great addition to the standard classroom for anyone, that has self initiate, and will take responsibility for their own learning.   Although the video tutor's are a great substation for those independent people, there are always going to be people that will not take advantage of the lesson's because they feel they have "better things to do."  For the soul reason that people exist like that, I don't feel Khan's academy, or any similar online tool will replace standard high schools.  As I'm sure it was not designed to, either.

What might happen, and I feel should happen however is the ability to write high school course exams without spending months of your life in the class.  It shouldn't matter whether a student gets their knowledge from in class, or online  if they know the material than they should be able to write an exam for a credit.  

1st Blog Post Response

First Blog Post

Henry the fourth part 1 is one of William Shakespeare's less common plays.   After “googling” (yes googling is now recognized as a verb see http://goo.gl/LSWXI)  the plays name, I have found several different resources which will hopefully understand a shakespeare play for once in my life.  Unlike Hamlet, which parallels The Lion King,  Henry The Fourth Part 1 does not have a movie modeled after the play.  Doing one of the less known plays is going to provide me with a challenge.  Information and shortcuts won’t be available for this play unlike some other Shakespeare plays.  This will prepare me more for what researching is going to be like in university.

Although I’d prefer to be learning about the same play as the rest of the class, there are some positive’s that come from doing a play independently.  If our class was doing the same play I could ask classmates for some information which potentially could be false.  By doing a play by myself I will have to research all the information myself and if a mistake is made than it would be no ones fault but my own.   Doing this independently might help me in the future such as, if  I was asked to pick an uncommon shakespeare play in university, I would already have studied Henry the fourth part 1 before.  

Researching Henry the fourth part one is going to be much more difficult than researching one of the more common plays such as Hamlet or Romeo and Juliette.  Resources such as spark notes will have much more information and script analysis on the more common plays because... well they’re more common.  They get assigned to everyone in high school.  Between songs I decided to do a quick search on youtube for Henry the fourth part 1.  To my pleasant surprise I discovered that several groups have their performance on the play on youtube.     Unfortunately however I couldn’t locate any analysis or 60 second summaries such as this one for hamlet.

Overall after reading the summary from spark notes, I’m happy that Henry the fourth part 1 seems at lease half entertaining.  Throughout high school I’ve always hated class whenever the Shakespeare unit came around, and I couldn’t understand anything.  This particular class is different because alternatives learning methods are allowed and encouraged.  Thanks Mr. Chesser your the man.  

2nd blog post response

Shakespeare Second Blog Post

Wikipedia is known universally throughout the education world to have unreliable or misleading information.  Personally I believe that wikipedia is a great place to find reliable information but, it should not be referenced directly to wikipedia.  Instead the information should be referenced to the list of references at the bottom on any wikipedia page respectively.   When I brought up King henry IV part 1  on wikipedia’s page I found no inaccurate information on the main character’s of the play.  I did however find some misleading information.

Wikipedia states that the character of King Henry the Fourth was based on the historical king of England, was referred to as “bolingbroke (sometimes spelt Bullingbrook)” Both of these statements are true however neither show any character development.  Wikipedia also states that the king is referred to as “Lancaster” by Glendower however Glendower only does this once in the play. 1

Another problem that is misleading is that Wikipedia doesn’t differentiate any of the different characters’s importance.  One who is reading the page would have no idea that the main characters are Prince Harry, King Henry and Falstaff.2   Overall I find that the information on Wikipedia’s page is more or less accurate, however the quality of information could be improved greatly.  In fact their whole character portion of the page could be improved by creating a small character analysis section of main characters.

Finally,  I would just like to point out that not a single reference is to be found in the entire character section of the wikipedia page.  Although the information is mainly true I had to research it and make sure myself that it was all valid.  Wikipedia could improve their site by adding more references, thus verifying the legitimately of the information.

References
1.http://shakespeare.mit.edu/1henryiv/full.html
2.http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/henry4pt1/canalysis.html
3.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_IV,_Part_1

Wednesday March 21st Response

Wednesday March 21st, 2011 -  Response 

Being a millennial child, I was born during a big technological revolution and was raised using technology for almost everything.  Although these technologies seem second nature to me, they are harder for the older generations to grasp.  Google has been my homepage for as long as I can remember, google has helped me to get the basics on searching the internet.  Now experimenting with new search engines and google + I feel that I can pick words that will return better results and choose through results to get the information I was looking for.  Frequently us millennial's discover tricks in technology without a manual or instruction (such as in my case googles calculator and easydictionary)  With my knowledge in technology I feel like I could easily adapt to upcoming and future technologies.  I’d rate my net search skills 9/10

Traditionally my family has always run off of PC computers and have always had the Microsoft office suite for many reasons but in particular we liked how compatible it was with school computers. (both my parents are teachers)  Recently however my mom and I switched over to the world of apple where we now have the iworks suite and like the ease of the software.  It’s almost like all buttons are just where they should be, and for now I’ll be sticking to apple.  ** For a time my uncle gave us a computer that ran off of the linux operating system where I discovered the open office suite.  Having experience with MS office as well as many of it’s alternatives I feel like my office suite skills are up to date with todays standards. I’d rate my office suite skills 9/1-

In our technologically advanced world, ease of you is a priority for many software programs or even hardware.  Interactive help tutorials are becoming more frequent with software.  I feel like I can figure out many programs by myself and rarely find myself with a problem.  If however I do find a program I usually use search engines for the answer rather than the help menu’s and that seems to be working out A-OK.  I’d rate my self learning help skills 9/10.

Typing .... right.  Well in elementary school I was always stuck in typing classes but my form was never the “proper” way to do it, however I still pump out over fifty decent words a minute.  So yeah.. that’s not great but it’s not awful! This could always be improved but it would be like teaching an old dog a new trick.  I’d rate my typing skills a 7/10

Social media protection and security... oh no.  I understand how to use social networking sites like facebook, twitter, tumblr, flikr all of those however some of the material that I have on my networks is the not type of material I’d like to my mother to see.  When applying for jobs after university I plan to have separate accounts for business and leisure to prevent potential problems.  I’d rate my social media skills a 6/10

Netiquette.  Hmm... the short form of “net etiquette”  I feel like I know the do’s and don’ts or unwritten rules of facebook.  Doing things like “liking” randoms pictures or comments are generally unacceptable.  Writing professional emails hasn’t really applied to me yet but by following the same form as a professional letter I should be able to get by decently.  I’d rate my netiquette a 6/10

Because I am on a mac there is a lot of built in security software that stops viruses and malware however I realize that it is not perfect.  The browser I use (google Chrome) has a phishing filter and will also notify me is a spam/phishing site is expected and warns me to proceed with caution.  Many of my online profiles are not hidden and this is a major security breach and has potential for identity theft.  I realize this isn’t cool but I’m lazy and probably won’t end up changing it.  Security and safety skilles ... 6/10

Hardware basics and troubleshooting.  I’m decent with troubleshooting the various problems that have been happening to me throughout my life.  Usually I’m stuck fixing all the problems with printers and wifi and personally have had to reload/jailbreak/unlock my friends iphones and ipods.  So I must be doing something right.  Lately however I haven’t been keeping up with how new hardware and software works internally and don’t think that I could fix problems without help... but there’s always a tutorial for everything.  I’d rate the hardware basics and troubleshooting a 7.5/10

Backup Data.  I literally back up every single thing on my computers with a 750GB hard drive at least weekly unless something happens.  I’d rate my “data backup skills” a 9/10 because there’s always need for improvement.  

Check out Seagates wireless hard drive, it’s kinda cool

http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/products/external/external-hard-drive/goflex-satellite

With the appstore now for mac finding applications for literally anything is easy to find using their menu’s.  Chances are some of these app’s will interact with other apple products like your iphone, ipod or ipad, apple tv or other apple products... Using many different apple devices at home I can almost always find an application to solve any problem.... have the time they’re even free!  I really do find that “there’s an app for that” for everything.  My only problem however is that sometime’s there is a compatibility issue with information from PC’s to Mac’s  and that kinda sucks.   I’d rate my finding apps and software skills a 8/10 for the soul reason that sometime’s compatibility throughout platforms creates way more work than necessary. 

Copyright and Citing sources.  Usually I just google “cite generator” and use one of the many easy citation generators found online.  I’d rate my skill for this a 2/10 because I can somewhat find the information however I’d rate my problem solving skills 8/10