People flock online for free university education
Posted: November 3, 2012 at 5:40 pm
Nov. 3, 2012, 3 a.m.
THE NUMBER of people enrolled in free online subjects at Melbourne University has overtaken enrolments at its campuses in less than two months.
The university became the first Australian institute to join online education provider Coursera in September.
Since then more than 52,000 students have enrolled in the university's free massive open online courses, which will begin next year.
According to MyUniversity website, Melbourne University has 47,561 students enrolled in its undergraduate and postgraduate courses.
The university's principles of macro-economics free online subject is most popular with 12,053 enrolments. It offers 10 free online subjects including climate change, animal behaviour and exercise physiology.
Melbourne University provost Margaret Sheil said the course included lectures, videos and quizzes. Students discuss ideas in chat rooms. Most courses run for about seven weeks.
''I think we're all surprised at the take-up,'' she said.
The rise of the courses was helping generate interest in learning and could encourage students to continue into full-fledged degrees, she said.
Students receive a certificate of completion after successfully finishing a course, but they cannot gain qualifications or degrees.
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People flock online for free university education
The Most Important Education Technology in 200 Years
Posted: at 5:40 pm
Students anywhere are being offered free instruction online. What will that do to the trillion-dollar education business?
If you were asked to name the most important innovation in transportation over the last 200 years, you might say the combustion engine, air travel, Henry Fords Model-T production line, or even the bicycle. The list goes on.
Now answer this one: whats been the single biggest innovation in education?
Dont worry if you come up blank. Youre supposed to. The question is a gambit used by Anant Agarwal, the computer scientist named this year to head edX, a $60 million MIT-Harvard effort to stream a college education over the Web, free, to anyone who wants one. His point: its rare to see major technological advances in how people learn.
Agarwal believes that education is about to change dramatically. The reason is the power of the Web and its associated data-crunching technologies. Thanks to these changes, its now possible to stream video classes with sophisticated interactive elements, and researchers can scoop up student data that could help them make teaching more effective. The technology is powerful, fairly cheap, and global in its reach. EdX has said it hopes to teach a billion students.
Online education isnt newin the United States more than 700,000 students now study in full-time "distance learning" programs. Whats different is the scale of technology being applied by leaders who mix high-minded goals with sharp-elbowed, low-priced Internet business models. In the stories that will follow in this months business report, MIT Technology Review will chart the impact of free online education, particularly the massive open online courses, or MOOCs, offered by new education ventures like edX, Coursera, and Udacity, to name the most prominent (see The Crisis in Higher Education).
These ideas affect markets so large that their value is difficult to quantify. Just consider that a quarter of the American population, 80 million people, is enrolled in K12 education, college, or graduate school. Direct expenditures by government exceed $800 billion. Add to that figure private education and corporate training.
Because education is economically important yet appears inefficient and static with respect to technology, its often cited (along with health care) as the next industry ripe for a major disruption. This belief has been promoted by Clayton Christensen, the influential Harvard Business School professor who coined the term disruptive technology. In two books on education, he laid a blueprint for online learning: it will continue to spread and get better, and eventually it will topple many ideas about how we teachand possibly some institutions as well.
In Christensens view, disruptive technologies find success initially in markets where the alternative is nothing. This accounts for why online learning is already important in the adult education market (think low-end MBAs and nursing degrees). It also explains the sudden rise of organizations such as Khan Academy, the nonprofit whose free online math videos have won funding from Bill Gates and adoring attention from the media. Khan gained its first foothold among parents who couldnt afford $125 an hour for a private math tutor. For them, Salman Khan, the charming narrator of the videos, was a plausible substitute.
Khans simple videos arent without their critics, who wonder whether his tutorials really teach math so well. We agree 100 percent we arent going to solve educations problems, Khan responds. But he says the point to keep in mind is that technology-wise, were in the top of the first inning. Hell be pouring about $10 million a year into making his videos betteralready there are embedded exercises and analytics that let teachers track 50 or 100 students at once. Pretty soon, Khan told me, his free stuff will be as good or better than anything anyone is charging money for.
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The Most Important Education Technology in 200 Years
Eye of the Storm – Video
Posted: November 2, 2012 at 6:48 am
Eye of the Storm
To meet everything and everyone through stillness instead of mental noise is the greatest gift you can offer to the universe. I call it stillness, but it is a jewel with many facets: that stillness is also joy, and it is love. mdash;Eckhart Tolle "So much stuff to do!" That #39;s been the main repeating mutter in my brain this last week. While I absolutely love (and choose) everything I #39;m working on, I #39;ve had abundant opportunities to work on the stress of overwhelm. So today, I decided to "practice what I teach" and take some time to remember the first of the Way of Joy Laws, Within Motion, Stillness, Within Stillness, Motion. "To experience stillness in your life does not require shutting down your senses or building a barrier to the chaos of an energetic, alive and unpredictable world. Through the power of your breath and attention, you can sustain an awareness of that inner space of quiet constancy, the peaceful Observer, while the world around you spins and twirls." (excerpt from The Way of Joy). This is one of my favorite methods to embed this intention in your body, to live it from the inside out.From:WayofJoyQigongViews:59 0ratingsTime:02:51More inPeople Blogs
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Eye of the Storm - Video
Embracing Uncertainty – Video
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Embracing Uncertainty
If uncertainty is unacceptable to you, it turns into fear. If it is perfectly acceptable, it turns into increased aliveness, alertness, and creativity. ~ Eckhart Tolle Suffering is do to our clinging or resisting. It is our unwillingness to move on, to flow with life. -Nisargadata Dissolving the self is the creed and religion of lovers there #39;s no way to find your essence without giving up your self so melt yourself down go to place where you disappear completely become nothing look and see.... I #39;ve seen everything in nothing. ~Rumi Oct 28, 2012 Mystic Heart Gathering from Awakening to Divine Mind We meet twice a month a2dm.orgFrom:Awakening2DivineMindViews:1 0ratingsTime:11:41More inNonprofits Activism
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THE END OF SUFFERING – ECKHART TOLLE – Video
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THE END OF SUFFERING - ECKHART TOLLE
Video teachings of Eckhart Tolle. Courtesy http://www.eckharttolle.com.From:Ascensin OcaaViews:60 1ratingsTime:05:15More inHowto Style
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THE END OF SUFFERING - ECKHART TOLLE - Video
Eckhart Tolle – Sermon on the body – Video
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Eckhart Tolle - Sermon on the body
The art of inner-body awareness will develop into a completely new way of living,a state of permanent connectedness with Being and will add a depth to your life that you have never known before.From:MrNopastnofutureViews:11 0ratingsTime:02:24More inPeople Blogs
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Michael Jeffreys on “The Shift” CE Radio 10-30-12 part 1.mp4 – Video
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Michael Jeffreys on "The Shift" CE Radio 10-30-12 part 1.mp4
Here is a link to part 2: http://www.youtube.com The show hosts: Joe Martino and Matthew Peter Christodoulou From the Collective Evolution Team: What is "The Shift?" Very much a big topic in some fields of study right now and it seems to be something many are feeling. The question is are we aware of what is taking place and what it is all about? How is it and will it effect our everyday life? What do we need to do? These questions explored and much more on tonight #39;s show! About Tonight #39;s Guest: Michael Jeffreys is a Los Angeles based spiritual/intuitive counselor and writer. He is the author of 9 books, has two stories in Chicken Soup for the Soul Vol. 3, and has articles published in Reader #39;s Digest, Success, and Entrepreneur Magazines. He is the organizer of The Santa Monica Eckhart Tolle Meetup (www.meetup.com/smtolle), and reviews non-dual/spiritual DVDs and Books for StillnessSpeaks.com and The Whole Person Magazine. Michael #39;s Blog on Awakening can be found at: michaeljeffreys.wordpress.com COLLECTIVE EVOLUTION: http://www.collective-evolution.com http://www.facebook.comFrom:Michael JeffreysViews:118 0ratingsTime:14:58More inEducation
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Michael Jeffreys on "The Shift" CE Radio 10-30-12 part 1.mp4 - Video
Eckhart Tolle, An New Earth – Chapter 4.2, Role Playing: The Many Faces of the Ego – Video
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Eckhart Tolle, An New Earth - Chapter 4.2, Role Playing: The Many Faces of the Ego
From:Kristin MaillardViews:0 0ratingsTime:38:18More inEducation
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Eckhart Tolle, An New Earth - Chapter 4.2, Role Playing: The Many Faces of the Ego - Video
Michael Jeffreys on “The Shift” CE Radio 10-30-12 part 2.mp4 – Video
Posted: at 6:48 am
Michael Jeffreys on "The Shift" CE Radio 10-30-12 part 2.mp4
(If you have not heard part 1, you can do so here: http://www.youtube.com The show hosts: Joe Martino and Matthew Peter Christodoulou From the Collective Evolution Team: What is "The Shift?" Very much a big topic in some fields of study right now and it seems to be something many are feeling. The question is are we aware of what is taking place and what it is all about? How is it and will it effect our everyday life? What do we need to do? These questions explored and much more on tonight #39;s show! About Tonight #39;s Guest: Michael Jeffreys is a Los Angeles based spiritual/intuitive counselor and writer. He is the author of 9 books, has two stories in Chicken Soup for the Soul Vol. 3, and has articles published in Reader #39;s Digest, Success, and Entrepreneur Magazines. He is the organizer of The Santa Monica Eckhart Tolle Meetup (www.meetup.com/smtolle), and reviews non-dual/spiritual DVDs and Books for StillnessSpeaks.com and The Whole Person Magazine. Michael #39;s Blog on Awakening can be found at: michaeljeffreys.wordpress.com COLLECTIVE EVOLUTION: http://www.collective-evolution.com http://www.facebook.comFrom:Michael JeffreysViews:26 0ratingsTime:59:41More inEducation
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How to Use Non-Identification with Form to Dissolve the Ego Self – Eckhart Tolle – Video
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How to Use Non-Identification with Form to Dissolve the Ego Self - Eckhart Tolle
How to Use Non-Identification with Form to Dissolve the Ego Self - Eckhart Tolle Eckhart talks about how we can dissolve the egoic or story self by non-identification with form. The formless essence of our being exists in the present moment. "One of the most basic mind structures through which the ego comes into existence is identification." Eckhart Tolle Eckhart Tolle #39;s Findhorn Retreat BK/DVD "Stillness amidst the World" http://www.newworldlibrary.com http http://www.eckharttolle.comFrom:cosmiccontinuumViews:16 3ratingsTime:21:14More inEducation
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How to Use Non-Identification with Form to Dissolve the Ego Self - Eckhart Tolle - Video