Well, I was intending to write about something else, but it just so happened that the @Steemiteducation homework for the week coincided with something that's been on my mind lately, so I figured I'd do this instead.
Which are the best [technological] resources that you use in your class with the most success?
Now, I don't have a personal classroom, not being a teacher. But, as an unschooler, I have been in charge of my own education for years. And most of that education has been done online.
So, I thought it only natural to share the resources I'm aware of and use or have used to enrich myself.
When I left “traditional” school, I felt this pressing desire not to waste my time – I wanted to make sure I got the most of my unschooling experience. So, I began looking online, for educational resources to occupy my time with.
1. Khan Academy
I think this is one of the most famous (and, I believe, one of the best) teaching resources out there, in the online medium.
Offering lessons for all ages in subjects like math (that's their most developed category), chemistry, physics, history, biology and astronomy, Khan Academy have created such a simple, easy-to-follow structure and method of explaining that anyone can learn.
Personally, I was never that much into science, but even I felt compelled to listen to their videos on atoms and thermodynamics.
They also offer SAT and AP preparation courses, which are a lot of fun.
2. FutureLearn
Despite liking Khan Academy a lot, I soon felt the need to diversify my studies, so I began looking into online courses. The first platform for such courses was this wonderful little website called FutureLearn.
It's a great tool for older kids, teenagers and adults alike.
They offer a very wide range of courses (primarily in English, although you can find a few in either French, Spanish, Italian and even Chinese, I think) from a lot of reputable universities.
Here, I got to really dig deeper into some of my passions, such as Shakespeare (I'm a bit of a fangirl when it comes to The Bard) and his works, forensic science, psychology, filmmaking, acting, history, the criminal justice system.
I also found an excellent Creative Writing course, offered by The Open University, which is a truly great way to kickstart your writing and get the creative juices flowing.
3. Coursera
I'm not going to make a point of every MOOC (massive open online course) website that I know, but I feel like this one really deserves a mention.
I took a lot of interesting courses offered here, many of them from top universities, such as Stanford or Yale.
Again, a very wide range of subjects, my particular favorites being psychology, history (of all sorts of things, I even did one on the history of rock n roll), poetry and literature, philosophy, scriptwriting (again), architecture...and these are only the subjects I took!
They really have loads of resources available and a lot of very good, well-structured courses. In all domains that might interest you. Hey, I even found one on Bitcoin and Cryptos recently!
This is suited for teens as well as adults. Well, I suppose younger kids can take them too. After all, it really depends on the kid.
4. Openculture.com (aka THE MOTHERLOAD)
This is by far my favorite because it's...enormous. Literally, this is the best place you can go to when you're looking for free stuff. You'd be amazed at how much information there is out there, ready for the taking.
And this website really puts a lot of them together nicely. First of all, this is where I first learned about MOOCs. This great thing that Openculture does is that they amass a lot of MOOCs (some paid, but most of them free) from all sorts of different websites and group them by subject.
Besides that, they offer a lot of useful links for language lessons. I've seen learning courses for most languages in the world on Openculture.
BESIDES THAT, they have tons of free movies (most of them older, yes, but still awesome), documentaries, ebooks, audiobooks, textbooks. And they offer K-12 resources, so it's an amazing website for learners of any age.
Oh, and they have loads to cool readings and lectures on various subjects. Lots of short stories by contemporary authors, as well as interviews and other small things you might miss. AND they publish news on their home page (you can also find them on Facebook) so that you can learn a lot of cultural stuff that is happening. Again, something you don't hear about at school or scrolling through your Facebook feed.
It's really a treasure trove for anyone, interested in literally anything.
5. Youtube (duh!)
I'm not going to dwell on this much because the channels I know are but a tiny fraction of all the educational, interesting stuff you find on there. Lessons from the Screenplay deserves a mention, awesome for writers and film enthusiasts (I did a post on this about two weeks ago). So do Nerdwriter and Collative Learning.
But seriously, you can learn so much from Youtube, about anything you desire. I remember when I was still in school, we had an English class where the teacher would sit each of us in front of a computer and just assign us to watch a video on Youtube – we were learning about English culture, so we mainly watched videos about history, literature, society, we saw animated Canterbury Tales and some videos about pottery. And I remember thinking that was a really good way to teach. I remember those videos more than the stuff we did at other classes.