Mobile Learning Distance Learning

Even 10-20 years ago, full-fledged distance learning was almost impossible. The need to move to another city or even a country was probably one of the most common reasons why preference was given to local universities, instead of entering universities of their dreams. Yes, there is a correspondence education, but we are well aware that in most cases this form of education is just for show. Fortunately, at present there is an opportunity to study, there would be a desire. For those with desire, everything is in order, I ask under cat.



A tablet or phone is an initial investment in your education.

Almost everyone already has a smartphone, tablet or laptop. Recently, electronic readers have been added to them. How can these devices be used effectively?

Video lectures

Better to see once than to hear 100 times. There are a huge number of instructional videos on the Internet, ranging from solving a differential equation to a tutorial on tying shoelaces. I would also like to mention the wonderful site TED.com , which contains a huge number of motivating videos up to 18 minutes, which can be watched while you go to work. You can also subscribe to thematic channels on Youtube, Vimeo and receive relevant information on topics of interest.

Where else to go for video content? Here is a short list:

1. Videos of activities are held in the Digital October ;
2. TechDays.ru - video from Microsoft conferences;
3. Channel9 - interviews with people who create Microsoft products and services;
4. Pluralsight.com - video lectures and courses on modern technology;
5. O'Reilly Videos - video lectures by O'Reilly authors.

Looking for more? Here's a short list of educational video sites .

Participation in professional communities

Interested in programming? Participate in professional communities such as Stack Overflow, which brings together the elements of Q&A, a forum, a social network and chats - the perfect combination for a pleasant and useful pastime and training. Ask questions, answer the questions of other participants - this will help to raise both the level of English and your professional level. For mobile devices, clients have been developed for almost all popular services.

From local professional communities I can single out ineta.ru , GTUG , AppClub .

Online Courses

Over the past few years, a large number of resources have appeared that offer distance learning from the best teachers in the world. Coursera, Udacity, iTunes U - an incomplete list of resources offering this feature.

Want more? Here is a more detailed list published on Quora:

1. UMass Boston Open Courseware ;
2. Khan Academy ;
3. MIT Open Courseware ;
4. Ed-free ;
5. Space the Learning: of The the Open University then ;
6. Carnegie Mellon Open Learning Initiative ;
7. Tufts Open Courseware ;
8. Stanford on iTunes U ;
9. Utah State Open Courseware ;
10. Kutztown On-Demand Online Learning ;
11. USQ Australia Open Courseware ;
12. University of California Irvine Courseware ;
13. EdX ;
14. Coursera ;
15. Udemy ;
16. Connections Academy ;
17. K-12 ;
18. GED for Free ;
19. Free World U ;
20. CosmoLearning ;
21. Open culture ;
22. New York University ;
23. Open Yale Courses ;
24. Gresham College ;
25. Notre Dame Open Courseware ;
26. JHSPH Open ;
27. Open UW ;
28. Udacity ;
29. The People of the University then ;
30. Academic Earth ;
31. Revolution Textbook ;
32. The Library of Congress Files ;
33. alison ;
34. The Berkeley webcast ;
35. GCF LearnFree ;
36. Code University then google ;
37. e-Learning Center ;
38. Saylor ;
39. Master Class Management ;
40. Brigham Young Free Online Courseware ;
41. University of Michigan Open ;
42. NLC Open Learning Courses ;
43. FlexiLearn ;
44. Nixty ;
45. Capilano University ;
46. TU Delft ;
47. United Nations University ;
48. Weber State University ;
49. Universaid Colombia ;
50. Kendal College ;
51. NPTEL ;
52. Getting Started - Codeacademy .

Want to become an MBA? See a list of online MBA programs, the best universities in the world.

E-books and magazines

I remember how I spent hours in the library, because they did not give a rare book to the house, but I wanted to read it. Now there is no need to spend so much time in the library, as it became possible to read e-books using a phone or tablet at a convenient time for you.

I will name the main advantages of electronic books:

• no need to wait for the book to be delivered by mail;
• the whole library is now in your pocket;
• you can find books that are either hard to find in print (for example, I’m reading Richard Feyman’s book “What do YOU ​​care about what others think?”, which is very difficult to buy in retail), or they are very expensive .

The same thing with magazines: you can subscribe to world or local publications and receive fresh issues directly on your device.

Conferences and Broadcasts

I like to attend conferences personally. But this, unfortunately, is far from always possible. Most conferences are held in the form of live broadcasts, which when broadcasting in Full HD creates a little more, but still the effect of presence.

So I watched Microsoft TechEd Russia 2012, TechCrunch Moscow 2012 and Felix Baumgartner’s jump from the stratosphere.

Educational applications and reference books

With a modern smartphone or tablet, you can download hundreds of applications (both paid and free) that are optimized for training.

For example, LinguaLeo - for learning English, Pex4Fun from Microsoft Research - for learning programming, reference books and dictionaries Lingvo, Britannica, etc. Moreover, applications can provide not only information display, but also interactive for its assimilation and verification.

Remember, a smartphone and tablet is not only VKontakte, Instagram and Angry Birds, but also a great companion for distance learning.

PS If you know good resources or examples of the interesting use of mobile devices for training that are not mentioned in this article, share them in the comments.