The nerd's guide to learning everything online

[Mamasaphire]

John Green: The nerd's guide to learning everything online | TED Talk | TED.com

"Some of us learn best in the classroom, and some of us ... well, we don't. But we still love to learn — we just need to find the way that works for us."

"I was a really terrible student when I was a kid. My GPA was consistently in the low 2s. And I think the reason that I was such a terrible student is that I felt like education was just a series of hurdles that had been erected before me, and I had to jump over in order to achieve adulthood. And I didn't really want to jump over these hurdles, because they seemed completely arbitrary, so I often wouldn't, and then people would threaten me, you know, they'd threaten me with this "going on [my] permanent record," or "You'll never get a good job."...

And I became a learner, because I found myself in a community of learners. I found myself surrounded by people who celebrated intellectualism and engagement, and who thought that my ironic oh-so-cool disengagement wasn't clever, or funny, but, like, it was a simple and unspectacular response to very complicated and compelling problems. And so I started to learn, because learning was cool. I learned that some infinite sets are bigger than other infinite sets, and I learned that iambic pentameter is and why it sounds so good to human ears. I learned that the Civil War was a nationalizing conflict, I learned some physics, I learned that correlation shouldn't be confused with causation -- all of these things, by the way, enriched my life on a literally daily basis. And it's true that I don't use most of them for my "job," but that's not what it's about for me. It's about cartography.

What is the process of cartography? It's, you know, sailing upon some land, and thinking, "I think I'll draw that bit of land," and then wondering, "Maybe there's some more land to draw." And that's when learning really began for me. It's true that I had teachers that didn't give up on me, and I was very fortunate to have those teachers, because I often gave them cause to think there was no reason to invest in me. But a lot of the learning that I did in high school wasn't about what happened inside the classroom, it was about what happened outside of the classroom. "

"Today's question is: why? Like most simple questions, there's a very complex answer. For instance, let me reword this question: How does a cat go from feet-up to feet-down in a falling reference frame, without violating the conservation of angular momentum?


So, here's something all four of these videos have in common: They all have more than half a million views on YouTube. And those are people watching not in classrooms, but because they are part of the communities of learning that are being set up by these channels. And I said earlier that YouTube is like a classroom to me, and in many ways it is, because here is the instructor -- it's like the old-fashioned classroom: here's the instructor, and then beneath the instructor are the students, and they're all having a conversation. And I know that YouTube comments have a very bad reputation in the world of the Internet, but in fact, if you go on comments for these channels, what you'll find is people engaging the subject matter, asking difficult, complicated questions that are about the subject matter, and then other people answering those questions. And because the YouTube page is set up so that the page in which I'm talking to you is on the exact -- the place where I'm talking to you is on the exact same page as your comments, you are participating in a live and real and active way in the conversation. And because I'm in comments usually, I get to participate with you. And you find this whether it's world history, or mathematics, or science, or whatever it is.

You also see young people using the tools and the sort of genres of the Internet in order to create places for intellectual engagement, instead of the ironic detachment that maybe most of us associate with memes and other Internet conventions....

I really believe that these spaces, these communities, have become for a new generation of learners, the kind of communities, the kind of cartographic communities that I had when I was in high school, and then again when I was in college. And as an adult, re-finding these communities has re-introduced me to a community of learners, and has encouraged me to continue to be a learner even in my adulthood, so that I no longer feel like learning is something reserved for the young."

John Green: The nerd's guide to learning everything online | TED Talk Subtitles and Transcript | TED.com

[bjcheung77]

Haha, that's cool. Thanks for your post. I agree with the bolder info.
For me, learning in any fashion is learning, much better than doing nothing with your head.
I guess it fills the void and "wants" or cravings for interesting or intelligent conversations.

[Mamasaphire]

Haha, that's cool. Thanks for your post. I agree with the bolder info.
For me, learning in any fashion is learning, much better than doing nothing with your head.
I guess it fills the void and "wants" or cravings for interesting or intelligent conversations.

Yes! Agree!

I haven't watched the actual video yet -- I read the transcript and was so excited about it matching up with most students on the forum that I posted some bits of it. I especially like the last paragraph above because it is why many of us are still here @ df

"I really believe that these spaces, these communities, have become for a new generation of learners, the kind of communities, the kind of cartographic communities that I had when I was in high school, and then again when I was in college. And as an adult, re-finding these communities has re-introduced me to a community of learners, and has encouraged me to continue to be a learner even in my adulthood, so that I no longer feel like learning is something reserved for the young."

[Daithi]

This sounds similar to me. I despised high school and graduated 242 out of a class of 247. How 5 people graduated with worse GPAs than mine I don't know. I'd usually start out with the intention of learning and doing well in school, but I'd eventually get bored and stop doing the work. My GPA was a 1 point something. I failed a LOT of classes.

However, I did enjoy learning on my own and at my own pace. I taught myself how to program computers, and read books on history, economics, linguistics, physics, and well... pretty much anything that interested me. I even taught myself calculus to better understand physics. Then many years later I found out about schools like TESU where I could earn my degree by learning on my own, taking tests, and challenging courses. It only took me a year and a half to earn my degree, and I wasn't working especially fast. I wish this option would have been available to me back when I was in high school. Some of us just aren't built for the butt in seat style of learning found in most schools.

[cookderosa]

I took a class when my first son was born - 1994 I think. And the first thing they said, was "babies would rather learn than eat - rather learn than anything else in the world" and that stuck with me deeply. I do believe we are biologically programmed to learn. We all love to learn, the trick is that what we love isn't always academic. So I do believe and am inspired by his comments, I do still think that a degree is "a series of hurdles that had been erected before me, and I had to jump over in order to achieve" which is why, I think, people love this forum.