E-Resources and Life Long Learning

The philosophy of “education  from cradle to grave” (Demirel, 2009) is respected and became a criteria for continuing in the market place. In order to meet the challenges of 21th  century, learning became not limited  to  formal  education,  but  integrated  with  non-formal  and  informal  learning. In the  context  of  rapid  socio-economic,  cultural  and  technological  changes  of  the  world,  it  is widely acknowledged  that  individuals  should  possess  unique  skills  that  would  allow  them  to compete  in  the  increasingly  globalized  world.  This lead the  concept  of education to change and the requirement of set of skills to increase. As such, people began to look  for  more resources  which are  supplied from  local  government  and  school events, scholarships  and for free online resources.

 Implementing the newest technology affects how we live, work, play, and most notably learn (Mareco, 2017).

 The benefits  of  applying  mobile  technology  in  the  classroom are  described  from  Mareco (2017):

•  mobile devices and their applications prepare students for the future careers;
•  effective way to connect with students of all learning styles;
•  enhance the interaction with classmates and instructors;
•  encouraging collaboration;
• develop student's digital skills;
• helps students stay engaged;
• increase students' responsibility;
• enhance the learning experience and create new opportunities for learning;
• quick access for information;
• and transforms the learning experience.

Lifelong Learning became the most important competency that people must possess.  Lifelong  learning  is  now  recognized  by  educators,  governing  bodies,  accreditation organizations,  certification  boards,  employers,  third-party  payers,  and  the  general  public  asone  of  the  most  important  competencies  that  people  must  possess  (Dam,  2018).The  competences  learned  in  formal  education  need  to  be  developed  in  order  to  be  adequate  during  entire life, and keep the competences up to date, to obtain new ones in response to changing needs, and that is a reason to become an autodidact, which is a lifelong process. The concept of lifelong  learning  has  been  adopted  with  the  necessity  to  adjust  to  the  requirements  of  the  knowledge  society in the 21st century and to cope with the rapid changes in science and technology (Demirel, 2009).

The high-quality of education and inclusive lifelong learning is at the heart of the solution of nowadays  growing  populism,  xenophobia,  spreading  of  fake  news,  high  youth  unemployment (David  Lopez,  LLL  platform - activity  report  2017).

Free resources supporting long-life learning

Nowadays  the  new  job  skills  can  be  learned  inexpensively  online,  the  interactive  learning  communities are already built by online education companies that transformed education (Pearce, 2017) There  are  huge  available  free  onlinecourses, which  supports  long-life  learning  (Brett  & McKay 2018; Cobb, 2017; Jane, 2018; Pearce, 2017):  

·         Blinkist– free data base for non-fiction books - business, philosophy, history, and more;

·         Coursera- the largest course  platform for Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs);   

·         edX- non-profit source and a leading provider of free courses and training from Harvard University and MIT,  

·         Udacity- similar  to  edX  and  Coursera with  the  focus  on  STEM  (Science,  Technology ,Engineering,  and  Mathematics)  disciplines.

·         MIT Open Courseware

·         OpenStudy

·         Khan Academy  

·         Duolingo –  free  website  to  learn  foreign  languages, offers  online  courses  for  over  30 languages;

·           Code Academy - learn to code for free with interactive exercises;

·         Wolfram  MathWorld  –  extensive  math  resource  from  all  over  the  world,  include

·         Open  Course  Ware  (OCW)  Consortium  –a  collaboration  of  more  than  200  higher  education  institutions,  an  excellent  place  to  find  free  courses  and  course  materials  from some of the world’s best colleges and universities;

·          Lecturefox  –an  online  directory  of  free  audio,  video,  and  text-based  lectures  from universities like MIT and Yale;

·         LearnOutLoud – contains more than 20 000 free educational materials, including books, videos, audio lectures, and podcasts

·         CreativeLive- the live stream of courses for free,

·         TED–offers lectures by professors and interesting people on different subjects. TED also has  several  related  channels  on  YouTube,  one  of  which  is  TED-Ed  that  offers  online  lessons on various subjects including history, science, philology and many more, and can be interesting for children as well;

·         Saylor– the Saylor Foundation is a non-profit that provides a free University education.

·          iTunes U - free podcast lectures by the best professors from around the world;

·         Project  Gutenberg - offers  over  5000  free  eBooks,  from  the  classics  of  literature  to  the textbooks on specific subjects with impeccable quality;

·         The Online Books Page – the University of Pennsylvania’s Online Books Page is one of  the best places to find free unabridged books online;

·         The  Free  Library – Farlex’s Free Library contains more than five million books and articles that can be viewed online for free;

·         YouTube EDU–contain thousands of videos that cover a variety of topics.

Long-life learning is the main key that can keep the person on the attitude  to the position and degree that hold, and that is ruled by the fast changes of socio-economics. As for me, I read online articles on weekly basis. I take online courses and they really differed in my performance as a teacher and a teacher trainer.  Life-long learning also help my students and my colleagues who understand its  relevance improve.  

References:

Brett  &  Kate  McKay,  (2018):  How  and  Why  to  Become  a  Lifelong  Learner.  A  Man's  Life,  Personal  Development.https://www.artofmanliness.com/articles/how-and-why-to-become-a-lifelong-learner/

Burgi  Pierre-Yves,  (2012):New  learning  environments.  https://ciel.unige.ch/2012/03/new-learning-environments/

Bushati  J.,  E.  Lezha,  E.  Hasmujaj,  G.  Tuxhari  (2017):  About  digital  culture  and  education. https://hrcak.srce.hr/file/271706

Cobb  J.,  (2017):  25  Free  Online  Resources  and  Web  Apps  for  Lifelong  Learners.  https://www.mission  tolearn.com/lifelong-learner-free-resources/

Dam,  (2018):  http://www.tesol.org/docs/default-source/new-resource-library/symposium-on-student-empowerment-8.pdf?sfvrsn=0

Demirel M., (2009): Lifelong learning and schools in the twenty-first century. Procedia Social and BehavioralSciences 1 (2009) 1709–1716.

EC  (2018):  COUNCIL  RECOMMENDATION  on  Key  Competences  for  Lifelong  Learning,  https://ec.europa.eu/education/sites/education/files/recommendation-key-competences-lifelong-learning.pdf

European Commission (2017): White Paper on the Future of Europe, https://ec.europa.eu/commission/ white-paper-future-europereflections-and-scenarios-eu27_en

Gulen M., (2015): The main duty and purpose of human life is to seek understanding. Education from cradle to grave. https://www.newvision.co.ug/new_vision/news/1319253/education-cradle-grave

University of Bucharest and “1 December 1918” University of Alba Iulia  

Jane  K.  (2018):  7  Online  Tools  for  Lifelong  Learning.  https://blog.peopleperhour.com/blogroll/  lifelong-learning-tools/

Koper  R.,  C.  Tattersall,  (2004):  New  directions  for  lifelong  learning  using  network  technologies.  British  Journal of Educational Technology, Vol 35 No 6 2004, 689-700.

Longworth  N  (2003):  Lifelong  Learning  in  Action:  Transforming  Education  in  the  21th  Century  Kogan  Page,London.  Lopez D., LLLplatform - activity report 2017.

Mareco  Danny  (2017):  10  Reasons  Today’s  Students  NEED  Technology  in  the  Classroom.https://www.securedgenetworks.com/blog/10-reasons-today-s-students-need-technology-in-the-classroom

Mwaikokesya M. J.D., Osborne M., Houston M. (2014): Mapping lifelong learning attributes in the context of  higher  education  institutions.  DOI:  10.7227/JACE.20.2.3  https://www.researchgate.net/publication/276681843_Mapping_lifelong_learning_attributes_in_the_context_of_higher_education_institutions

Pearce  K.,  (2017):  100+  self-education  resources  for  lifelong  learning  online.  https://www.diygenius. com/100-self-education-resources-for-lifelong-learners/

Simmons  Michael,  (2018):  The  secret  to  lifelong  success  is  lifelong  learning.  https://www.weforum. org/agenda/2018/01/the-secret-to-lifelong-success-is-lifelong-learning.

The Worry of Trying New Things

Most people evade trying new things for fear of loss, failure and prefer staying in the comfort zone. Most of the time we take courses and attend workshops on technologies and we never use them. We decide to learn more on them and evade using them. 

My next question is when would a teacher use this TECHNOLOGY? Is there one particular maybe subject, or can it be applied to all subjects across the board? 

Any tool can be used in a variety of different ways. You can use it at the beginning, middle, or end of, a unit or lesson that you're trying to teach. Most of the time we lose time planning and then we do not experiment. To me the best way, if one does not feel s/he master the tool is to tell her/his students that they would experiment how the tool will help them acquire  the language.

HERE are two ways  of engaging students:

So, that's one case of synchronous. Other systems can be used as well. I know there's lots of different tools within LMSs that have a conferencing kind of app inside them that would allow for something like this. But you can also, I mean, to bring that one step further, you could take those questions and then put the top two that your class might vote on, put those in your discussion forms. And then, the students are discussing questions that they came up with collaboratively.

But you could also do this asynchronously in a discussion forum. And you can use the discussion forum to generate these questions.