Online Learning Can Be Awesome. Here's How.

Summary

The speaker discusses the overwhelming abundance of learning resources in the digital age and the challenges it presents. They suggest evaluating resources based on their target audience, whether they prioritize foundational or advanced knowledge, and whether they focus on rigorous procedures or conceptual understanding. The importance of practice, community interaction, and real-world application is emphasized, advocating for a balanced approach to learning that incorporates both in-app and out-of-app experiences. The script concludes with a call to support giveinternet.org, an organization providing internet access to students in underserved areas.

Takeaways

• 📚 Historically, access to learning resources was scarce, but today we have an abundance of materials like books, videos, and podcasts.
• 🤔 To be an effective online learner, it's important to consider what type of learning resource to use, whether it's a course, textbook, or online platform.
• 🔎 When evaluating learning resources, consider if they are aimed at beginners or advanced students and if they focus on definitions and procedures or intuition and understanding.
• 📈 Look for resources that complement each other, serving as primary and reference materials, or alternating between them for a well-rounded learning experience.
• 🎓 Practice is crucial for learning, so seek out resources that offer ample opportunities for applying knowledge and skills through questions and problem-solving.
• 💪 The quality of practice matters; aim for challenging exercises that promote skill development rather than just simple check-your-understanding questions.
• 👥 Interacting with others through online forums or communities can significantly enhance the learning process by providing diverse perspectives and answers.
• 🗓️ Spread out learning over time for better retention and consider how you will structure your learning sessions for long-term skill development.
• 🎯 Think about when and how you will use the knowledge gained from learning resources in real-life situations beyond the course environment.
• 🔄 Mix in-app practice with out-of-app practice to ensure that skills transfer effectively from the course to real-world applications.
• 🌐 Recognize the privilege of internet access, as many people worldwide lack this fundamental resource for learning and growth.
• 💰 Consider supporting organizations like giveinternet.org that work to provide internet access to students in need, enabling them to access educational opportunities.

Q & A

What is the main challenge the speaker identifies with the abundance of learning resources available today?

The main challenge is that having access to so many resources can make learning harder, as opposed to learning from a single textbook or as an apprentice, where the focus is more concentrated.

What are the two key dimensions the speaker suggests considering when evaluating learning resources?

The two dimensions are whether the resource is aimed at beginners or advanced students, and whether it focuses on rigorous definitions and procedures or on intuition and conceptual understanding.

Why might someone choose to use multiple learning resources in tandem?

Using multiple resources can complement each other, allowing one to serve as a primary source while another serves as a reference or provides additional practice opportunities.

What does the speaker suggest about the importance of practice in learning?

The speaker emphasizes that practice is crucial, and it's important to look for resources that offer challenging questions and opportunities to apply and grow skills.

How does the speaker evaluate the quality of practice provided by a learning resource?

The speaker evaluates practice quality by considering whether the questions are merely check-your-understanding type or if they are challenging enough to promote skill development.

What role do online forums play in the learning process according to the speaker?

Online forums provide a platform for interaction, allowing learners to ask questions, receive answers, and benefit from the diverse perspectives and expertise of the community.

Why is it beneficial to have a vibrant community as part of a learning resource?

A vibrant community enriches the learning experience by exposing learners to questions and answers they might not have thought of, and by providing a range of expertise levels for more comprehensive understanding.

What is the speaker's approach to spreading learning over time for long-term skill growth?

The speaker suggests spreading learning across time by planning out learning sessions and avoiding cramming, as this aids in long-term retention and understanding.

How does the speaker view the difference between in-app and out-of-app practice?

The speaker acknowledges that in-app practice is often simplified and provides instant feedback, but emphasizes the importance of also engaging in out-of-app practice to better simulate real-world application of skills.

What is the purpose of the organization giveinternet.org as mentioned by the speaker?

Giveinternet.org aims to provide internet access to students, particularly in underserved areas, to enhance their educational opportunities, enabling them to access resources, continue their education, and improve their future prospects.

Why does the speaker advocate for donating to giveinternet.org?

The speaker advocates for donating because it addresses a fundamental barrier to education—lack of internet access—and because donations through the provided link will be matched, doubling the impact.

Outlines

00:00

📚 The Challenge of Abundance in Learning Resources

The first paragraph discusses the historical scarcity of learning resources compared to today's overwhelming abundance. It poses questions about how to effectively choose and utilize the vast array of learning materials available online, such as courses, textbooks, videos, and podcasts. The speaker emphasizes the importance of evaluating these resources based on their target audience (beginners or advanced students) and their focus (rigorous definitions or conceptual understanding). The paragraph also mentions the value of complementary resources and the role of practice in learning, suggesting that a mix of content and practice is ideal.

05:05

🤔 Evaluating and Integrating Learning Resources

In the second paragraph, the speaker continues the discussion on learning resources by focusing on the aspect of practice and the importance of finding the right balance between content and practical application. They stress the need for challenging questions and activities that promote skill development. The paragraph also touches on the significance of community interaction through online forums and the benefits of diverse expertise within these communities. The speaker encourages periodic self-evaluation of the learning process to ensure it is effective and to identify any gaps in understanding or practice.

10:06

🌐 The Importance of Internet Access for Learning

The final paragraph shifts the focus to the broader issue of internet access as a prerequisite for online learning. The speaker highlights the work of giveinternet.org, an organization that provides internet access to students in underserved areas, enabling them to access educational resources and opportunities. The paragraph outlines the organization's approach, which includes working closely with local communities and adapting to meet their specific needs. The speaker also encourages donations to giveinternet.org to support their mission and mentions that donations made through a provided link will be matched, thereby doubling the impact.

Keywords

💡Learning Resource

A learning resource refers to any material or tool that aids in the educational process, such as textbooks, videos, blog posts, and podcasts. In the video, the concept is central as it discusses the overwhelming abundance of learning materials available today, contrasting it with historical scarcity, and explores how to effectively choose and utilize these resources for optimal learning outcomes.

💡Apprenticeship

Apprenticeship is a system of learning a trade or skill through practical experience under the guidance of a skilled practitioner. The script mentions it as a traditional method of learning, suggesting that while modern learners have access to more resources, the focused learning experience of an apprenticeship can be more straightforward and effective.

💡Coursera

Coursera is an online platform that offers courses, professional certificates, and degrees in various subjects. The script uses Coursera as an example of one of the many online learning platforms available to learners today, emphasizing the variety of learning options and the need to discern which is most suitable for one's educational goals.

💡Khan Academy

Khan Academy is a non-profit educational organization that provides free online courses, lessons, and practice exercises. It is mentioned in the script as an alternative learning resource that can offer foundational knowledge in various subjects, highlighting the availability of free educational content online.

💡Crash Course

Crash Course is an educational YouTube channel that offers comprehensive but concise video courses on a wide range of topics. The video script refers to it as a way to learn subjects quickly, indicating the value of such resources for providing a broad overview or introduction to a new field of study.

💡Beginner vs. Advanced

The script differentiates between resources aimed at beginners, which provide basic foundations, and those for advanced students, which offer more nuanced and complex insights. This distinction is crucial for learners to select the appropriate learning materials based on their current level of understanding and expertise.

💡Rigorous Definitions

Rigorous definitions refer to precise and thorough explanations of terms or concepts. The video emphasizes the importance of choosing resources that either focus on rigorous definitions and procedures or on building intuition and conceptual understanding, depending on the learner's needs.

💡Practice

Practice, as discussed in the script, is the act of applying knowledge or skills through repetition and experience. It is highlighted as a critical component of the learning process, with the speaker advocating for a higher percentage of learning time to be dedicated to practical application and problem-solving.

💡Online Forum

An online forum is a virtual space where people can interact by posting messages and replies. The script suggests that forums can be a valuable learning resource, allowing for interaction with others, asking questions, and gaining insights from a community of learners, thus enriching the educational experience.

💡Long-term Growth

Long-term growth refers to the development of skills and knowledge over an extended period. The video script discusses the importance of spreading learning out over time for better retention and understanding, aligning with the concept of long-term growth as opposed to short-term cramming.

💡giveinternet.org

Giveinternet.org is an organization mentioned in the script that aims to provide internet access to students, particularly in underserved areas. The speaker supports this cause, emphasizing the importance of internet access for educational opportunities and the role it plays in enabling the vast array of learning resources discussed throughout the video.

Highlights

The historical scarcity of learning resources contrasts sharply with today's abundance of books, videos, and online content.

The overwhelming availability of learning resources can make the learning process more challenging rather than easier.

Effective online learning involves choosing the right learning resources based on several considerations.

Learning resources can be categorized as beginner or advanced based on their content depth.

The balance between rigorous definitions and intuitive understanding is crucial when selecting learning resources.

Complementary resources that offer a mix of foundational knowledge and advanced insights can enhance learning.

The value of practice in learning cannot be overstated, with a focus on the type and quality of practice provided.

Content creators like Andy from andyguitar.co.uk incorporate practice into their courses, enhancing the learning experience.

The importance of finding or creating opportunities for practice to solidify learning.

Online forums and communities offer interactive learning experiences that can enrich understanding.

Evaluating the quality of interaction in online communities is key to leveraging them for learning.

The concept of spreading learning over time for long-term skill development.

The application of learned skills in real-life scenarios is distinct from in-app or course-based practice.

The importance of mixing in-app practice with out-of-app practice to bridge the gap between learning environments.

The periodic reevaluation of learning resources and methods to ensure they are effective and meeting learning goals.

The digital divide and the efforts of organizations like giveinternet.org to provide internet access to students in need.

Giveinternet.org's approach to addressing the fundamental issue of internet access for educational purposes.

The call to action for donations to giveinternet.org to support educational opportunities for underserved students.

Transcripts

For most of human history, you would be lucky  to have one single textbook - one precious  

learning resource that you would reread dozens  of times. Today, there are hundreds, thousands,  

millions of books, videos, blog posts, and  podcasts all trying to teach you something.  

We have an absolute embarrassment of riches.  But that doesn't necessarily make learning  

easier. In some ways, having access to  all of these resources is harder than,  

say, learning as an apprentice or  learning from a single textbook.

To be a really effective online learner  I try to answer the following questions.  

What Learning Resource should I use? Do I  take a Coursera course or download a good  

textbook or fire up Khan Academy or make my  way through a Crash Course on YouTube or find  

a good blog or download an app? There are lots  of ways to evaluate these learning resources,  

but here's a couple of dimensions to consider.  One question is: is this a learning resource  

aimed at beginners or is this for more advanced  students? YouTube videos and online courses are  

often created to introduce a subject - to provide  some kind of basic foundation - while blog posts  

by specialists and textbooks can offer more  nuanced, advanced takes on things. Another  

question is: is this a resource that focuses on  rigorous definitions and procedures or is it a  

resource that focuses on intuition and conceptual  understanding? Often, you're looking for resources  

that complement each other. You can use one as a  primary and another as a reference or you could  

bounce back and forth between the two as you're  learning the subject matter. Some people have also  

created amazing guides to the resources out there  like Susan Rigetti's guide to learning physics.

Another way to evaluate learning resources is to  ask a different question: how am I going to be  

getting the right practice or experience? Many  online courses are content heavy - they want  

to tell you a lot of stuff. And, as students,  we also tend to favor content over practice.  

It takes less effort to watch a video about  physics than it does to sit down and do some  

physics problems. So when I look at an online  course or a learning app, I think about where  

and when I'll actually be getting practice at  something. What percentage of the time that I  

spend in the course is actually spent on answering  questions or solving problems or getting practice  

at some skill or applying some ideas? I want that  percentage to be on the higher side. I also think  

about the value of the practice that I'm getting.  Are these questions little, dinky, true-or-false,  

check-your-understanding questions? Or are they  questions that are actually going to challenge me  

so that I can grow my skills? In some cases, the  practice is already built into the subject matter,  

even in a content-heavy course. Andy,  from andyguitar.co.uk, presumes that  

you are sitting there with your guitar or your  ukulele as you are watching his content. That is,  

you are practicing with him, before him, after  him and so some amount of practice is already  

incorporated into the course. But in other  cases you have to actually find those practice  

opportunities or you're reliant on the teacher to  provide you with certain practice opportunities  

and - again - this is where complimentary  resources come into play. Have a resource  

that explains things really well but doesn't give  you any practice? That's great. Pair it up with  

another resource that gives you more practice  but maybe doesn't explain things that well.

Another question I like to ask  about learning resources is:  

where can I interact with others? You  can learn a lot by yourself, of course,  

but you can learn even more when you interact  with other people. One kind of resource that  

we haven't talked about yet is the online  forum. I'm looking for at least one resource  

that I'm using to have access to a vibrant  community. iIdeally it's a place where I can  

ask questions and receive answers but even  just lurking on the forums or in the comment  

sections of videos can enrich the learning  experience. People ask questions I wouldn't  

have thought of and people provide answers  that I wouldn't have thought of either. There  

are also other things to consider. Are people  asking good questions? do a lot of questions  

go unanswered? Are people interacting politely  and respectfully? Is there a range of levels of  

expertise within the community? If everyone's  a beginner, there might be more confusion than  

clarity. But if everyone's an expert, I might not  understand the conversation in the first place.

As I'm using these resources I ask myself a couple  of other questions. How am I going to spread my  

learning out? I'm almost always thinking in terms  of long-term growth of skills and spreading out  

our learning across time is important for this  kind of goal. Once I commit to learning something,  

I think about what the next learning session is  going to be like. What am I going to do during  

that time and when is it going to happen?  I don't want to cram everything in all at  

once. Even subtle changes like splitting a 2-hour  reading session into two one hour blocks can have  

long-term benefits for learning. Fundamentally,  I don't think of learning as shoving more  

information into my head. I think of it more  like becoming really good friends with the topic.

Another question: when am I actually going to  use what I am learning? We talked before about  

whether a learning resource provides practice  opportunities. More practice opportunities and  

better practice opportunities, well, that's good.  But the practice that we're getting inside the  

closed environment of an online course is bound  to be a little bit different than how we would  

apply what we are learning outside of that course.  The math problems that you confront in school are  

different in important ways from the math problems  that you might confront outside of school. You may  

have to write an essay in class, but it's still  probably more constrained than the task of writing  

an essay in real life. Of course, the fact that  there's a difference between in-app practice and  

out-of-app practice is often what makes the app  good for learning in the first place. SimplyPiano,  

for instance, does, I think, a pretty good job  at teaching fundamental piano skills. And there's  

lots of practice involved. But the practice  that you get during those courses is still a  

little bit different than actually playing sheet  music or even accompanying other musicians. The  

pieces are shorter and simplified and you get  instant feedback and you don't have to turn  

the pages and you don't have to coordinate with  anyone else. But the reason that they do that  

is to make things easier to learn. Still, I  like to mix up my in-app practice with plenty  

of out-of-app practice. I never want to deceive  myself into thinking that my performance inside  

the bounds of the course will be the same  as my performance outside of those bounds.

Now, I don't definitively answer these questions  every time I go to learn something new. In fact,  

I think it's impossible to answer these  questions in the beginning. Rather, these  

are questions that I asked myself periodically  as I am learning something. What is this resource  

really helping me to do? Am I getting the  right kind of practice? What else is missing?

If you have other tips about online  learning, please put them in the  

comments below so that other people can  benefit from them - including myself.

But you know what else helps us to learn  effectively? Having internet access in the  

first place. It's easy to forget that there's  about a billion people without internet access.  

So this embarrassment of riches that we take for  granted they've barely seen. That's why I'm trying  

to raise awareness for an organization called  giveinternet.org. They provide internet access  

to students so that the students can get better  jobs, they can contribute to their communities,  

and they can learn cool new skills. There's three  reasons why I like giveinternet.org. The first is  

that they are close to the problem. the group  still works out of Tbilisi in Georgia and has  

helped students in Georgia for years before they  branched out into new areas. And when they do move  

into new areas they find partner organizations  that they can trust and adapt their processes to  

meet local needs. Currently, they work in refugee  camps and with some of the most underserved  

communities in Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, Lebanon,  India, and Georgia. The second reason I like them  

is that their leadership learns over time. The  group began in Georgia translating Khan Academy  

videos into Georgian. But then they realized that  many Georgians did not have internet access in  

the first place to even take advantage of these  translated videos. So they focused on what they  

saw was the more fundamental problem. The third  reason that I like them, and probably the most  

important reason, is that giveinternet.org is  not interested in just throwing the internet at  

someone and walking away. They work with students  to connect them to educational resources and,  

together with partner organizations, fill gaps in  educational systems. For instance, a student at a  

refugee camp may go to school for a few years but  then when they return home without a computer and  

without internet access they can't continue their  education. That's where giveinternet.org steps in.  

So if you have a few bucks lying around, and you  want to give students educational opportunities  

that they otherwise wouldn't have, donating  to giveinternet.org is a great way to do it.  

And if you donate through my link below your  donation will be matched, so you'll be able  

to double the impact that you will have. That's  it, thanks for listening. I'll see you next time.