The eduFire Blog » Education

Don’t think there’s a big problem with education? OK, watch this video…

jon — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 05:13:56 +0000

What happens when you hike tuition on students 32 percent in a single year and cut salaries for some of your best and brightest teachers?

Near riot conditions at Berkeley today.

I haven’t read all of the stories so I don’t want to comment much on what’s going on across the Bay Bridge from eduFire HQ. But I can say this. There’s most definitely something going on right now in education.

Students are being saddled with unnecessary debt to gain degrees of questionable value.

Other students can’t even take the classes they need to graduate because of overcrowding and budget cuts.

A nation that prides itself on having the highest quality higher education system is flat out not meeting the needs of millions of students. And there’s a lot at stake here. Because those students who will drop out of school because they can’t afford tuition or taking empty, meaningless jobs after graduation instead of pursuing their true passion because they need to pay back the huge student loan debts that took on during school represent a tremendous lost opportunity.

To all those who are out there on the front lines fighting to create a better educational system (you know who you are), we here at eduFire salute you. And to those who are more interested in maintaining the status quo, well, go watch that video again. The status quo ain’t working and we’re in dire need of change. I haven’t been blogging much lately in part because I’ve already shared a lot of my thoughts on eduChange and in part because we’re working day and night here at eduFire to actually be a part of that change.

My hope is that what’s going on at Berkeley right now will be a wake-up call to many people that a lot of work needs to be done and that future generations won’t have to riot to call everyone’s attention to the fact that the most important thing that we can do to ensure that we have a prosperous society is to focus on improving the education of our youth.

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3 Quick Tips on Becoming a Successful Learner

Koichi — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 23:46:12 +0000

I found this image in a great blog post that I was reading, and it really struck a chord. How about you? You certainly aren’t one of the 99%, right?

In all before-and-after success stories, there’s one thing that they didn’t tell you about: perseverance. Every one of these people had to work hard to be successful, and even though they make it look easy, it wasn’t! Nothing is as easy as we want it to be, but in the end, if you try hard and take the leap you will make it. Then you will be the one to make it look simple. Today, let’s look at three things you can do to increase your learning potential and be one of these success stories.

1. Write down your goals

You’d be surprised at how much this helps. There was a study done recently, where college students were put into three groups: The first group was the control group, and they did nothing. The second group were asked to come up with their “life goals.” The third and final group were asked to actually write down their goals. Later in the students’ lives the researchers found out how much they were making. Can you guess the results?

Group 1 (no goals): We’ll be comparing the success of Groups 2 and 3 against this group.
Group 2: Made 3x the income of Group 1
Group 3: Made 11x the income of Group 1

ELEVEN TIMES! That’s not too bad.

When it comes to learning, writing down your goals are important as well. What is it that you’d like to achieve? What do you wish to do with the knowledge that you are gaining? Who do you need to contact or meet to get there? By writing your goals down you are clearing the path to victory. Try this out with anything you are doing and watch your life improve!

2. Keep Yourself Accountable and Prevent Burnout

Have you ever gotten really excited about something, gone all out, and then ended up quitting because you worked too hard or got too busy? One way to prevent this is to create an accountability system for yourself. This approach is especially important when you are learning something on your own. Here are some quick tips to do better:

Learn with a Friend: If both of you get into it, learning can be a lot more fun and fulfilling. Just make sure you pick someone that learns at your pace, otherwise you’ll find that one person can get discouraged.
Start a Blog: Share what you’re learning with the world! Starting a blog has never been easier with platforms like Wordpress or Blogger. When you start a blog keep in mind that you are writing to an audience. A blog is a great way to share your knowledge, keep you learning, and stay accountable!
Learn From Different Places: It can be boring for your brain to learn from the same place. Go someplace public, like a coffee shop or library where other people are around. This will help you stay motivated.
Turn Off Your Internet! This is tougher than it sounds. If you have to use the Internet for whatever it is you’re learning, consider separating work and play by assigning them to different browsers. For example, all “fun” stuff goes on Chrome, and all the work stuff goes on Firefox. Make sure you stick to your rules!

3. Use the Right Tools

Figure out what you need to help you learn. Whether that’s the right learning environment, the right software, or the right teacher depends on you and you alone. We think that our SuperPass program is a wonderful way to learn incredible things, but there are other great resources out there as well. Here’s a quick list.

Flashcard Learning:  smart.fm, Anki, SpacedEd
Audio Learning:  LanguagePod101 (SpanishPod101, JapanesePod101, etc), iTunes
Learning from a Teacher: eduFire SuperPass, TeachStreet (Local teachers)
Community Learning:  eduFire, Busuu, Babbel, iTalki, LiveMocha, Lang-8

Then again, sometimes nothing beats a book, a pencil, and a reading lamp, right? Well… we’d probably debate that.

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What is the Future of Teaching?

jon — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 08:29:16 +0000

Great article from Josh Catone in Mashable yesterday entitled What is the Future of Teaching? I posted a follow-up in the comments and wanted to share. Here it is. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts in the comments!

Great article Josh. I’ve spent *tons* of time thinking about this over the last decade. Here’s my quick take:

#1 – Online vs traditional learning can be viewed across three vectors: Cost, convenience and quality.

There is little doubt that its cheaper to run classes online (no facilities costs, less personnel required, etc.). There is also little doubt that online classes are more convenient. You can take them from home, office, etc. and likely have a more flexible schedule than traditional classes offer.

However, the big question is around quality. I’d offer (and this is coming from the CEO of a company that specializes in online classes) that on quality alone traditional classes are still better. But what’s interesting is that the gap is narrowing quickly. It’s not at all unrealistic to envision a future in which the online class is significantly more engaging and effective than its offline equivalent. If that happens then guess what? Game over for the traditional class model (after all, why would you choose something that is more costly, less convenient and lower quality?).

#2 – I do disagree with the notion that the price of education is going to zero.

I believe in The Grand Unified Theory of the Economics of Free (I think that’s the right title…it’s a TechDirt post from back in the day) which states while abundant resources will trend towards zero (their marginal cost), the spreading of those very same resources will drive up the prices for scarce resources. In music, a band gives away MP3s (abundant resource) and makes more money from concert tickets. MIT gives away OCW material but more people hear about MIT (especially in developing countries) which leads to more demand for MIT degrees.

The abundant resources (e.g., textbooks, audio/video recordings of lectures, etc.) will tend towards free. That makes total sense. What will not tend towards free will be things like the value of a scarce degree (Ivy League degrees are likely to become valuable not less), a teacher’s time or the attention of the students. To say that education will be free assumes that the marginal costs of those things are zero which is almost certainly not true. Sure you’ll always have people who might volunteer to teach a free class (just like a band might play a benefit concert for free) but that doesn’t mean this will happen at scale anymore than any other industry can expect to draw talented people in if they aren’t being paid.

#3 – Flat out, we need better tools.

And to get better tools we need more innovation and investment. While education is a huge industry ($2 trillion by many estimates) I think it’s safe to say that social gaming has received more investment in recent years despite being a much (much!) smaller industry. The problem is that while it’s easy to look at a social game and figure out how to squeeze out some short-term cash it is much (much!) harder to look at a big industry with huge structural problems and figure out how to improve it. And improving it likely will take a lot of time and patience. It won’t be a “Build one thing in year 0. Have billion dollar company in year 3.” scenario.

But there are a lot of great people trying. Check out places like 2tor, Academic Earth, Cramster, Grockit, Knewton, LiveMocha, PrepMe, School of Everything, Smart.fm, TeachStreet, Tutor.com, Tutorvista and a whole host of others that I’m sure I’m forgetting to see what I’m talking about.

Oh, and of course us. :) (http://www.edufire.com)

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Take eduFire Classes on Apple’s new Tablet

Koichi — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 22:05:34 +0000

Here at eduFire, every single one of us (except for a couple of traitorous interns) are Apple lovers. Everywhere you look you’ll see Apple products. iPhones, Macbook Pros, Mac Minis, and more. Now, for the first time ever, a brand spankin’ new Apple tablet… well, in our poorly photoshopped dreams, anyways. But you knew that right after looking at the picture, right?

Live Classes on the Go

With all the hubbub and excitement about about the may-or-may-not-exist Apple tablet, it got me thinking. The rumors suggest that there will be a version with a webcam, and a version that is made for “education,” whatever that means. Whether or not an Apple tablet includes a webcam, it’s the perfect platform for on-the-go eduFire classes. My guess is that you will be able to connect to a 3G network with these, which means you could technically take a class from anywhere that has a cell connection. Originally I had hoped my iPhone would get me onto an eduFire class (no flash support yet, sadly), so this may be the next best thing. No, it’s even better.

I have a dream, where one day anyone and everyone will be able to pick up their tablets, PC or Apple (or linux!), and learn something new from anywhere they want. Where people will be able to pull out one of these at the beach and take a lesson in marketing, or learn some Italian while listening to the waves hit the shore. Learning from bed or the passenger seat of a car will never be easier. A product like this, which could easily become more widespread than other similar tablets or netbooks on the market (c’mon, it’s Apple, people buy their stuff just because it exists), could really change how we learn online. You will no longer be tethered to your desk or modem, and learning will be able to happen anywhere. How cool would that be?

I also have a dream to not make horrible photoshoppings of things. Maybe I should take a photoshop class.

If you had one of these, where would you take a class from? I wonder who will be the first to suggest the toilet?

Apple Tablet image provided by Gizmodo, thanks guys!

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Top 10 Learning Resources for the Aspiring Esperantist

Scott — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 17:06:03 +0000

In case you haven’t heard of Esperanto, I recommend checking it out. For a quick introduction, know that Esperanto is a constructed language that is easy to learn, fascinating, and meant for international communication. It is over 100 years old, and has a thriving culture to this day. However, I am not here to convince you to learn Esperanto. Katherine Garcia, one of eduFire’s members, has already done a good job of that. I am here to give you some fantastic resources for assisting you in your studies.

1. Lernu

Lernu definitely deserves to be first on this list. There are probably enough resources for learning Esperanto on Lernu alone to write this blog post, but I’ll stick to a brief overview. The name itself is a command to learn in Esperanto. (”Learn!”) I certainly haven’t been able to explore the sight completely yet. To start off, it’s available in 35 languages! This site has tons of content, including reading material, lessons, games, and jokes. It covers the social aspect through a forum, mail system, and even instant messaging. Additionally, you can scroll over and click on Esperanto words on the site to translate them into English. In theory, you could learn Esperanto solely from Lernu, but I prefer having a tutor, and it’s always nice to take advantage of the other sources below as well.

2. Anki

Anki is an online flashcard service (like smart.fm). Unlike smart.fm however, it has amazing Esperanto content, which happens to be made by Judith Meyer an Esperanto tutor on eduFire. To access the deck she has made, download Anki, then go to File > Download > Shared Decks. The deck is called “Esperanto 101.” Of course, feel free to make your own decks / lists on Anki or smart.fm, but don’t forget that you already have very complete content at your fingertips.

3. Twitter

The number of ways in which Twitter can be used continues to astound me. Yes, you can also use it to practice your Esperanto. There are plenty of tweeps (people who tweet) who use Esperanto, and you can do so yourself as well. The small posting size keeps both reading and writing digestible and approachable. I also highly recommend following @esperanto. The person behind this account retweets relevant content about Esperanto in Twitterlando (the Esperanto name for the twitterverse) from people who tweet in a variety of languages, and occasionally tweets Esperanto related content from around the web that other people on twitter haven’t already brought to the community’s attention. @esperanto is a great way to find people to follow, find great content, and stay up to date about Twitterlando.

4. Online Dictionaries

I haven’t yet found an online dictionary that I’m %100 satisfied with. I currently use two different ones, depending on my need/mood.

Reta Vortaro – This is the leader as far as I can tell. It has translations for a multitude of languages, and it automatically changes the English alphabet into Esperanto letters when searching by using the “x-method” (cx = ĉ). This dictionary is very useful and functional!
Esperanto Panorama’s dictionary - This dictionary is only English-Esperanto, and is basically a giant list of words. To find words, you have to use your browser find function (ctrl + f). This dictionary lacks a lot of the function of Reta Vortaro, and it only has English, but I’ve found that it sometimes has words that Reta Vortara does not.

5. Greasemonkey

Okay, this next one isn’t exactly a tool for learning, but it aids in easing a major annoyance. I don’t know about you, but I think typing Esperanto characters (ĉ ĵ ŭ, etc) is so much more gratifying than using any supplementary method to represent Esperanto characters (ch, j^, ux, etc). The best way I have found (so far) to solve this is the Firefox add-on called Greasemonkey. This add-on allows you to download various scripts to change the way you type. An Esperanto script can be found here. It’s not a perfect fix as it only works in your browser window and is only available for Firefox, but hey, it comes with a cute monkey in the bottom-right corner of my browser!

6. Farbskatol

Farbskatol is probably the best video site for Esperanto on the web. It’s set up kind of like a blog, but it does have categories, a search function, and archives so you can find the type of video you want. YouTube isn’t actually that great for Esperanto, although this video is fantastic for those just starting to learn Esperanto.

7. Radio Verda

Radio Verda is a podcast put on by Arono and Karlina who live in Vancouver, Canada. This is a good learning source because they speak slightly slower than conversation speed, providing you with good listening practice. Radio Verda covers international news that is relevant to Esperanto, so you can stay connected to the Esperanto speaking world. I still struggle with understanding this podcast, but I think it is a great way to make another step closer to fluency.

8. La Eta Princo

The point of introducing this source is actually to introduce reading material as a whole. There’s plenty of content on the Internet in Esperanto to read, but we just starting reading this in my Esperanto class, so I thought I’d share it specifically. La Eta Princo (some of you may know it as The Little Prince) is no longer under copyright protection, so it is available in a variety of languages. Because it disguises itself as a children’s book, the language is relatively simple, making it good for learning. However, there are still some thought provoking themes that make this interesting.

9. Vinilkosmo

One of my favorite aspects of Esperanto is that it has spawned its own culture, including literature, poetry and music. There are musicians all over the world creating music in Esperanto, meaning you can listen to and understand music from so many different people. There are several sources for Esperanto music on the internet. The largest Esperanto record label is Vinilkosmo. They sell CDs and have recently recently released an MP3 section, but you can also listen to a plethora of music for free on their site as well. There are other sources for Esperanto, of course, but this is one of the largest that I have found so far.

10. Esperanto Meetups

Obviously this is a bit different than the other nine points in this list. It can’t be accessed online, and I do not have personal experience with it (yet!). However, I think it is probably the most valuable resource mentioned. Just like learning any language, one of the best methods is immersion. I have been told that going to an Esperanto meetup and forcing yourself to speak only Esperanto is the fastest way to become fluent. Although overnight meetups like the International Youth Congress (IJK) which just finished taking place in Czech Republic for 2009, may be a bit out reach for some, if you live near a city, there is hopefully a local Esperanto speaking club that you can visit. My local club only meets once a month, but I am super excited to go to the upcoming meeting.

I will admit that Esperanto is not one of the most popular second languages, and this makes finding resources to help your studies that much more difficult. Luckily the internet is the perfect medium for passing along tools to learn this language when speakers and learners can be geographically few and far between. (Although there’s still no substitution for going to a gathering of Esperantists in real life!) I hope this list helps fellow learners make their studies more efficient and fun, but I am sure there are other resources that I have yet to find. If I am missing anything, please let me know in the comments!

Good luck studying!

Related posts:

Top 10 Psychology Blogs on the Web

robyn — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 07:19:05 +0000

Psychology is powerfully linked to education; without research in neuroscience, speech pathology, learning, cognition, and much more, we would never be able to advance and improve teaching. Besides being useful, psychology is extremely interesting and can tell you a lot about how you learn and why you think the way you do. Sadly, there aren’t too many psychology courses on eduFire, though that will hopefully change in the near future! In the meantime, here are ten blogs about various fields within psychology. All of them provide great ways to learn more about the subject (the links and articles are REALLY interesting) and see how it relates to important social issues like bettering education or special needs learning.

1. The Media Psychology Blog

My personal favorite of the ten, the Media Psychology Blog (run by the Media Psychology Research Center) is a fascinating, up-to-date read for anyone interested in psychology and/or social media. It discusses different forms of research and is extremely applicable to many people today, with the growing importance of social networking sites (Facebook or Twitter, anyone?). Even better, it relates new findings on psychology and media to entrepreneurship, marketing, and current events, so it also gives plenty of information to people with an interest in business or in knowing the latest media trends and how they are rapidly changing our world.
(http://mprcenter.org/blog/)

2. Techpsych

Techpsych caught my attention not only because of the many links, diagrams, and videos, but also due to how well it links psychology with technology and uses both of these topics to discuss how to improve education (that last part sounds a bit like eduFire’s goal too :)!). This site shares an abundance of resources, also aimed at psychology researchers as well as educators and other professionals in similar fields, so it is a great source of information.
(http://techpsych.blogspot.com/)

3. Teaching Learners With Multiple Special Needs

In our efforts to improve education for all students, we can’t forget those who are trying hard to learn in spite of special needs. This blog provides tons of links and resources for educators working with special needs students, however severe or complicated their needs may be. Thus, it provides important information to teachers who are truly making education accessible to everyone, while covering a specific major field within psychology.
(http://teachinglearnerswithmultipleneeds.blogspot.com/)

4. Perusing Psychology

Somewhat more technical and scientific, Perusing Psychology is another interesting blog that really caught my eye (I only wish I had enough time to read through all the older entries too; they’re quite long!). This site focuses more on neuroscience and psychobiology research, discussing how people think as well as the latest data on diseases that affect a brain’s functioning, like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, or aphasia. Definitely a good one for anyone curious about the more biological side of psychology. There’s some cool videos on there too!
(http://www.brainybehavior.com/blog/)

5. IQ’s Corner

This blog has some great pictures and throws some humor into the mix with a few cartoons as well. Topic-wise, its focus is on intelligence and various theories put forward by psychologists. It is a good source of information on recent research, and also an interesting place for discussion and “musings” on psychology.
(http://www.intelligencetesting.blogspot.com/)

6. School Psychologist Blog Files

The School Psychologist Blog Files is yet another blog dedicated improving special needs learning and helping parents and teachers with special needs students. It discusses child psychology and development, as well as various learning disabilities, topics that I have personally always been really interested in, but which are certainly very relevant to anyone interested in advancing education (as I’m sure eduFire members are!). Hopefully blogs such as this one will be able to change the way we see special needs children and provide more resources for them.
(http://schoolpsychologistfiles.blogspot.com/)

7. School Psychology Blog with Dr. Gaston Weisz

Dr. Weisz runs this blog in conjunction with his podcast, but the site has many great links that again link psychology with education. He also covers child development, like the previous blog, with for example, videos on attention deficit disorder and research on autism (which is becoming increasing prevalent in our society). Once again, this is a great blog to learn more about various children’s learning needs and how to improve education (an important theme!)
(http://drweisz.blogspot.com/)

8. Brain, Mind, and Education

Brain, Mind, and Education also ties new neuroscience/psychology research in with education (as its name would imply) and covers quite a range of topics–from taking care of concussions to theories on human intelligence to why a more detailed rubric may be better than a simple, numerical grading system for students. This blog appears to be a fascinating source of research information, and perhaps more importantly, new ideas for improving curricula and advancing education.
(http://brainmindedu.blogspot.com/)

9. Speech-Language Pathology Sharing

I saw this blog because of its usage and discussion of the latest technology resources (wasn’t there an eduFire class on Prezi recently :)?) But it does a great job focusing on speech pathology and providing help to educators of children who may need special language help. Also, videos, pictures, and other resources abound, making learning about speech pathology even easier.
(http://speechlanguagepathologysharing.blogspot.com/)

10. Assessment and Intervention in School Psychology

I never knew that there was a blog devoted just to (as the name indicates) assessment of child development and learning needs as well as the intervention practices used in special needs situations. But this blog is yet another important one for improving education–how do you deal with psychological needs among kids in school, and how should educators be trained to handle such situations? You will find some interesting discussion here on how children are assessed and how they perform as a result.
(http://treatmentvalidity.blogspot.com/)

Of course, these are only ten of many, many psychology and education-related blogs to be found on the Web. I’m sure if you searched for “psychology blogs” on Google, you would get quite a plethora of results, but these ten blogs, while perhaps not the most famous, all provide excellent resources and are incredibly interesting to read. Maybe they will stimulate more interest in how the fascinating field of psychology can be used both to learn more about why people think in certain ways and to better education. What do you think? Are there other psychology blogs you would add to this list?

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7 Free Online Resources for Homeschool Language Learning

Koichi — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 18:10:46 +0000

Of course, we think eduFire (not to mention SuperPass!) is an absolutely incredible way for any homeschooler to learn a language or new skill, but we can’t always go and toot our own horn when there’s so many others that do such a good job as well. Here is a list of seven free resources (besides us) that home schoolers can use to study a language quickly and effectively. With the web, using software on your computer is old. These resources are often better, more effective, and free!

Smart.fm

Smart.fm is one of the most in depth flashcard programs on the web, and it’s all free. With user generated lists there are an infinite number of possibilities, from Japanese to Spanish to art and more. They’ve done an incredible job studying how the brain learns new things and applying it to an application that anybody can use. No matter what you’re learning, it’s time to throw away your index cards and get Smart.

Lang-8

Lang-8 is so innovative when it comes to the idea of “community” learning. I don’t know how many hours I’ve spent writing and reading on this website. Lang-8 means “infinite languages” (turn that 8 on its side), because it supports all languages. The idea behind Lang-8 is pretty simple, but also really effective as well. You write journal entries (or other content) in the language that you are learning. People who are natives in the language that you are learning will correct your journal entries using Lang-8’s fabulous set of correcting tools. Then, in theory, you would go help people who are learning your native language by correcting their content. I’m always really surprised (happily surprised) by the community and how eager everyone is to help each other out! Start writing now!

Busuu

Busuu is another community driven site, and does a great job making language learning fun! Using the site, it almost feels “game-like” which, when done well (like Busuu) helps kids enjoy learning. Busuu’s platform includes dialogues, interactive tests, listening practice, community, vocabulary training, and more! If you just visit their website you’ll see why it’s different from everyone else!

Babbel

Babbel is another site that makes learning fun (actually, all of these are!). Babbel believes that it’s important to “make the connection between different sense, and associations between diverse kinds of content.” I couldn’t agree more! Everything on the site has a picture or audio along with it, and learning is much more interactive than traditional learning resources, which essentially means Babbel’s system will adjust to your level over time.

iTunes

iTunes, believe it or not, is a great way to practice a language. More specifically, the podcast section (because it’s free). Did you know that you can scroll down to the bottom of the iTunes store and change your location? If you do this, you can’t download any content that costs anything, but you can (for example), change your location to Japan, then go to the Japan podcast section where you have access to a wealth of listening resources that comes from real, native speakers of Japanese. The great part is that when you change locations, all your menu items stay in your native language, which makes it really easy to navigate!

Twitter

Twitter has really boomed in the last few months, which means more and more people from all over the world are Tweeting in 140 characters or less. I’ve found that Twitter is great for both reading and writing practice, mostly because everything comes in such manageable bite-sized chunks. If you follow people tweeting in the language that you’re learning then it’s easy to read / translate incoming tweets just because they’re so short (and not overwhelming, like a text or newspaper translation). Also, for writing, you’ll find that it’s easy to write 140 characters at a time.You can do it in between other things, so you’re always making use of your time. Tweet! (don’t forget to follow @edufire!)

Innovative Languages (Pod101 Series)

You may not have heard of Innovative Languages by this name, but I bet you’ve heard of all their fabulous online products (JapanesePod101, FrenchPod101, etc.). Now, they do have paid versions of all these things, but they offer quite a bit of content for free as well. You can learn a lot from their free audio content, and of course, you can learn even more by upgrading your account. To see a list of languages they cover, just head on over to the products page and gander at the list in the left sidebar.

So what is missing from this list? Add your own favorite homeschool language learning resources to the comments section to help everyone out!

[img source]

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Using #teach-me on Twitter for Demand Driven Teaching

Koichi — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 16:00:32 +0000

I came across this Tweet by Kareem (yep, one of the eduFire founders!) the other day. I thought it was pretty neat, but didn’t realize the potential of it until we talked about it a little. Twitter could be the home of a small revolution! We’re talking about “Demand Driven Teaching,” here.

So, say you want to learn something new, but have no idea where to find that Esperanto teacher of your dreams. With Twitter gaining more and more popularity, there’s bound to be someone there that knows and is willing to teach you Esperanto (and even get paid for it). Here’s what you’d do, if you were a student.

Students

Say there’s something you want to learn. You would fire up your Twitter account and type out a message. Perhaps you want to learn Spanish. You would type in something like “I need to know how to buy things in Spanish for my trip to Spain next month,” then end it with the hashtags #teach-me #edufire. This will show that you want a Spanish teacher, and you want to learn it on eduFire. You will then show up in Twitter’s Search function when you look for #teach-me.

Teachers

Of course, if you’re a teacher, you can always participate in learning something new as well, but you’re probably in it to find some students! The demand is already there, which is good for you, and people are making themselves easy to find. That’s great! All you would do is do a search on Twitter for #teach-me, and then maybe add what you teach, if you want to get more specific. For example, if you typed in #teach-me spanish, you’d find all the people that mentioned #teach-me and Spanish in their Tweets. There aren’t any right now, but hopefully that’s something we can change in the coming months! I would recommend getting a Twitter application like Tweetdeck to help organize your searches and get notified of changes faster!

Use #teach-me and #edufire to Win Prizes!

In April, we’ll be giving out eduFire t-shirts and free class coupons to students who use #teach-me and #edufire in their tweets. We’ll choose a couple of random tweets, as well as a couple of tweets we just really really like. Of course, all the tweets have to be something you actually want to learn (or be a tweet “spreading the word”), otherwise it’s missing the point, so no spamming the hashtag just for the heck of it! That’s cheating!

We look forward to seeing this tweet in action! I think there’s a lot of potential here – and a lot of students and teachers will be able to find each other when this thing takes off. We definitely need your help to spread the word, or to use this hashtag yourself! Thank you everyone for your support!

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What if…

jon — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 09:14:06 +0000

OK, I’m about to go a little out there. But a thought occurred to me as I was checking out the site tonight and seeing all sort of cool things happening ranging from lots of people Twittering about us to us being on the verge of hitting 30,000 posts in the forums to new classes in all sorts of amazing subjects ranging from social investing to holistic nutrition. It pretty much hit me straight between the eyes.

What if that moment we have all been waiting for had arrived?

Bear with me here for a minute. If you’re reading this blog it’s probably because you actually give a damn. You care about education. Maybe your education. Maybe education in general. Maybe education for people in places who weren’t quite as blessed as we are.

And you’re probably here because you think that education can be better. That you shouldn’t have to suffer for a mediocre education at a price that increases at an ever-increasing rate (health care is the only thing that has increased in price at a faster pace than tuition over the last 20 years). That no one should for that matter. That high school drop-out rates that exceed 50% in some cities in the U.S. are a national travesty. And that our inability to re-train workers being displaced by shrinking industries shouldn’t have to be an international catastrophe.

Like a lot of other people you’re waiting for a change. So let me suggest something radical. What if that moment has arrived?

Two weeks ago I was out in New York City to attend Hacking Education, an amazing event put on by Union Square Ventures, a top-tier VC behind such success stories as Etsy and Twitter. The guest list ranged from people who are about as distinguished as they come to 25 year olds with the best resume on the planet. And they all came together to discuss one thing: How to revolutionize education.

Sitting in that room that day, listening to the ideas (and contributing a few of my own!), I couldn’t help but feeling that maybe this is it. Maybe the change that people have been talking about for some long is actually happening. And certainly not at all just at a place like eduFire. But with other amazing edge startups like TeachStreet, Knewton, Smart.fm and LiveMocha.

And so while the whole world seems like it’s off it’s rocker with talks of bailout and corporate greed maybe there’s something else going on here. Something more powerful than any of us yet have realized. An opportunity to create a true system of Global Intelligence. A chance to turn teachers into rockstars.

That’s a big frickin’ opportunity. Massive. And with big opportunities come big responsibilities. Especially in times like this it’s easy to throw in the towel. To see another depressing piece of news and just say “Screw it.” Or not. Or instead to realize that we can pick ourselves up, dust ourselves and go out and build amazing stuff that will change the planet.

That’s what we try to do every day here at eduFire. Build something that will help someone. Maybe a student who is look for some extra help in an important subject. Maybe a teacher trying to earn a decent living doing what they’re most passionate about.

And we’d love to have you help us out. Because ultimately at the end of the day it’s not about us as defined by the people on our team. It’s about *us*. What we’re all building together and the legacy we’ll leave to the generations that will come after us. By supporting the platforms that are trying to change things and supporting each other you are playing a role in being a part of this change.

So I’ll leave you with a few action items before your day is done. With each one of these that you do you’re playing a role in being a part of the change:

Know someone who is studying for the GMAT? Tell them about Grockit. It’s a ridiculously cool multi-player game that helps you study for the GMAT alongside other students.

Know someone who does local (face-to-face) teaching? Have them sign up on Teachstreet (if they’re in the US) or on School of Everything (if they’re in Europe). You’ll be doing them a big favor!

Know someone who is learning a language? Tell them about Smart.fm and LiveMocha, two of the most butt-kickingest language learning sites out there.

Last but not least we’d of course love your help too. :) We’ve put together a special Spread the Word page on edufire that you will give you a bunch of ways you can help us out. We’ve also added new “Post to Twitter” and “Post to Facebook” links on all of our Classes (more details here). As I mentioned before, every little bit helps.

I’ll close by saying that I’m really, really excited to look back on this moment in 5 or 10 years and say “Wow, that was it. That was when it all started.” The collective moment that we’re sharing, one infused with hope and optimism for a future that doesn’t exist but is brighter than any we’ve ever envisioned before. That moment is perhaps the one we’ve been waiting for.

Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these broken wings and learn to fly
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to arise
You were only waiting for this moment to arise
You were only waiting for this moment to arise
-Lyrics from “Blackbird” by The Beatles

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The first live video class from 30,000 feet?

jon — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 23:57:19 +0000

Today I took Marco’s awesome class on Memory/Mneomics. Like all of the eduFire classes I’ve taken so far I really enjoyed it and learned a lot. However there was something different about this class…I was taking it from 30,000 feet. Courtesy of the fine folks at Virgin America (I highly recommend flying them whenever you can!) and the awesomeness of Gogo Inflight Internet I was taking the class from onboard the plane exactly the same as if I were sitting at home.

And then a thought occurred to me…am I the first person to take a live video class from a commercial airplane??!!

Wi-fi is just being made available on flights (Virgin just started a few months ago) and live video learning is pretty brand new as well. Hmmm, this might have been a historic event! :)

Regardless, it was pretty amazing and I thought I should capture the moment for posterity so I’ve included a short snippet of the video below. It’s not much to watch but you can see people going up and down the aisle. I didn’t capture the sound properly (all you hear is jet noise and me typing on the keyboard) but that’s me you see live with Marco on video and I could hear him fine the whole class. I could have even participated via audio if I had really wanted to annoy my seatmates. ;)

Today was just another one of a lot of “Anything is possible.” moments I’ve been experiencing lately. If we can participate in live video classes while on a cross-country flight at 30,000 feet then what can’t we do? :)

(P.S. The other fun part was that I encoded the video using HeyWatch, uploaded the video to YouTube and wrote and posted this all while still in the air. I heart the Internet! :))

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