North York Central Library Blog

Do you feel your body getting ready to go into hibernation? While many
of us may not be as physically active as we might want to be over the coming
months it is the perfect time to exercise our brains. With the following site
recommendations you can learn at your own pace or just procrastinate with some
enlightening and stimulating material no matter what your interests are.

Coursera    

Coursera offers free undergraduate and graduate level courses. You watch lectures by world class scholars online at your own pace. There are assignments and deadlines and your work is evaluated by your peers.  Some, but not all, of the Universities involved include: Penn State, Michigan, U of T, Caltech and Duke. Several courses are for credit but you need to make sure that the other institution that you are attending will accept Coursera credits. Subjects range from  Cryptography, to  How Things Work 1  to  Introduction to Philosophy. I am currently enrolled in Design: Creation of Artifacts in Society. I will let you know how it goes.

The University of Toronto recently became a partner. Here is an article from the Toronto Star  about that.

Khan Academy

"Learn almost anything for free." This is the goal of The Khan Academy! The academy accidentally started in 2004 when Salman Khan agreed to tutor a cousin in math. Salman lived in Boston and his cousin lived in New Orleans so he posted tutorials online for her. You can watch Sal talk about the advent of the academy via his Ted talk. Now, with 3500 videos you can learn about math, the humanities, finance and economics, science, computer science and a selection of math test preparations. There are also resources for teachers and anyone else who wants to use the materials and principles in any kind of classroom. Also, check out Salman Khan's new book The One World Schoolhouse: education reimagined.

 W3 schools

Have you ever wanted to learn basic programming or just plain old HTML? This web development education site has excellent tutorials for beginners and experts alike. The tutorials are easy to follow and there is an editor that you can use as you learn.

Academic Earth 

Some, but not all, of the partners include Yale, MIT, Stanford and Berkley

Watch
lectures by international scholars as they presented their material in
class. Subjects range from business to art and design. The site is easy to
search and use. I have really enjoyed their Playlists, thematic groups of lectures on timely
issues and events.

TED Talks 

Ted Talks are pure unadulterated mind candy for everyone. You may have
heard of TED X and have always meant to check it out so now is your chance.
Search by topic, country or most viewed. 
Every talk is guaranteed to be enlightening and stimulating. Here is a sample: Susan Cain talking about her book Quiet . It is all about the power of introverts. Get it as an eBook.

For great local events check out 
TED x Toronto

Internet Public Library    

Of course I have to include something with library in the title! This
is a great general source for resources on just about any topic and for
any age.