Boost your brain this summer: Coursera, edX, TED-Ed and other online learning resources

I declared my summer 2012 as a summer of learning. I love learning new things by myself and I have already reflected on the topic of self education here a two and a half year ago. There I listed several resources that are generally still actual, however some new great opportunities have emerged for self-learners. MIT OCW, for example, seemed to be one of the greatest things, however, when digging into it, you might get just partial information (just lecture notes, just assignments, etc). I was more looking forward to a real online class, with video lectures, assignments, deadlines etc. 

Google Education resources

Earlier this month I learned about an online course of power searching offered by Google. I signed up for it partly because of I was interested to learn the methods and media used in the course, then surely also to learn new things on search. They were 6 classes, each comprised of lessons (video lectures) and activities (quizzes). There was a mid-term assignment with a deadline and a final assignment. One could attempt to take them as many times as needed and just the highest score was being counted. The certificates were being sent out to those who got at least 75% score. I got 100% :) Now the classes are online for everyone, without the assessments, however.

Hopefully, more courses like this will be offered by Google!

Coursera.org

I had heard of Coursera since months ago, however signed up for it just recently, after I watched its co-founder Daphne Koller talk at TEDGlobal 2012 (the talk is not yet up on TED.com, I watched the webstream, upd. 03.08.2012 - the talk is now live!). There were several interesting courses starting in September, January 2013 and even later. The first course I signed up to, started on July 23 - "Internet History, Technology, Security".
It features video lectures every week, quiz assignments and peer-graded assignments. The platform has a basic wiki for additional resources and also a discussion board, where students discuss various topics (except for the quiz answers :) and even form study groups (there is one for Armenians as well).
I really love the coursera platform and look forward to completing several courses there!

Interesting read: Is Coursera the Beginning of the End for Traditional Higher Education?, Forbes
upd. TED blog featured 12 great free online courses. (03.08.2012)

TED-Ed

This is TED's educational initiative, was presented at TEDxSummit in Doha, and launched in spring. It features animated videos on various topic that can be used in classes.
Here is one of the most recent lessons: "How do pain relievers work?"

Here is one of my favorites: The cockroach beatbox

edX.org

First it was MITx, now it's edX - ambitiously announced as the future of online education. It's MIT and Harvard that teamed up to create online courses for interactive studies on the web, free for everyone.

EdX's goals combine the desire to reach out to students of all ages, means, and nations, and to deliver these teachings from a faculty who reflect the diversity of its audience. EdX is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts and is governed by MIT and Harvard.

Few days ago edX announced its 7 courses for Fall 2012 on Computer science and Chemistry from MIT, Harvard and Berkeley. Currently I'm looking forward to new courses that would be of my interest.

Interesting read: Universities Reshaping Education on the Web, The New York Times.



p.s. Some reflections on current educational system in Russian: habr.ru/p/148356/

I'm a TEDx Organizer!

I have already told you how much I love TED and about the TEDxYerevan conferences that I took part in (also as a speaker).

I decided to actively take part in spreading the ideas of TED becoming a TEDx Activator. Now let me tell you what it is and why I'm so proud now :))

TEDx Activator is an experiment in partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, to support TEDx organizers who are using TEDx events to spread ideas in the developing world and unprivileged communities. Any community that does not have access to TED and TED.com qualifies.

TEDx - is an independently organized TED event by an individual who has to be granted a free license from TED. The event can be just viewing TED talks, or can have live speakers as well. TED rules state that if it's a full-day event, total 25% of talks have to be pre-recorded talks from TED.com.

In reality, TED is very strict about rules for TEDx and I actually enjoy being part of this!!! There is a strong community with many virtual collaboration tools which somehow reminded me of my beloved youth organization - AIESEC.

In the framework of the TEDxActivator program, each of the Activators will be organizing 4 TEDx events in 1 year, for the above mentioned unprivileged communities.

The first event I planned was for teenagers of various backgrounds, the others most likely will be in the regions of Armenia.

TEDxTumanyanPark organizers :)

The first event me and my friend Gohar organized on November 30, was for TUMO kids exclusively, named TEDxTumanyanPark, and made possible with the help of TEDx Activator Manager and TEDxYerevan licensee Kristine Sargsyan.  It was a viewing event with the theme "Creativity in tech". We invited 100 kids (announcing it on Facebook) to the cinema hall of TUMO.

We selected 5 short to mid-length talks with many visuals. We made sure the Armenian translations of the talks (most of which were done by me and Gohar) were there and were correct. We prepared small intros for the talks and also were telling the main points of the talks in Armenian, since some of the kids couldn't manage to read the subtitles or understand the English speech. We had a great support from the TUMO staff and it was a pleasure to work with them!
And based on what we heard from the kids - they really enjoyed it! I hope we will see TED speakers growing up out these kids who were just getting acquainted with TED :)

Here are a few official numbers about TEDx:

• TEDx began in March 2009.
• # of TEDx events 2009: 279
• # of TEDx events 2010: 952
• # of TEDx events 2011 so far (Nov. 29): 1645
• Total # events: 2876
• Countries: 118
• Languages: 40+
• Licensees: 3450+
• Videos (TEDxTalks): 10,500+
• Across various platforms, TEDxTalks videos have been viewed over 50 million times. 

Here are more pics from the event, made by my lovely cousin Semira Martirosyan.

P.S. My status msg on FB about becoming a TEDx organizer got 120 likes and 30 comments. As it turns out, there were rumors in the city that I had quit my current job and now I'm a full-time TEDx organizer :). Dear all, i'm still PanARMENIAN Arpik and I have no intention to change my job. Being a TEDx organizer does not require full time efforts, thankfully :)

"Guinea Pigs in Technology" or geek girls are cool! my TEDxYerevan talk

As I have told you already, I was honored to be selected as one of the speakers of TEDxYerevan 2011.

I was very excited about the opportunity and I also knew that it's gonna be a tough job. I had to pass auditions with the organizing team and prepare a talk which would be:

• short
• fun
• geeky
• inspiring

After my sudden success with the BarCamp's talk, everyone expected of me something similar: just an easy, funny speech about geeks and dating. But I really wanted my talk to contain a personal story (like in most of TED talks), have a message and to inspire at least some people. So i had many conversations with various people, met other geek girls. My closest friends were particularly helpful as they were "working" on my talk all the way from the start to the final submission. I even organized some small auditions at in my apartment, asking for feedback on slides, texts and even my body language when talking (a friend even recorded my rehearsal on a video so i could watch myself).

So here I can finally present the result. I'm posting the slide deck, narrative speech (a little extended with some parts that were cut out in the final speech) and also the video of the talk. 

"Guinea Pigs in Technology" or geek girls are cool (contains slide notes)

Do you know what guinea pigs and women in technology have in common?

This is an old joke i used to hear a lot some time ago. The popular answer is this: the common thing between women in tech and guinea pig is the fact that women are related to technology the same way guinea pigs are related to pigs. I'm here to tell you that this is complete and utter… nonsense.
Let me tell you a story.
So it’s about a girl, who was born in a very typical Armenian family. Normally her destiny would be pictured like this: she’ll go to school, enter university, find a husband, have some kids, become an exemplary housewife who can cook excellent dolma… and work as a teacher maybe.. well, in this particular family i'm going to tell you about, things went a little different.

Something somewhere went wrong and the first signs of the troubles have started to emerge as the family bought their first PC back in 1996 and their teenage daughter started to show signs of computer addiction.. becoming a «computer rat» in their words. Her initial plans to become a journalist quickly vanished and she started to dream of becoming a hacker.
Since the age of 13 she became the computer expert for her whole extended family, getting emergency calls whenever someone couldn't find a certain key on the keyboard, or couldn't change the font properties in the Word processor.

Since then, “Let Me Google It For You” has been a phrase she used a lot. Well and the RTFM.

She has been studying computer science and one day she realized that the profession she's chosen is changing her while studying databases when she was around 18 years old. She had this idea.. of being able to remember big amounts of information, to be able to connect things she heard.. and just to be able to fit in all the things she was learning. She found out how to optimize her brain's databases, arrange the tables with a 'foreign key' and index all the data, so that all the new information she gets, gets stored in the appropriate table with the keywords, and she can fetch the information quite easily. This was a remarkable moment when she realized that she somehow managed to optimize her brain the way, so she quickly connects the facts and random pieces of information and her memory is significantly improved…

One of the happiest moments of her life was buying a laptop. She needed a portable computer that she could use it even in bed and in cafes, and when she had it, it was not very common to walk in the streets with big laptop bags yet.. and she occasionally felt herself like the little Tiffany from the Men in Black.

With the web 2.0 and new media emerging, she became an early adopter, and was labeled as a tech evangelist. One who signs up for all the new social networks, manages to be aware of all the industry news… she has built some impressive online personality with big network, and with many followers and all…
She was labeled as a geek. Then she started to explore what’s in that word.

So who are geek girls?

These are the most common perceptions I’ve brought together.

• They are not feminine 

• They lack social skills, mostly hang out with other geeks

• Using a lot techno-slang 

• They must know good programming 

• And they work just in tech industry

Some of these things are truly just myths. In reality geek girls are:

1. Independent or better to say - self-dependent people. They solve most of their own problems :)
They can easily setup a home wireless network, configure a router, even without a prior knowledge in networking. They just know how to find it out digging through search results and technical forums.

2. Geek girls are smart, witty, tech savvy


3. They are gadget and connectivity dependentEven though they don’t depend on other people for their problems, they are very much dependent on their gadgets and network availability.

4. They learn really quickly and are actually very good at quick self-learning. They know how to google stuff, or youtube things like “how to fix damaged headphones” or simply “how to gift wrap a box”.

5. Geek girls are info-junkie and love sharing. They have to be up-to-date with the latest information on their interest and they all love sharing information and useful hacks. That’s why they are active in social networks.

6. Also, geek girls can be really cute
Just like socialites. Not convincing?

Well.. for the socialites we all know that they are:

• Obsessed with shopping and worship shoes 

• They actually admire lady gaga for some reason. 

• They are obsessed with SATC show and frequently quote the heroines. 

I know a geek girl who’s a shopaholic, with a particular passion for shoes. Well, she recently told us, she counted about 27 pairs in her 2011 spring-summer collection.
And not only her… among my geek girlfriends there are ones who think that Lady Gaga is actually cool. They read Cosmo and yeah, Sex and the City is one of their favorite shows of all time, they were noted to be stylish and pretty. Not quite like the perceptions, right?
Now lets go back to the girl I was telling you about in the beginning.

The netbook that’s the default accessory in her purse is actually pink. It has Google, Firefox, Android and Hello Kitty stickers next to each other. Among her 200 RSS subscriptions, there are many fashion, gossip blogs. Her smartphone has more fashion apps than you know existed J She meets her friends not by calling and asking where they are, or telling where she is. They have foursquare and other geolocation services for that. She tracks her not suspecting sister with the google latitude she had setup on her cellphone.

You can meet geek girls in some glamorous party, all dressed up, on towering heels, talking on her smartphone.. Explaining someone from her workplace how to fix the server..
You can meet a girl restarting that damn router at a café when they badly need a wifi.
This is Ani, she has written an alarm clock application for her friend’s phone, because it didn’t have one.

These girls - Nelly and Gayane, have created a very popular website dedicated to indie music all by themselves, coding, promotion and stuff.

Geek girls were active in Yerevan Barcamps’ organization, well; I was one of them and guess what? I was telling about “how to date a geek girl”. Somehow this presentation became a viral hit on the web, becoming the top presentation of the day, then week, then most tweeted and ended up getting about 20K views in couple of weeks. And I got featured in a Taiwanese website with a special mention of my netbook which turned out to be a Taiwanese pride. It got a huge positive feedback and I want to share some of the highlights.

When geek girl is dating a geek guy.. well. That’s predictable. They communicate via messengers (even when they are in the same room), they schedule meetings via google calendar invitations, their computers are sweetly connected via a shared folder in dropbox, and they express their emotions via likes and comments…

When geek girl is dating a non-geek. Either the guy gets paranoic thinking that their (potential) girlfriend can hack everything of theirs, starting with text messages on the phone, ending with email and social media accounts. And nothing good comes out of it.

You can never know that a pretty girl you’ll be flirting with in a bar, might have already checked your FB profile on her smartphone while you were looking away, and might have tweeted how bored she is with your conversations.
But, if guys are smart enough, they start exploring her ‘territory’, signing up in the social networks she’s in, following her posts and reacting to them.
If you follow these simple steps, a geek girl can give you the root password for her heart.

But actually, being a geek girl is really cool.

Being a geek girl makes you feel more confident, independent. You can solve your own problems actually. You become needed and demanded by everyone around, from your boss to your friends.

So what do guinea pigs and girls in technology have in common? Yes, they are both cute J

We, the geek girls of Armenia have decided to establish a community of our own. So i invite the girls to join us.

At last, I want to tell you that a geek’s image for girls actually comes with a ‘dumbness filter’. If you’re a geek girl, you can attract all the right guys and scare all the wrong ones J

Girls, enjoy being geeks.

The video of my talk

I'm really thankful to all the people who approached me, gave feedback, told me that they could relate to some parts of the talk and just told me they enjoyed it :) I'm thankful to fellow speakers for cheering me up when i was nervous and for all the support. I am so lucky to be part of this great team!

TEDxYerevan 2011 speakers

Don't forget to check out other talks on the TEDxYerevan website. 

me at TEDxYerevan 2011

Just came here to share some exciting news :)

Loooots of exciting things happened to me since I last wrote here and I'm having a terrific week now.
Now I'm very close to reaching another milestone.


You know, I've always been bad at public speaking. As a shy girl since school, I've always avoided public appearances, although they somehow followed me everywhere. I always knew I was bad at it and had a big desire to improve myself, so I started to take the chances whenever I was invited to do a training or presentation. It required a lot of energy with my self-criticism and perfectionism.

I remember, at BarCamp 2009, I was just an attendee and didn't have the courage to make a presentation. Next year I volunteered for BarCamp 2010 and did 2 presentations, got a lot of feedback. This year I also did two presentations, and spoke at the opening.. all in the big main hall! ...and the feedback was awesome. I am thankful to each and every one of my friends who were there, supported me and pointed me what had to be improved.

one of my biggest public speaking challenges at a Powerpoint Karaoke event: just a blabla on something you have no idea about :D 

During these two years I did a number of presentations and trainings in various places and every time i've been noticing my own improvement.

Last year at TEDxYerevan 2010 I watched my friend preparing for her talk and other speakers presentations and thought: hey, it'd be cool if i could grow up to be a TEDx speaker :) ...

so here I am :) in a great company! looking forward to September 24 to present my ideas on "Guinea pigs in technology" ;))

Watch the TEDxYerevan 2011 teaser here:

and btw, it will be held in TUMO!

TED. տեխնոլոգիա, ժամանց, դիզայն. տարածվելու արժանի գաղափարներ

Արդեն բավականին ժամանակ է ինչ ուզում եմ իմ բոլոր ընկերներին ու ընթերցողներին ծանոթացնել այս հոյակապ նախագծին և պատմել իմ վերջին «թուլություններից» մեկի մասին:

Եւ այսպես... ի՞նչ է TED-ը:

TED-ը փոքր ոչ առևտրային կազմակերպություն է: Այն նվիրված է այնպիսի գաղափարներին, որոնք արժանի են տարածման: Ստեղծվել է 1984-ին որպես կոնֆերանս, որը երեք աշխարհների (տեխնոլոգիա, ժամանց, դիզայն) մարդկանց հավաքել էր միասին: Այդ ժամանակից ի վեր թեմաների շրջանակը զգալիորեն ընդլայնվել է: Բացի իր 2 ամենամյա` TED կոնֆերանսներից (Լոնգ Բիչ և Փալմ Սփրինգս), ինչպես նաև յուրաքանչյուր ամառ Մեծ Բրիտանիայի Օքսֆորդ քաղաքում տեղի ունեցող TED Global-ից, TED-ը ներառում է նաև TEDTalks տեսանյութերի կայքը, Բաց Թարգմանության Նախագիծը և Բաց Հեռուստատեսության Նախագիծը, TEDx ծրագիրը և ամենամյա TED մրցանակը:

Դրանց մասնակցելը մեծ հաջողություն է (պահանջում է բավականին ջանքեր, գումար և գուցե` բախտ :)), իսկ այնտեղ ելույթ ունենալը ուղղակի մի չտեսնված պատիվ է: Դա արդեն դասում է մարդուն Ռիչարդ Բրենսոնի, Ալ Գորի, Բիլ Գեյթսի, Լարի Փեյջի ու Սերգեյ Բրինի և աշխարհահռչակ շատ գիտնականների շարքում:

TEDx

TEDx-ը ստեղծվել է TED-ի «տարածվելու արժանի գաղափարներ» ոգով: Ծրագիրը տարբեր համայնքների, կազմակերպությունների և անհատների հնարավորություն է ընձեռում TED-ատիպ երկխոսություններ կազմակերպել ավելի տեղային մակարդակով:

TEDx միջոցառումների ժամանակ յուրատիպ ելույթների հետ մեկտեղ ցուցադրվում են նաև TED ելույթների տեսանյութեր, որոնք առավել խորը զրույցների խթան են հանդիսանում: TEDx միջոցառումները ամբողջովին պլանավորվում և համակարգվում են TED-ից անկախ` համայնք առ համայնք:

Ովքեր տեղյակ չեն` առաջին TEDxYerevan կոնֆերանսը տեղի կունենա սեպտեմբերի 25-ին: Իսկ դեկտեմբերին` առաջին գլոբալ TED Women-ին զուգահեռ տեղի կունենա TEDxWomenYerevan-ը: Նորությունների համար` հետևեք ինձ ;)

TED Talks

TEDTalks նախագիծն ի սկզբանե ուղղակի փորձ էր աշխարհի հետ կիսվելու այն ամենով, ինչ կատարվում էր TED-ի ընթացքում: «Տարածվելու արժանի գաղափարներ» անվանման տակ ելույթները դրվեցին կայքում` դիտման համար: Կարճ ժամանակում դրանք միլիոնավոր հանդիսատեսներ հավաքեցին: Արձագանքն այնքան ոգևորիչ էր, որ TED կայքը ամբողջովին վերափոխվեց, կենտրոնական մասում դնելով հենց ելույթները, և յուրաքանչյուրին հնարավորություն ընձեռնեց ունկնդրելու աշխարհի ամենաոգեշնչող ձայները:

Ես կարող եմ ժամեր անցկացնել դիտելով այս ելույթները, որոնք ներկայացնում են աշխարհի ամենահայտնի գիտնականները, ձեռնարկատերերը և ուղղակի հետաքրքիր մարդիկ:


TED Open Translation Project

TED-ի Բաց թարգմանության նախագիծը TED ելույթները հասանելի է դարձնում անգլերենին չտիրապետող լսարանին, առաջարկելով ենթատիտրեր, ինտերակտիվ սղագրություն և հնարավորություն, որ յուրաքանչյուր ելույթ թարգմանվի աշխարհի տարբեր ծայրերում գտնվող կամավորների կողմից: Այժմ նախագիծը ներառում է ավելի քան 10.000 թարգմանություններ արված 5000 կամավորների կողմից 77 լեզուներով: Այստեղ կարելի է տեսնել հայերեն լեզվի թարգմանիչներին: Արդեն 37 ելույթ ունի հայերեն  ինտերակտիվ սղագրություն և ենթատիտրեր:

Արդեն մի քանի ամիս է, ինչ ես էլ եմ մասնակցում թարգմանություններին: Որոշները բավականին բարդ են ընկալման և հատկապես թարգմանության համար, սակայն չափազանց հետաքրքիր են: Այս աշխատանքը օգնում է հայերեն ու անգլերեն լեզուները մշտապես ակտիվ պահել ուղեցում, և ավելի խորացնել լեզվի գիտելիքները: Թարգմանությունները օգնում են ճանաչել շատ նոր երևույթներ և սովորել նոր բաներ, որոնք ուղղակի դիտելիս չի հաջողվում:
Եթե ցանկանաք միանալ մեր շարքերին` այցելեք այս խումբը, մենք ձեզ ամեն ինչ կպատմենք :)
TED-ի հայերեն թարգմանիչները պարբերաբար հավաքվում և դիտում են TED ելույթներ: Մենք նաև մեր mailing list-ը ունենք:

TED թարգմանիչների հավաքը 

Ի դեպ, ես արդեն ունեմ TED ելույթների մեծամասնությունը ներբեռնած` մոտ 30Գբ (thx Gaspar!): Ցանկացողների հետ հաճույքով կկիսվեմ :))

Ահա իմ անձնական էջը ted.com-ում: Ստորև ներկայացնում եմ որոշ իմ ամենասիրած ելույթները:


Ահա իմ ամենասիրելի ելույթներից մի քանիսը: Վայելե՜ք :)
Իմ ընկեր Ալեքսիսի ելույթը :)


Զարմանալի բաներ


Ահա իմ սիրելի Ռիչարդ Բրենսոնը


Կարող էի էլի մի տասնյակ հետաքրքիր ելույթներ բերել այստեղ, բայց դժվար չէ դրանք գտնելը :) Ահա մի քանի ցանկեր`

• 20 must see business talks, 
• 20 excellent TED talks for small business owners, 
• 14 powerful TED talks by photographers, 
• the 10 best talks from TED 2010, 
• 15 TED talks for teachers, 
• 10 inspiring TED talks for startups.

Իմ հավանածներից որոշները կարող եք տեսնել TED-ի իմ անձնական էջում:

Ձեզ էլ խորհուրդ կտամ դիտեք հնարավորին չափ շատ TED ելույթներ, որպեսզի զգաք խելոքանալու և զարգանալու պրոցեսը :)))