The Computer Learning Foundation announced the 14th annual Computer Learning Month in October 2013. Foundation hosts Computer Learning Month to promote the ways technology has impacted everyone’s lives, including the younglings
The Foundation also includes complete information on annual contests throughout the month that are open to students, educators, community groups and schools in the United States and Canada.
The also provide free application programs for schools which are readily downloadable from its Web site. Educators can use them to develop their lesson plans.
The Foundation is also launching the Computer Learning Foundation Hall of Fame via a contest that asks students or educators themselves to nominate an education professional they deem worthy of the honor. All entries are to be submitted as a Movie or Web page tribute that honors and promotes the nominee.
There is also a competition where lesson plans are judged to be the best. For this, teachers and educators develop ideas for incorporating Movies in their classroom activities. Again, entries must be submitted online.
All of the above information is available at the foundations website, which is www.computerlearning.org
All this being said, the Computer Learning Foundation is not the only way to find free courses online. You will be surprises at the many sites online that will let you learn for free. Below, are just a few.
MIT OpenCourseWare : MIT has one of the largest collections of open courseware out there, including numerous offerings in computer science from some of the leading minds in the field. Stanford Engineering Everywhere : Head to this site to take courses in basic computer science, artificial intelligence, linear systems, and other engineering topics. Academic Earth : There are a dozen or so free lectures on computer science from big-name colleges like Stanford, MIT, and Berkeley on this site. MIT World : MIT World is another offering from MIT that shares lectures, conferences, and demonstrations on a variety of topics, including computer science. Harvard Extension School : Harvard shares some of its Ivy League educational resources for free on this site, which collects course materials from a number of different computer science courses held in past years. UC Berkeley Engineering : Head to UC Berkeley’s iTunesU archive for a great collection of computer science and engineering lectures. The Open University : The Open University is an excellent place to look for free educational resources on just about any topic, and as you might imagine they carry a fair amount of computer science material as well. Open Culture : This site boasts 750 free online courses covering various diciplines. This is on top of the 625 FREE certificate course findings. UC Irvine : Looking to take a few courses in computer science on your own time? Through UC Irvine’s online resources you can take Intro to AI, Machine Learning, Kernel-Based Learning, or Bayesian Statistical Analysis. w3schools : For those looking to learn a programming language, there are few better resources than w3schools. On their site, there are tutorials for learning HTML, CSS, AJAX, and dozens of other programming languages. Wikibooks : Supplement any of the courses you take for free online with textbooks from. You’ll find great titles that can serve as reference points for a variety of CS subjects. Google Code University : Google has created a number of resources to help computer science students, including courses on programming, web security, algorithms, and much more. ArsDigita : Modeled after the undergrad computer science program at MIT, this online learning resource offers up some really great courses any CS student should check out.
So celebrate this month of learning. Seek out your school’s technology educator(s). Show them that they can find resources all over the internet, not to mention some being in their back yard.
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