Solera University

Free Courses

2011-12-28T02:00:00.000-08:00

Did you know that Solera University has thousands of courses provided free by the nations best universities? iTunes U has a huge number of free courses from theology and history to physics. UCTV has seminars on a variety of subjects. It has a lot of other helpful information.

The Khan Academy is a not-for-profit organization with the mission of providing a high quality education to anyone, anywhere. We have 1200+ videos on YouTube covering everything from basic arithmetic and algebra to differential equations, physics, chemistry, biology and finance which have been recorded by Salman Khan.

Kahn Academy

Lately I have been listening to podcasts of Dragnet and The International Spy Museum Spycast with talks by ex-CIA and KGB operators. Its totally cool with fascinating insight into what's really happening. I Also listen to Inside CRF (Council on Foreign Relations) and old cowboy shows on Westerns-OTR.

It is amazing what is available and its FREE. Click iTunes to download..

No cash? No problem! Many top universities offer free courses online. This list ranks several of the best free university courses available.
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M.I.T. Game-Changer: Free Online Education For All

2011-12-26T02:05:00.000-08:00

For Wall Street Occupiers or other decriers of the “social injustice” of college tuition, here’s a curveball bound to scramble your worldview: a totally free college education regardless of your academic performance or background. TheMassachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.) will announce on Monday that they intend to launch an online learning initiative called M.I.T.x,which will offer the online teaching of M.I.T. coursesfree of charge to anyone in the world.

The program will not allow students to earn an M.I.T. degree. Instead, those who are able to exhibit a mastery of the subjects taught on the platform will receive an official certificate of completion. The certificate will obviously not carry the weight of a traditional M.I.T. diploma, but it will provide an incentive to finish the online material. According to the New York Times, in order to prevent confusion, the certificate will be a credential bearing the distinct name of a new not-for-profit body that will be created within M.I.T.

The new online platform will look to build upon the decade-long success of the university’s original free online platform, OpenCourseWare (OCW), which has been used by over 100 million students and contains course material for roughly 2,100 classes. The new M.I.T.x online program will not compete with OCW in the number of courses that it offers. However, the program will offer students a greater interactive experience.

Students using the program will be able to communicate with their peers through student-to-student discussions, allowing them an opportunity to ask questions or simply brainstorm with others, while also being able to access online laboratories and self-assessments. In the future, students and faculty will be able to control which classes will be available on the system based on their interests, creating a personalized education setting.
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Wow, so much Info... but where to look?

2010-12-01T08:34:00.000-08:00

SoleraU provides a huge variety of easily accessible resources. There are brief info summaries and a huge number of journals, magazines, courses, and technology resources.
Check out the links and bookmark what you like.
SoleraU
The Observer
Vacation Ideas
Bill's Blog

Free Kindle Books

2010-11-28T11:42:00.001-08:00

Did you know you could get Kindle books FREE???

You can even subscribe to an email when books are added.

Here is the Link

You can also download a FREE Kindle application for your PC from Amazon.

The other day I noticed that Project Gutenberg provides a Kindle format.

This is another great source of free books.

When my wife shops, I often read my Kindle, it fits in my inside jacket pocket.

Learn about the Kindle here

LibriVox - free audio recordings of books

2009-07-06T19:55:00.000-07:00

LibriVox volunteers record chapters of books in the public domain, and then we release the audio files back onto the net for free. All our audio is in the public domain, so you may use it for whatever purpose you wish. We get most of our texts from Project Gutenberg, and the Internet Archive and ibiblio.org host our audio files (for free!).
LibriVox

iTunes Podcasts - free news and programs

2009-07-06T19:00:00.001-07:00

The iTunes Store puts thousands of free podcasts at your fingertips. To find them, select Music Store in the iTunes source column; then click “Podcasts” to journey Inside the Music Store. Or, here’s another way to get there: select the little podcasts icon in the Source column, then click the arrow next to “Podcast Directory” at the very bottom of the iTunes window. Once you’ve downloaded or subscribed to a podcast, click the Music Store button to return to the home page of the Store.
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iTunes University - learn anything free

2009-07-06T19:00:00.000-07:00

iTunes U — a powerful distribution system for everything from lectures to language lessons, films to labs, audiobooks to tours — is an innovative way to get educational content into the hands of students. Get free courses from hundreds of major universities on just about anything -- check it out. It is free.
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Getting help for academic subjects

2009-06-01T03:20:00.000-07:00

When University of Central Florida junior Nicole Nissim got stumped in trigonometry, she checked out what was showing on YouTube. It turned out YouTube was also full of math videos. After watching a couple, the psychology major said, she finally understood trig equations and how to make graphs. "I was able to watch them at my own pace, and if I didn't get a concept, I could easily rewind it," she said. "It was a lot clearer once I watched the video."

Math videos won't rival the millions of hits garnered by laughing babies, but a YouTube tutorial on calculus integrals has been watched almost 50,000 times in the last year. Others on angular velocity and harmonic motion have more than 10,000 views each.
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Tha Khan Academy has a many academic courses that may be perfect for studying math and science. visit the Kahn Academy

Where to get books

2009-05-25T12:16:00.000-07:00

There are several collections of books on the internet both in and out of copyright protection. Check the menu at the right for a list of collections. Google provides out of print and excerpts of newer publications. Amazon provides comments and ratings. Op-Amp provides hard-to-get technical books.

Learn Computer Basics

2009-01-01T15:10:00.000-08:00

Here is the spot to begin learning about computers. It is not really all that difficult, but there is definitely a vocabulary that includes symbols. Over the years these have become quite uniform among different programs and presentations you will see. So after an initial orientation and familiarization you will be able to use the same information over and over. So push through and soon the incredible resource of the Internet will by yours.

AARP and the San Bernardino Public Library offer free online courses to familiarize you with computers. These are great places for people new to computers to get their initial orientation.

Free courses are also available to teach you about Microsoft Office and the excellent free Open Office software which is my favorite.

Google is a wonderful resource and searching is only the beginning. So there are some Google Help pages that provide the basics of searching.

This is also a really an excellent free course first offered to beginning Harvard Extension School students. It is complete with videos of the course lectures and a number of other videos providing supplementary information. Take a look at the link - you will be impressed.

Learn about Blogger

2008-12-19T19:35:00.000-08:00

Blogging is a great way to meet people and make friends. I am very happy to have met so many fine folks in our community who I would never have met without SoleraU. Blogging can be an excellent way to organize what interests you.

SoleraU is based on Blogger which is owned by Google. There are a lot of gadgets you can add to make your blog highly customized. SoleraU might look like an integrated application at first glance--it was designed that way. But in fact, it is composed of a number of separate blogs that are connected with "linked lists"--a pretty flexible arrangement.
Blogger Help Center
Blogger Help Videos
YouTube Instructional Videos

Bell Labs

2008-11-01T09:12:00.000-07:00

It has been a bit over 60 years since the invention of the transistor, truly a "disruptive technology" that enabled many dependent inventions that changed our world. William Shockley led the team at Bell Labs that developed the first point contact transistor. It is an amazing story of technical innovation that changed our civilization.

History of the transistor
Integrated circuit
Who really invented the Transistor?

YouTube Videos
Invention Of The Transistor
the history of microprocessors
AMD CPU Manufacturing

Here are histories of key participants
Bell Labs on the Transistor

National Science Foundation

2008-11-01T00:00:00.000-07:00

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent federal agency created by Congress in 1950 "to promote the progress of science; to advance the national health, prosperity, and welfare; to secure the national defense…" Many of the discoveries and technological advances have been truly revolutionary.
The National Science Foundation is truely an interesting web site to visit.

Link to NSF - Discoveries

Foreign Language Courses

2008-03-08T21:17:00.000-08:00

To find Open Courseware in your language use Google search for:
Open Courseware and your language like German
Wikiversity.org has courses in English and other languages.

Art & History

2008-03-07T02:58:00.000-08:00

You might want to visit the Louvre.fr or Wikiversity.org for their collections.
The Louvre has images historical art including Mona Lisa.
Wikiversity has a collection that includes Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel.
You might get some great "wall paper" for your computer here.