Technology is moving ahead at a very quick pace. And in the days to come, it is going to play a significant part in revolutionizing the self-education field.
For example, analyze a technology such as MyEdu that gives students an opportunity to design and manage their higher education. With this, not only you can select the best teachers but also design a schedule of the class.
Three or four years back, all this would have required quite a bit of effort on your part. Thanks to the technology, you can do all this in matter of minutes. What’s more, you can use the time you have saved in learning new concepts.
Powerful Technology Tools
Some of the powerful technology tools that can help you in self-education include:
• Open source software
• Search engines
• Huge archives and databases
• Social media
• E-learning
• Video on demand
• Free presentations and recorded lectures (see TED, one of the best learning resource).
• Wikipedia
• Networked groups
The list goes on and on. Even better, it is increasing with every passing day, giving the self-educator more chances to learn in an effective manner.
Not much of a surprise that experts are terming it as Self-Service Education emergence.
There is a strong possibility that in the coming days, students will identify topics they are interested in learning and the technology is going to help them in ensuring that they get the right kinds of tools necessary for learning.
The best part about all this is that there is going to be no requirement of intermediaries.
The Age of Self-Education
Simply put, self-education is a learning experience that is life long. You are going to experience everything, right from success to failure and happiness to frustration. More importantly, you are going to get plenty of opportunities in between.
To get the best out of self-education, it is of paramount importance that you include important aspects of technology into it. Irrespective of the area you are interested in learning you will require technology.
For example, if you want to get a solid understanding of social networking and game design, you will require technology so that you can present it to the global audience.
You need to be very flexible in your approach. If there are shifts within the industry, you should be ready to move on to the new concepts. In a traditional classroom setup, this is not that easy to do but with technological advancements, these things can be done provided you are willing to do it.
The Whole Process of Self-Education and Technology
In the current context, one can say with full authority that self-education and technology is interrelated. In other words, the process of self-education is not going to be completed unless there is technology associated with it.
For people that love to learn, there are some important factors that need to be taken care of.
Fun: You should not ignore the importance of fun factor. The learning value goes down when you are not enjoying it.
Passion: Your learning experience is only going to be useful when you do it with the passion. With passion, you are going to get much better opportunities.
Experience: One of the most important things about technology is that it help the self-educator experience everything. This makes the learning routine quite a fun thing.
Persistence: Technology teaches the self-educator that without persistence, you cannot attain anything, even if you are multi-talented. Your individuality is going to shine when you come out of the tough situation without taking help from anyone. By dealing with tough situations, you are going to get stronger mentally, which is always a good attribute when involved in learning new things.
Resources: When using technology, there is going to be no dearth of resources. What you need to be careful of is to use right kind of resources.
The Correct Price
It is always a good idea to treat self-education price as a long-term asset. But you need to have a proper understanding of the financial cost related to self-education. Make sure that you include everything into it, right from materials to resources.
To get the best out of self-education, you need to be quite discipline in your approach. In addition, you also need to take into consideration the employment scenario.
After all, in order to survive, you will require money to purchase food and take care of housing expenses. With self-education, you increase your chances of getting a job. By including technology into your self-education, companies will be more interested in taking your services.
But for that, you need to use technology in a proper manner. Your focus should be on areas that you already have some knowledge and are comfortable with it.
Remember, it is not going to be a short-term routine. Get ready for some tough battles. Once you come out of these battles with success, there is going to be plenty of rewards for you.
Things are not going to happen on their own, you need to work hard for everything. There is no substitute of discipline and hard work. Good thing is that technology is going to provide you with the best resources that will make your learning exercise much simpler.
If you are smart and know how to use resources properly, things will go in your favor. People will love you as you are trying something that is not being tried by many individuals. What’s more, there is demand for people who love to
learn on a regular basis.
When you mix self-education with technology, you are going to get practical experience of various situations, which is not possible in a traditional classroom environment. Another important thing about technology is that time is not going to be a big factor, as you can learn things whenever you want to.
However, you need to ensure that this flexibility does not make you lazy. Do not get over-confident in your abilities, as it can easily happen with the presence of technology.