Free Online Computer Course

I was going to write about all the cool free resources on the next that could be used for Professional Development. While I was collecting links I stumbled upon one that I think many teachers might appreciate, so I figured I'd focus on it and save the other for a future post.

There is a new trend among colleges to put much of their material online. One of the more famous is MIT's Open Course Ware. Some are now including video or audio podcasts of their lectures (25 courses from Berkley). Today I want to point out an introductory computer course offered from Harvard Extension. They've posted almost all of the lectures as flash, quicktime, and mp3. They've also included pdf versions of their powerpoint slides and definitions of all the jargon they use.

Computer Science E-1 walks students through all the basics. I've only watched a few of the lectures at this point, but this seems like the perfect place for someone whose not very confident using computers to start. They've also included many quick tutorials on a variety of subjects ranging from adding RAM or a new hard drive to how to use iMovie or Windows MovieMaker.

The lectures run an hour and a half or so while the tutorials are much shorter, being 5 to 15 minutes. Whether you need to learn a little about computers or a lot this course is definitely worth a look. Personally, I'm not likely to be mistaken for a beginner when it comes to computers I still plan on spending some time with this course. Below is a quick tutorial on how to get started with Scratch. (Scratch is a simple programming language that allows ou to program by simply dragging and dropping visual elements. It was developed by the Media Lab at MIT)