Self-education.. your way to develop yourself without the obstacles of time and money

Ahmed Samir

"Formal education gives you a job, while self-education gives you wealth," this is how the American entrepreneur John Ron describes self-education, which depends on providing various forms of knowledge in a simplified and free way in written, audio or visual form, through digital education platforms spread on world wide web.

Self-education in its contemporary digital form is a strong competitor to formal education as a result of technological development and easy access to any information through the Internet. It is an opportunity for ambitious people who want to find their own space in the labor market.

Positives and Negatives
Opportunities in this era and the coming years are linked to the ability of every person to develop himself to keep pace with the era and its challenges, and this means that self-education depends on personal effort and motivation to learn, not this However, there are other advantages:

- It is financially inexpensive, because the learner only needs a computer connected to the Internet.

- The freedom to choose the time of teaching, the style and the provider of the educational material, which adds fun while learning.

- It pushes the learner towards responsibility and the ability to make decisions.

As for the negatives, they are:

- Lack of direct interaction with other students.

- Failure is a result of the difficulty of adapting to this type of education.

- The time period is long for those who do not make good use of their time.

Self and traditional
Traditional education is confined within the walls of schools and universities, and is linked to their own systems, whether related to the schedule of classes, assignments, or exams. In contrast, self-education was built.

Salman Khan, the founder of the Khan Academy platform, explained in his 2011 TED lecture that educational videos enable the student to watch the educational material more than once until it is absorbed, without becoming bored or shy, as well as non-compliance. It also motivates students at home to learn, and removes from them the fear of failure, because they study with the aim of mastery and not success.

In another lecture, by Salman Khan in 2015, he shed light on self-education, and that he is interested in filling the gaps that the learner has, unlike traditional education, in order to reach the level of proficiency and genius while studying any educational material via the Internet, because this type of education affects positively To develop and improve their way of thinking.

Steps to success
There are some steps that, by following them, education will be enjoyable and not stressful, and through them the learner will reach the degree of proficiency he dreams of:

- Determine your goal, what do you want from learning? And what will he add to you? How will you benefit from it?

- Choose the source, there are many educational platforms that contain many explanations of the same material that you are looking for, so you have to choose only one source to avoid distraction.

- Invest time, set yourself a specific time daily for your studies, so that you can stay in touch and not lose your resolve.

- Evaluate yourself daily, take care to test yourself periodically to see how much you understand.

The most prominent platforms:
There are many self-education platforms on the Internet that provide all information related to each branch of knowledge in the form of lectures and educational classes, and these platforms are divided into Arabic platforms and foreign platforms.

Arabic platforms
– Khan Academy: seeks to provide simplified explanations of mathematics and science in a free and up-to-date manner in the form of educational videos, and is distinguished by the fact that its partners in this project are distinguished, such as MIT University, NASA, and the California Academy of Sciences, as well as the Museum of Modern Art.

– Rwaq platform: It provides educational materials in various fields and disciplines, so it is directed to anyone who wants to learn, and it is characterized as an interactive platform that enables learners and the teacher to communicate with each other, and grants a certificate for completing the study of the subject.

– Edraak platform: It was established at the initiative of the Queen Rania Foundation for Education and Development in Jordan, with the aim of improving the lives of individuals, communities, and countries by providing education. It contains educational lessons related to economics, entrepreneurship, science, literature, arts, and other branches of knowledge. .

It is distinguished by its partnership with the "EDX" platform, Harvard University, the British Council, the American University, and other educational institutions, which provide free lectures on the platform.

Foreign platforms
– Edx platform: provides the best types of education via the Internet, and works in cooperation with Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Berkeley, and many institutions concerned with education, and its lectures vary between science Humanities, engineering, language, business administration and computer science, and grant students certificates of completion of study for some academic subjects, and these certificates are internationally recognized.

- The Coursera platform: It is similar to the previous platform in that it cooperates with many educational institutions in various countries of the world, and also in the branches of study materials available in it and provides a certificate of completion of study for financial fees, and is distinguished by being recognized in many countries of the world.

- Udacity platform: seeks to provide high-level, flexible and economical education, with the aim of developing the learner's skills so that he is able to compete in the labor market, and provides an opportunity for employment in large companies for those who successfully finish his semester, and works in the field of technology industry and related programs, It shares content provided by Amazon, Google, Facebook, HP and other technology organizations.

Finally, there are other platforms that can be reached by searching on the Internet, and also there are those who have found a space for themselves in this world through self-education, and some of them have worked outside the virtual world, including: journalist and programmer Julian Assange, inventor Thomas Edison, and Egyptian writer The late Abbas Mahmoud Al-Akkad.