Experts Byju Yuanfudaotobin – At the turn of the 21st century, individuals were looking online for answer that were not to be found in their schools or public libraries. This could be due to a wide range of reasons, such as not being able to afford expensive degrees and textbooks, or not figuring out what they really wanted to learn. For someone who was just getting started in their career, trying to figure out where and how to get some education was overwhelming.
Sometime ago, I stumbled upon some blogs by parents (like this one and this one ) who started homeschooling their children. The appeal of homeschooling was to gain a better understanding of the subjects the kids were interested in, but it also provided another option for getting education: self-learning on the web. I was intrigued and started taking a closer look at how people were using these platforms. I noticed that some of these platforms were specifically marketed towards kids and teenagers, but that they were available to anyone who wanted to take advantage of them. I became very interested in the line between education platforms and the ones that are intended for homeschooling. Specifically, what differentiates the two?
The idea of homeschooling was a good one. Back then, there were no schools with organized curriculums and anything related to how we learn was not as tightly regulated as it is today. However, I did not like the fact that the homeschooling model was not well-grounded in research. As a researcher, I wanted to make sure that what I was doing is based on at least some sort of evidence.
In an attempt to find a way to help our son with his schoolwork back then, I discovered Duolingo. At first, I was not sure how useful it would be even though it appeared that it could help language learning. But after trying Duolingo for a few weeks, I realized that this program was one of the only ways to learn free. Aside from being free, you can use Duolingo for as long as you want. You can also spend as much time as you need on each lesson and in between, you can play games or watch videos on different topics related to the lessons. I looked at Duolingo as a way to supplement the homeschooling while still allowing our son to get individual attention from his teachers. It was like having a private tutor but without the hefty price tag.
That same year, I went back to school myself. My interest in finding alternative ways for education led me to look online for self-learning programs that could help me with my classes. I found some free platforms, but they were more like tests with questions and answers you have to memorize. I also found many textbooks online, but the problem with most of them was that they were less than helpful. Some of these textbooks were painfully dull, and lacked a coherent structure. I decided to compile all of this information into an online learning platform for myself that would be based on research in teaching and learning.
It was then when I felt that we could do something to help more people find out about new ways to learn, including options for self-learning with the aid of teachers who could guide them at a distance.
