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Communication

Stay in touch with students, teachers, parents, and more through these cool tools and ideas for using Google+ as a communication hub.

1. Create polls: Choose films for movie night, pick games, and more through the use of polling on Google+.
2. Keep teachers informed: Use Google+ to stay connected with school teachers and make sure that they're always up to date on the latest offerings from the library.
3. Offer a Google+ reference desk: With the Messenger feature, you can answer reference questions and more.
4. Use instant uploading: Keep your school library on the cutting edge of updates by using instant uploads to share photos and videos from your mobile phone.
5. Be responsive: Check out +mentions, messages, and other notifications on Google+ and be sure to interact back whenever possible.
6. Find new people through search: Search is what Google does best, and you can find new people to follow on Google+ by searching for a keyword or location.
7. Get personalized: Create a custom URL to make it easy for students and teachers to get connected with your school library page.
8. Check out suggestions: Be sure to pay attention to the suggestions Google+ offers for you to find interesting people to follow.
9. Organize your PLN: With Google+, you can organize and extend your PLN and expand your staff learning.
10. Share what's going on at school: Share exciting content about your school library with media, events, and more.
11. Have a Page: This one's simple: be sure to set up a Google Plus Page for your school library, to serve as a jumping off point for connections and resources.

Circles

Find great ways to organize your groups and get better connected through Google+ using these ideas for Circles.

1. Connect with authors: Stay in touch with authors and reading resources in your Circles.
2. Make targeted announcements: Share targeted messages within your groups, with different updates for teachers, students, and even parents.
3. Create micro-circles: Don't be afraid to create even tiny circles, which will help you broadcast tailored messages to group project members, volunteers, and other important library groups.
4. Create study groups: Make circles for students to connect with discussions, book readings, exams, and more.
5. Cut down on the noise: Use Circles to carefully compartmentalize the people and pages you want to listen to the most, and check on the right people at the right times.
6. Set up circles for students and others: Google+ offers the option to put your followers into a variety of different categories, so take advantage of it and put students, staff, and teachers in groups of their own.

Hangouts

Check out these tips to find out how you can use Hangouts to host chats, reference desk hours, and more, all through Google+.

1. Use Hangouts for library learning: If you can't get students to come into the library for seminars on using tools and resources, go to where they are and host chats through Google+ Hangouts.
2. Host guest panels: Bring in professors, experts, and other guest speakers through Hangouts that you can share with your school.
3. Join Hangouts: See what Hangouts are happening, and join in on ones that are helpful and relevant to your work as a librarian.
4. Hold "librarian hours": Host times when students can check in with you for help and ask questions, before, during, and after school.
5. Host Q&A sessions: Offer sessions for guidance, Q&A, and resource gathering using Hangouts.
6. Host language learning chats: Put together live chats for students to share with learners and language buddies around the world on Google+.

Integrations

Through these integrations, Google+ plays nice with great tools for learning and librarianship.

1. Google+ Badge: Direct users and students to your page with a badge on your library page.
2. Google Translate: Chat around the world and gather international knowledge for your school by using Google Translate with Google+ Hangout.
3. Google Docs: Create documents in Google Docs, and you can easily share them through Google+. This is great for news, resources, and more.
4. Google Calendar: Share events, important dates, and more by integrating Google Calendar with Google+.

Information Sharing

Google is a hub of information, so it's not hard to imagine that Google+ only builds upon that. Here are a few ideas for sharing information within or beyond your school library with Google+.

1. Share your Reader posts: If you're using Google Reader, share interesting items with your library on Google+.
2. Create public sparks: Sparks allow you to type in keywords and build a stream of information, sharing links and resources with your circle, and creating a great place for students to find information.
3. Share a variety of documents with the school: Share notes from staff meetings, documents, and more within relevant circles.
4. Do lots of listening: Google+ is a great resource to share with students, but it's even better for gathering information and learning as a librarian.
5. Join educational circles: Google+ and social media in general offer an incredible opportunity for connecting with and learning from school librarians and educators around the world, so be sure to seek them out and join circles you can learn from.
6. Archive interactions: Use Google+'s "Data Liberation" feature to download student interactions and assignments, making them available to share with instructors.
7. Every post has a permalink: Click any post's timestamp to get a permalink that can be shared with colleagues who aren't on Google+.
8. Share links: Through Google+, you can share links to e-reserves with the whole school.
9. Save important content: Create a private Circle just for yourself, and share important content with that Circle. No one else has to see it, but your posts will be archived in that stream.
10. Convert your Hangouts to YouTube videos: Turn Hangout interactions into YouTube videos to share great things that were brought up with those who could not attend.

Efficiency

Maximize your time in Google+ by putting these efficiency ideas to work.

1. Start important circles with a period: Circles with a first character of a period will be displayed at the top, followed by those with an asterisk.
2. Cross-post your updates: Even if you're on Google+, chances are you haven't quite abandoned Facebook and Twitter yet. Instead of taking the time to update all three separately, use a tool like Start G+ to cross-post updates all at once.
3. Mute annoying posts: Commenting on posts is a great way to engage, but some threads just get out of control, clogging up your stream. Fortunately, you can mute them temporarily.
4. Use shortcuts: You can post and use Google+ quickly by taking advantage of keyboard shortcuts and hotkeys.
5. Manage your notification settings: Be careful about getting distracted by notifications by changing your settings to tune out what's not important.
6. Tune out the stream: The Google+ stream represents a fire hose of information. Tone it down by checking out updates in Circles instead.
7. Pay attention to your stats: Find out when students are most likely to tune in and take action with stats, and be sure to do most of your activity at that time of day.
8. Collapse comment threads: Power-browse through your stream by shortening the amount of information you read. Simply click on the comment threads you actually want to expand and read.

Privacy

Protect your privacy, and that of the library, school, and students, by using these privacy tips for Google+.

1. Cut your email out: Check out your Google+ settings to edit who is allowed to send you an email from your profile.
2. Remember that public posts are indexed by Google: You should always be careful about what you post online on behalf of the library, but it's especially important to remember that Google+ will index all public posts for the world to see.
3. Control what you share: Carefully share only what you really need to by carefully selecting who sees what you're posting in Google+.
4. It is possible to block users: Although libraries should aim for an inclusive Google+ environment, abusive users can be blocked if necessary.
5. Disable instant upload: Instant Upload is a great feature, but only if you want it. Think about whether or not it works for you and your library.

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1. Romanian

   Strangely enough, the Foreign Service Institute does not rank German as one of the easiest second languages for native English speakers. Romanian, a Latin Romance derivative with heavy Slavic overtones, is labeled as one of the simplest. It preserves many of the same grammatical elements of its forebear because of its comparatively isolated evolution. FSI places Romanian in Category I, meaning it should take 23 to 24 weeks – or 575 to 600 hours – to attain proficiency.

2. French

   Like Romanian – not to mention every other language listed here – FSI considers French a Category I pursuit. Hailing from the Romance family, it loaned so many vocabulary words to English that native speakers probably won't struggle as much as they would with something far less linguistically prominent. The French government itself regulates the language, so the grammar and spelling rules are far more rigid than most others. Actually, they haven't strayed too far from the original Latin, so anyone with a familiarity with the dead tongue probably won't struggle too much with their lessons.

3. Spanish

   With Spanish becoming more and more ingrained into everyday American life, United States citizens are lucky it's labeled as one of the easiest for English speakers to pick up. FSI places it in Category I because of its straightforward sounds and grammar system. Seeing as how this Romance language contributed so many everyday words to the seemingly ubiquitous Germanic offshoot, classes will likely prove relatively painless. Do keep in mind that Latin American and European Spanish do sport some differences, so make sure to find lessons fitting proper regional or business needs.

4. Italian

   Italian, French, Romanian, and Spanish aren't the same thing, of course, but knowing one means nominally comprehending the basics of the other. A not-insignificant chunk of English vocabulary comes directly from Italian's Latin Romance roots, making it an easy enough start for anyone looking to pick up a second language. It's especially breezy for native English speakers who already hold a proficiency in others from the same family. Funny enough, despite its famous relationship with Catalan, Italian is actually 89% lexicographically similar to French, as opposed to 87% to the Spanish dialect.

5. Dutch

   Seeing as how Dutch comes from a West Germanic lineage, it makes perfect sense that native English speakers would take to the language pretty swiftly. In fact, over time it has started absorbing more and more vocabulary words from English, so the two already resemble one another somewhat. According to FSI, some of the inflections are identical as well, though Dutch still holds more in common with its ancestor than its cousin. Afrikaans, a Dutch offshoot spoken in South Africa, is also considered a Category I language.

6. Norwegian

   As with Swedish, this Scandinavian tongue started out as a Germanic-Norse hybridization before gradually morphing into its own – so of course it's considered an ideal second language for native English speakers. Many of its words are actually borrowed from English, though the grammar structure hews more closely to German and Old Norse. Newcomers might face difficulty with the fact that, unlike French (from which it also borrows) and other similar languages, Norwegian isn't nearly as standardized.

7. Swedish

   Another blend of Germanic and Norse, Swedish holds more in common with Dutch and Norwegian than English, but that doesn't compromise its Category I status with the FSI. Because of its complex vocabulary and grammatical structure, those for whom English is the primary language might stumble a bit at first. Though, like its linguistic neighbors, many English words have wormed their way into the Swedish lexicon.

8. Portuguese

   Portuguese as spoken in Portugal and Portuguese as spoken in Brazil do depart from one another, so figure out which classes focus on which dialect before forming any commitments. Being a Romance language means inevitable overlaps with French, Spanish, Italian, and Romanian, though it involves more vowel sounds than all of these. As of late, Portuguese has absorbed a goodly amount of English words, though it does also borrow liberally from other Romance tongues.

Contemporary Standouts

1. Cornell West: West is redefining what it means to be a professor. As a political activist going back to the '70s, he continues to encourage his colleagues to lead by example by participating in civic discourse and protesting unjust policies.
2. Bobby Austin: Austin serves as the head of the Village Foundation, an organization he founded in 1997 to engage young African-American men in society, through events like Give a Boy a Book Day.
3. Michael Carter: In 1971, Carter's parents founded V.E. Carter Development Center for children. Carter later worked there teaching the African language Swahili to children.
4. Robert Hill: In a long career of researching African-American life, Hill's greatest contribution to academia was his book The Strengths of Black Families, and its follow-up 25 years later, which fought negative stereotypes of blacks.
5. Joe Louis Clark: Clark changed the way many people think of disciplining in schools. The former drill sergeant's tough style captured national attention when it was chronicled in the movie Lean On Me.
6. Ramona Edelin: With her direction, the National Urban Coalition started the "Say Yes to A Youngster's Future" program to provide educational help to black teachers and youth in America, eventually teaming with the Department of Education.
7. Nathan Hare: The first university Black Studies program in the country was directed by Hare, and when his administration attempted to cut the program by half, he protested with students for five months.
8. Katherine Butler Jones: The Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunities was the brainchild of Jones, and it still works to educate black youth in Boston.
9. Aaron Lloyd Dixon: Dixon's contribution to academia came in the form of a program called Free Breakfast for School Children, which he helped launch as the founding member of Seattle's Black Panther chapter.
10. Carlotta Walls LaNier: After the Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education, the Little Rock Nine students braved much harassment and integrated a high school in 1957. LaNier was the youngest member.
11. Paul Hill: The author of Coming of Age, a book of research on young black men, Paul Hill created The National Rites of Passage Institute to train adults to mentor 10,000 kids.
12. Willie Pearson: Congressional Fellow Willie Pearson has contributed many sociological studies to academia about blacks in the sciences, like Blacks, Education and American Science and The Role and Activities of American Graduate Schools in Recreating, Enrolling and Retaining United States Black and Hispanic Students.
13. Maxine Smith: Working with the NAACP to desegregate Memphis schools in the early 1960s, Maxine Smith escorted the first black children to attend a desegregated schoolhouse in Memphis.
14. Naomi Gray: After serving as the first-ever vice president of Planned Parenthood, Gray co-founded the African-American Education Leadership Group.

Famous Firsts

15. Daniel Hale Williams: Williams founded the first interracial hospital in America in 1891. The hospital served as the first school for black nurses in the country.
16. Mae C. Jemison: Jemison broke the barrier for black women to become astronauts, going to space in 1992 as part of the Endeavour crew.
17. Charlotte Forten: The book Life on the Sea Islands was the story of Forten's time as the first black teacher at a famous mission in the Civil War, and she later worked for the Treasury Department recruiting black teachers.
18. Kelly Miller: Miller was the country's first African-American grad student in mathematics. Later in life, as a prominent voice for civil rights in the early 1900s, he wrote articles in leading academic journals pushing for higher learning so that strong black leaders could be created.
19. Alexander Crummell: The first school dedicated to African-American learning was the American Negro Academy, founded in 1897 by Alexander Crummell, a descendant of an African tribal chief.
20. Dorothy Lavinia Brown: In a historic first, Dr. Brown became the first African-American female surgeon in the South in 1954, and was later the first black woman on the Tennessee Legislature.
21. Fanny Jackson Coppin: The country's first female African-American principal, Fanny Jackson Coppin served for 37 years and instituted many improvements in education in Philadelphia and elsewhere.
22. Patrick Francis Healy: In 1866, Healy became the first African-American to earn a Ph.D. in America. He was also the first to become a Jesuit priest and preside over a white college.
23. Henry Ossian Flipper: Flipper changed the academic scene at West Point by being its first African-American graduate in 1877, and then the first commissioned officer.
24. Alexander Twilight: The first African-American to receive a bachelor's degree in America, in 1836 Twilight also became the first black man elected to public office.
25. David Levering Lewis: Much of our insight into the life of W.E.B. DuBois is due to the research of Lewis. Both parts of his biographies of the famous civil rights leader won two Pulitzer Prizes, a first for any ethnicity.
26. John Wesley Gilbert: The first black archaeologist, Gilbert influenced academia by strongly encouraging blacks to record and publish their own histories.

Innovators

27. Ernest Everett Just: Just was an internationally recognized biologist who changed the way cells are studied and co-founded the Omega Psi Phi fraternity at Howard University, which would later create what is today known as Black History Month.
28. Percy Julian: The production of cortisone drugs was due to the chemical synthesis research of Percy Julian, "Chicago's Man of the Year" in 1950.
29. Inez Beverly Prosser: After becoming one of the first black women to receive a Ph.D., Inez Prosser went on to pioneer research in the field of educational psychology and the development of African-American students.
30. James West: Where would academic presentations be without microphones? In 1962, West created a foil part that is now used in 90% of all microphones.
31. Rick Kittles: With his pioneering work in genetics, Rick Kittles has contributed to academia by discovering ways to prevent prostate cancer in black men.
32. Jeanne L. Noble: Noble greatly increased our knowledge of the educational experience of black women, authoring The Negro Woman's College Education. Three presidents named her to education commissions.
33. Fannie C. Williams: Williams was a trailblazer in her nearly 60-year career as an educator. She was the driving force behind the passing of Child Health Day in 1928, and she instituted kindergarten and standardized testing for students long before Louisiana required it.
34. Benjamin Banneker: Almost 100 years before the Department of Education was created, Banneker proposed in a critically-acclaimed almanac that a secretary be appointed with power "to establish and maintain free schools in every city, village, and township in the United States."
35. Charles Henry Turner: One of the first African-Americans to earn a Ph.D. in America, Turner was the first person to prove insects can hear different pitches.
36. Charles Drew: As a leading authority on blood plasma in the 1940s, Drew originated the concept of safely storing blood in "blood banks."
37. Virginia Randolph: Randolph was synonymous with vocational training, with her distinctive educational style of involving parents,creativity, and common sense.

Founders

38. Booker T. Washington: Probably the most famous black educator ever, Washington founded the teachers' college Tuskegee Institute for blacks in 1881 in Alabama, and was famous for teaching African-Americans to help themselves through education and hard work.
39. Mary McLeod Bethune: This woman who believed blacks' greatest hope for the future lay with young black women founded a school for African-Americans in Florida and served on President Franklin D. Roosevelt's cabinet as an advisor about black issues.
40. Hallie Quinn Brown: A lifelong educator and women's rights advocate, Hallie Quinn Brown founded a scholarship for women's education in the 1880s, helping inject women into academia.
41. Daniel Payne: Payne founded the first place of higher learning for African-Americans in the U.S., and fought his entire life to prove blacks were perfectly capable of being equal citizens with whites.
42. Nannie Helen Burroughs: Known for her famous speech entitled "How the Sisters Are Hindered from Helping," Burroughs founded the National Training School for Women and Girls in 1909.
43. Esau Jenkins: In 1954, Jenkins co-founded the first Citizenship School in the South as a place for blacks to be taught to read so that they could vote.
44. James Edward Shepard: The first state-supported liberal arts school for African-Americans was founded by Mr. Shepard in 1910.

Civil Rights Legends

45. Septima Poinsette Clark: Often referred to as the "queen mother of the civil rights movement," Clark worked tirelessly to enable blacks to have the right to become principals and to increase literacy among African-Americans.
46. Benjamin W. Arnett: In 1886, as a representative in the Ohio General Assembly, Arnett introduced legislation that provided for equal education opportunities for all children, regardless of race. The statutes were changed the next year.
47. Gloria Blackwell: A teacher at Clark University in Atlanta for 20 years, Blackwell was instrumental in the fight to desegregate schools, filing and winning several lawsuits against discriminating organizations.
48. Dorothy Height: A well-known civil rights activist for decades, Dorothy Height had the ear of President Eisenhower in urging him to desegregate schools. President Bush awarded her with a Congressional Gold Medal in 2004.
49. Vernon E. Jordan, Jr.: When Charlayne Hunter tried to make her way through a crowd protesting desegregation at the University of Georgia in 1961, it was civil rights activist and lawyer Vernon E. Jordan who escorted her.
50. Armand Lanusse: At a time when laws banned speech that could incite slave revolts, Lanusse's poetry was the first literary expression of blacks' right to freedom. He later organized a school for Afro-Creoles in New Orleans.

1. Khan Academy

   

   If you want to learn about anything in the world, chances are, you can find out about it from Khan Academy. The free educational organization offers more than 2,700 video lectures and tutorials, in subjects as diverse as finance and cosmology. Founded by MIT graduate Salman Khan, the site's mission is "providing a high quality education to anyone, anywhere." Khan Academy really stands out for the unique, low-tech format that the videos offer, where diagrams and doodles share information, rather than talking heads. In addition to videos, students can exercise their knowledge through a web based system that offers problems based on skill level and performance. For hands-on help, students can get peer-to-peer tutoring based on objective data collected by the system. The academy has a goal to reach tens of thousands of videos on every subject, creating "the world's first free, world-class virtual school where anyone can learn anything."

2. MIT Open Courseware

   

   MIT's Open Courseware is easily one of the most well-known and highly utilized resources of free online learning. In fact, the program has nearly reached 11 years of service, with an anniversary coming up this year on April 4th. MIT boasts a whopping 2,000 open courses, ranging from calculus to philosophy. Since its inception, this project has been an amazing resource for free online learning, but it's recently been made even more exciting. In December 2011, MIT announced that through an initiative called MITx they will offer credentials to those who study their free open courses and demonstrate mastery of content. Certificates will be available for a "modest fee," and although they will not result in degrees or course credit from MIT, this recognition can prove useful in professional fields and beyond.

3. Berkeley Webcast

   

   Berkeley has made it incredibly easy to learn wherever you are with its webcast initiative. Through Berkeley Webcast, anyone can find video and audio of full undergraduate courses, as well as on-campus events. Started in 1995, Berkeley's site now has more than 100 full courses available in an easy to use format, including streaming audio and podcasting. Berkeley has begun to branch out past its own site, even, assigning a Creative Commons license to its materials, and sharing certain webcasts on iTunesU and YouTube, so they can be easily enjoyed and learned from worldwide. Berkeley's resources have been wildly popular: just in 2006, lectures on Berkeley's site were viewed 4.3 million times.

4. Tufts OpenCourseWare

   

   Tufts University's OCW project offers an incredible resource for health sciences education, with courses from the university's school of medicine, dental medicine, school of veterinary medicine, and more. But Tufts offers so much more than just free and open courses. Tufts' OCW is just one part of a large Open Educational Resources movement on campus, which most importantly includes the Tufts University Sciences Knowledgebase (TUSK). The TUSK knowledge management system shares an amazing body of knowledge of health information, including curricular materials and other resources for learning in the health sciences. Tufts offers other online learning resources as well, including websites and digital library resources that offer information for medical professionals, patients, and families, all free and open for anyone to enjoy.

5. OpenCourseWare Consortium

   

   MIT, Berkeley, Yale, and other great Open Courseware collections show what individual universities can do for open education, but the Open Courseware Consortium brings together the power of 250 universities and organizations worldwide. Together, OCW Consortium members have published more than 13,000 courses, all available through the consortium's website. But the great availability of courses isn't all they offer: members (and even non-members) benefit from resources for developing open courseware projects, collaboration, and efforts to continue developing the free and open exchange of ideas and education.

6. Academic Earth

   

   Like the Open Courseware Consortium, Academic Earth represents the combined effort of several different universities and organizations. MIT, Berkeley, UCLA, Harvard, and more have all made their video lectures available free on the Academic Earth website. Academic Earth is designed to make it easy to access the vast array of educational lectures available online, particularly those from Ivy League and well respected universities. Self learners and students can take advantage of this amazing resource to find free learning from some of the best lecturers in academia, and it's all easily accessible and organized thanks to Academic Earth.

7. Textbook Revolution

   

   So far, we've profiled mainly free online education resources that specialize in courses and lectures, but most students know there's much more to learning than just what's covered in class. That's where Textbook Revolution comes in, with an incredible amount of free and open textbooks available online through the site. Where students might otherwise have to pay hundreds of dollars for books on campus, Textbook Revolution makes it easy to search for free and open alternatives. Run by students, Textbook Revolution makes free educational materials available to students, teachers, and professors, along with reviews to help you choose the best one for you. They're all in a searchable database, available as PDF, e-book, and even multimedia content. For those who prefer a curated collection, Textbook Revolution does offer both courses and collections by topic and level.

8. Project Gutenberg

   

   Textbooks are just one kind of book, but Project Gutenberg offers every type of book imaginable, from reference books to novels. Every book available through the Project Gutenberg site can be offered for free because the copyrights on them have expired. That means all of their ebooks were previously published, and are of high quality. This resource is of particular interest to those who are studying classic literature, as there are many famous books available on the site. Sherlock Holmes, Huckleberry Finn, even Grimm's Fairy Takes are among the most popular books on the site, and can come in quite handy for literature students and other scholars. Math, science, and other subjects are well represented as well, highlighted with bookshelves that point out all of the resources available in a specific category, like science, or fine arts. In all, Project Gutenberg boasts a whopping 36,000 free ebooks available to download to your PC, Kindle, Android, iOS and other portable devices, making it amazingly easy to read just about anything on-the-go, for free.

9. iTunesU

   

   Most students are familiar with iTunes, the program Apple offers for organizing and moving movies, music, and yes, even classes to your iPod, iPhone, or iPad. iTunes is inspiring in its ubiquity, ease of use, and opportunity for wide distribution among learners. With educational content available in the iTunes store and available to roughly 500 million users, institutions can share their vast resources with so many people at once, it's simply amazing. Public resources in iTunesU are accessible to all students, and can be downloaded one at a time, or subscribed to for automatic downloading. iTunesU is even packed with features to help students with disabilities use the resources as well. Additionally, students can access resources on-the-fly, downloading courses, lectures, and other resources in the iTunes app, gaining access without even needing to use a computer. iTunesU is full of high quality educational resources, including public sites from Yale, Cambridge, Stanford, Oxford, and MIT, as well as broadcasters like PBS.

10. OpenLearn

    

    The Open University, established in 1969, has always been notable for its open entry policy, but starting in October 2006, the school's open policy took on a whole new meaning. With OpenLearn, The Open University has shared a number of its educational materials with the world. The university uses a Moodle-based learning environment with more than 400 structured media-rich study units, aided with the availability of instant messaging, video conferencing, forums, and more for students to connect and collaborate. Perhaps what makes OpenLearn so inspirational is that it's truly an open educational environment, where users can download, modify, translate, and adapt the material. Students can also build profiles and learning journals, while also leaving ratings for courses, pointing out the best content for future students.

11. WatchKnowLearn

    

    There are so many open educational resources at the university level, but many K-12 resources are limited. But WatchKnowLearn is an inspiring example of the great resources that do exist for young learners, offering a huge collection of educational videos for schoolchildren. The website organizes and aggregates educational videos found online, and offers a platform for users to share their original educational content. The site has more than 50,000 educational videos available to users, with more coming on each day. Users can be a part of this aggregation, instantly adding videos from other sites using a toolbar, and can even review videos, assigning them to appropriate subject and age categories for easy browsing.

12. University of the People

    

    The University of the People is simply amazing, as the world's first tuition-free online university. The school works similarly to the aforementioned MITx, where students do not have to pay tuition or access fees for courses, but they do require application and exam fees. Although University of the People's online education resources are not 100% free when it comes to earning course credit or a degree, for what they're offering, it might as well be. The university offers degrees at the associate and bachelor level, and is in the process of accreditation. University of the People is particularly inspiring for its approach in supporting students in developing countries, with a commitment to helping students overcome geographic and financial limitations that might otherwise deprive them of higher learning. Through social networking, collaborative learning, and open educational resources, students can take advantage of the vast resources offered by this university, which is backed by Yale, NYU, the United Nations, as well as other organizations, along with a faculty and staff of current and former instructors and educational professionals from traditional universities.

13. TED

    

    Ideas are an incredibly important part of learning, and TED believes in spreading those ideas through wildly entertaining and inspiring talks given by some of the most remarkable people in the world. Through TED, Steve Jobs explains "how to live before you die," JJ Abrams explains the appeal of the unknown, and JK Rowling discusses the positive points of failure. TED offers talks that are not just traditionally educational, but full of life enrichment as well. Some of the world's most fascinating people share their knowledge with the world on TED, and we challenge anyone to soak in a few talks without being inspired to know more and live more passionately.

14. Wikiversity

    

    Wikimedia, and the more well known Wikipedia, exist to share the world's knowledge and resources with anyone who is interested in them. Through Wikiversity, learning resources, projects, and research are organized to share with worldwide learners of all levels, from preschool to university. In addition to learning resources is a learning community, in which educators, students, and researchers can create open educational resources and connect in collaborative learning. Wikiversity has over 17,000 learning resources, and continues to grow.

15. Instructables

    

    All of the examples we've shared so far focus on topics that you might learn in traditional education settings, but Instructables earns a spot on this special list for the amazing way it makes street smarts available to the everyman. Using the site, people can discover how to do just about anything, from making bread to constructing steampunk goggles. Instructables shares the wisdom of the Internet, calling upon users to submit instructions for making or doing anything they can dream up. This site is particularly impressive because even with just a quick browse, it makes you feel like you could do and know just about anything with the right set of instructions.

Cyber Substitutes

1. Supreme: Epic doesn’t mean what you think it means. Use this instead, meaning classic or perfect.
2. Blunder: For the love of grammar, "fail" is not a noun. On the other hand, "blunder" works as both a noun and a verb. How supreme.
3. Triumph: Instead of "FTW," you can say, "For The Triumph!" We bet you money you can't say it without feeling like Maximus.
4. Fidus Achates: More than some internet acquaintance, a fidus Achates ("FEED-us uh-KAH-tays") is a true friend. It's like "BFF" in Latin.
5. Fancy: It's only a matter of time before you'll be able to "fancy" a link or status update for which you wish to show appreciation.
6. Cachinnate: Forget about laughing your a** off. Tell them you're cachinnating (CACK-in-ate-ing) heartily.
7. Woe is me: It sounds a bit like Yoda-ese, but instead of saying FML, go biblical with "woe is me."
8. Piquant: If you simply must inform the world how scrumptious the food you are currently eating is, please refrain from saying "nom nom nom." Use this descriptor instead to convey appetizing flavor.
9. Baffling: It's too easy to just drop a "WTH" (or some variation) on some activity or news that perplexes you. Why not be baffled?
10. Indubitably: The "Really?" ship has sailed. To express ironic dismay, go with, "Indubitably?" Trust us, it's a can't-miss.
11. Desultory: Don't be a serial "random"-dropper. If something is unexpected, call it "desultory."
12. Ergo: Starting a status update with "so" is nonsensical because "so" means "therefore." But if you're going to use "so" correctly, "ergo" works just as well and makes you sound twice as classy.

Better Buzzwords

13. Donjon: Men, have you been relegated to a small segment of the house referred to as your "man cave?" You don’t have to take that. Call it your donjon, like the stronghold of a castle.
14. Garrison: "Occupy" has been done to death. Use this if you're moving in and taking over.
15. Aspiration: Something that goes on your Bucket List (which hopefully you're not still saying) is an aspiration.
16. Pater familias: Bad: "baby daddy." Better: "father." Best: "pater familias."
17. Minutiae-peddling: This phrase is our own creation. Since 40% of all tweets are pointless babble, instead of saying "I'm tweeting" you could say, "I'm peddling minutiae."

Underage Upgrades

18. Alas: "Oh, snap" is so out. All the cool kids are saying "alas!" after their putdowns.
19. Forsooth: All the kids (and some adults) simply adore saying, "I know, right?" Kick it old school Archaic with "forsooth," meaning "indeed."
20. Jocular: People's eyes glaze over when they read "LOL." Send them scrambling for a dictionary when you reply, "How jocular!"
21. Gamin: It means "street urchin," but we can change the meaning to be more neutral if we put our minds to it. After all, we did the same thing with "dude."
22. Paraphernalia: Remember the nice officer who referred to your "drug paraphernalia?" That was a fancier way of saying drug stuff.
23. Incogitable: To the kids, everything's "wack" or "crazy." But the silver-tongued teenager of 2012 will be sharing his or her disbelief with this mouthful.

Professional Pick-me-ups

24. Demiurgic: "Innovative" is the second-most overused resume filler word. Since you're already tooting your own horn, compare yourself to a Gnostic creative deity with this word.
25. Ambitious: "Motivated" is another résumé snooze-inducer. Go ahead and say you're ambitious; it'll add a little edge to it that will help you stand out from the pack.
26. Assiduous: Don’t bother telling employers you are "dynamic;" everyone they've interviewed has been dynamic. But if you want an original way to tell them you are hardworking, use this.
27. Henceforth: For some reason, "going forward" has caught on as a tack-on to the end of serious statements to make them sound more complete. We're not sure how you can go any way but forward, but at least use "henceforth" instead.
28. "_________": That's a blank to represent an alternative to saying, "It is what it is." "It is what it is" is the equivalent of saying nothing, thus it has no alternative. Just keep quiet for once instead.
29. Pandemic: Sure, a video can go viral by getting a few million clicks. But aim higher for your company; shoot for a billion clicks. People will be forced to admit your work has gone pandemic.
30. Withal: You're not still using "irregardless" are you? Make the point of "nevertheless" with withal, a great word that people will think you misspelled.
31. Veritably: Love, Actually would have been so much more original if it had been called "Love, Veritably."
32. Impetus: When you execs talk about giving your employees an impetus, you might be discussing raises or donuts in the break room or some other motivational tool.

Romantic Retools

33. Cherish: Take a lesson from The Association and discover another way to say "I love you."
34. Paragon: Tell your girlfriend she is a paragon of beauty and you'll score major brownie points once she's looked it up.
35. Pulchritudinous: …Or you could call her "pulchritudinous." How fantastic is that word? Of course, you will have to quickly assure her it's a compliment.
36. Recherché: Your wife's dress isn’t just elegant, it's exquisite, refined, exotic… recherché.
37. Despondent: Sad is what you are when you spill wine on your pants. When your baby leaves you high and dry in the cold, cruel world, you're despondent.
38. Loathe: People say "hate" is a strong word, but it's got nothing on "loathe."
39. Abjure: There's no doubt saying you "dumped" someone is colorful, but if you want to say it in style and with authority, say you abjured that cheatin' man.
40. Yearn: Do justice to your desire to possess that special someone. You don't want to date them, you yearn for them.

Dignified Descriptors

41. Atrocious: You spilled your coffee, broke a shoelace, smeared the lipstick on your face. That's not a bad day, it's atrocious.
42. Spanking: The only socially-acceptable way to incorporate "spanking" into a polite conversation is to use it instead of the word "good."
43. Transcendent: If you say something is "awesome," you're saying it inspires fear or awe in you. So pizza cannot be awesome. What it can be is transcendent or excellent.
44. Gobs: Make your old English teacher happy and stop using "lots." "Gobs" is so much more fun to say anyway.
45. Opined: "Said" is perfectly functional and perfectly acceptable and perfectly boring. If someone is giving their opinion, say they "opined."
46. Parry: Really, there's no reason to use "said" unless you write for a newspaper. Parry back and forth with your debate partner using your newfound word gems.
47. Asseverate: Last one: To asseverate is to declare earnestly or solemnly. So help you God.
48. Altitudinous: Get creative when referring to your tall friend from high school. "That guy was downright altitudinous!"
49. Corpulent: If you're going to call someone fat, at least find an unusual way to do it, like with this word.
50. Lummox: So many great insult words, so little time. Take a line from Stewie and call that moron a "bovine lummox."

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<a href="http://www.onlinecollege.org/2012/01/17/autism-learning/" ><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/infographics/Autism.png" alt="Autism & Learning" width="500" border="0" /></a><br />Via: <a href="http://www.onlinecollege.org/">Online College Advice</a>

1. Personal accountability

   Honor is something that will get you respect no matter what you're doing. If you do what you say when you say you're going to do it, people will trust you because your word will mean something. This can be a big deal when it comes to getting promotions, managing others, or even negotiating business deals. Honesty, integrity, and fairness are all aspects of personal accountability worth working on and will help others view you as more responsible and dependable.

2. Resilience

   It's nearly impossible to make it through life without facing a little adversity, but you can't let these obstacles throw you off your game if you're really going to succeed. Some of the most successful people aren't those who got it right the first time but who instead had to work hard, make mistakes, and even fail to get where they are. Your ability to come back from a loss or a setback is a strong indicator of your ability to succeed, much more so than many other factors.

3. Lifelong learning

   The truly successful know that seeking knowledge, improving oneself, and learning don't stop when you get to the top. Even the best of the best have to keep learning and moving forward, something that often takes a great deal of time and effort to complete. No matter where you are in your life, never forget that being open to new ideas and being willing to learn new ways to do things are always key components to success.

4. Strong work ethic

   There are few things that will drive you toward success as quickly as a strong work ethic. People notice when others work hard, just as they notice when others are lazy. While working hard isn't a guarantee that you'll be a CEO or jet-setter one day, it certainly doesn't hurt. Few successful people got to where they are by sitting back and doing nothing, as it's often a hard road to the top.

5. Perseverance

   There is no way around it: sometimes life gets hard. Really hard. Obstacles can seem insurmountable, hurdles too large. Yet success is often the result of pushing through these problems. People who find success rarely have an easy path (think about how many light bulbs it took Edison to get it right) but their willingness to persevere helped them to eventually meet their goals.

6. Communication

   Whether you call it communication, teamwork, or interpersonal skills, this trait is often an essential component in what separates those who are successful from those who are less so. To get what you want, you need to be able to communicate your goals and ideas to others. Good communication skills will make you better able to negotiate, sell your best attributes, and form lasting relationships that can help you build a better career. Of course, communication isn't just about talking. It's also about listening and keeping your ears open to new ideas and potential problems.

7. Balance

   While there are many people who are financially successful that don't really have much balance in their lives, balance really is an essential component to a happy life. After all, what does money mean if you're lonely or miserable? Giving the mind time to relax, step away from work and responsibilities, and just enjoy life can actually lead to greater success as a rested mind is better able to think quickly and be creative.

8. Risk tolerance

   Getting ahead in the world isn't a sure thing, and those who are successful are often those who are more willing to take risks. Risks can just as easily result in failure as success, it's true, but successful people know that without risk there is no chance for reward.

9. Attention to detail

   While you don't have to strive for perfection at all times, paying attention to the small things will help to set you apart from the crowd. Think about a successful product out there. What makes it so great? Chances are it's the little things it offers that set it apart from similar products. This applies to people, too. Looking professional, paying attention to mundane tasks, and double-checking for mistakes will all go a long way toward success.

10. Calm

    If you picture a successful person facing a crisis in your head, chances are pretty good that they aren't freaking out. Levelheadedness in the face of adversity or even just a small upset can be an amazing tool in the workplace, at school, or even in your personal life. It allows you to think more clearly, rely on logic, and makes you look infinitely more confident.

11. Creativity

    Most great ideas don't come from within the box. Instead, you'll need creativity to get ahead. Whether it's in how you market yourself, the products you design, or thinking about a new, more effective way to do things, great, creative ideas are almost always at the heart of successful endeavors.

12. Adaptability

    Much like in nature, those who can't adapt in the professional world often go extinct. It shouldn't be a surprise that adaptability very often makes the list of important traits for success. The person who can change quickly, adapt to new needs, and deal effectively with change will always stand out from his or her peers.

13. Decisiveness

    The ability to make decisions on your toes, make sound analyses, and employ good judgment are all traits that will get you ahead in the world. It is important to note, however, that this doesn't mean making knee-jerk decisions. Instead, those that are most successful in their decisiveness are neither paralyzed by decision-making nor rushed in it, falling instead into a happy medium where the information at hand is used to make the best decision possible at that moment.

14. Motivation

    Finding success in anything, whether it's business, science, or the arts is a hard road and it can sometimes be very easy to get discouraged. Those who are most successful are often individuals who can self-motivate and find new reasons to keep pushing ahead. It's important to remember that motivation, no matter how small, has to come from within, and it needs constant care and feeding if it's to be sustained. It's key to always give yourself new reasons to push yourself and excel.

15. Self-confidence

    If you believe it, you can achieve it. It sounds corny, but few successful people got where they are by having a wishy-washy attitude about their abilities. Before anyone else can believe in you, you have to believe in yourself and your ability to achieve what it is you want to achieve. Those who are confident are often more successful as leaders, regardless of the field, and chances are you can't name too many leaders in business, politics, entertainment, or any other field who don't exude this quality.