The idea

I am very active on this course even though my posting comes behind others who started before me. I started posting two weeks ago even though before that I have been browsing around the site, reading its content  and making myself familiar with the environment. I participated in the forums and tried to make some connexions. I sent private messages who haven't been answered. This is what I think is the most difficult thing in social networking. People are not really connecting or don't prove they are. I am active in different social media but people don't react to my posting or respond to my appeal. Success in entrepreneurship and in one's profession or any endevour depends on the reality of being connected to people who are willing to help and share ideas. One might have all the knowledge in the world, all the ideas to solve the problems but if someone who has all these things doesn't have the support of people nothing won't materialize. Human relationships are very important to solve the problems of our society. There is a lot methods that show how to approach people, make connections, maintain and cultivate relationships. But if people don't feel the necessity of helping each other, marriages or intimate relationships, children's education and education in general, employment, housing, entrepreneurship and all the social structures that help men survive will continue to fail. The educational system in its formal and informal aspect has to stress the importance of the connectedness between people to solve problems. Social learning is being used in face-to-face and online education. But do the students in real life are able to apply these skills to find a job, to start a venture and many other social undertakings?. Various social sites either for social connections or education have been booming but how many people benefit significantly from this explosion?. Some people have been successful in finding people to connect with for their social endevours. But the relationships are often difficult and fail. The majority struggles to find the right connections to make their social endevours successful whether it's having an intimate partner or spouse, making friends, having a job or start an enterprise, etc. With the explosion of private initiatives to solve educational problems educators have to play their role in society because they are the makers of social people. Good education in all its aspects not in its academic aspect can solve many problems in our society. The world education system  has for too long mistakenly sressed the importance of the academic knowledge while neglecting the human and social behavior. Math, Science, Languages, Art, Technology are the main subjects taught in schools and the belief has been persistent that if one masters these subjects success will come. If this was true, there wouldn't be all these world social crises with high unemployment rate. economic crisis, criminality, social conflicts and the break up of the social structures. Hoping that this introduction will reach some ears and people will be conscious and take action, I am presenting my ideas. These ideas are already started up but they need resources to be successful.

Idea # 1: Bring open courses and other educational resources in different disciplines such as Engineering, Math, Sciences, Human Sciences, etc to people around the world so they can educate themselves. Site: Open Popular University www.openpu.wikidot.com. These open courses originate from open courses taught from renowned universities around the world. These courses are in English and French and can be provided in other languages.

A large segment of the world population can't afford a good education. Many students in face-to-face and online schools struggle in understanding the concepts they are taught and need supplemental help. Many self learners want to find educational resources and tools that can help them learn better. Many professionals want to be better in their profession by continuing to learn. Educators are not concentrating on educational resources at hand but are looking for good educational resources to supplement their curriculum. The educational resources in Open Popular University can help these segments of the human population.

Above all Open Popular University want to help people educate by themselves. This aspect has been long neglected in traditional education. As learning is a human skill the traditional educational system has been focusing on teaching people instead of helping them develop their learning skills. Learning starts with birth and ends with death. Many people learn by themselves whether they want it or not during their life. Babies already learn to cry when they are in their mother's womb so that when they are born they use this skill in order to satisfy their natural needs. Early in life some skills are just facilitated by parents or learned by oneself in the environment. Parents don't teach children how to brush their teeth, take a shower and take care of themselves. Children learn these activities just by watching and parents just coach them. Many other skills and things are just learned in the environment from birth to death without the help of anybody else. When children come to school they already know something they learned naturally. The role of the teachers would be to help them to develop these skills. The idea of Open Popular University is to strenghten the idea of self learnig and social or networked learning.

Open Popular University solves the problem of self learning, networked learning and learning to improve oneself by bringing all the educational resources at its disposal whether it is in the form or open courses or something else to help people to take charge of their own whole education. Educators, professionals, students, self-learners and people interested in Education can use freely the educational resources of Open Popular University.

Many other institutions are already helping to solve the problem stated above. Many people and many institutions can bring varieties in solving a problem. Since my childhood I have learned to learn by myself and in group of students. I have learned in an educational system where you take notes and the teacher lecturing. The time spent in class has been mostly devoted to taking notes and listening to the teachers. The bulk of my learning has been done at home where I have to master the concepts by my self. I have also studied in social groups of students. I haven't spent my time focusing on the teacher for my learning. This has been during all my life. While I have been brilliant in primary and secondary school and being satisfied, the university system (where I have been also brilliant by overcoming its shortcomings) with its closeness, profit making interest and all the other negative things not in the interest of people have put breaks in my learning and professional development. I have been the sole responsible of my professional and personal development in my adult life struggling within a system that hasn't helped me. When I discovered the movement of Open Education I think this is a movement that can help people to take charge and empower themselves but there is a long way to go. I will develop the idea of tutoring services New Direction Education Services www.ndes.wikidot.com in another post.