North York Central Library Blog

Would you like a free education?

Do you feel your body getting ready to go into hibernation? While many of us may not be as physically active as we might want to be over the coming months it is the perfect time to exercise our brains. With the following site recommendations you can learn at your own pace or just procrastinate with some enlightening and stimulating material no matter what your interests are.

Coursera    

Coursera offers free undergraduate and graduate level courses. You watch lectures by world class scholars online at your own pace. There are assignments and deadlines and your work is evaluated by your peers.  Some, but not all, of the Universities involved include: Penn State, Michigan, U of T, Caltech and Duke. Several courses are for credit but you need to make sure that the other institution that you are attending will accept Coursera credits. Subjects range from  Cryptography, to  How Things Work 1  to  Introduction to Philosophy. I am currently enrolled in Design: Creation of Artifacts in Society. I will let you know how it goes.

The University of Toronto recently became a partner. Here is an article from the Toronto Star  about that.

 

Khan Academy

"Learn almost anything for free." This is the goal of The Khan Academy! The academy accidentally started in 2004 when Salman Khan agreed to tutor a cousin in math. Salman lived in Boston and his cousin lived in New Orleans so he posted tutorials online for her. You can watch Sal talk about the advent of the academy via his Ted talk. Now, with 3500 videos you can learn about math, the humanities, finance and economics, science, computer science and a selection of math test preparations. There are also resources for teachers and anyone else who wants to use the materials and principles in any kind of classroom. Also, check out Salman Khan's new book The One World Schoolhouse: education reimagined.

 

 W3 schools

Have you ever wanted to learn basic programming or just plain old HTML? This web development education site has excellent tutorials for beginners and experts alike. The tutorials are easy to follow and there is an editor that you can use as you learn.

 

Academic Earth 

Some, but not all, of the partners include Yale, MIT, Stanford and Berkley

Watch lectures by international scholars as they presented their material in class. Subjects range from business to art and design. The site is easy to search and use. I have really enjoyed their Playlists, thematic groups of lectures on timely issues and events.

 

TED Talks 

Ted Talks are pure unadulterated mind candy for everyone. You may have heard of TED X and have always meant to check it out so now is your chance. Search by topic, country or most viewed.  Every talk is guaranteed to be enlightening and stimulating. Here is a sample: Susan Cain talking about her book Quiet . It is all about the power of introverts. Get it as an eBook.

For great local events check out  TED x Toronto

 

Internet Public Library    

Of course I have to include something with library in the title! This is a great general source for resources on just about any topic and for any age.

Life as Queen Victoria

Monday, May 21, 2012 is Victoria Day to celebrate Queen Victoria's birthday and observed by Canadians as the unofficial day to welcome in the summer season.  Toronto events for this long weekend are updated regularly on Toronto Hogspot, Toronto.com, and About.com.

For history buffs wanting to read up on Queen Victoria, here are some suggested titles from our collection. 

 

The Young Victoria

Alison Plowden (1931-2007), biographer and historian, has written several popular titles on the Tudor period including this impressive biography on Queen Victoria's early reign as taken from Victoria's own personal letters and family portraits.

A brief synopsis from the History Press Publisher website is provided below: 

'I delight in this work', wrote the young Victoria shortly after she became Queen. She was an engaging creature, high-spirited and eager to be 'amused'. But her early years were difficult ones. Fatherless from the age of eight months, she was brought up at Kensington Palace in an atmosphere thick with family feuds, backbiting and jealousy - the focus of conflicting ambitions. Though her uncle William IV was anxious to bring her into Court circles, her German mother and the calculating John Conroy were equally determined that she should remain under their control. The 'little Queen', who succeeded to the throne a month after her eighteenth birthday, was greeted by a unanimous chorus of praise and admiration. She embraced the independence of her position and often forced her will on those around her.  She met and married Albert, marking the end of her childhood and the beginning of a glorious legend." (information retrieved May 5, 2012)

To place a hold for the ebook title:

Also,

there is a (2009) DVD movie based on Allison Plowden's book starring Emily Blunt and Rupert Friend. 

 

Who was Boy Jones?

 

According to Jan Bondeson, author of Queen Victoria's stalker: the strange story of the Boy Jones, he may have well been the first reported stalker in history.  Boy Jones was fascinated with Queen Victoria and Buckingham Palace to have successfully broke into the Palace three times.  In one visit, he stole a pair of Her Royal Highness' underwear.  Boy Jones was only 14 years old when he started his illegal visits and was arrested after each visit.  The authorities decided to ship him off to Australia after the third time.  Eventually Boy Jones fell off a bridge in a drunken stupor and landed on his head on Boxing Day in 1893.  He was 70 years old when he fell to his fate.  For a detailed review of this title, check out the Guardian UK article.

 

Abdul Karim

 

Queen Victoria developed many interests in her life but in her last remaining years, Karim Abdul became a major focus as a companion, teacher, and a close confident to the Queen until her death in 1901.  Shrabani Basu, in her 2010 book, Victoria & Abdul : the true story of the queen's closest confidant tracked down Queen Victoria's diaries that were smuggled out of England to India then finally back to Pakistan and she describes what these diaries reveal about the relationship between Queen Victoria and Abdul Karim. 

The BBC News South Asia wrote an (March 13, 2011) article, Queen Victoria and Abdul: Diaries Reveal Secrets and provides an excellent summary of this title.

HowStuffWorks.com houses a weekly podcast show called, Stuff You Missed in History Class with hosts Sarah Dowdey and Deblina Chakaraborty.  The (May 23, 2011) podcast episode called, Queen Victoria and Abdul Karim is based on Ms. Basu's book which is worth listening to.  You may listen to the podcast episode from CastRoller here or access the podcast episode from the iTunes directory here.

Have a wonderful Victoria Day weekend spending it reading, viewing, or listening to some Victorian history or spending it outdoors and enjoying the warm weather with family and friends.