No Excuses, Smarty Pants

Information should be free...and it is. Anyone with access to the internet has the potential to learn pretty much anything. No, this is not your mom telling you to "stay in school" or your third grade teacher playing the inspiration card. It's stating the obvious. We are at the point where asking a friend, acquaintance or other type of human for hard information can come off as lazy. Resourcefulness is an expectation. All of this seems painfully obvious, and I kind of feel silly typing the preceding 6.59 lines, but it's a lead- ok? We are at an amazing time right now where, if you want to learn some serious material, taught by instructors from top tier schools, you can...for no monetary cost. I say "monetary" in the sense that the cost will come in the form of your time- just like school. Enter Coursera. Coursera is a company that has tapped major universities to provide web-based courses on subjects ranging from the biological sciences to business to technology and design among others AT NO COST TO THE STUDENT. These are serious courses and their rigor is to rival sit down classes similar to those taught at the parent university. I see Coursera being part of the beginning of a new paradigm in education. Anyone with internet access will be able to learn without being restricted by cost and geography. I've enrolled in a course on Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). It is slated to take 9 weeks at ~20+ hours of work per week. There will be video modules, homework and quizzes and a course long project I must complete at an 80% acceptance level. I don't expect it to be easy in the least, but I do expect my investment to pay off. No Excuses, Smarty Pants - go learn something and contribute.