Website Review – Khan Academy

Khan Academy is an educational non profit web-site created by Salmon Khan in 2006. It aims to provide free world-class online education courses in a variety of subjects to anyone, anywhere in the world. The web-site features thousands of educational resources and over 5,000 micro lectures which are stored on you-tube. Courses are vast and cover subjects ranging from Cosmology and Mathematics to Art History and Finance. It is an impressive web-site having delivered to date over 300,000,000 to around 10,000 students per month. The focus of the site seems to be towards home schooling and of course additional support out the school.

The design of the site is quite attractive and simplistic. It uses a white background and black and navy font with links at the top and side. It is very easy to navigate. There are screenshots and videos on the pages as well as info-graphics and diagrams. It has a very informative style.

What I like about the site is the vastness of the range of courses on offer and of course the fact that it is free. There is a really friendly feel to the site, and very easy to use. There are a lots of supports available. Browsing on the site with the mobile phone is very user friendly to. The courses are all very neatly divided in to subject area with clean lines and lots of space. Their is no clutter on the web-site with good use of font colour too. Only your e-mail is required to subscribe.

This is a type of web-site that I think is very worthwhile. In today’s world of Social Media and marketing on these sites for profit, Khan Academy is a breath of fresh air. It provides free education to those of us who may not be in a position to pay for it. In the times we are living I’m sure there are a lot of people around the world who appreciate and are grateful to Khan Academy.

Interview-Blogger/Social Media Enthusiast- Fiona Higgins

10 Questions:

1. So when Fiona did you first become interested in Social Media?

2. How significant do you think it is today, from when you first began using Social Media?

3. Which platform would you use the most?

4. Why is this?

5. What kind of content are you interested in and do you post yourself?

6. Are you concerned about surveillance in Social Media?

7. What are your thoughts on political posts in Social Media?

8. Would you be concerned about cyber-bullying?

9. In your opinion what are the negative aspects of Social Media?

10. How do you see Social Media shaping out in the future?

12 stages of the Hero’s Journey

Joseph Campbell’s 12 Stages of the Hero’s Journey – Groundhog Day
A Few years back I remember watching Groundhog Day with my late Father, and he loved it. I was not so keen, I probably didn’t get it. It really did grow on me though, and having watched it at least 6 or 7 times it may now be included in my top 10 fave all time movies. I love it. It is a classic, and now recognized as one of finest movie scripts ever written. The type of movie, you can watch over and over and over again! Big thumbs up to Danny Rubin and the late Harold Ramis.
Ordinary world. Our protagonist Phil Connors (played by Bill Murray) is basically an arrogant arsehole. He plays an egotistical weatherman on an assignment to Punxsutawney with his film crew to report on Punxsutawney Phil – the groundhog who reveals whether winter will last six more weeks, or if spring has sprung. His producer Rita, played by Andie MacDowall, is his mentor on this journey as well as his love interest, which is quite rare.
Call to adventure. A Blizzard occurs in the movie and this is may be considered the call to adventure.
Refusal of the call. He gets out of his car when stopped by a patrolman in the blizzard. He is a celebrity and demands a phone line. He cannot get one. He desperately wants to leave town.
Meeting with the mentor. He meets with Rita in a bar. She asks him is he going to the groundhog dinner. He says no and that he is going back to his room to read ‘Hustler’.
Crossing the threshold. When Phil wakes up the next morning he finds he’s stuck in a time loop – Groundhog Day is repeating. Every morning he wakes up and every morning it’s Groundhog Day again and ‘I’ve got you Babe’ is playing on the radio. He comes to realize he is now in his own special world and he asks Rita to meet him in the local diner.
Tests, allies and enemies. Phil meets again with Rita in the diner to try and explain his predicament. She doesn’t get it and he goes to see a psychiatrist (Harold Ramis) who asks can he come and see him again tomorrow(test). He meets again with the same guys in the local watering hole and asks them ‘what would you do if were living the same day over and over?’. They are now his allies. He drives them home going crazy in the car, getting chased by the police(enemies).
The approach. Now Phil is seeing the upside to his ordeal, and anticipating all the actions ahead of him. He makes a move on a woman ‘Nancy Taylor’. He also calls Rita but she is not falling for his approach. He steals a bag of money from an armoured truck. It is all about himself at this stage.
The Ordeal. Phil is really chasing his prize at this stage ‘Rita’. He asks her for a coffee questioning her as to what kind of men she likes. She informs him that she studied 19th century French poetry. She is impressed in the following scene when he recites some poems from this period. He takes her for a walk and builds a snowman and says he would love to do this one day with his own children. Phil kisses Rita but she says they really should not do this. He tells her he loves her and wants to spend the night with her. She says how this could be, he doesn’t even know her and that they can meet the following day. Phil is very frustrated and says no it has to be tonight. He has reached the point where he needs to change. The hero at this stage really wants something but he needs to change before he can get what he wants. It is all about himself. He is depressed and in the following days he kills himself a few times for example, by throwing himself in front of a truck. He has suffered death over and over but he is still awakening every day to Groundhog Day.
The reward. Phil has now changed having suffered multiple deaths. He is with Rita in the diner and predicts everything that is about to happen. He tells her every day is the same. She begins to believe him and says she will spend the rest of the day with him. In his room she lies on the bed beside him. This is his reward. He tells her ‘If I could, I swear I would love you for the rest of my life Good night, Rita.
The road home. He awakes again to ‘I’ve got you babe’ and is alone. He has changed but has further to travel on his journey home.
The resurrection. Phil has been taking piano lessons and is becoming brilliant. He saves an old homeless guy from dying and a kid falling out of a tree. He tells the kid ‘you never thank me’. He also stops a guy from choking on his steak.
Sharing the elixir. He is at a party with all the town folk and is the centre of attention playing brilliantly on the piano. He is bringing the elixir back to the tribe. Rita enters and is so impressed with Phil. There is a charity auction to date Phil for the night. Rita outbids Nancy and another lady to win her prize. He takes Rita for a walk and sculpts her out of ice. He tells her he loves her and now she believes him and is happy because she knows it is for real. She spends the night with him and they fall asleep on his bed. He awakes and she is still there and reaches across for him. Today is now tomorrow. They are both smiling and he says to Rita ‘let’s live here’.

Why I write..

“Good writing will bring you to places you don’t even expect sometimes” James Gandolfini

If Tony Soprano said this I would listen carefully and with respect! I wonder what places he speaks of? I’ll be honest and say I’ve never I have never really wrote much before, well not so much in recent years and probably nothing of major interest. I have wrote lots of e-mails and typed a fair bit, but have not sat down and wrote anything meaningful with pen and paper for quite a while. I have always been quite good at English though and a lover of the big screen and having studied Digital Marketing last year I felt that a course in Writing in Transmedia would be beneficial to me, both personally and as a qualification, even as a worthwhile hobby. I do find the screenwriting process interesting.

They say everyone has a book in them, right? Well I’m not so sure about that really, everyone? I would also like to get back to reading again, having been an avid reader when i was younger. I really enjoyed Alfred Hitchcock and Agatha Christie books and then later more factual stuff, some Irish politics and history. The Godfather was great. The latest books I read have been Dan Brown novels, so it’s definitely time to diversify. I hear it is good to write though, can be therapeutic, good for the imagination and give clarity. So I’ll give it my best shot.

Good writing will bring you to places you don’t even expect sometimes.

James Gandolfini