Ask HN: Teaching online?

8 points by mian2zi3 ↗ HN
I've been around for a while and I've learned a bit about a lot of things, and a lot about a few things (e.g. programming, compilers, math, etc.) I'm looking for other (better?) ways to share what I've learned online and, in turn, better ways to learn. Of course, I'm aware of many ways to share: Wikipedia, blogging, math/stackoverflow, HN, various forums and email lists, etc., but none are quite what I'm looking for. In particular, I'd like something where I connect with people directly who have a problem or content they are trying to understand where I have expertise, the scope is not too small so you have a chance to build a relationship, and there is an ongoing dialog. Perhaps the closest is math/stackoverflow, but even there, I find many of the questions superficial and most questions have less of a back-and-forth/dialog than I would like. Ideas?

6 comments

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Sounds like what you want is a long-term, subject-oriented (not single tasks), mastery-directed (aiming to build real skill), social learning context and tool. Would that be a fair summary of the high-level requirements?
Well, put that way, it sounds like I'm asking for a lot.

Medium-term, at least. I'm not exactly certain what "social learning context" means. Online. Tool, I don't care so much. I care more about connecting with people. If a tool facilitates that, then sure.

I'm working on a site for that. It's Curious Reef: http://curiousreef.com

It's pretty geared towards programming now, with the OCW Intro to Comp Sci class being the most popular, followed by SICP. I would be interested to hear if that's the kind of website you're looking for.

Thanks imp! I'll take a look and let you know what I think.