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How You’ll Learn
Time Frame
Cost
FYI
Professors conduct courses at the same time as their regular classroom sessions. Video lectures, crowd-graded problem sets, and discussion forums are frequent.
Strict: Profs administer classes over five- to 12-week periods, with important deadlines along the way.
Free
(may change if/when courses qualify for university credit)
Coursera has the support of 62 well-respected universities, including Stanford and Duke.
Interactive online learning, no video lectures. Progress through game-like levels by practicing grammar, vocabulary, and translating.
Anytime: Mini-lessons take five to 10 mins to finish.
Free
While learning a foreign language, students help translate the web.
Start programming from the very first lesson.
Anytime: Brief sections take only
a couple of minutes at first, but last lon- ger as lessons advance.
Free
Codecademy is the favorite educational startup of many in the tech scene.
Often, all lectures, PDFs, PowerPoints—and even exams and solutions—are accessed in a single download.
Anytime: no due dates, but no structure, either
Free
iTunes U takes advantage of university offerings already online.
Basic classes offer five- to 30-min video lectures; more advanced classes offer worksheets and handouts.
Anytime: Many classes offer more than 30 hours of instruction.
$5-$250/course (w/ most less than $100)
Instead of learning a new skill, you might try teaching one. A quarter of approved teachers have made at least $10,000.
Detailed videos last from 45 mins up to sev- eral hours. The exercise files used are available through a premium subscription.
Anytime: Five- to 15-min sections allow for concept pinpointing.
$25/month; $37.50/ month for "premium"
Several major companies use lynda. com to train employees: Ernst & Young, Microsoft, and the New York Times, to name a few.
westchestermagazine.com
ROUND-UP
How to Tune Out Tech
We asked County professionals for the best ways to unplug—at home, over the weekend, and after hours.
“Turning off all my various gadgets is a great way to escape the outside world. I’ll let my laptop battery run dry or leave my cellphone at home so I won’t be tempted to check Facebook, email, or send texts.”
-Jon Chattman, director of communi- cations at the Music Conservatory of Westchester in White Plains
“One of my ‘check-out zones’—the ‘me time’ I work hard for—is flip- ping through a magazine or newspaper. If anything catches my eye, I’ll book- mark the page and act on it later.” -Heather
Bell-Pellegrino, president and event planning professional with A Perfect Plan! in Yorktown
“I like to stay active and spend as much time out- doors as possible. I’ll go on a long run or attend a boot camp class— there’s something about running up a tough hill or finishing an exhaust- ing workout.”
-Ashley Witkiewicz, office manager at Valley Pediatric Dentistry in Yorktown
“I work from home, so
it can be a challenge to shut down technology— I pretty much need to leave and find a nook in Northern Westchester without cell service.
I also pre-schedule social media posts, and Onebox, a virtual phone service, lets me change my message or forward calls as needed.”
-Donna Cravotta, CEO of Social Sage PR LLC in Bedford Hills
“After a long week of media buying, I love to wrestle with my kids and go for nature hikes on the weekends. We live in the woods!”
-Nick Simard, vice president at InspiriaMedia in White Plains
—Katie O'Donnell
(John Chattman photo by Cathy Pinsky)
—Austen Hufford
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