- Jan 30, 2013
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Maybe a lot of you know this anyway, but maybe not... We live in a wonderful age of technology with so much available at your fingertips via the internet (like this very forum!). Add to that the fact that as we age most of us never satisfy our curiosity and inquisitiveness. In fact, we should strive to remain hungry for learning because it helps our mental and overall health to learn and do new things.
Being such a person (as I know most of you are) and being in the technology training field I just want to share a couple ideas...
First, most obvious to most people, is YouTube. It's free and just about anything you think of you can find instructional videos. Computer coding, technology, cooking, art, travel, literature, economics/finances, tiny houses, camping, music, etc. - it's all on there.
Another one that I use a lot that most people seem to not know about is Udemy. Udemy.com provides tons of online training courses. Most of them are for a fee; typically, Udemy puts a price on the course but then discounts it to around $10 to $30. This is a bargain for many subjects that can cost hundreds or thousands easily if you seek training elsewhere for those subjects.
HOWEVER, Udemy provides many FREE courses as well. Here's how to find them:
1. Go to Udemy.com
2. Do a search for a certain topic you want to learn about
3. When search results come up, click the "Filter" button
4. When the filter options come up, click the checkbox for "Free"
5. Click "Apply"
6. Now you will see results for the topic you chose that are FREE courses - click on anyone or ones you want to enroll in the course.
Once you are enrolled in a course, Udemy provides free, unlimited, lifetime access to that course!
CAVEAT: When you take a free course, there is not much accountability on the person who created it. It might be bad; it might even give wrong information. Take it with a grain of salt. Don't believe everything you learn from free courses.
My strategy for learning using free courses is as follows: I search YouTube and Udemy for free courses on the subject I'm interested in. I watch several of the free courses; I make a judgment as to how accurate they are based on the consistency of information provided to me. (NOTE that I also have to watch some bad courses - not that the information is necessarily wrong but the information is not presented well or clearly.) Once I get through that, if I am still interested in the subject and want more education, I consider paying for a course, one of the less expensive courses on Udemy. From there, if I'm really interested and feel invested in it I will seek higher level education on that subject, either through Udemy or another training service, even perhaps a school of some sort (whether online or not).
Anyway, I hope that is helpful to anyone reading this! Stay inquisitive and curious and keep on learning! Enrich and enhance your life, body, and mind! And it goes without saying to maintain your spiritual health by daily communication with the Lord through His Word and prayer!
Being such a person (as I know most of you are) and being in the technology training field I just want to share a couple ideas...
First, most obvious to most people, is YouTube. It's free and just about anything you think of you can find instructional videos. Computer coding, technology, cooking, art, travel, literature, economics/finances, tiny houses, camping, music, etc. - it's all on there.
Another one that I use a lot that most people seem to not know about is Udemy. Udemy.com provides tons of online training courses. Most of them are for a fee; typically, Udemy puts a price on the course but then discounts it to around $10 to $30. This is a bargain for many subjects that can cost hundreds or thousands easily if you seek training elsewhere for those subjects.
HOWEVER, Udemy provides many FREE courses as well. Here's how to find them:
1. Go to Udemy.com
2. Do a search for a certain topic you want to learn about
3. When search results come up, click the "Filter" button
4. When the filter options come up, click the checkbox for "Free"
5. Click "Apply"
6. Now you will see results for the topic you chose that are FREE courses - click on anyone or ones you want to enroll in the course.
Once you are enrolled in a course, Udemy provides free, unlimited, lifetime access to that course!
CAVEAT: When you take a free course, there is not much accountability on the person who created it. It might be bad; it might even give wrong information. Take it with a grain of salt. Don't believe everything you learn from free courses.
My strategy for learning using free courses is as follows: I search YouTube and Udemy for free courses on the subject I'm interested in. I watch several of the free courses; I make a judgment as to how accurate they are based on the consistency of information provided to me. (NOTE that I also have to watch some bad courses - not that the information is necessarily wrong but the information is not presented well or clearly.) Once I get through that, if I am still interested in the subject and want more education, I consider paying for a course, one of the less expensive courses on Udemy. From there, if I'm really interested and feel invested in it I will seek higher level education on that subject, either through Udemy or another training service, even perhaps a school of some sort (whether online or not).
Anyway, I hope that is helpful to anyone reading this! Stay inquisitive and curious and keep on learning! Enrich and enhance your life, body, and mind! And it goes without saying to maintain your spiritual health by daily communication with the Lord through His Word and prayer!
