Make 2017 Your year of learning something
Sure, we complain about what a pain technology can be. You can deposit checks without stepping foot into a bank, but what happens when there's an erroneous charge and you can't get someone that you can understand to assist? Or when your laptop gives you the blue screen of death and all of your precious family photos that you meant to back-up onto that external drive but you were like, totally busy and you were definitely going to get around to it but your hard drive crashed right when you were going to do it...you get the point.
Technology has its bugaboos, but for all of the frustration the fact remains that it has never been easier to delve into your next hobby or even learn a skill that can launch you into a new career. From woodworking to WordPress, graphic design to cosmetology, you can indulge your intellectual and creative side through free and inexpensive tutorials. Some sites even offer class sessions that matriculate into accredited degree programs.
Call it continuing college or life-long learning, regardless of your education goal, dabbling in a new pastime or plunging headlong into a new vocation can do wonders for both the left and right side of your noggin.
1. Lynda.com
The instructors go through a vetting process top assure that they not only know what they're teaching, but they know how to teach it. There is a good range of offerings from business to creative and a slew of technology based classes. You can enjoy a free trial, then it shifts to a subscription based membership.
2. Udemy.com
Much like Lynda.com, Udemy specializes in technology, business and creative courses and you can pay per the course. And there are thousands of them...more than 42,000 actually.
3. Khan Academy
If you have a school-aged kid, you may have had academic tutorial experience with Khan Academy. It's a student's lifesaver when they're staring at that math formula and wondering what planet they're actually on. Kahn is not only for kids. If you're curious about learning more about programming, Parabolas or historical paintings, give it a try. After-all; Its free. For everyone. Forever.
4. Instructables
Have something to share? You can teach others too. Call it the DIY site that lets you create, document and share your creations from crafts to food to robotics. You can learn soap making, how to create your own metal forge or any of a wealth of other cool things. They have a newsletter to keep you intrigued about all the possibilities too.
5. gcf learn free
Does Microsoft Office still perplex you? Did your kids ask you to Skype them and you immediately wondered if they should have their mouth washed out with the homemade soap you learned to make from that neat Instructables.com tutorial? You can get up to speed on computer basics all the way up to beginning graphic design with a stop at Snapchat in-between. Go ahead, get cool. Your grandkids will be in-shock. And isn't that one of the best things about making it to older adulthood?
Some of these sites offer actual online courses from the world's top universities. MIT, Harvard, Berkeley...yep, you can take courses and classes from the best, for free. Are you a small business owner with an idea to grow your biz a bit bigger but lack a few of the skills? Have you always wanted an MBA but weren't sure you could hack the workload? Give it a try with less stress and maybe you'll feel more confident taking a plunge. Many of these programs actually earn credit or a certificate and when the learning is free, you can do it just for fun too.
6. Edx
Stand out in your field and develop the expertise employers are looking for through a series of skills-based courses. Choose graduate-level courses to advance your career or accelerate your Master's degree. Or try your hand at Artificial Intelligence (insert joke here). Choose from entire programs or individual courses to suit your ed desires.
Academic Earth has been around since 2009, since before the proliferation of free online college level courses. While they have a wide-range of subjects they have fewer courses in each, instead focusing on the best, most complete offerings. And yep, all free.
8. Coursera
9. Youtube
In addition to make-up tutorials and video game hacks, Youtube offers quick and easy, oftentimes pretty valuable information on a myriad of things. If people do it, it's probably been posted on Youtube. The tutorials are not vetted and due to the nature of Youtube itself, sometimes the accuracy is questionable but it's free and you can usually find enough info to cobble together a basic understanding of what you'd like to learn about. It's a good way to start your quest for enlightenment or at least learn to refinish an antique armoire. Then you can check out a few of your favorite piano playing cat videos.
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