Learning to Learn via the Internet

I, like many of you, have had a good education. I have graduated from college and from a postgraduate university of good repute, but this is not enough. What I have learned from my formal education (and I hope you have as well)is how to learn. I know how to research, construct arguments, develop theses but this has been in a necessarily constrained number of fields.

Graduation from college or university is not the end but the beginning of a dedication to life long learning. If you are curious there are a number of areas that you may want to know about. For myself I have developed a strong interest in history, though I have a science/technology and business studies background. I have also been learning two languages - French and German for a planned European foray, later this year (2008). I have found so many good resources on the Net that I am almost overwhelmed with choices.

The top resources I have found are as follows

iTunes Podcasts - educational podcasts from various universities.

History According to Bob

Dan Carlin's Hardcore History

Radiolingua international.com - Daily Phrase German, Coffee Break French

Open to Learn - the Open University website where they share a lot of their resources (as do MIT and Stanford on their sites)

and Google Scholar

So whatever interests you (and we all have different interests), dive onto the Internet and have a look, you will be surprised and delighted with what you can find.

The public library is also a fantastic resource for those who like to handle real books. They are literally treasure troves of knowledge, and if they have a coffee shop as well (as my local library does), are as close to heaven as you can get in this life (in my humble opinion).

I have found my iPod to be a very valuable tool for language learning. I take it everywhere and when I have a spare moment I do a language session (typically these are 5-10 minute podcasts) or listen to a history podcast (10-60 minutes). This allows me to fill many otherwise idle minutes into learning opportunities.

Long Live the Autodidact

Long Live iPODS

Viva the Public Library