Since the fall of 2011 I have spent much of my time learning new things. In fact, I’d argue that I’ve learned more useful information in the past year and half than at any other time in my life. I feel as if I passed a “tipping point”, where I went from an ordinary interest level in information, to obsessed with it. I’ve also realized that much of what I learned before was incomplete and lacked “fundamental knowledge.” So I’ve also been relearning, or even “unlearning”, all sorts of different things. And it has resulted in the most wonderful and unanticipated consequence: the awareness of intellectual enlightenment. So today I wanted to publish a relatively short article about how I learn online and why it has worked for me.
The first learning resource is a recent discovery called Memrise. This website is absolutely fantastic and has amazing potential in my opinion. Think “Rosetta Stone”, but free and better designed (at least compared to the version I used a few years ago). I’ve been using it to learn French (my sister speaks it fluently) and sign language (just because why not). I am also going to pickup Spanish as well, once I have French down. With this website I am memorizing faster and more efficiently than ever before because of their two unique features: “Mems“, which help you visualize what you’re learning, and the implementation of the “forgetting curve” in each course. If you’re at all interested in learning a new language or need help memorizing facts and terms, Memrise is the place to be.
Next up is the Khan Academy, a website full of educational YouTube videos taught by Salman Khan. Now there’s a few main reasons I really like this website over its competitors:
- You are not required to “signup for courses”, a feature I really dislike about other learning websites. I do not want to be forced to learn through a sequence of due dates. That’s why I prefer learning online, because it’s at your own pace and discretion. If I wanted courses and due dates, I’d go back to school!
- Sal is an excellent teacher who focuses on making sure you understand the fundamentals. He also takes the extra time to color code what he’s talking about, reiterates his points to ensure no one misses anything important, and has a natural talent for explaining things in a thorough and simple way.
- And lastly, the website looks gorgeous, has a Q&A comment section with ratings for asking questions about each video, it awards points and achievements for learning, and connects with my Google account. All great things that make the experience that much better.
The Stack Exchange is next and offers a large network of Q&A websites covering many different topics. This is another beautifully designed website that makes solving even the hardest questions not only possible, but fun. The communities are full of helpful people, there’s a reward system that gives you points and badges, and it serves as an excellent way to test your knowledge. As a programmer, I’ve posted answers and asked questions as a way to challenge myself, and I encourage you to do the same.
Another great way to educate yourself is through reading. Over the past year I’ve come across some excellent free ebooks and PDF websites. Scribd, which touts itself as the largest online library, has a wide range of PDF documents for online reading or download. Just be aware that they offer a premium feature which locks some documents behind a paywall. Project Gutenberg, named after Johannes Gutenberg, the inventor of the printing press, publishes public domain texts, primarily of historical nature. They also offer their documents in a variety of formats (including Kindle), which is an excellent feature Scribd currently lacks. I also stumbled upon Open Library, which is exactly like it sounds, an online library that offers free and borrowable texts. I really like this website since it houses a ton of documents, but I feel the interface needs some work yet and the borrowing feature seems silly since they’re digital documents. But I suppose if that’s the only way to get licensing, borrowing an ebook isn’t so bad, if it opens up more choices. Lastly, there’s good ol’ Amazon.com and their selection of free Kindle ebooks. I mention this because if you have a Kindle, their Whispernet makes reading these texts a breeze. Just search for a famous classical author, find the free community versions of their books, and with a single click, send them to your Kindle. It’s awesome, plain and simple. And just as a very last note here, don’t forget Wikipedia! Sometimes just browsing articles and reading biographies or the explanation of something you don’t understand is a great way to learn.
And the final resource for learning online is YouTube. Yes, there may be a million, no wait, a billion distractions, from fail compilations to music videos, but YouTube also contains a huge selection of educational videos. I am constantly queuing up new videos to my “Watch Later” playlist and have learned all sorts of fascinating things. Just be aware that 1. not everything on YouTube is accurate, and in fact there’s plenty of disinformation floating around and 2. don’t read the comments, people are jerks. If you’re interested in finding some good channels to subscribe to (and I highly recommend actually using your Google account to like, favorite, rate, and subscribe), come check out my YouTube channel’s about page to get started.
And that’s how I learn online. By utilizing these different services, staying interested by cycling through them and mixing it up, I’ve reached a point where learning has become fun and engaging. And you don’t even have to take it that seriously. I used to listen to YouTube lectures and lessons while playing video games or working on other projects. Just because you’re learning, doesn’t mean you have to take notes and be all serious. Have fun with it and learn about things that make you happy!
Update: Here are a few more learning websites that might tickle your fancy: Udacity, Quizlet, Academic Earth, Coursera, and edX. The reason I didn’t list these before is primarily because they require you to “sign up for courses” or have other needless requirements. I prefer learning when I feel like it.