Updated: May 18, 2018
The Internet is a vast place to look for practically everything. It is an entirely new universe with the amount of information it provides. This realm offers something we haven’t realized we need – learning with just a click.
But what do we do with this technological blessing? We simply resort to mindlessly scrolling through social media sites. We do not fully utilize Internet learning. We may not be in school anymore but we should continuously learn. The brain is like a machine. When not in use, it forms rust. Thus, it becomes less functional. It loses its purpose. That is why it is essential for our brain to be oiled. It is important for us to constantly learn and relearn. Invest time and energy. Make it a habit and a hobby. Practice, if needed. The Internet can be a barrier to productivity yet can be an instrument of knowledge if you know where to look.
Below are some of the resources (mostly free) I discovered while on the hunt for new information.
Free Online Courses
- Coursera
- MIT Open Courseware
- Open Yale Courses
- John Hopkins Open Courses
- Oxford Open Courses
- Stanford Online
- Harvard Online Learning
- United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR)
- edX
- Udemy
- Khan Academy
- Alison
- Udacity
- Academic Earth
- iTunes U
- Future Learn
Most of the courses are free of charge. You may choose to get your certificate at a fee, making your training official. You may put it on your resume, LinkedIn profile, and/or your portfolio.
Coding
Learning how to code has lots of perks whether you are in the tech industry or not. As Bill Gates once wrote, “computer science forces you to think abstractly and solve concrete problems.”
- Codecademy
- Code.org
- aGupieWare
- hack.pledge()
- Code Avengers
- Free Code Camp
- HTML5 Rocks by Google
- GitHub – free programming books
Learning a Foreign Language
Learning a foreign language is one of the most popular skills to learn. That is why there is a multitude of resources to learning them.
*with free and premium plans
Places to Find Free Books
Electronic Books (E-books)
- Project Gutenberg
- Manybooks
- Feedbooks
- Bibliomania
- Questia
- Ebookee
- OpenStax
- FreeTechBooks
- Textbook Revolution
- The Online Books Page
- World Library
- Bartleby
Audio Books
- Project Gutenberg – Human-read | Computer-generated
- Spotify Word Section – List of books
- LibriVox
- Lit2Go
Resource Collection
Open Culture
Open Culture is a centralized resource collection of cultural and educational media from around the web – for free.
- 1,300 Free Online Courses from Top Universities
- 1,150 Free Movies Online: Great Classics, Indies, Noir, Westerns, etc.
- 900 Free Audio Books: Download Great Books for Free
- 800 Free eBooks for iPad, Kindle & Other Devices
- MOOCs from Great Universities (Many With Certificates)
- Learn 46 Languages Online for Free: Spanish, Chinese, English & More
- 200 Free Kids Educational Resources: Video Lessons, Apps, Books, Websites & More
Internet Archive
Internet Archive is a non-profit digital library that provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, movies/videos, moving images, and nearly three million public-domain books.
Today the archive contains:
- 279 billion web pages
- 11 million books and texts
- 4 million audio recordings including 160,000 live concerts
- 3 million videos including 1 million Television News programs
- 1 million images
- 100,000 software programs
There’s never been a better time to be alive if you’re curious. When I wanted to learn something outside of school as a kid, cracking open my World Book encyclopedia was the best I could do. Today, all you have to do is go online.
-Bill Gates
Websites
Entrepreneur Philippines
Entrepreneur Philippines gives expert and practical pieces of advice on business ideas, management and operations for aspiring and expanding Filipino entrepreneurs. It also gives tips and lessons on productivity, personal finance, employment and current events.
Similar:
PSE Academy
The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) is the national stock exchange of the Philippines. With the help of its official market education PSE Academy, the public will easily get their hands on downloadable reading materials and books on finance and investment. In addition, PSE Academy gives securities licensure examinations and stock market courses and training.
TED
TED, short for Technology, Entertainment, Design, is a nonprofit media organization devoted to making great ideas accessible through 18 minute (or less) talks from people from different cultures and discipline. It also has a collection of meaningful articles on a wide range of topics like tech, business, arts + design, and science.
Here are lists of TED talks to get you started:
Moz
Moz is a software as a service (SaaS) company sells inbound marketing and marketing analytics software subscriptions. The blog has lessons on basic SEO, social, content and brand marketing.
Similar:
Brain Pickings
Brain Pickings is a literary blog and the one-woman labor of love of Bulgarian writer Maria Popova. It started as a weekly email to seven friends in 2006. Now, it has millions of regular readers and a six-figure Twitter following.
Maria describes Brain Pickings as “a cross-disciplinary LEGO treasure chest, full of pieces spanning art, science, psychology, design, philosophy, history, politics, anthropology, and more; pieces that enrich our mental pool of resources and empower combinatorial ideas that are stronger, smarter, richer, deeper and more impactful.”
Similar:
LinkedIn is not only for professional networking and finding jobs but it can also be a haven for top quality articles on different topics on business, career, and technology among other subjects.
Job portals like Kalibrr and JobStreet (JobStreet Philippines) provide helpful career tips and advice to modern employees on ways to advance in the competitive corporate world.
Blogs
A lot of business magnates, investors, creative people, and public figures made a home on the Internet through personal websites. These are the places where they share their opinions, philanthropic works, favorite books, and passion projects among other things. These blogs give us an idea of what goes through the lives and minds of influential and well-known personalities.
- Gates Notes by Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft and co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (everyone knows the guy!)
- Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Group
- Blog Maverick by Mark Cuban, owner of NBA’s Dallas Mavericks and Shark Tank investor
- Naomi Simson, founding director of Red Balloon
- Caterina Fake, co-founder of Flickr and Hunch
- Reid Hoffman, co-founder and executive chairman of LinkedIn
- Unlucky in Cards by Matt Mullenweg, founder, and CEO of WordPress’ parent company, Automattic
- Rex Hammock, founder and CEO of Hammock Inc.
- Marriot on the Move by Bill Marriot, executive chairman and Chairman of the Board of Marriott International, Inc.
Other Sources of Learning
Youtube
YouTube is an American video-sharing website created by three former PayPal employees — Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim in February 2005. YouTube channels contribute videos to every subject imaginable. I subscribed to Knowledge – Topic to gain access to a series of learning materials from different channels. Bibblio.org also wrote a comprehensive list of Youtube channels that will make you smarter.
Here are some channels to suffice your thirst for knowledge and your curiosity on life:
Podcast
A podcast is an episodic series of digital audio or video files which a user can download and listen to. It is basically a radio show you can get from the Internet.
It gained popularity in the past few years because of the convenience of audio learning. You can listen to Podcast through your computer (streaming), Spotify, iTunes (for iOS) or Android Apps like Stitcher.
Check out these podcast channels:
- Freakonomics Radio
- TED Radio Hour
- The Tim Ferriss Show
- WorkLife with Adam Grant
- Revisionist History by Malcolm Gladwell
You may also refer to bibblio.org’s list of podcasts channels to make you smarter.
Whether you’re a fresh graduate taking advantage of a gap period or a professional looking for ways to improve and develop your skills, there will always be a website for your learning needs in a massive world called the Internet.
How about you?
- Have you considered taking an online course? What do you think of online learning?
- Do you know other websites that are good sources of new knowledge?
Featured Image by Felix Broennimann on Pixabay