January, 2015

Tools to help you learn anything

I have learned in the past few years that nothing is impossible and that everything you want to do can be done and has already been done by somebody somewhere. If we all agree on this then why do we still struggle to get things done? Why do we struggle to design, create and accomplish things if we can get guidelines from people who have done it before? Nothing is new under the sun; I can guarantee you that every concept or ideas was driven from previous ideas. With the content and resources uploaded daily on the Internet our lives can only get better if we use the content wisely. There is much to read, learn and use on the Internet. It does not matter what your Interests are but somewhere on the Internet there is an article, a book, software, a tool, a video etc waiting for you to capitalise on it.

In this article we look at some of the top resources to literally assist you in almost everything you do, you might know most of the sources but we also explore how you can capitalise on them. The list is very long and I decided to pick a few:

Google

One time I asked my mentor how he gets to know so much and how he keeps up. He simple answered "Google, Google is your friend". My mentor was a kind of a person that you would run to when you are stuck and he seemed to have an answer for almost everything. This is how I learned not to underestimate the power of Google. Google has pretty much every answer or at least guidelines to all questions. But today as humans we still bug each other with questions and problems we can't solve. This is not because we don't have access to Google but because we are lazy to read and maybe we don't know how to use Google properly. To learn more on how you can use Google search efficiently read thisLife Hack post

YouTube

If you dislike reading then this one is for you. You can watch videos and tutorials on how to do things. YouTube has many video tutorials to teach you almost everything you need to learn. From literature to acting, singing, playing instrument, writing games etc. The list is very long. All you need to do is type "How to" followed by what you want to do or type what you want to do first followed by "Tutorial". Example can be "How to Cook" or "Cooking tutorial" in the search box. For beginners you can also specify for "for beginners" at the end of your search sentence, for example "Cooking tutorial for beginners.” If you search well you can always find what you are looking for.

Wikipedia

Wikipedia is probably the number one source of knowledge on the web. "Wikipedia is a free encyclopaedia, written collaboratively by the people who use it. It is a special type of website designed to make collaboration easy, called a wiki. Many people are constantly improving Wikipedia, making thousands of changes per hour."

Wikihow

Wikihow is a how to do anything library. It covers anything from "how to make a baby" to "how to make a bomb". On the home page of Wikihow there's a statement "We're trying to help everyone on the planet learn how to do things. Join us.” If you cannot find an article on how to do what you want on Wikihow you can simply request the article and authors of the Wikihow community can write on your request. You can also contribute on the library by becoming an Author writing and answering requests made by other people on how to do things.

Khan Academy

Khan Academy is my favourite website at the moment. I can describe it as a personalised classroom with different subjects from mathematics, science, computer programming, history, art history, economics, and more. Khan Academy offers practice exercises, instructional videos, and a personalized learning dashboard that empower learners to study at their own pace in and outside of the classroom. You can join Khan Academy as a Learner, Teacher or Parent. It comes with cool widgets to help you track your progress and see where you need improvements. I look at a website like Khan and wonder where it was during my high school days.

The goal of this article is let you know that the Internet is filled with tools and ideas just waiting for us to use. This list above does not even make up 5% of the resources and tools available for free on the Internet. So the next time you want to do anything know that you can get help on the Internet and there are tools to make life easier. Above all this we need to be determined and stay focused to accomplish your tasks. Other recommended websites:
Lynda
W3Schools
Academic Earth
Big Think
Watch Know Learn

Thank you for reading!
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