Surface Knowledge & Going Deeper

 Reading a Reddit post about the Rosetta Stone today reminded me to never stop learning. The Stone is one of those things that we hear about all the time without a lot of us really knowing what it is or why it's important. Surface knowledge.

We live in the age of the internet, being "connected" and having access to so much information that we don't absorb details. Surface knowledge.

How many of us are fortunate enough to have a good education? How many of us who have access take full advantage of a good (or even decent) education? 

I honestly believe that many of us didn't realize the importance (and good fortune) of having that access. I don't think that I did. For me, getting just through school was the thing. I was a nervous and shy student. My family, being military, moved around a lot. I never spent more than a year or two at any one school. I'd start at a school and have to get through the anxiety of being the "new kid". By the time I stopped feeling so lost and out of place, it was on to a new school. I believe my older sister felt the same. My brothers, who are more confident and outgoing, all did really well. They are all very "book smart". They really enjoyed their school years and have fond memories about every set of teachers and students they interacted with.

Now that I am much older, I still have the social anxiety and awkwardness of my youth. But now I have the internet. I have access to information of all sorts literally at the fingertips on my keyboard. Not learning about stuff in this society means I am mostly dumb on purpose. Ain't that a shame?

Before I got sick, I was too busy working and enjoying being healthy to take full advantage of all this free knowledge. Now, I have more time but my brain works at half-power. Still, I just cannot get enough of learning. I'm not great at retaining what I learn, but I still get to explore.

When I saw the post about the Rosetta Stone, I did some Googling and - wow.

For all of you out there with a healthy body, mind, and brain, I urge you to take advantage. If you even have 1 hour - even just half an hour - of time that you can set aside for it, go deeper. Please. 

Today, I spent about 40 minutes looking up information about the Rosetta Stone. While I was at it, I wandered down a few rabbit holes and picked up some information about language and culture in general. I will talk more about cultural literacy in just a moment and you will see why I think it's so important.

You can start by picking a book that you've always heard about but never got around to reading. You don't even have to read the book if you don't have time. You can look up notes about it or find a cheat sheet for it. I can't tell you how many lists there are of "Books Everyone Should Read...". Good Reads has a "General Knowledge Books" list.

Years and years ago, I read Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know (by  E.D. Hirsch Jr.). That was the first time I started thinking about how I had shorted my own education post-school. Even though I'd had challenges during my school years, there was nothing really stopping me from going further and deeper afterward. I was just too busy working and being young and cute.

Coming up on that Reddit post and then writing this blog post has encouraged me to get another copy of Hirsch's book. I highly recommend it to anyone who agrees with me about life-long learning. Just because we are no longer in school - or see ourselves as "brainy", there is no reason at all not to continue learning. Maybe we wouldn't be in such an awful mess as a nation right now if we... Never mind. That's a whole other blog post!

I guess the main thing I want to get across is that we let things keep us from learning and growing. Shame is a big obstacle. I was always horrible with math but once I had to use math skills in a job that I loved, I got so much better. (Sadly, those skills were the first to go when I got sarcoidosis). What I have learned since my brain decided to be funky is that there should be no shame in going back to the basics to learn anything. My sister bought me a math book for children when I was first laid up in bed. I had nothing else to do so...  These days, when I am curious about something, I will start with the basics - looking for books written "for beginners" or for children. No shame, people. 

These days, with so much information available to so many, there is no excuse not to at least attempt to learn and grow. Barring health and developmental problems, we are only as dumb as we choose to be.

By the way, here is the Amazon author page for Hirsch. I plan to take a look and see what else he's written.

Peace

--Free

**EDUCATION** Life-long Learning

This isn't the first time I have posted links to learning resources, but it's been a while. A long while. The last posting has gotten so old that I've had to do a complete update.

I am always interested in learning new things and I like encouraging my family and friends to do the same. Here is a list of resources for anyone who wants to expand on their knowledge in various areas. I find these links via web searches, reading articles, and watching videos. I try to link to sites with content that is mostly free of charge. I will come back and do updates as I find more resources to link to. Enjoy.

• The Open Education Database (OEDb) is self-described as " the most comprehensive collection of online college rankings and free courses anywhere online". It can be a bit overwhelming. I suggest starting here at the open courseware collection and scroll down to the list of 'popular online classes' or further down to browse course by subject.
• DIY Genius is one site I haven't had a lot of time to check out. I do know that not all of the content is free. I am including it on this list just because of the free content.
• Wikiversity was on one of my original lists and remains a favorite. If you read the Introduction page, you will find that the 'versity is just like the 'pedia and is open to editing. I don't care; it's still a favorite. I must also link to Wikibooks but for all other links, please check the left side panel on any of the Wiki pages for more. It's amazing what we miss by not looking at the side panels of webpages. 
• Open Culture ("The best free cultural & educational media on the web") is another new one for me. Some of the listings are links to off-site resources. I do like that some of the textbooks are in pdf format to be viewed online. I can't wait to check out some of the links
  
  for learning languages. The one thing I don't like is that the site shows in Chrome as not being secure.
• Khan Academy has to be on this list. It's one of the best put-together sites online. I think the video lessons are a great teaching tool for people of all ages. KA is definitely another of my favorites.
• ** Stanford Online is, in my opinion, better suited for those already attending school or navigating a career. It's worth checking out, no matter who you are.
• YouTube - okay, this is where you have to kind of work for it. There are a LOT of channels for specific topics of study. I've seen playlists of videos for learning languages, one of the sciences, or for a specific culinary skill. The best way to learn via YouTube is to make up your own playlists ahead of time (for whatever interests you), then search for and add the different videos to your lists. I have playlists for everything from Bible study to Breadmaking to Hokkaido breadmaking. One warning: Make sure you are really focused or get ready to fall down a deep rabbithole...

By the way, I recently picked up a couple of tips from a news article:

1. When searching for any low-cost or free digital content - from games to writing apps - search for "open source" instead of "free".

2. Another way to reference or search for open-source items is to use the search term "FOSS" aka "free and open-source software".

I have to go now because my brain is tired.

Peace

--Free

**Update Attempt** Life-long Learning (links)

*****originally published 8//10 - I have not (yet) updated any links or info because I would like to hear from some of you first. Have any wonderful links to add to this list? If you do, please post them via comments here or on Google Plus. Someone was looking for this kind of info & I think we could all appreciate it. Thanks!*****


I don't usually do this: post info here that belongs on my other blog. But...

I know that some people who read this blog don't always check out my World Wide Wow blog (that's a new name for it, btw!),  and I want to do some shameless plugging for it, so I am posting some self-ed and career links here. If you are into life-long learning or need to refresh or up your skills, these links are for you. Enjoy!

• Learn Well - This one charges only for C.E. credits (in other words, you can learn free & only pay if you want/need credits). Nice, huh? Covers C.E. courses for RNs, Mft, LCSWs, MFCCs, Pharmacists, Dental Health Workers and others. (Don't get discouraged, keep reading the post for more links!)
• O.E.R.  (Open Educational Resources) - Here's how they explain their site: "In a brave new world of learning, OER content is made free to use or share, and in some cases, to change and share again, made possible through licensing, so that both teachers and learners can share what they know."  There are various subjects (Arts, Business, Humanities, Math & Stats, Science & Tech, Social Science) and different "grade" levels. Please explore.
• E-Learning Center - They offer free courses for  those interested in learning HTML, A+, MCSE, Excel and Office. (I see they also have many other courses listed on the homepage - for pay?) Check it out.
• English as a Second Language - is just exactly what the site is about. From the links on the page, I see there are "listen and speak" tools, podcasts and all sorts of goodies. Really cool & should be helpful to those interested.
• Free Ed - Nice site & covers LOTS of subjects. (Minor gripe: lots of ads make the site difficult to deal with, but, hey, it IS free, so...)
• Wanna Learn - good site, lots of topics. A little meandering since you have to find a  subject, then wade through more links to narrow things down. But, again, it's free! LOL
• Open Learning Initiative - Whew! Can be a little intimidating at first glance, but please give it a shot. (First link I spotted was to a course in "Engineering Statics." I thought it was a typo! ROFL. Shows what I know.... There's a course in something called "Computational Discrete Mathematics" O...kay then... I guess if you understand that then you are smart enough to appreciate that it's free.
• Math.com - for those who aren't ready for computational discrete mathematics... LOL (like ME!)
• Wikiversity - Well, we all know how I just love anything "wiki-like!" This is the spot to choose your language preference. When I got to the English page, I noticed that there are supposed to be close to 13,000 learning resources. Wow.
• Creative Commons - I'm not sure how to describe this resource, so here's their take: "Creative Commons is a nonprofit corporation dedicated to making it easier for people to share and build upon the work of others, consistent with the rules of copyright." I do know that it's free and what really caught my eye is that they have MIT Open courseware available. Somebody has got to love that!
• G.C.F. Learn Free (Goodwill Community Foundation) - described as "your free learning source." The offerings listed on its homepage are for Everyday Life, Math & Money, Computer Training and Work & Career. Cool.

I think that may be enough for now (if not overload!), and I really hope you take a look at the full list on World Wide Wow. (I update that blog often as I can, but I think I'm going to  have to take a free tutorial so that I can make it look nice and be a little more user-friendly. If anyone wants to volunteer to help a sistah out...!) Also, if you are looking for specific links on something, contact me & we'll see what we can do for ya.

Peace

--Free

Internet Junk Food

As a citizen of the Web, I love almost everything about it. I mean, I can keep in touch with friends all over the world, watch interesting documentaries I might not otherwise have access to, take life-enriching classes for free, join in the reindeer games with people I might never meet, and do research on almost any subject I can think of.

Yep. I am lucky to be part of the internet nation.

Except.

Here's the thing: I have always felt like I should use the Web for more productive and positive things. I know that there are people who do.

You probably know that you can get an education online, but did you know that there is actually a University of the People? Or that you can take "the world's best courses"- for free? And then there's the discussion about taking  test-driving classes - for credit. Of course, I have to mention Salman Khan and Khan Academy.

Free education, folks. In a world where some people will walk miles to get a basic education, you and I can sit at home in our pajamas and take courses from places like Harvard and MIT and other "top universities" - for free!

So why have I been more concerned with the lives of  the Real Housewives?

Why? Because, like a lot of you, I live my Web life the way most children live their real lives. I don't want broccoli and spinach for dinner; I want pizza, or mystery meat cut into weird shapes then battered and deep-fried.

Well, that is going to change. I have got to have a healthier Web diet. I need more CNN and less News of the Weird. If I'm going to surf the Net when I get depressed, I need to spend way more time here than here.

I've kicked junkfood in my real-life diet, I've kicked tobacco, and I've damn- I mean, dang near quit cussing. Starting today, I am changing up my Web diet, which means I will be giving up a lot of the junk. Well, not all... You know I am still going to calm my nerves with an occasional visit to the gossip sites.

Peace
--Free

P.S.: Seriously, for more info on useful things available online, watch for my future quickie posts labelled "Free-4-All." I will round up some of the best free resources on almost any and everything you can think of.