**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