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Online, ongoing education can serve everyone: there's more to it than courseware

This article is my entry for the 2009 Edu Blogger Scholarship Contest. If you enjoyed this article please click through to the site, each visit from here brings me one step closer to the finals. Thanks!

I've always thought of life as a quest for knowledge. While that might sound like the remarks of an intellectual snob, I just happen to be inquisitive—nosy for knowledge, as it were. I like to know how things work and why, be these things gadgets, ideas or people. Naturally I learn a lot from books but in the past several years, the Internet has become my playground. If I need to know about an evolving Web technology, need a recipe for wonton soup or want to identify the vegetables I bought at the asian grocery I look it up online. Google and other search engines are great for that kind of thing.

But learning isn't always about finding an answer to a specific question. Sometimes it's about exploring questions you didn't know you had, or exposing yourself to new subjects you didn't have time for back in school. That's really the foundation of a liberal arts education. While in school you may focus on your major, but you are also required to study subjects in a variety of disciplines.

Doing so not only broadens your horizons and makes you more interesting at cocktail parties, but it also gives you new perspectives about life, and teaches you different ways of thinking. As we learn about other disciplines we're exposed to new methodologies and approaches that can help us with problem solving and critical thinking—skills that we can apply to our own fields and to life in general. Learning logic and the scientific method can help us evaluate everything from political candidates to T. V. commercials. Exposure to the humanities gives us insight into the human experience and teaches us to be better communicators. All of it adds up to make us better at whatever we are trying to do.

With the resources available on the Internet, this liberal learning doesn't have to end at graduation. Universities publish a wealth of information online, whether it's MIT's Open Courseware or the myriad schools posting lectures on iTunes U. Now you and I can learn about almost any subject one can imagine, from academics and experts all around the globe. And it's all just a few clicks away, right here on the World Wide Web.

Brain food: video lectures, podcasts and related resources worth exploring

Countless resources are available, but here are a few of my favorite places guaranteed to expose you to a wealth of thoughts from leaders in their respective fields.

• BBC In Our Time
• Case Western Reserve University Year of Darwin and Evolution Lectures also available from iTunes U.
• iTunes U (opens in iTunes)
• The Long Now Foundation: Seminars in Long Term Thinking
• Ted: Ideas Worth Spreading
• UChannel: Access to a world of ideas
• University of Bath: Public Lecture Podcast
• WGBH Forum Network

Learning can be fun

While I've been waxing forth on why continued learning is good for you, and why I find it interesting, it can also be quite entertaining—as demonstrated in this video from MyGermanClass.com. Welcome to the world of Ubel Knubel and his freundin, Heidi.

Forthcoming: In a future entry I'll be write about the benefits of providing these types of educational resources on your own Web sites.

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