Mar
1
2012
5 free online ways to learn what you need to get ahead
Author: Robin BrowneIt goes without saying that, in a knowledge economy, one of your most important competitive advantages is what you know. However, considering how fast things changes, what you know can get old really fast.
So what do you do?
Most people have neither the money nor the time to take all the courses they need to keep up. Even if they did, what they learn in too many courses is obsolete by the time the course is finished (year-long social media courses for example).
Internet to the rescue – again
Luckily, we have the internet where great free learning opportunities abound. Here are the top five I recommend to get your learn on:
1) Podcasts – there are free podcasts available on just about any topic you want to learn. Many of them are in iTunes where you can subscribe to them and download the latest episodes by simply plugging in your mp3 player and launching iTunes.
2) Q&A sites – sites like Quora or LinkedIn (which has a Q&A section) allow you to ask questions and get answers from the community of users.
3) RSS readers – RSS readers like Google Reader are “old school” technology by today’s hyperspace standards but their value is still solid. They give you quick, one-stop access to the latest posts on the websites and blogs of your choice. They are a huge time saver.
4) Twitter – applications like TweetDeck and Hootsuite, let you create columns where you can follow groups of people, certain hashtags (codes for tagging and sorting content) and other options. So, if you’re in to, say, venomous snakes that eat other venomous snakes, you can create a column showing only tweets about that.
5) Join or create your own online book club – are you reading all the books you know you should? No. You’re not. Is there a book club in your city that reads the books that you need to read? If not, don’t worry: book clubs have gone global. Look for one online and, if you don’t find one, create it. I recently joined the For Immediate Release Book Club that meets online about once a month for a discussion with the author about marketing/communications books: and has it got me reading!
How do you learn online?



