Use Interlibrary loans to freely extend your reading access
One of the most powerful but least-used tools that we modern Americans have at our disposal is the Inter-Library Loan.
If your local library does not carry a book, you can request the book through their interlibrary loan program. They will search other libraries in the country for you, and when they find that book in Florida or Texas they request the loan from that library. When it arrives, they notify you your request is in.
Most libraries have limits on interlibrary loans, like a few at a time, or if you fail to pick it up you pay a fine, or they won't fulfill requests until your own fines are paid up.
Still, it's an excellent way to use America's library system as your own local library.
I like to poke around Amazone.com for interesting-looking books. Most of the time my local library does not have it. I simply enter the book title, author, year published, and ISBN number and they do the work.
Interlibrary loans are often abbreviated as ILL.
Introduce Yourself to New Subjects by Googling it
When you approach a new topic that you know little to nothing about, one of the best ways to introduce yourself to it independently is to simply Google it. Search for the term in Firefox browser, right-click on interesting results and open them in new tabs.
You'll soon have ten or twenty interesting and varied sources on that subject.
Take 15-30 minutes and simply skim over the subject material. You are guaranteed you will walk away with a much greater understanding of the topic than if you just tried finding and reading one single source.
You will also discover some nicer sources that do offer more in-depth study materials. Or you might discover you are not as interested in the topic as you originally thought.
Lynda.com CD/DVD s are great for learning software
If you want or need to learn a specific software as fast as possible, the best way is to get a Lynda.com CD or DVD.
Perhaps you are struggling with learning software in your regular class because your teacher is lame. Perhaps you didn't pay attention to the teacher and now you need to cram. Perhaps you got a job where you swore you knew a software that you don't.
Or perhaps you just want to learn a specific software or technology like Photoshop, Excel, 3D Max, HTML, blogging, etc. and you want to learn it as fast as possible and on your own schedule.
These video tutorials are great because they show the software and have an expert explaining everything about it. If it goes too fast, you simply slide the video player back (it uses Quicktime to play the movies).
You can go to her site and view a few sample videos to get the gist of her format. You should purchase the CD/DVDs from her site directly. You can sometimes find used CD/DVDs on eBay, which are usually fine. You can also find the video files on bitTorrent sites.
I advise the best way to learn using this method is still to take some notes while watching the videos. Treat it like you are sitting in a class. Of course you're sitting in your underwear at home, but taking notes really does commit the knowledge to memory faster and better.
Podcasts make it easy to learn using multimedia
I keep up to date and learn new things using podcasts.
Despite the term, you do not need an iPod to download or listen to podcasts. There's no hacks or anything silly, podcast just picked up an unfortunate name for itself early on.
The easiest way to find and download podcasts does happen to be with the iTunes music playing software. It is free and works great on both Windows and Mac.
Once iTunes is installed, surf through the iTunes music store to find their podcast directory (the top 100 is a good place to start). If you see one that looks interesting, click on it to read a description and reviews from other users.
If you think you would like any podcast, simply click the 'Subscribe' button, and any new podcasts will automatically be downloaded as soon as they are available. That's right, they are delivered automatically (like your daily newspaper) without you having to remember to go retreive them!
There are tens of thousands of podcasts ranging from humor to education to talk. For self-learning strategies, I recommend Grammar Girl's grammar tips, This Week in Tech, and any one of several Photoshop tutorial podcasts.
When my wife was struggling to learn her Anatomy and Physiology course because her professor wasn't a great lecturer, I subscribed her to three (3!) different A&P lecture podcasts published by 3 different colleges. She got to listen to better lectures covering the same material, and took charge of her learning.
What podcasts have you found especially helpful in self-learning?
Formal education is supplementary education
The first step towards educational independence is to realize that formal education is supplementary education, not primary education.
It should be a part of your overall learning strategy, but it should not be the only strategy used to learn.
I laugh at homeschoolers, the poor kids who's parents are afraid of public education or have lost faith in it as an institution. The reason I laugh is because these parents think they alone can educationally prepare their kids for the 21st century, and that they alone can teach to their kids what 70 different teachers from K-12 will fail to do. Get real!
After watching Wifeswap tonight, I realized there are three reasons parents homeschool their kids:
- One or more parents are so wrapped up in family they don't want the kids to leave in the daytime. The lady on Wifeswap did not know what to do with herself when the kids went to school in the day. She actually made cardboard cutouts of the kids, dressed the cutouts in the kids' shirts, and sat them at the table to play cards. It was sad. It was obvious those kids were better off going to public school than staying home with Mom.
- The parents want to indoctrinate their kids to be religious soldiers. Sunday school and church is not enough, they fear the devil daily. This is even sadder.
- One or both parents had bad experiences in public schools themselves, and they believe what they hear in the mass media about innefective and dangerous schools. This is probably the biggest reason more than the other two, and it is the saddest of all. These parents are not smart enough to realize the media gets rich off scaring people in every way. These parents are also not wise enough to realize their kids may have better school experiences than they did as kids.
Parents who want to homeschool should absolutely do so and prepare their lesson plans accordingly. However, they should still send the kids to public schools for the supplemental education, then add more when the kids get home.
One last sad item from Wifeswap was the Dad asking his kid how the first day of homeschooling went, and the kid said it was like vacation since he only did two math problems in two minutes and was done for the day.
Oh yeah, that'll keep America on top.
Concept
We live in an age where we are not only capable of learning anything we want, but we are solely responsible for learning on our own. We can no longer count on public educational institutions to solely teach us what we need to know. Minimally-required and -provided public education must be recognized as
supplementary education rather than
predominant.
This blog will host stories, strategies, links, philosophies, and tools for anyone to rein in their own education and take charge of whatever they want to learn.
The blog is about empowering individuals for the 21st century. I guarantee within only 1 year you will realize commanding your own learning was the best decision you made your entire life.
