WANT TO KNOW EVERYTHING? HERE'S WHAT TO DO

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By Mayan Avitable
 
June 25, 2012 (La Mesa) -- I don't know about you, but I have always had an insatiable desire to know everything. I don't mean I want to be a know-it-all, although some of my friends might disagree -- it's just this curiosity I have. I remember as young as  five years old watching a snail and wondering why we had those things. 

My teachers were often frustrated by all of my questions. For example, one day Mrs. Keith, my fifth grade teacher was so upset. We had been studying the natural resources of the United States, and made some really nice maps to show where the resources were. I only had one question: what is going to happen when they run out?

 
Today as a five or 10 year old, I would have many options to answer all of the questions I had. I might start with Google searches, but soon I'd want to know more and more. Hopefully in those searches, I would find The Kahn Academy. I think that would occupy me for some time.
After all, as it says on the front page of Kahn's website -- you can Watch. Practice. Learn almost anything for free. The site includes over 3,200 videos on everything from arithmetic to physics, finance, and history and hundreds of skills to practice ... The academy includes courses for the beginner, to the advanced learner.
 
However, being the curious person I am -- I would look for other places to satisfy more curiosity. What better than 500 Free Online Courses from Top Universities | Open Culture with free courses from Stanford, Yale, MIT, Harvard & Berkeley for my computer or mp3 player? Open Culture has much more than free classes. When you open the site, you will see their "Essentials" listed. There is everything there from courses, books, movies, videos, textbooks, and films. Excellent choices for the curious person.
 
Of course, there are many more sites for the eager student. For more university classes, you'll find iTunes U. Many of the classes there are free too. With the iTunes program, the classes can be downloaded to your iPod to take with you when you're on the go.
 
Maybe you want to learn about computer coding. Check out Code Academy for that. Write your own university. For inspiration, be sure to check out the speakers on Ted. I could list references that go on and on. However, use your own curiosity and find some more. If you would like, you can add your finds to the comments for this article. Look for add a comment just below this article.

 


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