If you’ve found yourself binging on streaming movies and show the past few weeks, you may start to experience burnout and fatigue with too much screen time. There are other ways to use an increase in screen time and incorporate learning. Streaming learning programs, classes and webinars can give you some “brain exercise” during a time when we must social distance and inherently increase screen time.
Consider scheduling an hour a day on your calendar to build in a new habit. Decide what you want to learn, where you want to focus and identify the resources that work best for you. Whether it’s a new certification or mastering a new skill set, there’s likely an online school, program or platform that will meet your needs. By focusing on specific areas, it will help to keep you from getting overwhelmed by the sheer amount of educational content available to you.
As a general best practice:
- On Sunday, identify 1-2 learning opportunities per week
- Schedule 1 class for 1 hour a day for at least 3 days
- Include on your calendar with the link to your class or course
Here are some of the best places to get content across multiple areas:
Forbes8
If you’re an entrepreneur, this is a must-have. A digital platform dedicated to on demand content for the thinkers and doers of the world.
Forbes8 was the first brand out of the gate to produce and host a free, live digital summit targeting businesses with what they need right now with the F8 E-Summit, “Business Resiliency. Featuring industry hard hitters, like Rohit Bhargava, founder, Non-Obvious Company who spoke about “How To Be Remotely Innovative,” to Amber Mac, author and co-host of “The AI Affect,” who shared, “3 AI Trends (& Tools) to Grow Your Business Today,” each 15 to 20 talk was original and designed to offer useful, practical advice that can be applied right now.
Anyone can now view the Summit and, bonus, Forbes8 is giving away a 7-day trial of the Forbes8 platform which is jampacked with on-demand content (search for digital marketing).
Agorapulse’s Social Media Manager School
New(ish) to social media? There are many brick and mortar store owners who are expediting the learning curve to ensure they can connect with their customers. The best place to get information is going to the same sources that full time social media managers go to versus one-off training sessions. Agorapulse is a social media monitoring and response platform that provides a TON of free education and resources weekly. Their new Social Media Manager School, which typically retails for $997, is now available for free for four weeks.
Classes are broken out by social network, like: Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube and an entire course dedicated to tracking social ROI.
Minecraft Education
Get gamey with your kids. Minecraft isn’t only a game, it can be a great educational resource. Microsoft added a new Education category to the Minecraft Marketplace. Players and parents can download it free through June 2020.
“Players can explore the International Space Station, learn to code with a robot, visit famous Washington, DC landmarks, and learn what it’s like to be a marine biologist. Each “world” to explore includes lesson plans like creative writing activities, build challenges and puzzles.” (CNET)
Book Video Club
Want to expedite the amount of books you can take in right now? Of course there’s a site dedicated to that. Book Video Club on YouTube lets you learn about any book in three minutes. Every week they deliver a new business or self-help book in a short-form video.
They not only describe the book, but give you learning moments and takeaways similar to CliffsNotes.
Bonus! You can even use this as a way to validate which books you want to read in full.
TedEd@Home
In response to COVID-19, the Ted team created an at-home learning program designed for learners of any age. TedEd@Home is one-part newsletter and one-part interactive, video-based lessons delivered daily and for free.
Designed for elementary through university levels, they’re covering the following topics:
- The Arts
- Business & Economics
- Design, Engineering
- Health
- Literature & Language
- Mathematics
- Philosophy & Religion
- Psychology
- Science & Technology
- Social Studies
- Thinking and Learning
Are you dedicating time to learning? Share your favorite resources, too.