Expanding Knowledge Through Many Avenues

In this day and age a person has accessibility to knowledge, education and training as never before.

One can gain the equivalent of college degrees, professional certification, or mastery of certain skills through information and video that is readily available (often for free) on the Internet.

The opportunities for personal and professional growth seem endless.

More than a hundred years ago, author Arnold Bennett wrote an insightful book on personal growth and improvement called “How to Live on 24 Hours a Day.” He believed a person should carve out specific times each day and each week to focus on learning more.

Today, with each of us having a laptop or smart phone, it is much easier to follow Bennett’s advice. We can better ourselves, enrich our lives, and supplement our education by exploring areas of interest through a variety of internet sources. Here are a few.

YouTube: This is a very popular website often used for entertainment, but it also has tons of how-to instructional videos, lectures, presentations, speeches, reviews, college classes, and classroom enrichment material. Much of the video content includes some of the best-known authors, teachers and presenters in the world.

TED: The famous “TED talks” are popular with many. TED (technology, entertainment and design) has thousands of videos that are informative, insightful, and inspirational.

MIT: The Massachusetts Institute of Technology allows a person to audit classroom lectures for free. Like any institution, if you want to earn credit or get a degree, there is a tuition cost. But if you just want to browse through some classes, there is no charge.

PragerU: This is a very interesting website that features short informative videos. It was started by author, columnist, teacher, and radio personality Dennis Prager. The caption on the website says simply, “Short videos, big ideas,” and it also describes itself as, “A world of new perspectives, five minutes at a time.” It has videos on history, economics, social issues, education, philosophy and self-help. It is also free, but they will accept donations.

Free online courses: I’ve been intrigued with the classes offered through Hillsdale College. It is located in Hillsdale, Mich., and offers free classes online in history, government and literature. Specifically, they have teaching on the Federalist Papers, Winston Churchill, the Ancient Greeks, Shakespeare and a host of other topics.

More online courses: Various websites provide classes and/or lectures for a small fee. One such resource is called udemy.com. It has classes in computer technology, business, and personal growth.

Live streaming: Recently on Facebook I saw some speakers making presentations at the 2017 EntreLeadership Summit from Orlando, Fla. The summit, put together by personal financial guru Dave Ramsey, had some of the most sought-after speakers in the country. You can learn a lot from such people.

The Apple way: Some people love to use Apple’s iTunes to listen to their favorite music, but did you know that you can also use iTunes to gain access to college classes? It’s called iTunesU, and it contains hundreds of college lectures from various institutions.

Spiritual growth: In the past a person could get informative audio cassettes or books from televangelists, sometimes for a healthy contribution. Today there are even more ministries with more religious content. Some of it is free; some of it is obtained for a small contribution. If you do an Internet search on any of the following individual ministers you can see examples of material that is offered: David Jeremiah of San Diego; John MacArthur Jr. of Sun Valley California, in Los Angeles; Charles Swindoll of Frisco, Texas, north of Dallas; and Tom Nelson of Denton, Texas.

There are certainly others who offer similar material, but in my view, these individuals are very solid in their biblical and theological teaching. If you locate their various webpages, you will find that their organizations provide lots to learn for free.

More on spiritual growth — I recently found seminary class lectures provided for free from Dallas Theological Seminary. It is a very good institution that provides training for those preparing for ministry.

Reading books the old-fashioned way is an excellent way to grow, and is still one of the very best ways to enrich your education and your life.

But whether you learn from books, from the internet, or from both, the bottom line is that no one can claim that learning opportunities don’t exist.