How to Expand Your Knowledge Using the Internet

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The internet has brought a great deal of information, available to you with some typing here and a click there. If you're interested in learning something or trying something new, to expand your knowledge or your awareness, the internet is a pretty good place to start. But maybe you don't know how to go about it. Or you don't have the money to pay for all this "enlightenment". This article is here to help.

Steps

1. Read. Perhaps you want to become a bit more well read. Look here for separate lists, two on the 100 best novels and one on the 100 books that changed history.
   
2. Find your book. Once you find a book that seems interesting, you can either buy it, or try places like Project Gutenberg which has over 20,000 books for free online. You can also go their affiliates to look for another 100,000 free books. You can also search for other free databases like this that specialize in certain genres, authors, etc.
   
3. Listen to audio books. If you don't like to read, or do not like the ebook format, you may enjoy audio books. LibriVox has a great deal of audio book recordings, many of good quality, for free. Again, search for specialized audio book sites, such as PodioBooks which has a nice selection of science fiction.
   
4. Check out old radio shows. There's also some sites which cater to dramatizations and "old time radio". The Mercury Theatre stores quite a few of their radio dramatizations, some featuring Orson Welles, for free download.
   
5. Listen to music. To expand your horizons, try lots of different genres, not just your usual fare. The ModPopPunk Archives holds a large collection of mod influenced pop-punk mp3s. Classic Cat has plenty of links to mp3 downloads of famous composers and works from all over the web. All About Jazz and Jazz Promo tend to have good free jazz tracks available for download. Download.com is also a good source for free mp3s covering a wide range of artists and genres. Search the internet for free mp3s from artist's websites, fansites, and music blogs. You'll discover quite a few good bands and musicians this way.
   
6. Take classes online. Lately, there's been an expansion of universities and schools allowing their resources up on the internet for free download via podcasts or online notes or lecture materials. See here for a list of university podcasts. It's a very extensive list, with over 75 entries. Here is a list containing links to foreign language podcasts. And yet another list focusing on podcasts on "ideas and culture." Again, search the internet for something that interests you.
   
7. Seek out educational films. If you would like some images to go with your lessons, videos could be of interest to you. Universities are now making many of their lectures available in video for free download. You can also search Google Videos, YouTube, and other websites which specialize in videos for short documentaries, educational films, historical clips, new music, and more. If you want short or independent films, go to the Internet Film Community or Atom Films, which generally have good selections.
   
8. Try films in other languages. If some of those indie films also happen to be foreign films, you can learn a foreign language. That website has a multitude of links to language communities, language resources, and more. Most of the links are to free to use websites. And if you are interested in the ancient languages, such as Greek or Latin, Text Kit is a very good website to use.
   
9. Explore new subjects. If you really want to "expand" yourself, try philosophy, religion, or metaphysics. Wanna learn about Buddhism? Go here. How about runes? There's also plenty of sites that teach Hinduism, Islam, or the life and teachings of Jesus.
   
10. Try email correspondence courses. You can also get plenty of courses sent through e-mail, such as About U. which covers subjects over religion, health, and history. Learn how to bake delicious treats and goodies in this course. All you have to do is open up your inbox.
    
11. Request free materials by mail. If in the end, you find that working on computers just doesn't do it for you, than maybe you just need to get some free materials sent to you. The National Institute of General Medical Sciences has a couple of seriously well made books offered for free. So does the National Institute of Mental Health. More medical related materials can be found at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Maybe you want a free human genome poster? Or perhaps you are more of a physics person? Search for even more free publications.
    

Tips

• Search for new things. You may never know what you can find.
  
• Go on online sites, like Wikipedia, and click on a random article. Read it, and follow links from that article to other articles. See what you can learn.
  
• Try to make a schedule, so you can keep the eye for school or work.
  

Warnings

• When downloading, be careful to make sure you are not downloading copyrighted material. Especially from P2P networks, as they contain a full load of viruses, malware, et cetera.
  
• When embarking on a new learning experience from websites, et cetera, make sure that other people agree with the information they are teaching you. You could be learning gibberish instead of Hebrew.
  

Related wikiHows

• How to Be Knowledgeable
  
• How to Be Intelligent
  

Sources and Citations

• Hoagies' Free High School Courses
  
• Self Made Scholar
  

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