Knowledge: Is it the key or the lock?

I like to learn new things.  How to do things.  How to say things.  How things work.  How to work things.

The more I learn the more I learn that I need to learn more.

What I like to learn and what I need to learn changes from year to year.   When I'm lucky, the need and want are the same things.

"What brought this up?" you may well ask and I'm glad you did because it leads into the purpose of the post: I discovered some learning websites to explore and share with you. 

Self Made Scholar, your gateway to Free Online Education.  Jamie's site is an excellent resource for life-long learners.  Read the articles and explore Free Classes, Free Libraries, and Self Education Resources.  You're bound to learn something.

You know one of my favorite words is Free, but I'm not opposed to paying for learning opportunities.

1. Educators deserve to make money. 
2. Traditional on-site courses with instructor and peer interactions offer more than just "book learning".   

The second blog to learn more about is eduFire.   Their courses aren't free, but they range from relatively inexpensive to pretty darn cheap.  The eduFire site is less than 2 years old and I don't know much about it, but here's what I've learned from what I've read today.

• Their goal is to revolutionize education.
• Courses are "live" with real instructors.
• Instructors offer the classes they want to teach and set their own tutition (I saw classes from $5 - $50 a session).
• Some courses are one-on-one.
• There's an on-line forum to allow tutors and students to communicate with each other.
• They're having some growing pains, but appear to be working them out.

When's the last time you got something free from the government?  Free (Federal Resources for Educational Excellence) is a resource site for "federally supported teaching and learning resources" for grades K through 12.   There are a bunch of learning opportunities here.

Knowledge: Is it the key or the lock?  You tell me.