Website Wednesday

Here I am in the winter months, careful to stay out of crowds and washing my hands whenever necessary. Yet, I, a top-notch poster for the Girl Scout motto of "Be Prepared", was felled by the norovirus.

You know that nasty virus which affects all those cruise ship people so they are really, really miserable after paying a good sum to live in a closet and eat very well.

Well, that's what we had. Seven people. One after another. This was probably the domino theory Johnson was talking about when he got us into the Vietnam War. One person would get better and the next person would get sick.

I fully understand now why, during the Black Death, houses were marked so the inhabitants could be quarantined.

However, we were not unique. In this age of e-mail, I soon discovered the entire community was affected with nasty bugs. We were dropping like flies.

So much for my "stay out of crowds" theory.

I'm not going to go medical for Website Wednesday, but start the New Year in the pursuit of knowledge and recommend these sites:

http://education-portal.com/articles/Universities_with_the_Best_Free_Online_Courses.html
from Education Portal

and

http://oyc.yale.edu/
from Yale University.

Both feature free online college courses and more, and some are quite good.

The first, from Educational Portal, has a mission statement of: “Your guide to undergraduate degrees, graduate degrees, career education and online degree programs. Your portal to degrees, schools, and careers” so it is not just a free course site. However, it bundles enough worldwide free courses and programs together to make it a worthwhile visit.

I first became interested in online college courses when MIT announced their plan to put courses online for free. I always had the impression that their professors were not totally on board with this concept since I was not impressed with those in my fields. To me, they had the feeling of the elite doling out riches to us, masses. That may have changed.

However, Yale has some excellent video courses. (I included them separately since I could not find them bundled with other universities.)

There’s a lot of look at here and a lot to learn. High school kids may be interested in the AP courses from UC Irvine. Carnegie Mellon offers science courses which need a sign-up. However, the “Look Inside” feature gives you access to much content of the courses without sign-up.

For book lovers, a link at Educational Portal takes you to 20 Places Where Bookworms Go to Read and Socialize Online ranging from Oprah’s Book Club to Reading Group Choices to Project Gutenberg. Some sites include forums.

So, it’s the New Year; Google weather says it “feels like 7 degrees” where I am. What better time to get cozy with your computer and explore world-wide higher learning.

Happy New Year.