Tag: Smithsonian

Learn almost anything for free and keep your brain healthy

Learn almost anything for free and keep your brain healthy

Numerous studies show that learning new things at any age helps keep the brain active and building new pathways in a process called brain plasticity. As a child we are constantly learning but once we finish school, opportunities for learning must be sought out. Studies also show that learning something you are interested in provides better results than forcing yourself to learn a new skill for the sake of it.

So where can adults find top-flight classes on a variety of topics and for free? Check out ClassCentral.com Class Central is a search engine and review site for over 50,000 top quality free online courses. The courses are from nearly 1000 top universities including MIT, Duke, Harvard. Over 50 providers such as Coursera, LinkedIn, edX, Udemy, and Skillshare, and more and 600 institutions including Google, Amazon, Smithsonian, IBM, United Nations, British council, Microsoft, and many more also offer courses.

These online courses are known as MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses). They cover almost every imaginable subject from art, food, culture, nature, learning skills, medicine, science, technology, investing, and too many more topics to mention. Many courses also offer certificates or badges to boost your resume. The Rankings section provides lists of the best of the best courses.

Be an armchair traveler

Be an armchair traveler

The Louvre, Paris

Paul Dufour

Now you can choose your comfiest chair and tour great museums of the world without TSA checkpoints, flight delays, crowds, and the other “joys” of modern travel.

Several of the world’s best museums are available to visit online with virtual tours – including the Louvre in Paris, University of Chicago’s Oriental Institute Museum, and the Smithsonian  National Museum of Natural History and many more. Click on the linked names in this article to begin your visit today.