Top Websites for Learning on the Go

In the modern setting, it can be very difficult to find time to sit down and learn something new. Whether this is because you're already spending six hours a day at school and find you can't bear to look a textbook in the eyes after the torture of it all, or because you have work commitments and responsibilities (shudder) it certainly isn't easy.

However, thanks to the growth of the internet, there are innumerable websites designed to make the learning process easier, more convenient, and generally more intuitive. Below are some of the websites that I have had the pleasure to use over the course of my education, and would highly recommend, along with some that have piqued my interest that I'll be keeping an eye on. Maybe you'd like to try some of them too!



FOR STUDENTS


Sparknotes

 If you are an English lit student, you've most certainly used Sparknotes in the past in order to look up book summaries for works you are studying. If you are a parent of teens, then it is highly likely your child has leaned on this website throughout their secondary school education, whether they've mentioned it or not. This recommendation is less so about the content of the site itself, but rather a suggestion as to how it might be used optimally. Although incredibly useful for cramming information on a text, Sparknotes SHOULD NOT be used in place of reading said text. Instead, my recommendation is that this website be used to get a general feel for a book by reading the detailed summaries available on the website-split up by chapters, characters, or themes etc- to then advance later with your own reading. When used in this way, it is a must for the English student who needs to get their head around some reading quickly, and it has helped me no end over the past seven years.

StudyBlue

Are you the type of person who finds they simply cannot learn something just by reading it? Information just seems to fly over your head? Then it might be that the 'visual' style of learning isn't for you. Instead, creating flashcards might be a better way of helping your brain to process information by writing and reviewing information in your own words, increasing the amount you can store in both your short term, and long term memory, through the kinesthetic learning style. However, it is not always practical to carry around decks full of paper cards, and this is where StudyBlue comes in handy. StudyBlue is a website that allows you to create fully functional, digital flashcards that you can type up and access either from your PC or using the StudyBlue app, meaning you can create and test yourself on the go. Very handy indeed. This website was particularly useful for memorising dates of events for my GCSE and A-level History course, and with it, I achieved A* grades at both levels. Give it a go, and see whether it helps you to learn and memorise things more easily!

YouTube

No, I'm not joking. Yes, YouTube can most certainly be a distraction when you're trying to revise, but if used wisely, and not simply as an excuse to procrastinate, it can be very handy for listening to information you might find difficult to digest by reading. When revising for my Classical Studies exams, I watched all of the videos possible on Tom McKenzie's Classics channel, and it provided insights from Professor level studies that I was able to apply in fluent terms to my own essays. YouTube was also a great help to me when I was too tired to be reading or writing- both of which are very important practicing tools, and not to be neglected- but wanted to still get a little bit more revision done. Don't waste your time with nonsense videos, or parodies, or pastiche, or your favourite YouTube stars, or whatever. There is so much information uploaded in video format to YouTube each day, and it would be a shame if it went to waste.

GetRevising

GetRevising is another website that helped me to not only pass my History GCSE's and A Levels, but also to get a top grade. GetRevising is aptly named, as it is a great place to refresh your memory on a topic covered in school (search for the topic using the search bar, it will probably be there, there's a large community!) or to start early, and use the notes, quizzes and forums available on the website to supplement your learning as you go along with your course at school. I used this website for my Kaiser to Fuhrer module, and because of it I have the terrible Turnip Winter of 1916 implanted firmly in my brain (look it up). In all seriousness,  this website is great for concise snippets of information, dates, key terms, diagrams and other items to make your revising that little bit easier, in almost every subject you might need, due to the community based nature of the site. (I've also just discovered whilst writing the last sentence that the website caters for university students. Guess I might be revisiting it myself sometime soon!) 


FOR THE EVERYDAY LEARNER

Duolingo

I am sorry to say that although I know what a fantastic resource the Duolingo app is, I have a bit of an on-and-off relationship with it. I must stress, that is my own fault. Duolingo is a top class language learning, linguistic loving lark. It takes the process of learning phrases and grammar for pretty much any modern language you can think of - I have dabbled in German, Spanish, French and Italian over the years- and makes it into a very simple daily exercise. You can do as much, or as little as you would like each day, practicing your memory and application of phrases such as 'mi hermano bebo mucho' ('my brother drinks a lot', unless I have made some terrible error) and increasing the difficulty as your knowledge and success rates improve. Duo, the site's friendly owl mascot is on hand to teach you in a cheerful and pretty relaxed manner. You are rewarded for your discerning between a cow and a tin of soup, but failure will not be over-zealously punished, which is also a great feature I feel. The main incentive to keep going, besides the fact that you are trying to learn a new language (an admirable task) is that you receive a 'learning streak' which adds up for every day that you use Duolingo. Let me tell you, it is painful losing a streak after going for more than a month. It will happen, and that day will haunt you for some time to come. Unfortunately, I found that I had other commitments that often meant Duo slipped my mind, and when I began to miss more days than I had totting up, I packed it in completely. Maybe when I get around to a more balanced schedule, I will pick it up again; maybe I'll even try a completely new language. That's the beauty of Duolingo.

Khan Academy

Khan Academy is a website designed to help with learning subjects such as Maths, Sciences, Computing, Arts and Humanities and Economics. Whilst my experience with the website is limited- it has been revamped since the last time I used it- I am aware that it receives fairly frequent updates; I get the odd email every now and then alerting me to new additions and changes. When the user logs in (creating an account is free) they will see a large selection of topics, which when clicked on will expand to even greater subdivisions of learning, meaning you can focus on as little or as much of those 'Differential Equations' or 'Art History' as you like. Whilst I signed up for Khan Academy a long time ago, and still receive their emails, I finished my exams before I had started using it fully. I think that I will take another look at it now that it has been updated so much. I love the idea that you don't even have to be studying that subject in order to expand your knowledge; that's the beauty of free learning resources from websites such as these.

TED Talks

TED Talks are world-renowned for their inspirational, educational, and motivational messages in their videos. You can find a video on pretty much any topic under the sun, presented by professionals in their fields. A lot of the videos focus on science and business, however, topics listed on the website include technology, entertainment, design, business, science, and global issues. You will find that the videos you watch tend to include multi-discipline theory, by the nature of academic study. They are consistently fascinating videos. Furthermore, the 'TEDx' programme caters for an even wider variety of speakers; most anyone can give a presentation (vetted for quality, of course) at TEDx events, and so, as the website states, 'speakers cover topics from sanitation to technological wizardry to deep policy issues to, well, designing boots for beetles'.

WHERE TO FIND BOOKS

Project Gutenberg

I have already extolled the virtues of the Project Gutenberg Library in a past blog post, but humour me once more. Project Gutenberg is an online collection of e-books that are no longer in copyright and thus are completely free to download and read. The amount of books in this library is pretty incredible, and they span the whole spectrum of fiction and non-fiction. If you are looking to learn more about the 'Classics', you can't really do much better than reading the canon for yourself. You will find Austen, Dickens, Brontë, Keates, Shelley, Byron, Coleridge, Euripides, Catullus, etc., all of which can be enjoyed on a digital device. If you pair this service with, oh, I don't know, a Kindle (shameless plug), you can take the reading anywhere, just as you would with a paperback book.

LibriVox

Now this is an interesting one. I can't say that I have much experience with LibriVox. I've known about it for a while, but never have I gotten around to using it. Essentially, it's Project Gutenberg for audiobooks. Expanded by the work of volunteers (you are yourself free to contribute recordings of you reading the books), you can find free audiobooks to download here. I will definitely be giving this one a try; I assume copyright limitations still apply, so you won't find any of the marvelous Stephen Fry 'Harry Potter' audiobook series on there, but I'm sure that there is plenty to put on a music player, and to listen to in the car.

GOOGLE SEARCH TRICKS

Site: Edu

Ok, so these last ones are not websites, but instead are Google Search tricks to help you find the best results for learning and researching resources. I find that these simple addition to my searches are invaluable at Uni, and would have been of great help to me whilst I was doing my A-Levels also.

If you have something scholarly you wish to search out, and want specifically scholarly results- from educational sources-  make sure to put the phrase 'site:edu' at the start of your search. For example:

' site:edu Louis Althusser ideology and language'

Doing this filters your Google search to only show results from websites with the '.edu' domain, limiting your search to higher education institutions, research centres and school websites. It is to be hoped that resources on these sites will be of a higher calibre than those which fill the generic google search. It's not always the case, but this is a handy trick for finding essay writing material because quite often you will be directed towards peer-reviewed journals, university required reading and other verifiable materials.

Filetype:PDF

This trick can be combined with the site:edu one above in order to find copies of hard to get academic works, which are available online in PDF form, often on a university website. By adding 'filetype:pdf' to the end of your search term, you are telling Google that you want it to find you a PDF document. So, say I wanted to find a copy of... the Annals of Xanten, I could search for:

'annals of xanten filetype:pdf'. 

If I wanted to make sure that the search was drawing on academic sources, then I would write:

'site:edu annals of xanten filetype:pdf'

I should state that you should only download PDF copies of works that are no longer in copyright (which exists for seventy years after the death of the author), or works that the work holder has specific rights to disclose. You know the game by now.

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Well, that about wraps up my list for the time being. I might come back and add to it from time to time, or I might simply post updates in new blog posts, as and when I come across them. I hope that you might find at least some of these websites interesting and useful, and if you have any other suggestions for learning tools, be sure to pass them on!

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Websites in this post:

SparkNotes: http://www.sparknotes.com/
StudyBlue: https://www.studyblue.com/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com
GetRevising: https://getrevising.co.uk/
Duolingo: https://www.duolingo.com/
Khan Academy: https://www.khanacademy.org/welcome
TED Talks: https://www.ted.com/talks
TEDx: https://www.ted.com/about/programs-initiatives/tedx-program
Project Gutenberg: https://www.gutenberg.org/
LibriVox: https://librivox.org/

Radio!

I feel like I've been doing pretty well recently in my attempts to find suitable work experience for the future. I posted a blog update a little while ago relating how I had acquired an editorial position at a Lancaster based literary journal called Flash, and to add to that now, I can happily say that I will soon be venturing into the realms of radio!

I was sitting in the café of the Dukes Theatre in Lancaster, whilst John Gilmore of BBC Radio Lancashire was presenting his show there (which I believe he does every first Friday of the Month). We had a little chat after he had wrapped everything up, and we parted as the best of friends. Well, acquaintances. People who talked in a café once?

My dear reader, I'm afraid I've sold you a red herring. Whilst this did happen, and I've got some works details from John Gilmore, for when I decide to do some work experience at the Lancs station, I'm actually going to be contributing to Bailrigg FM, Lancaster University's radio station.

Now, I won't try and pretend that this is a massive step forwards; the radio, like the literary journal is a strongly Lancaster Uni based enterprise, rather than a BBC initiative or even an independent Lancashire radio station. But hey, I still had to get accepted into the team, and that feels like a small achievement.

As for what I will be doing with the radio team, my options are fairly open. The radio hosts a variety of programmes, ranging from political and cultural journalism, to dramatic pieces and desert island disk style music shows. I'm favouring the latter half of that spectrum; my taste in music is very varied, so I might be able to contribute to the music scene in a broad fashion, even if not in a very in-depth one.

The prospect that has piqued my interest the most was the offer I received to produce short episodes of radio drama. I say 'produce'- the role would entail more of an all-round involvement with the process; the programme requires researchers, writers, producers, actors, post-editors and publicity reps. I have the option to take up as many of those jobs as I see fit, so I can envisage myself finding an old short story, converting it into script form, and perhaps even taking one of the voice parts myself.

More than this, there is the possibility to write an entirely new piece of work, to be broadcast for the first time. This would require significantly more planning and writing, but the results would surely be even more rewarding. The thrill of having a work performed for the first time has been described as 'exhilarating' by many a stage and screen writer, and whilst I recognise playing something on the student radio can hardly compare, it would be great preparation and experience for the 'real deal' in the future.

I will have to fit my work at the radio around my other University study requirements, so can't give a definite start and end date. I'll begin looking at things in the new term; I have already roped in some friends to help with productions.

So, another string to the bow, hopefully. I guess the next thing to do is start a film or theatre company. Any takers?

M