Day Seventeen

Are we nearly there yet?

Yesterday, I used the last of the wool with which I knit hats, scarves, slippers and bags. These are donated to a local food bank or sometimes to the Hospice Shop. 

So now, with nothing to do with my hands, I feel useless and irritated with myself.

This is the first day since Lockdown began that I’ve felt totally unmotivated and dull. 

I didn’t shower and dress until after my 10 am breakfast and then, with little impetus to do much else, decided to ring a friend.

During the course of our conversation she asked, 'Do you still take those online courses?'

And there was my answer!  

A few years ago I discovered MOOC - Massive Open Online Courses. 

These are run by universities around the world who offer a whole range of subjects including health, literature, forensics, history, creative arts, law and much, much more.  Best of all, they are completely FREE.

.

The courses are 3- 6 weeks long and allow you to dip in and out whenever you have the time.  You are in total charge and no one minds if you miss a day or 4.  

In addition to information and videos provided by experts, there are comments from other learners, which gives a pleasant and often stimulating interactive discussion.

So  I’m about to sign up again, this time to Artificial Intelligence, a subject which fascinates me as I use AI at home but know little about how it works.

After that I may take The History of Fairy Tales or Forensic Facial recognition or The World of Spies - keeping your secrets safe.  

https://www.futurelearn.com/courses 

 Our physical exercise may be severely restricted but we are still able to keep our brains active.    The world is still our oyster when it comes to learning.

You can also learn a great deal from the hundreds of podcasts online. I'm currently listening to CrowdScience from the BBC.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p04d42rc/episodes/downloads


 But the BBC also has podcasts and feeds on pretty much every subject too.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds

Learning online is the one thing Covid-19 has not restricted.

Well, perhaps not the one thing…….