So I was watching videos on the internet. As many will doubtless have seen then the current fad for advertising is not subscription food, shaving supplies nor random toy boxes but learning services.
Learning online is nothing new -- universities have been putting full lectures and courses online for well over a decade at this point, some even offering certificates if you are that way inclined, and the concept goes back... arguably to its earliest days. However I have not really investigated these paid options.
This is mainly as I have plenty of books here, the collection always growing, and what exists online for free does plenty well for what I want. However one of the big claims other than some kind of quality that seriously exceeds what is available for free (something I am dubious of but will let slide for now) is it being bound up in some kind of reinforcing testing environment. Now it is not hard to find me being critical of schools (if you want 1800s military officers or obedient semi skilled factory drones then schools have you covered, neither of those are particular useful nor all that desirable in the modern world though) but the thing with self learning is you are not bound to such concepts and can do your own thing.
Self learning then. I dislike talking about myself, talking myself up even more or but whether through my biology or my history (nature and nurture if you prefer that approach) I do better at this learning lark than a lot of people seem to be able to manage, and similarly don't lack desire. Or if you prefer then for all which I have done in these circles I have little to no formal computer education -- I can look back at university notes and see that a first year computer class covered loops and functions (and if I am ever in court on the matter I plan to point at said same) but those that left that class would not be expected to understand it the same way the computer science course peeps would have (the exams were mostly on excel, a tiny bit of formatting in word, and the joy of all joys that is matlab and the closest that course, or any, came to programming but exam wise was just a fancier way to do graphs and prep you for matrix maths). Back to limitations of schools then some also have a phrase along the lines of "some practice until they get it right, others practice until they can't fail" and while that is a bit dull for me if I am learning something I will usually pull at it, and play with it, until I understand how it works and why it works the way it does, something the seems functionally similar to the latter or at least echoes some of their approaches. To that end I might want to recognise that such things could be not that suited, or necessary, for me -- I have seen and taught people that would never get anything done on their own time but get them into some kind of commitment and they come away with good stuff from it all.
The sums these services seem to want to charge is something I would not care to lose but at the same time if I could learn more then I am OK with that too. I have never tried them though so thought I would ask for the thoughts of others on such platforms.
Learning online is nothing new -- universities have been putting full lectures and courses online for well over a decade at this point, some even offering certificates if you are that way inclined, and the concept goes back... arguably to its earliest days. However I have not really investigated these paid options.
This is mainly as I have plenty of books here, the collection always growing, and what exists online for free does plenty well for what I want. However one of the big claims other than some kind of quality that seriously exceeds what is available for free (something I am dubious of but will let slide for now) is it being bound up in some kind of reinforcing testing environment. Now it is not hard to find me being critical of schools (if you want 1800s military officers or obedient semi skilled factory drones then schools have you covered, neither of those are particular useful nor all that desirable in the modern world though) but the thing with self learning is you are not bound to such concepts and can do your own thing.
Self learning then. I dislike talking about myself, talking myself up even more or but whether through my biology or my history (nature and nurture if you prefer that approach) I do better at this learning lark than a lot of people seem to be able to manage, and similarly don't lack desire. Or if you prefer then for all which I have done in these circles I have little to no formal computer education -- I can look back at university notes and see that a first year computer class covered loops and functions (and if I am ever in court on the matter I plan to point at said same) but those that left that class would not be expected to understand it the same way the computer science course peeps would have (the exams were mostly on excel, a tiny bit of formatting in word, and the joy of all joys that is matlab and the closest that course, or any, came to programming but exam wise was just a fancier way to do graphs and prep you for matrix maths). Back to limitations of schools then some also have a phrase along the lines of "some practice until they get it right, others practice until they can't fail" and while that is a bit dull for me if I am learning something I will usually pull at it, and play with it, until I understand how it works and why it works the way it does, something the seems functionally similar to the latter or at least echoes some of their approaches. To that end I might want to recognise that such things could be not that suited, or necessary, for me -- I have seen and taught people that would never get anything done on their own time but get them into some kind of commitment and they come away with good stuff from it all.
The sums these services seem to want to charge is something I would not care to lose but at the same time if I could learn more then I am OK with that too. I have never tried them though so thought I would ask for the thoughts of others on such platforms.
