Written by:

Holly Macdonald

Date:

January 5, 2010

I took some time out over the holidays and getting back into the swing of things has been a bit creaky.  I think I was more excited to get the kids back to school than I was to sit down at my computer and blog.  But that is a post for another day (and another blog).  Today, when I thought I would like to post something, I checked Stephen Downes’ OLDaily for inspiration.  This guy was even posting on Christmas Day!  That’s dedicated.  I love his daily digest, which is full of great stuff and his editorials are always a value-add.  Lo and behold today he pointed to an article about free e-learning, some of which are things I’ve heard about (and spoke about), but others are new to me.  Open Culture, Wonder How To, the TED-like Forum National Network,  LibriVox a cool web service to listen to audiobooks (or volunteer to read audio-books) that are in the public domain.

The best part is that it originated in an AARP bulletin.  If you don’t know, the AARP is the American Assocation of Retired Persons.  How great is that ?  Retiring doesn’t mean that you have to spend all day in the garden or on the golf course, but you can continue to learn in your “third age”.  Perhaps we should all pay attention, I heard on the news last night, that cases of dementia and alzheimers will skyrocket in Canada in the next 20 years and we should be focusing on prevention practices and research.  Keeping your mind agile and active is one of the most cited practices for delaying both dementia and alzheimers.

Learning is important for your health.