Apps That Keep You Learning on the Go
Traditionally, learning and studying have a designated time and location. You can study in a library, a study room, or anywhere in which a table and a chair are accessible. You have a book flipped open in front of you and a pen or pencil handy nearby to take notes.
Days of studying tied down to a specific location and time is of the past. Learning is evolving more than ever with the rise of technology. Not only are we learning in ways we never imagined before, but we are also learning in places and times that are normally not acceptable. Smartphones presented us with more accessibility and apps, and thus, with more opportunity.
You will have it all with the comprehensive of on-the-go learning apps curated for you:
Inspirational Learning: Audio/Video Curator
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Podcast (Best Apps to Play Podcasts)
Have an interest in cooking, art, design, technology, business, and entrepreneurship? The Podcast app satisfies all your interests by allowing you to listen to multiple channels or podcasts on topics of your interest, organize your favorite ones in custom stations and, use On-The-Go playlist to play just the episodes you want. This is ideal for long road-trips and commutes. I would recommend these Podcast Players over the Podcast App from Apple. Here is a Long List Of Best Podcasts You Need To Start Listening To Right Now.
Compared to a series of audio talks from one content generator in Podcast, TED is really focused on taking groundbreaking ideas from different influencers and delivering them in the form of videos. It is not as on-the-go friendly as Podcast in terms of location, because you cannot drive and watch a TED talk simultaneously. On the other hand, TED is really good about saving you time. Each talk is structured and timed so that the content is condensed but rich that 7 minutes could inspire you as much as an hour of Podcast would. Due to the diverse topics and ideas TED talks covers, the discoverability and organization is not very ideal on an app. Regardless, the numerous spontaneous inspiration you receive from TED is invaluable.
Inspirational Learning: Written Content Curator
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Medium-Social Journalism
Medium is a blog hub that delivers local, relevant and interest-based blog posts from writers like you and me as well as professional leaders from diverse fields and industries. You can subscribe to keywords or interests in order to filter and browse the content you covet to read. Each article shows estimated read time to help you decide when and what to read. You can also make annotations and interact with other reader’s annotations directly on the article to be saved for future reference. If you connect with your facebook, you will see what your friends have recommended on your newsfeed and share your favorite article to your facebook wall.
Compared to Medium, Flipboard collects content and deliver them in a manual way instead of an automatic algorithm calculated from reader recommendations. Most articles you will find are published on other websites where as on Medium, writers can publish their work within Medium.com. Discoverability of articles is both based on your topic of interest as well as content curators at Flipboard. The content is organized in a magazine style format. And as the name suggests, users “flip” through the pages to read the content.
iBooks, like any other e-reader app, is a timeless written content hub. Reading virtual books is the best way to learn while saving time and space. Compared to Flipboard and Medium, iBooks aligns more with traditional way of learning-studying about one subject through lengthy reads. While articles are quick-to-read and require minimum commitment, books are the product of author’s research, knowledge, observation, and experience combined to deliver an in-depth understanding of the subject, and should still serve as a great learning hub. Now that it can be accessed as easy as pulling out your phone, soak in the information when you have 30 minute breaks.
University Education
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ITunes U
ITunes U is Apple’s pioneer product in EdTech, featuring educational audio and video files directly filmed and recorded from popular universities around the world, museums, and public media organizations. Although not as organized as the other MOOCs, it is still considered resourceful if you just have some time to spare for quality lectures.
Coursera is very similar to ITunes in what it hopes to serve, a publicly accessible database of educational videos organized by courses and subjects from different universities and colleges all for free. The range of topics Coursera covers is more updated, offering traditional (Arts, Science, Business, Computer Science) and nontraditional courses (Design Thinking, Disruptive Technologies, etc).
Udemy delivers packaged courses designed by experts and specialists in the field, priced for free or for a tuition fee. User’s ratings and reviews, coursework supports and interactive question and answer forum boards create an intimate and engaging educational platform for like-minded students. In addition, Udemy offers lessons to help users develop a course, market it, and earn money from tuition fees.
Lynda has been in the edtech business since 1995, offering online education in multimedia courses in software, creativity and business skills. With a subscription fee, members have access to all courses.
Treehouse specializes in education on the web, mobile, and business development; the hot and lucrative trio. A $200 subscription fee permits you to access all the educational tracks you can take for a year.
Language Learning
Duolingo is both a web-app and a mobile-app that uses mini exercises to help students learn a new language with minimum time commitment. A daily 5-minutes of training on the app will quickly help you grasp reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills in whatever language you’d like. However, it currently only offers European languages.
If you would like to start learning or brush up on Asian languages, Memrise is the place to go. Memrise exercises use psychology of memory and learning to design activities that naturally reinforce learning outcomes. It not only offers language learning, but also other academic and non academic subjects.
Brain Training
Lumosity is a brain training game mobile app that is based on neuroscience research to help users target different areas of the brain, such as memory, attention, flexibility, speed of processing, and problem solving. The app keeps your game score and converts it to a rating on your brain, called LPI. By paying 10 or so bucks a month, you get to see how you fare in the brain game amongst users of your profile.
Happify is a web and mobile app developed by scientists and game designers to create a platform to enhance happiness in a practical way. There are tracks users can follow for solving emotional problems and to lean towards happiness. Based on games, Happify is like Lumosity, but targeting emotional well being instead.
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Any Games App!
If you choose to spend your on-the-go hours playing video games, don’t feel like you are missing out on learning or brain training. In fact, that is a fantastic way to stimulate all facets of your brain.
With these, you will have no excuse not to stay sharp, inspired, and educated wherever you are.