One New Thing A Day: Best Educational Resources

A common New Years Resolution I hear from people is that they want to learn one new thing a day. This used to be a little more difficult, though not impossible. Now, it is easy for anyone to do, and a practice I recommend everyone take part in. Enriching your education on any level and learning at any age is one of the joys of living. The internet gives us every opportunity to do so.

Here are some great educational resources you can use to learn something new every day of the week.

/r/LifeProTips

Want practical advice for your life? This subreddit is dedicated to tips for making your day to day easier, all by teaching you a more efficient way of doing things. For example, you can learn how to interview well, or how to convert a cheap pen into something more expensive looking. Some other tips include cooking white rice with a single spice so you can get used to the different flavors, keeping coffee hotter for longer, and naturally relieving motion sickness.

/r/TodayILearned

Another fantastic subreddit, this one allows people to share things they learned that day. These tidbits come from all genres and all over the web, though Wikipedia is a popular source. They have some fascinating facts posted, like that in 1963, a psychiatrist funded by the CIA used electric shock therapy over several months to erase a woman’s mind entirely, or that Beanie Babies were used as a legitimate investment, and a book predicting their value in 2008 stated that some would be worth thousands.

HowStuffWorks

Check out the many top ten lists on interesting topics, read articles that break down how various things in the world work, learn about the arts, see the latest tech releases and a lot more. Some great affiliated shows hosted on YouTube are linked here, as well. Such as Stuff Mom Never Told You and Stuff You Missed In History Class.

Khan University

This is one of the most extensive open source education website son the web, comparable to Wikipedia in size. But unlike Wikipedia, which is an encyclopedia of information, this is an actual site dedicated to teaching. Get interactive lessons on math, science, computer science, humanities and more. They also have free test prep for various American public school tests like the SAT. Most of the lessons are offered in video form, with hundreds available.

Learn Something Every Day

Want your daily learning to be in more digestible, bite sized pieces? This is a great website that has a small drawing with a single fact for every day. They are listed in the archives, and you can even get a book version, or shirts with your favorite facts. Did you know pigeons can’t fart? That it is illegal to name a pig Napoleon in France? That women have a faster heart beat than men? I didn’t until I found this site.

Zidbits

A site with totally random information on every topic imaginable, this is a fun site that isn’t updated much anymore. But they have several years worth of content for you to check out, all interesting and well written, and a great way to learn things you never thought to ask about. From the use of swearing to reduce pain, to the reason people in Asia so often where surgical masks in public, you can find out about anything here.

Monkey See

One of the largest how-to video sites on the web, this is purely instructional in nature. People post videos in various categories, such as beauty, hobbies and crafts, home and garden, local, education, careers, ect. Each one shows you how to do something, so you can follow along and learn yourself. Super useful, and better than YouTube since it is more specific to education.

Instructables

Learn how to make just about anything with this DIY tutorial site. Put in what you want to make, it will take you to the results, and you can go from there. Some fantastic upcycling projects are listed here if you are into that. You can learn to make something once a day, or get ideas for future projects.

Now I Know

You can find daily facts right in your inbox with this free news letter. Get tidbits of info like the fact that Abraham Lincoln created the secret service the day he was shot and that carrots were once purple.

Memrise

This is a fun way to learn something new, such as a language or something about culture and art. Most courses are around 5 – 6 hours long, but some are much shorter and some much longer. You can easily fit one of these in your day, such as the half hour courses about random topics like figures in Chinese history, or beginning phrases in Italian.

Have a site that is good for learning something new every day? Let us know in the comments.

Image Credit: 1.