Mike's NBC-TV stories

Online training courses for everyone

Our tablets, smartphones and computers allow us to do all sorts of things, to communicate and be entertained, of course, but also, to learn. But an Internet connection is all you need to learn from the world’s top experts in just about any field.

I’ve always been interested in photography but never took any formal training in it. But then, I found Creative Live, which offers top notch and very in depth video seminars on all aspects of photography, software, web design and lots of other topics. The instructors are the best in the business. You can watch courses on your computer live for free, or pay a fee for on-demand access.

online-learningA similar service called Lynda.com also offers great live and on demand learning with more than 2,000 courses, offering lots of technology and graphic design tutorials and classes. To get these you need to purchase a membership, which starts at $25 a month.

Apple, of course, has its famed iTunes U. This is a free app for the iPhone or iPad and it offers complete courses from leading universities and other schools and what Apples boasts is the world’s largest digital catalog of free educational content. There are more than 500,000 free lectures, videos, books, and other resources on thousands of subjects.

One more online training company to consider: Coursera. They have hundreds of free courses ranging from computer science to economics. You can watch by computer or an Apple or Android app.

Mike is a veteran journalist whose video "PC Mike" reports have been distributed weekly to all 215 NBC-TV stations since 1994, making him one of the most experienced tech reporters in the country. His tech stories and videos have appeared on MSNBC, CNBC, the Today Show, The New York Times, USA Today and in numerous national newspapers and magazines. In addition to the PC Mike tech blog, he also publishes the Roadtreking.com RV Travel Blog in which he travels North America in an RV reporting about interesting people and places.