When I left undergraduate school, I felt like I was done with school and education for a little while. I couldn't imagine cramming my brain with any more knowledge.
That feeling lasted for 2 about weeks.
I started missing the constant exposure to new ideas and skills, so I started seeking out free educational resources to unofficially continue my education. My favorite educational resources are as follows:
TED: Technology, Entertainment, Design ("TED is a nonprofit organization devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading ... bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design.")
TED's slogan is "Ideas worth spreading" and that couldn't be more true. TED talks, usually no more than 20 minutes, show you new technologies, human interest stories, and all around cool stuff. There are independently organized TED conferences that happen at universities and other organizations, usually centered around a theme. Examples of past independent events include TEDxWomen, TEDxGrand Valley (my school's theme was sustainability), and TEDxYouth. You can create playlists of talks, or TED will create a random playlist for you, to get the maximum exposure to ideas worth sharing.
Khan Academy is an amazingly vast free resource for all kinds of extended education. There are video series on topics from math and science, world history and art. There are excellent videos on finance and banking, and the current events that have tied into them as well (explanations of the housing crash, how the stock market works, etc). The best is that its aimed at all ages, so kids enjoy the design and adults get to experience getting gold stars again in the progress tracking.
Youtube
You can scoff, but Youtube is an excellent resource for education. Any company that wants to host training videos for free can do so, every amatuer hoobyist can reach out to other enthusiasts, tech savvy strangers can show you how to buid a web page. Youtube gives people that extra guidance they're looking for in do-it-yourself projects and through the linkages, more possibilities for insight and learning are possible.
