I am taking a course on Introduction to Psychology by Paul Bloom from Yale University; from the comfort of my home at one in the morning without paying a penny for any of it.
Yeah, its the Yale Open University.
Technology has made reading books easy. So, easy that you don’t even need to look at them. I mean, the audio books. Get an IPod, search for audio books on iTunes, load them into your ipod. Simple as that.
My initiation into audio books came about when I was looking at profiles of people who have done MBA from the best b-schools in the world. Micheal Rogero, alumnus of Insead, traveled across India , Nepal and Bangladesh on a classic Royal Enfield. His website, www.onwalkabout.com, gives a great account of this 15,000 km travel across the sub-continent. One of the interesting section of his travel tells about how he used audio books when he traveled on this Enfield
So, I use audio books when I am driving. I use audio books when I am exercising. And some times, just sitting with a book in hand and have the audio book on. It kind of takes me back to the days when grandfather used to read books to us and we used to peer into the book as well.
So, what are the kind of audio books available? Any and every book has been converted into audio books. I have audio books on philosophy, psychology, all sorts of non-fiction.
Lastly, a word on Yale Open University’s initiative to publish their courses online. I truly appreciate the initiative. It is great learning experience. With such great personalities and experts in their respective field sharing their knowledge & experience, the learning experience is out matched!
