When I think of internet education, I think of the fundamentals of working online, using the internet commercially, or simply getting the most our of it for day-to-day living, such as saving money on utility bills and banking, finding cheaper flights, or giving money to charity every time you shop at Amazon.
I think of subjects that span elements of media studies, computer science and business fundamentals, all taught in plain English.
For example:
- Understanding social media
- The basics of domains, websites and hosting
- The basics of SEO
- Internet marketing
- Why Google does what it does and how it makes its money
- Different business models online
The list of qualifying subjects is probably endless and knowledge of them would serve both children and adults as the opportunities to freelance improve and the economy shifts to rely more heavily on technology.
And today I came across something that looked a bit advanced for me. It looked like A level stuff rather than GCSE. It made me think that to acquire really deep knowledge, you’ve really got to want it.
Here’s what I’m talking about:
It was a blog post by Brian Dean, an SEO expert I respect, explaining the results of analysing five million desktop and mobile webpages to learn which factors impact page speed – ie, how long it takes a webpage to load, which is one of Google’s 200 ranking factors.
This post talked about TTFB (time to first byte) and CDNs (content delivery networks). I’d never heard of this stuff before.
So it made me realise: like every other academic subject, you can go deep. Really deep. Where you’ll find only the real experts and keenest students.
If you’re interested in Brian’s post, it’s here.
>>>Playlist<<<