5 Ways to Boost Your Tech-Smarts This Summer
Have plans for the summer? Why not spend some of your time picking up some new skills that could make your personal and work life a little easier? Check out these five suggestions for ways to boost your tech-smarts this summer.
1. Picmonkey - You don't always have to rely on your graphic designer.
Need to quickly re-size a photo, blur part of an image, make a textured background, or clone a third eye on to someone's pic? Or need to make a beautiful collage?
No need to send an assignment to a graphic designer... or to fire up Photoshop; you can do it yourself! Try it out... It will be well worth your time, & it's loads of fun
2. Udacity - High-quality free online-courses could get you back in the learning game.
Been a while since college? Want to learn something new? Check out Udacity for some free high quality education. Learn how to build a web-app, or get introduced to statistics or computer science. The clasess come with videos, excersizes and even certification of completion (if you're into that sort of thing).
It's pretty amazing that stuff like this is free, but quit your ooh-ing and aw-ing, and get to studying!
3. Google Sites - Creating a simple website is now something everyone can do.
Need to create a simple website, or do you need to make a wire-frame for a more complex idea for a website (so you can communicate it to a web developer)? Or do you need to create a simple intranet or standard operations manual?
I can't reccomend Google Sites Enough. Think Google Docs Meets Dreamweaver. Check out this video for a 1 minute overview.
4. Quora - There's no point in knowing everything when you can always just ask!
Have a question that has you stumped, and searching the web just isn't helping? Or maybe you just need an answer with a human touch?
Try posting a question on Quora, and watch the answers roll in. Services like these make us smarter and faster when it comes to information, something that can never be over-valued.
5. Crowdopolis (July 19th Los Angeles) - Learn how to integrate crowdsourcing into your business.
Don't get behind the times. Do you remember when outsourcing became the next big thing? Well, that was nothing.
Crowdsourcing will transform your businesses from the bottom up, so come learn from fortune 1000 companies like GE, Noki, and Kimberly-Clark how they got on the train early, saved money, got higher quality results and spurred more innovation than ever before.
Have any more tips? Let us know in the comments below. It's going to be a great summer for staying sharp!