Free online stuff to do during social distancing
1. Online volunteering
Help catalogue The British Library
Become a volunteer transcriber for the Smithsonian
Become a volunteer citizen scientist (online) for NASA
Use your specialism to help the United Nations (many online opportunities for wide-ranging talents, eg. teaching English, mapping rural communities to help prevent FGM, translation services, website design/maintenance, help find soccer ball donors, writing or proofreading university level courses)
Record an open access audiobook
Help to map Mars with NASA
Play games that upload metadata for the world’s museums
Be a sighted volunteer to help blind/low vision people with the Be My Eyes app
Document the history of your community by uploading photos to the History Pin website
Help first responders to reach future disasters faster by mapping remote locations: Missing Maps
Join the Write On campaign and write letters to those in need
Join Zooniverse, the hub for volunteer online researchers
2. Opera
The New York Met is streaming a free opera every night (go to https://www.metopera.org/ each night to watch, click here for more details).
3. Openculture.com
OpenCulture is probably the biggest online repository of free courses on the web. It can be overwhelming so here are a few suggestions (don’t forget to scroll over the first few ads to get to the content):
Join A Year With My Camera
If you simply want to learn to use your camera look no further than Emma’s online beginner’s workshop. It’s free by email. You’ll be off auto in 6 weeks once and for all and spend the rest of the year having fun with your camera. Join here and get started today:
4. iTunes U
Apple users, explore the free courses in your ITunes U app (including many Open University courses).
5. Open access images
Browse and use free-to-use images in your own design projects (read terms of use individually):
The Smithsonian (3 million images)
Creative Commons (1.2 billion images)
6. Fascinating sites
NASA: browse images and footage from space
TED Talks: click here to see all the photography talks
A complete history of photography in one podcast
Learn creative writing at The Write Life
Make your handwriting into a font at Calligraphr.com
More online university courses: EdX.com
Finally learn Lightroom with the Adobe.com official YouTube channel
We won’t have to stay indoors forever. Plan your next trip with RoadTrippers.com
Test yourself on anything: Sporcle.com
7. Podcasts
The Doctor’s Kitchen: nutritional medicine, advice for staying well
Dr Chatterjee: lifestyle and wellbeing
CreativeLive: creative inspiration
Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History
Viv Groskop’s How To Own The Room (Series 1 Mary Beard’s episode is my favourte)
8. Creative Live app
Although you have to pay for most Creative Live lessons you can watch one lesson for free every day via the app (iOS only). If you are disciplined to watch one daily you can work your way through their great courses for no charge.
9. Virtual tours
Do an online search for most major museums and galleries; they will probably have a virtual tour.
A Year With My Camera
Read more about A Year With My Camera: What exactly is A Year With My Camera?
The email course is free. The books are available to buy on Amazon (with 381 five-star ratings).
The course has 100+ five-star ratings over on Facebook.
You might also enjoy:
How to get out of a photography rut
3 mindful photography projects
Header image: NASA