Fancy jazzing up your summer with a bit of creativity? You are in the right place! This is only an iota of the real thing, but these 10 websites are my favourite that allow me to pursue my creative endeavors.
How many times have you thought of doing something constructive in the summer but have worried about the effort and cost it might need? Well, here is a list of websites that offer you activites and courses to do in your own time, in the luxury of your own house (or garden – it is the summer after all!) with your own effort and COMPLETELY free!
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www.word2word.com/coursead.html
This site has a massive list of languages that you can learn in your own space and time. It looks a tad tacky but what is great about this site is that it holds links to plenty of other sites that teach you the languages, so if one fails, plenty still remain for you to try out. Of course, don’t expect it to be really professional but starting to learn a language can open many doors.
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www.byki.com
Again to learn languages, this site is really helpful but not very detailed so starting with this site and then using Word2Word might be a good idea. All you do is download software that has lessons of your chosen language and away you go, learning the language you want.
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www.emailcollege.co.uk
This site has a wide range of courses – right from business to creativity and ideas ready for you to explore. Once you sign up for one of these courses, the site sends you one lesson of the chosen course everyday to your email until the course is over. This is a really easy way to learn the basics of business or health or maybe even creative writing. Emailcollege indeed is an anywhere and anytime courses site.
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www.typeonline.co.uk
Ever worried that in today’s hi-tech world of computers and laptops your typing skills need a lot more work? Maybe this site can help you gain speed and once you are back at work or school, your typing can be admired by your friends, classmates or colleagues.
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www.doodlekit.com
Doodlekit is a website creator and yes, it is basic and I’m pretty sure that you could possibly find many other website creators on the internet but this is a pretty decent site. I haven’t experimented it myself, but after looking through it, it does seem of a fine calibre, but don’t expect your site to look uber-professional because to get a few extra features, a payment is required every month. But instead of using Blogger or Tumblr, Doodlekit, even though it’s basic, can unleash the creative beast within you.
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http://www.aniboom.com/ShapeshifterAnimachine.aspx
This free online animation creator is extremely basic using just simple shapes and colours with no extra movements but it is equally fun as well. This piece of work comes from www.aniboom.com which does have a lot of competitions so if you can crack the code to be an animator – go wild! Creating one animation is very pain staking and needs a lot of skill with an eye for shape and colour but making a good animation on this site isn’t impossible. There are a few examples that do show a lot of flair but if you are bored looking to do something fun, Aniboom is the way to go.
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www.jamglue.com
What I love about this site is that its an online music mixer. And better still, many other people can upload their music mixes that can be enjoyed too. This site really gives a lot of scope to get creative with the music you love – especially, if you are an aspiring musician and have created and recorded your own tracks.
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www.jamstudio.com
Jamstudio is slightly less useful than Jamglue because here, your tracks can’t be downloaded and neither can you mix any tracks but what makes Jamstudio so special is that you get to create your own little music tracks. It’s only for a bit of fun because all of the tracks you create stay under your username. This site does have a Jamrecorder that is free to start with (it mixes tracks and all that stuff) but later on you do have to pay for it.
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www.mobile9.com
You can’t really create much with this site, but this little gem is definitely worth having. Mobile9 has free downloadable software for your phone that can really jazz it up. It has everything, right from wallpapers to ringtones to themes to games to apps (like translators and dictionaries etc). This site can really oomph your phone!
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www.catchyoutube.com
Again, you can’t create loads with this site, but this is a very important piece of work to have. Catchyoutube uses a converter where all you have to do is copy the URL of the YouTube video you fancy and select whether you want to download the video, or just the audio or both. You can download tracks of your favourite newest tracks. I’m not going to guarantee that downloading music this was is perfectly legal but it does turn out to be pretty handy sometimes. This is only the tip of the iceberg because there are many other sites that do the same thing, but this site has had a good success rate for me!
But lastly, (this is what I used to write this article) if you fancy earning yourself a bit of money this summer, www.triond.com allows you to type up articles which it hosts on different sites and depending on how many people visit your article, you can make money. So hope you liked this fantabulous collection of 10 very creative, techy sites and hope they keep your summer interesting and imaginative.
Happy summer!
July 7th, 2009 at 5:21 am
This is very valuable information we can all learn from. Well done.