{"id":600015212,"date":"2024-04-10T02:00:12","date_gmt":"2024-04-10T07:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/correspondents\/2024\/04\/10\/exploring-online-learning-for-free"},"modified":"2024-04-10T02:00:12","modified_gmt":"2024-04-10T07:00:12","slug":"exploring-online-learning-for-free","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/correspondents\/2024\/04\/10\/exploring-online-learning-for-free","title":{"rendered":"Exploring online learning\u2026 for free"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I don&rsquo;t think I was ever a very good student during my formal education days. Memories of the long-ago years run through my mind if I think about enrolling in a class. I also have too many other uses for my money now.<\/p>\n<p>But I recently participated in a couple of free introductory online courses (often called challenges) that were a lot of fun and added a welcome dose of novelty during the seemingly endless drab winter days.<\/p>\n<p>I signed up for Ela Thier&rsquo;s annual SIx-day Film Directing Challenge on a whim and, remember&#8230; it was free. I didn&rsquo;t expect much but the Israeli filmmaker&rsquo;s warmth and passion for teaching film making won me over. I can really see why the online Independent Film School that she heads is so popular.<\/p>\n<figure class='wp-caption fl photo'>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2024\/04\/2205883_web1_Ela-Thier.jpeg?w=1000' data-pswp-srcset='https:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2024\/04\/2205883_web1_Ela-Thier.jpeg?w=320 320w, https:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2024\/04\/2205883_web1_Ela-Thier.jpeg?w=600 600w, https:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2024\/04\/2205883_web1_Ela-Thier.jpeg?w=1920 1920w' data-pswp-width='900' data-pswp-height='900'>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img src=\"https:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2024\/04\/2205883_web1_Ela-Thier.jpeg?w=1000\" alt=\"Supplied photo by Uri Thier\n                                Israeli filmmaker Ela Thier&rsquo;s free online film directing challenge brought welcome novelty to dreary winter days.\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='dynamic-caption'><p>Supplied photo by Uri Thier<\/p>\n                                <p>Israeli filmmaker Ela Thier&rsquo;s free online film directing challenge brought welcome novelty to dreary winter days.<\/p><\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n<p>After opening the email she sent out each day and watching all the video content, I would complete an assignment comprising a less than 10-second single-shot video that could be posted on the group&rsquo;s private page. Stuffed animals, plants and other inanimate objects featured prominently in many of our videos. Very few of the participants actually used real people as subjects.<\/p>\n<p>By the end of the week I had a satisfying, (though limited), knowledge of reveal shots and scene coverage. More importantly, I had a great time learning. Even though the pre-recorded content had gone out to thousands of us worldwide, it felt like it was written and recorded for me.<\/p>\n<p>This teaser for the pricey Film Directing Suite with the Independent Film School inspired me, brightened my days and there was no obligation to take the paid program. I am excited about the free screenwriting workshop offered later this year. I also love reading Thier&rsquo;s humorous and informative emails every week. Sometimes the little poems and stories she includes have been exactly what I have needed to hear.<\/p>\n<p>Nicholas Wilton&rsquo;s teaching during his annual Six-day Art of Your Life abstract painting class was much more unstructured but his boundless enthusiasm was endearing. He was having a great time painting and was urging us to do the same with quite a bit of colour theory to help us along. There was also the predictable push to enroll in his pricey three-month intensive course but I&rsquo;m really enjoying his free podcasts and YouTube videos as well as his weekly emails.<\/p>\n<p>Some great introductory classes taught by renowned instructors who post a lot of free content can be found online. And of course, if a class isn&rsquo;t for you, you can always turn off the computer.<\/p><div class=\"collageplus\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I don&rsquo;t think I was ever a very good student during my formal education days. Memories of the long-ago years run through my mind if I think about enrolling in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":600015213,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"_classifai_error":"","_classifai_text_to_speech_error":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,20],"tags":[],"education-subject":[],"media-literacy-topic":[],"post_topic":[],"content_type":[24],"class_list":["post-600015212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-correspondents","category-west"],"acf":{"short_title":"","seo_title":"","deck":"","story_tag":"","byline":"Anne 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