*Download the myZOL app on Google Play or App Store to find out where your nearest ZOLspot is located. You deserve free wifi*
Every day, at over 300 ZOLspots nationwide, an average of 15 00 users get to enjoy free wifi – for an hour.
For some it’s an opportunity to connect via Whatsapp, surf the net, update their apps and livestream music or download TV shows or other entertainment content.
Here is our list of at least 5 life-transforming things you could do with 1 hour of free ZOLspot wifi.
1. TAKE A FREE ONLINE COURSE
Ever heard of MOOCs? They are Massive Open Online Courses…. the digital manifestation of what Zimbabweans would call ‘long distance learning’ (which was sometimes viewed as unglamorous).
You may be familiar with institutions such as ZDECO (Zimbabwe Distance Education College), ZOU (Zimbabwe Open University) and UNISA (University of South Africa) which offer (or offered in the case of the defunct ZDECO) ‘long distance learning’.
Well, with an hour of free wifi at a ZOLspot you can take a free course online. The courses are internet-based, free of charge, have incredibly large numbers of students.
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They’re offered by universities (including Ivy League institutions), taught by esteemed faculty staff and freely available to anyone who’s interested.
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MOOCs are offered online throughout the year and many have fixed starting dates. Many online courses, take at least 6-10 weeks. You can devote 3-6 hours of your free ZOLspot access per week to complete a course.
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MOOCs use video lectures that are usually pre-recorded, although instructors interact with students in virtual forums, live chats and/or during virtual office hours; so you can get to a ZOLspot and download your video lectures for the week then learn at your own pace without stressing about how much data you are chowing watching videos online.
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Most MOOCs are assessed through peer-to-peer reviews and interactive class discussions; even through quizzes or hands-on projects – sometimes a final exam is given. You can spend your free ZOLspot hour interacting with your classmates (who by the way, are probably going to be from all over the world)
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Here are a few MOOC-providing sites Coursera, edX, Udacity, FutureLearn, NovoEd and Open2Study, to mention a few.
2. GAIN SELF-TAUGHT SKILLS THROUGH VIDEO TUTORIALS
If structured and semi-formal modes of learning are not your thing, then you can spend that one hour of free wifi watching ‘How To’ videos on YouTube.
Acquiring self-taught skills is really a matter of identifying what you are passionate or curious about and then going online to find a video tutorial that can walk you through the steps of learning how to do the thing you want to do.
For instance, you can learn how to build a website from scratch using Wordpress. No one is going to assess you the way you’d get assessed on an online course and you’d have to learn by trial and error to master the skill.
So depending on how fast a learner you are and on how long the Youtube video tutorials are – you could actually spend your one hour of free ZOLspot wifi learning a useful skill. You obviously won’t get any certification but you will certainly get a chance to prove your skills by creating your own portfolio of work online, in other words – you can showcase your talent through whatever technology you have worked on mastering. Your skill doesn't have to be a digital one, you could just as easily want to learn how to make a dress or how to change a tyre on a car.
3. SHOWCASE YOUR TALENT THROUGH TECHNOLOGY
One of the most exciting things about the Internet is that it will let your showcase your skills to the world. Someone you have never met and will never cross paths with can become a huge fan of your work by simply finding the tech platform on which you showcase your talent.
So get to a ZOLspot and use the free hour of wifi to upload your work online or update your platform (blog, vlog, podcast, whatever it may be) - showcase your talent.
For example if you are as madly talented as these Zimbabweans, get online and make the world sit up and recognise: Us Two Zim (who do phenomenal covers), Madam Boss (who has entertaining comedic skits), Steven Chikosi (who recently had his photo in New York Times), David Zinyama (a digital artist), Rumbi Shoko (of the ZimboKitchen fame, and Runner Up of 2013 ZOL Start-up Challenge - incidentally she also offers Baking and Cooking Tutorials).
4. EXPAND YOUR LIBRARY WITH AUDIO AND E-BOOKS
Having access to books doesn’t have to be a hassle. You can read and learn and expand your knowledge of any field and any interest of yours – by accessing audio books or e-books online.
Platforms like Open Culture give access to a huge variety of cultural and educational media (audio, video, ebooks, etc) covering textbooks, poetry, movies, writing and documentaries. You can download audio books for your kids such as The Adventures of Pinocchio and Alice in Wonderland, Gulliver's Travels, literature students can even listen to audio books such as Romeo and Juliet.
You can download ebook and audio books with your one free hour of ZOLspot wifi. Whatever genre you are seeking, you can find and download to create your own personal library - for free!
5. FIND WORK, STUDY, SCHOLARSHIP OR FELLOWSHIP OPPORTUNITIES
You can find opportunities online and an hour of free ZOLspot wifi is more than enough time to identify something you could apply for or immediately start acquiring a skill in.
For example, we shared an article about how CyberSecurity is The Fast-Growing Job With A Huge Skills Gap. Now imagine if you could start on an online CyberSecurity course today - and you very well could. The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step so maybe - the journey of a CyberSecurity degree begins with a single online course.
Take the initiative - what have you got to lose? You could do a skills audit and figure out what digital skills you possess and if you have none - don't despair; just resolve to get to a ZOLspot, use that one hour free wifi and get started on acquiring some digital skill.
Find funding opportunities to advance your education with insitutions like the Canon Collins Trust, or sign up for the Kubatana newsletter (join@kubatana.net) to get listings on great opportunities or create a profile on Freelancer to bid for part-time work that you can execute offline and then deliver (upload or transmit) online with your one hour of free ZOLspot access.
If you know how to string together a mean sentence - you can get part-time Writing jobs. As far back as 2013, TechZim asked: Are there any real work at home / online job opportunities for people living in Zimbabwe? You can check out the discussion thereafter for the varied responses.
If you asked a local journalist who is familiar with the infamous phenomenon of 'moonlighting' - they'd probably respond in the affirmative. As far back as 2006 - local journalists have been making money working remotely, filing stories online and earning a living from it.
A lot has changed since 2006, but its undeniable that the potential of the Internet to get folk (not just journalists) hired has only grown since then as demonstrated in this article on The rise of the remote workforce. An hour of free ZOLspot wifi could be all you need to land the opportunity of a lifetime.
So ZOL on over to a ZOLspot near you - where 60 minutes of access is freely granted!
Source - MyZOL Staff Writer