It’s happening. The how-to videos are everywhere. Get online and learn anything you want, with the click of the mouse. You want to learn how to fence? There is an instructional CD-ROM on the topic. Interested in making a soufflé? Chances are, someone made an instructional CD-ROM about that too. Heck, let’s say you want to learn how to make a replica of the Titanic, I bet if you looked around long enough, you would find an instruction CD-ROM on even that. What’s up with all the new how-to videos? Has it suddenly become a trend to learn anything and everything with a so-called expert? I want to know, how can I trust these people on the CDs? How do I know that what I am learning is coming from a credible source? Just like in college, before you take a fact from a book or a site, you have know whether or not the author is credible. With all this new technology, are we to assume that anyone with a video camera and a little free time to talk into it is a credible source?

Tough question, really tough actually! Because personally, I have used a few instructional CD-ROMs in my life, and truth be told, I never thought about the teacher’s credibility. I thought, well, I bought it off this web site, the web site seems credible, therefore, the instructional CD-ROM must be ok too.

Start a search with an Internet search site like Yahoo!Ò or GoogleÒ and search the words, “instructional CD ROM.” You will get lots of hits on lots of different topics. If you know what you want to learn, and hopefully you do, be specific in your search and see what results you get. My advice for determining the credibility of the instructional CD-ROM is as follows:

Check the credibility of the site you find the CD-ROM on: Who made the site, and can you contact the administrator? If it seems that everything checks out, see if there are any user reviews or comments. The more informed you are before buying the instructional CD-ROM, chances are, the better or you will be in the end. See if the instructional CD-ROM is available anywhere else. More main-stream instructional CD-ROMs can be found on popular sites like Amazon.com, that can help clue you in to the CDs credibility. If a main-stream site picks up the instructional CD-ROM, chances are, it’s from a credible teacher and you can rest easy.

Ultimately, instructional CD-ROMs are all about having fun and learning something new. If you are interested in how to bake a cake, you might not need a certified expert, home cooks are just as good, if not better at times than chefs. But, if you are looking into exercises or home repair, you will want to make sure the information you are getting is safe and correct.