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Learn for Free
by Judy Musick
My basic take on paying for research help
is similar to my take on paying for the Internet. AOL, CompuServe, WANS and
a host of other ISPs offer the Internet for a fee. In exchange for your
money they provide a lot of customer service, ease of use, bonus perks and
peace of mind. Other ISPs like NetZero offer the Internet for free and cover
their expenses through advertising alone. If you like the reliability, the
"dummy-proofness" and the added benefits you pay for the Internet.
If you are capable and comfortable with separating information from
propaganda and can handle a little inconvenience for financial savings you
choose free Internet and/or free email.
Homework help for FREE!
1. The web sites of television programs and magazines.
Consider your subject area. Is it science, literature, history? What
magazine or television program do you know that addresses your subject area?
Chances are they have a web site to help you out. A favorite one in our
household (since our search for information on locust plagues similar to the
one that occurred in The Little House on the Prairie Series) is http://www.online.discovery.com.
It gave us extensive information, photographs, and an audio option to
"hear" the information rather than see it. Some other suggested
starting places are http://www.nationalgeographic.com
and http://www.pbs.org. Really though you
don't need a list of web sites here. Think of a good source, try to type http://www.sourcename.com
or org and see what happens.
2. http://www.homeworkcentral.com
This web site requires a membership, but there is no charge involved. Some
of the tools and resources are Notebooks
Take note and organize topics of interest with this personalized online
note-taking device.
Topic E-mailer Receive updates of new links based on topics you select.
Message Boards Discuss your ideas and argue your opinions with other members
of the HomeworkCentral.com community.
Bookmarks Create a list of your favorite sites and access your list from any
computer.
Top 8 Sign up automatically for weekly e-mail reports linking you to the
best knowledge sites on the WWW.
W.O.W Sign up automatically for the Weekend On the Web, and e-mail
newsletter that offers great sites to explore each weekend.
Free E-mail
Free Web Hosting and a step-by-step guide to creating your Web site.
3. http://www.familyeducation.com
This web site is not just for research. It is all about children's
learning and includes crafts, recipes, games, articles, you name it. It is
composed for parents just as much as for students. The research section is
under School Help in an area called Homework Help. There is a dictionary,
encyclopedia, almanac, online helper and subject area search engine at your
disposal. This web site is simple, and sometimes simple is good. You won't
find 10 pages on information on diphtheria, but you will find your
information quickly and easily.
4. http://britannica.com
This web site boasts the complete Encyclopedia Britannica as well as the
complete Merriam Webster's Dictionary. It presents current news and
weather as well as a collection of Washington Post editorials. Research is
separated into web sites, books, magazines and of course the encyclopedia
and dictionary. I was impressed with the links offered, as well as the tips
on selecting databases, Boolean operators, natural language searching and
other helpful hints to finding the information you want. Of course this web
site is hosted by a business, not an organization, so beware that they will
naturally have a bias for all Britannica products and have several for sale
that you just "need" to have right away.
5. http://www.tracker.elibrary.com
The elibrary Tracker is a great help to those doing ongoing research in a
particular subject area. The system allows you to choose up to five topics.
elibrary Tracker searches the latest entries into its database (part of the
electronic library) and notifies you by e mail when something comes up that
is a match with one of your chosen subject areas. You can request the
information to be sent to your e-mail daily, weekly or monthly. This is like
someone else doing your research for you and laying it on your desk a
personal (OK, not personal) electronic assistant that doesn't take coffee
breaks and works weekends without complaint. You can change your topics at
any time with the click of a button.
So there you have some ideas to get you
started. Your ten-page report on diphtheria may not be more interesting
because of the Internet, but it sure will be easier to research and write!
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Ask Ed Cyber
Dear Ed,
I am a teacher at a public school. I recently purchased a new computer for
use at home. It came installed with Windows 98. Windows 2000 is supposed to
be released on the 17th. Should I upgrade?
'98 Education User
Dear Mr. or Ms. User,
You ask a very good question. Let me summarize the following by saying that
I don't think you need to upgrade to 2000. Why?
Windows 2000 will be a good operating system for business users, providing
the stability and security they need while working in a business
environment. While your school may need to seriously consider upgrading, it
is not such a must for the individual user, especially considering the cost.
Actually, 2000 is more of an upgrade for Windows NT than it is for 95/98 but
the upgrade will work fine with Windows 98. It provides greater stability
(in other words, it doesn't crash as frequently) than Windows 95 / 98 but is
just different enough in the way that it works that I recommend waiting a
while.
Don't get me wrong. Windows 2000 is definitely the operating system of the
future in its support for new technologies like USB, AGP and IEEE 1394
(FireWire). I won't discuss these technologies here, but over the next few
years these are the technologies that will be used to connect things to your
computer. However, the gains you make aren't likely to make the cost of
upgrading worth it. At the very least, I recommend waiting until the dust
settles on the new release to make sure there aren't major bugs that need to
be ironed out.
When the dust settles and if this new OS is all that it is touted to be, you
might want to consider this upgrade again in a year or so. By then,
depending of course on what happens in the courts, it's likely that the
cost of upgrading will have come down considerably.
Check out the Educyber Educator Bookstore online at http://www.educyber.com/educator/ebooks.html
Netlearning $21.21
Busy Educator's Guide To The Web $11.96
Web Site Reviews
Geography (About.com)
http://geography.about.com/education/geography/
About.com has a little bit of everything, or in some cases, a lot of
everything. Every teacher will want to bookmark this web site. For younger
grades, this site has maps and information on nearly any place you can think
of. Want to show your kids where Vanuatu is? How about Zimbabwe or
Afghanistan? You'll find them all here.
Upper elementary and middle school kids will benefit from links to articles
on longitude and latitude, looking at street and road maps, and much more.
For older grades even through college you can find all kinds of information
on geography. Learn about Population Geography or Earthquakes or look at
historic maps.
About is supposed to be like a search engine except that its sites are
created and maintained by people instead of sophisticated software. The
geography site is another illustration of just how successful this
philosophy of using people instead of computer is.
Though this site is essentially just a collection of links, it is well
organized and the links are all informative and useful. Consider that the
next time you do an Internet search and get hundreds of useless sites along
with a few good ones.
About's geography web site can save you time and get you the information
you need to make your class more interesting or more understandable.
Get Net Wise
http://www.getnetwise.org/
Get Net Wise is brought to us by a wide range of corporate sponsors as a
service to educate the general public on using the Internet wisely.
This is a great site for those just getting started on the Internet to learn
what it's all about and a little bit about how it works.
We've all heard the horror stories about children being lured from their
homes by predators on the Internet and being abused or taken advantage of.
This site explains in a very straightforward manner what risks anyone takes
in going online. Once you know where you stand, it's easier to begin your
journey. This site helps you understand just where you do stand and even
helps you get started on the journey.
The point is not to scare people away from using the Internet but rather to
help them understand what happens. A young Florida man found out the hard
way that surfing the Internet and interacting with others is a real
experience with real consequences as he awaits sentencing in Denver for
threatening a Columbine student in a chat room. That threat closed Columbine
early for Christmas vacation and he could end up serving time though he'll
probably get probation. Perhaps we could all get a little wiser with the
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