Free online encyclopedias for learning and knowledge

We all are familiar with the term ‘Encyclopedia’ which is meant to be a source of information. Internet offers lots of useful resources for learning and online encyclopedia is a great tool for information and knowledge.  Most of the encyclopedias are free to use and these are the best places for students, scholars, researchers, and teachers to collect knowledge. For any topic or subject you can access the free encyclopedia sites and search for it.

Do you know what is meant by ‘Encyclopedia’ and what we can get from it?
This article would be useful for students, teachers, scholars or parents, who search the world wide web for information . Included is a list of encyclopedias which you can further search for a specific type of information.


According to the definition by "Wikipedia":

"An encyclopedia is a comprehensive written compendium that contains information on either all branches of knowledge or a particular branch of knowledge. Encyclopedias are divided into articles with one article on each subject covered. The articles on subjects in an encyclopedia are usually accessed alphabetically by article name and can be contained in one volume or many volumes, depending on the amount of material included.

“ Indeed, the purpose of an encyclopedia is to collect knowledge disseminated around the globe; to set forth its general system to the men with whom we live, and transmit it to those who will come after us, so that the work of preceding centuries will not become useless to the centuries to come; and so that our offspring, becoming better instructed, will at the same time become more virtuous and happy, and that we should not die without having rendered a service to the human race."


Difference between a dictionary and encyclopedia?

-  ‘A dictionary primarily focuses on words and their definitions, and typically provides limited information, analysis, or background for the word defined.’
 - ‘ An encyclopedia treats each subject in more depth and conveys the most relevant accumulated knowledge on that subject or discipline, given the overall length of the particular work. An encyclopedia also often includes many maps and illustrations, as well as bibliography and statistics.’

Free encyclopedia

The concept of a new free encyclopedia began with the Interpedia proposal on Usenet in 1993, which outlined an Internet-based online encyclopedia to which anyone could submit content and that would be freely accessible.

The English Wikipedia became the world’s largest encyclopedia in 2004 at the 300,000 article stage. As of July 2007, Wikipedia has over 2.0 million articles in English and well over 8 million combined in over 250 languages.

Wikipedia is one of the first "user generated content" encyclopedias.

•  List of online encyclopedias from ‘University of Wisconsin-Stout
•  List of Encyclopedia from ‘Wikipedia
•  List from ‘Librarians Internet Index
•  List of online encyclopedia’s from Wikipedia

Famous Encyclopedias:

Upto now Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., is a leading provider of learning and knowledge products. It is one of the world’s most trusted sources of information on every topic imaginable - from the origins of the universe to current events and everything in between.

- Encarta encyclopedia  from msn article centerProvides more than 42,000 articles on the world of knowledge–from aardvark to zither.

* HighBeam Encyclopedia provides you reference entries from credible, published sources like Britannica, Oxford University Press, and Columbia Encyclopedia.

At HighBeam Encyclopedia, you get free access to nearly 200,000 reference entries from sources you can cite. Plus, more than 50,000 topic summaries feature related pictures, videos, topic summaries, and newspaper and magazine articles from around the world. HighBeam Encyclopedia also provides innovative tools that allow you to rate and sort the reference content you find to be the most useful.

* AskTheBrain.com is the world’s first computer generated encyclopedia. All vital stats information has been inferred based upon text on the subject.

It is an automated encyclopedia that brings together the best information from around the web on over 200,000 topics. Try searching for anything at all in the search box provided. The entire database is made available free of charge from the website.

Kids Encyclopedias:

* From Yahoo

* Kids.net.au kids safe portal for children, parents, schools and teachers.

* Britanica for young children

* List of encyclopedias for kids from ‘dmoz’
* 5 Free Online Encyclopedias Suitable For Kids
Note: Article published at 'factoidz' few months ago.

Online useful resources for teachers and learners Part-2

There is a vast knowledge available online relating to educational needs, educators, learners, students. I have started writing about useful links and resources for teachers and learners. This is part 2 which will be updated if required and I plan to add more sites and online links which can help us learn more.

* Centre for Learning and Performance Technologies (C4LPT) is a major resource site about Social Learning (ie the use of social media for learning)for those in Schools, Colleges, Universities and Business(profit- and non-profit making organisations)

Site offers very useful posts like:

• The FINAL Top 100 Tools for Learning 2010 List
• 30 Ways to use Social Media to Work Smarter
• 100+ Free Websites to find out about Anything and Everything

'100+ Free Websites to find out about Anything and Everything' is an alphabetical list of websites which provide information and/or instruction about a wide range of subjects. The websites cover a wide range of informational and educational topics and include general reference resources, how-to guides, wikis, how-to videos, podcasts, courses, lessons, tutorials (including open courseware), e-books as well as other reference resources and places to ask questions both online and on your mobile.

The resources are suitable for learners of all ages: students as well as workplace learners and lifelong learners - as well as teachers, educators and trainers.

Link: 100+ Free Websites to find out about Anything and Everything

Check 'resources' tab to discover more stuff.

Online useful resources for teachers and learners Part-2

There is a vast knowledge available online relating to educational needs, educators, learners, students. I have started writing about useful links and resources for teachers and learners. This is part 2 which will be updated if required and I plan to add more sites and online links which can help us learn more.

* Centre for Learning and Performance Technologies (C4LPT) is a major resource site about Social Learning (ie the use of social media for learning)for those in Schools, Colleges, Universities and Business(profit- and non-profit making organisations)

Site offers very useful posts like:

• The FINAL Top 100 Tools for Learning 2010 List
• 30 Ways to use Social Media to Work Smarter
• 100+ Free Websites to find out about Anything and Everything

'100+ Free Websites to find out about Anything and Everything' is an alphabetical list of websites which provide information and/or instruction about a wide range of subjects. The websites cover a wide range of informational and educational topics and include general reference resources, how-to guides, wikis, how-to videos, podcasts, courses, lessons, tutorials (including open courseware), e-books as well as other reference resources and places to ask questions both online and on your mobile.

The resources are suitable for learners of all ages: students as well as workplace learners and lifelong learners - as well as teachers, educators and trainers.

Link: 100+ Free Websites to find out about Anything and Everything

Check 'resources' tab to discover more stuff.

What parents can do to save their children from objectionable stuff on the internet?

Is there really that much pornography (or other objectionable content) on the Internet? and how parents can save their children from pornography and other objectionable stuff is discussed at this post.

There is a vast amount of pornographic material easily available on the Internet. Although many pornographic sites demand credit cards for full access, there are lots of free sites and “sneak peeks” available online.

Trying to control porn in a global medium like the Internet is difficult at best. Most Internet pornography, while offensive and distasteful to many users, is not illegal.

A research study shows that the older the kids, the more likely they are to pay purposeful visits to pornography sites (the figures almost triple between Grade 7 and Grade 11 for boys). Teens are more prolific and diverse Internet users than younger kids – and they are less likely to be supervised – which means they have more opportunities to encounter this sort of content through their online activities.

To contextualize pornography, we have to recognize that today’s children and youth live in a highly sexualized media culture where the lines between pornography and popular entertainment have become increasingly blurred.

Perhaps more importantly for most parents, is the reality that frequent unintentional exposure to pornographic sites is unavoidable. Once again, making sure your children know how to handle this is crucial.

A recent British study determined that the average teen there spent 87 hours/year, looking at porn on the Internet. That's an hour and 40 minutes a week.

What should parents do?

• Banning all access to the Internet is one solution. Unfortunately, this draconian approach carries with it a huge educational disadvantage; the Internet today is the greatest single educational reference resource available. More information, from more sources, is available here than in any library in the world.
• Personally supervising all Internet access is another solution. This is great, if you have the time.
• Installing a software filter, to provide a technology fix, is another possiblity.
• Block pop-ups, which are commonly used by pornographic sites.
• Set up the computer in a busy area of your home – never in a child’s bedroom.
• Use kid-friendly search engines and Web browsers or adult search engines that provide filtering options like Google. Test the different search engines to see which ones give the best results.
• Talk to librarians or teachers and create a directory of good kids’ sites by bookmarking them on your computer. But be aware that porn distributors often purchase expired domain names, including those of kids’ sites.
• At a minimum, make sure your children know your feelings about it, and what your expectations are for their behavior.

Source: 'Super Kids'

Useful links and resources:

* Exposure to pornography

* Internet porn stats: should parents be concerned?

* 'Safe Families.org' helping you keep children safe online.

* PROTECTING CHILDREN FROM PORNOGRAPHY AND SEXUAL PREDATORS ON THE INTERNET

Early head injuries can have long term effects among young children

Every year, millions of people suffer from head injury symptoms. Most of these are minor because the skull is designed to protect the brain. Most closed head injury symptoms will usually go away on their own. However, more than half a million head injuries a year, are severe enough to require hospitalization.

Seek professional medical attention immediately for severe or penetrating head injuries. Knowing the signs of head injury symptoms can save a life.

'Dr. Goodman' (clinical assistant professor of Pediatrics and Neurology at Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia) says, "kids and sports have been around for a long time. It is up to the adults who are involved in children's sports to keep a balance between safety and competition."

Head injury symptoms will vary depending on the type of injury. There are two types of head injury, closed or penetrating.
A closed head injury is caused by a hard blow to the head by striking an object. These closed head injuries can be either minor or severe, each having a different set of head injury symptoms.

- Minor blunt head injury symptoms (sometimes referred to as a concussion) can include headaches, nausea, vomiting, dizziness, and a general feeling of instability.

- Severe head injury symptoms can include loss of consciousness for longer periods. Some symptoms can mimick those of a stroke and can lead to permanent damage if not treated immediately by medical professionals.

Early Head Injury Can Have Long-Term Effects

Although young children with brain injury usually recover their mental abilities quite rapidly, they can have serious problems later. "These kids have incredible learning deficits even when the IQ returns to normal," said Dr. Sandra Bond Chapman, a University of Texas neurologist. She noted that 70% of children's brain injuries affect the frontal cortex.

Because growth in the brain's frontal regions continues throughout young adulthood, early injury there can damage formation of the protective myelin insulation around neurons . This can impair their ability to control emotions and inhibit inappropriate behavior. These kids have trouble responding to subtle social cues and planning difficult tasks.

Mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI), also known as concussion , can damage your brain at the cellular level.

"Concussions are caused by a blow to the head," says Michael Goodman. "They can occur when a child falls and during any sport that can involve a collision of the head with another object – be it a head, a ball, or the ground."

All concussions are cause for concern, but not all concussions are the same. Symptoms can include confusion, headache, concentration problems, mood swings, or sleep difficulties.

Parents and children should heed the guidance of medical and athletic professionals during these situations.

Source: 'Watch your head'

Useful links: ''Brain Injury' is a site dedicated to provide medical, legal informations about traumatic brain injury.

* ''The brain injury Information network'

* Children who suffer a head injury are much more likely to have another one within six months, researchers reported. More at: At Risk: One Head Injury Sets the Stage for a Second One in Children

* Child brain injury blog

* A very useful post at 'Parent24' about head injury.

Get origami projects or crafts ideas online

Origami can be used for skill development for educational, developmental, and therapeutic aspects. Origami is good for any age as it provide an entertaining and creative feeling when you are busy doing it.

For kids at preschool or kindergarten stage you need to teach them easy origami which they can learn themselves. Your instructions should be clear and easy to follow. You can find lot of sites and links online where you can get ideas, projects details and even step by step tutorial helping you learn origami projects or crafts ideas yourself or for your kids. This post is helpful for teachers, parents who are interested to start teaching this creative activity for kids.

* 'How to origami' is full of easy projects for children. You can get an idea from the pictures I have loaded here. These easy instruction are enough to start learning with basic folds. As you can see that the 3rd picture shows a table chair made with origami folds which seems difficult to make, but as first two pictures show easy steps to follow, you can easily learn it. Even your kids can follow these instructions by watching these pictures or online videos.

* 'Free Homemade bookmarks, crafts and gifts' 

* 'Origami Resources' Helps you make Origami crafts, Origami Crafts for children, free videos on Origami, Origami Aeroplane, Origami Flowers, Origami Animals etc.

* 'Simple Kids Crafts': Daily, Easy, Educational, Functional Children Arts and Crafts projects for children of all ages using easy to find materials such as recyclables, egg cartons, cardboard, paper, boxes, string, crayons, paint, glue, fabric and pompoms, pipe cleaners, beads, ribbons, construction paper and more. They offer toys, games, school crafts, experiments, FREE printable coloring pages/templates and craft recipes.

* 'Easy origami forkids'

* Paper the World offers simple origami of models that focus on endangered animal species.
It educates and teaches some charming origami animal figures to children so that they can enjoy the art and creativity of folding paper and making beautiful things from such common material.

Why you need to help your child build self esteem?

Self esteem or self confidence is one of basic skills which play an important role in the life of a person. This basic skill is nourished and developed from the early childhood and parents plus teachers can help build self esteem among children. As a parent or a teacher, you have a great influence over the self-esteem of your child.

What is self esteem?

Self-esteem refers to how you feel about yourself. It includes such things as your self-confidence, self-respect, pride in yourself, your independence and your self-reliance. All the ways you feel about yourself and your abilities are wrapped up in the term "self-esteem".

In general, the more positive your self-esteem, the more successful you will be at dealing with life. The same holds for your children. The more positive their self-esteem, the more confident and proud they will be. They will try harder, be happier and have greater self-respect. They will make friends easier and will be more giving. Children with positive self-esteem are more secure and loving than children with negative self-esteem.

Negative self-esteem is related to low self-confidence, insecurity, underachievement, anxiety, depression, acting-out behavior, sleep problems and being a loner.

Self-esteem is your child's passport to lifetime mental health and social happiness. It's the foundation of a child's well-being and the key to success as an adult. At all ages, how you feel about yourself affects how you act. Think about a time when you were feeling really good about yourself. You probably found it much easier to get along with others and feel good about them.

Factors affecting child self esteem:

* How much the child feels wanted, appreciated and loved
* How your child sees himself, often built from what parents and those close say
* His or her sense of achievement
* How the child relates to others

Self-image is how one perceives oneself:

The child looks in the mirror and likes the person he sees. He looks inside himself and is comfortable with the person he sees. He must think of this self as being someone who can make things happen and who is worthy of love. Parents are the main source of a child's sense of self-worth.
Lack of a good self-image very often leads to behavior problems:

Most of the behavioral problems that I see for counseling come from poor self-worth in parents as well as children. Why is one person a delight to be with, while another always seems to drag you down? How people value themselves, get along with others, perform at school, achieve at work, and relate in marriage, all stem from strength of their self-image.

Healthy self-worth doesn't mean being narcissistic or arrogant; it means having a realistic understanding of one's strengths and weaknesses, enjoying the strengths and working on the problem areas. Because there is such a strong parallel between how a person feels about himself and how a person acts, helping your child build self-confidence is vital to discipline.

Throughout life your child will be exposed to positive influences builders and negative influences breakers. Parents can expose their child to more builders and help him work through the breakers.

Useful links:

* Building Your Child's Self Esteem

* 12 ways to help your child build self confidence

* 16 Techniques For Parents And Teachers

Why you should choose alternative therapy for your kid with asthma?

There are various reasons to choose alternative healing or therapy for you or your kid. I am a mother of asthmatic child who is suffering from asthma from the age of 3 and now he is 11. With my experience with alternative therapies, I can assure you that whatever therapy you select, it can help you in healing process. I am practicing acupressure therapy for common ailment myself and it is really effective, easy to apply and without any side effects.

The best side of these alternative therapies is that you don't have to worry about side effects. These alternative therapies may include acupressure, acupuncture, aromatherapy, homeopathy etc. Remember whatever therapy you use for the prevention or healing of asthma, don't discontinue the use of medicines prescribed by your health practioner.

Now I want to explain the side effects of medication which are commonly used for the treatment and healing of asthmatic patients.

The mainstay of conventional treatment is medication, primarily with oral or inhaled bronchodilators like albuterol (Proventil, Ventolin), isoetharine (Bronkometer, Bronkosol),isoproterenol (isuprel), metaproterenol (Alupent), and terbutaline (Brethaire, Brethine, Bricanyl).These medications work to open up the airway, easing breathing. They can cause a variety of side effects, including nervousness, increased heart rate, tremors, increased blood pressure, and dizziness.

In more advanced or chronic case of asthma, corticosteroids may be prescribed, in either oral or inhaled form. Inhaler forms include beclomethasone (Beclovent, Vanceril, Vancenase, Beconase), fluticasone (Flovent), and triamcinolone(Azmacort, Nasacort), Prednisone is the most commonly prescribed oral form. These medicines work by decreasing the swelling and inflammation of the airways, but they do have several disadvantages. First, they have an adverse affect on the functioning of the immune system and the adrenal glands. Oral yeast infection can be a problem with inhaler forms. All steroids have the potential to cause significant side effects, especially when taken over the long term, that need to be understood. Talk this over with your doctor or pharmacist.

Theophylline and related drugs, once commonly prescribed for asthma, are less often used today because they are more likely to cause side effects such as restlessness, insomnia, headache, loss of appetite, increased heart rate, dizziness, nausea, and vomiting. Long-term use of theophylline may also be associated with behavioral problems and learning disabilities, although the evidence for this is not conclusive.

Source: 'Mother nature'

Useful links:

A useful post about the acupressure therapy: 'Healing and cure from asthma with the help of acupressure therapy'

* 'acupressure for asthma'