List of Sites and Links Helping You Learn - 'Internet And Searching The World Wide Web

Learning about internet, or world wide web is now easy for everyone. Good news is that many sites and links offer FREE tutorials for kids, students and teachers. Most of the tutorials are online and interatvie which means you browse the pages and learn in an easy but effective way, and often there are lessons which you can read offline and get the print of those tutorials. This post would help you learn about computers, internet and world wide web, including the related posts.

Links to the sites offering Free tutorials and lessons about internet, computers and world wide web

* BBC Online offers Becoming WebWise - a free online step-by-step course designed to help you learn the Internet. The course is set up as 8 "trips" and each trip is broken into three landmarks, each containing text pages, quizzes and interactive tasks.

Topics covered include:
Getting Started: what is the internet?
More From Your Browser: understanding URLs
Email: getting the most from email
Using the Net Safely: the healthy surfer
Finding Stuff: the basics of searching
As you progress through the course, your scorecard keeps track of which trip/landmarks you have visited and also your scores in the tasks and quizzes.
Link: Becoming Web Wise

* For basic learners who want to learn about the "Web"
Link: welcome to the web

* Learn the Net is dedicated to helping you master this amazing medium. You'll find articles, how-tos, resources, tutorials and information on all aspects of finding your way around the web. Learn all about email, newsgroups, downloading files, multimedia, how to protect yourself, surfing and more. If you're in a hurry, try the World Wide Web tutorial and in just 20 minutes you'll have learned how surf like a pro (or almost).

* 'World wide learn' Online Directory of Education offers "Online Internet Courses and Tutorials"

* "FREE search engine tutorial" A short and easy guide to Web searching, search engines and directories. This little crash course will teach you how to explore the Net more efficiently.
- search engine tutorial


Related posts:

* Internet as a useful tool for learning

* An internet learning site for children and teens!

* Learn more about your computer!

* "What a site" -helping teachers locate web resources

* "What is"- An internet and computer information site!

* Free tutorials about internet and World Wide Web

* Benefits of Access to Internet At Homes

Tips to help children with learning disabilities

Determining whether your child has a learning disability is a complicated process. But after realizing that your child has some kind of learning disability, you can inform the teacher at the school so they can better handle the situation. This article is particulary helpful for teachers who want to help the students with learning disablities.


As a parent and especially a teacher, you can help your child have a more appropriate sense of themselves by reassuring them that there are specific reasons for their behaviors and sharing with them what the realities are of their particular and unique abilities.


Ways to help a student with a learning disability succeed at school


* Accommodations - these can be as simple as being seated in the front row, having extra time on tests, or can involve electronic equipment and auxiliary personnel
Compensatory strategies - ways to use their cognitive strengths to offset weaknesses. If they have poor auditory memory but strong visual memory, have them draw or write down the instructions

* Special education - instruction taught by specially trained personnel in smaller classes which focuses on working on specific skills
* Self-advocacy skills - empowering students to ask for what they need in order to learn in the most effective way. Motivate the child to ask questions if they don’t understand the instructions

Working with your child at home

When you work with your child at home on academic and life skills, you help them recognize their own strengths and increase their self-esteem. Examples of activities you can implement at home fall into several categories – accommodations, organization, critical thinking, and emotional support.

Ways to cope

- Take frequent breaks when doing homework
- Know your child’s primary learning style and adjust accordingly. For more information on primary learning styles see Helpguide’s article: Learning Disabilities – Types, Symptoms and Interventions - Accommodate for the child’s primary learning style by allowing them to pace around, listen to background music, attach visual displays to the walls, or wear earplugs or headphones if distracted by noise
- Provide a computer for written assignments if the child has difficulty writing
Organization
- Model and teach them how to make “to do” lists and prioritize their homework
Set aside a regular time each week for organizing workspace, belongings, schoolwork, and activities; make a game of it or provide a reward
- Give your child a task that requires organization: grocery shopping required for a recipe, planning a birthday party on a budget, using a map to figure out the route from one place to another.

Critical thinking

- Play games of strategy
- Talk about current events and ideas with multiple points of view
- Encourage all sorts of age-appropriate reading and writing

Emotional support

- Praise your child for the positive qualities they exhibit during the whole process of doing homework not just when they finish their homework
- Engage them in social problem-solving: how to resolve conflicts with friends, teachers, and kids who may be bothering them at school
- Encourage activities that your child enjoys and excels in
- Keep open lines of communication so your child feels comfortable discussing feelings with you
- Regulate your stress and help your children learn to regulate theirs
(Helpguide’s article: Coping with Stress: Management and Reduction Techniques)
- Let your children know that you enjoy their company by playing and talking with them. It’s important not to ignore other children in the family. Many activities geared for learning disabled children can include and benefit children without disabilities as well.

Source link: Help Guide

Related posts:

* "Ld Online"- A site helping us learn about learning disablities

* Art and craft activities help children with learning disabilities

* Learn about "Children with learning disablities

Practice Of Blogging In Classroom

Many educational institutions or teachers are aware of the power and affects of "Blogging" for educational purposes but they don't know where to start. I hope that this article would help the students or teachers interested for use of blogging in classroom.

Blogs for Learning, is an online resource about instructional blogging. The site provides students and instructors with information and resources about the technical and pedagogical aspects of blogging in the classroom.

Blogs for Learning was originally conceived by Dr. Ethan Watrall and Dr. Nicole Ellison as a robust online resource designed for students and instructors who are interested in the theory and practice of blogging within an educational setting.

The goal of Blogs for Learning is to provide information and resources as to the technical, legal, and pedagogical aspects of blogging in the classroom. The design of the Blogs for Learning site was carefully conceived to be elegant, highly standards compliant and very forward thinking.

Blogs for Learning was created with the generous support from the College of Communication Arts and Sciences and the Department of Telecommunications, Information Studies, and Media at Michigan State University.

Articles section contains very useful articles which can be downloaded easily either for reading or printing.

Few titles are:

- Student Blogging - What You Should Know

- Blogging for Large Classes

- Using Blogs in a College Classroom: What's Authenticity Got To Do With It?

* There are many tutorials which are in a flash presentation format, so you just have to sit, relax, watch the videos and learn about "Blogging". (Section is not working for the time being, but hope that it would be updated soon)

Read their "blog" for useful and latest articles.

Related links and posts:

- Use second generation web technologies so you can be at the forefront of transforming learning in your school at The Why 2 of Web 2.0

- Benefits of classroom Blogging?

- Classroom Blogging: More than Just Tech Ed

- A blog about career development, technology and learning strategies: The Bamboo Project

- A blog about Teaching and Learning in the 21st Century.
'Learning Blog'

- Links for teachers to start educational blogs

- Effective use of Blogging in education

"Pro Teacher" - A Community of School Teachers

Forums or message boards are a good place to have interaction with other peoples having same interests. At various sites or blogs, you can read or learn a lot, but particiating in forums is the effective way of learning from other or exchange of ideas.

ProTeacher is a professional community for school teachers in grades PreK-8. Participants include visitors from across the United States, and guests from around the world.

It is a place for professional teachers and staff (including classroom teachers, specialists, substitute teachers, administrators, paraprofessionals, and student teachers) working in early childhood, elementary grades K-6 and middle school. We also welcome retired and former PreK-8 teachers with a continuing professional interest in teaching.

Advantages:


- see what's new more easily
- get a reserved User Name to use as your own pen name
- edit your own messages up to 24 hours after you post
- word processor like features
- view and post photos and other attachments
- SEARCH for new and updated threads since your last visit
("thread" is Internet jargon for a discussion topic or conversation)
- bookmark threads and boards that interest you
- receive optional email alerts for your bookmarks
- send and receive Private Messages with other visitors
(your email address STAYS COMPLETELY HIDDEN)
- get a private MyPage to store your favorite stuff
- get a personal Profile page to share information about yourself
(share only information that you want to share)
- start your own ProTeacher Blog, or join a group blog
- sign out and post with a different name whenever you want to

You would be asked to enter the information about your teaching area, so it is easy for them to guide you to the area of your interest. There are a lot of helpful posts and ideas which teachers can find interesting and apply them accordingly.

Register here

Guide to Children;s Fun and Learning -"Edutaining Kids"

Edutaining kids is dedicated to providing parents with reviews and recommendations of "edutainment" products and activities for children. The kids' products selected for inclusion on Edutaining Kids are designed to entertain and to educate simultaneously, and include children's software, educational toys, books, audio, video games, and videos.

Divided into age groups and subjects, EdutainingKids.com's feature articles and reviews help make sense out of web sites, activities, and the latest products available to children and their parents.

The reviews provided are based on feed back from kids, parents and caregivers, so you can expect to read impartial and objective reviews.

Most children's "edutainment" products are evaluated and graded (with A+ indicating products that are outstanding, A excellent, A- very good, B+ good, B average, and so forth), while others are evaluated as "Recommended". Often, a ratings bar graph accompanies a review, providing a visual overview of the product's merits, broken down into various categories such as entertainment, educational content, etc., each based on a scale of zero to ten. Articles help to provide comparisons and round-ups of products with a common theme, such as software for first-graders.

I have checked the site to see if software or oter edutainment products are available at reasonable prices or not. At software bargain page This page offers the latest offers, rebates, specials, discounts, and deals in children's software, video, DVD, video games, toys. Many software titles including Dora, Putt Putt were around $4.95.

You can search the guide by age group like 'toddler fun and learning' page provides product reviews and other offers for toddlers.

Where To Search For Educational Stuff?

A good search engine lets you filter any content that may be offensive and inappropriate. This is a new feature that seems to be catching on and is proving to be effective. It can help you find high quality sites, relevant to what you are searching for.

Often we start browsing by entering any keyword at the provided box of a 'search engine'. Result is related to the words or terms we seek from the world wide web, but most of the site links don't provide reliable and FREE stuff. In case of educational or teachers stuff, it is my experience that I had to spend hours in search of the information I needed. Initial purpose of this personal blog was to place the information and links at one place for an easy access, but gradually I realized that there are lot of parents or teachers who are in the same situation and can't find the information easily from the world wide web. This post would help you search at the specific search engines offering the links and free resources for teachers, students and parents.

These are the posts which provide a full review of the search engines for educational stuff. At the bottom of the post there are links to other search engines or sites where you can search for the educational information.

* "Free search engine tutorial" - a short and easy guide to Web searching, search engines and directories. This little crash course will teach you how to explore the Net more efficiently.
A short and easy search engine tutorial By Pandia Search Engine

* "Ask Jeeves for Kids" is an educational based search engine. 'Ask for Kids' allows kids to ask questions and perform web searches, such as "When did Hawaii become a state?" etc.

Read more: Search at "Ask for KIDS" for educational stuff!

* "Kinder Search" is a directory plus search engine, which is focused on children 0-7 years on the net. It is the largest and most popular indexed directory and search engine for kids.

Read the review: Search for the kids sites at "Kinder Start"

* "Study Sphere.com" is a search engine based learning portal for students, families and teachers. It provides fast, easy and free access to a wide variety of research-quality child-safe websites organized for education online from home, school, study abroad and home school.

Read the review: "Study Sphere"- providing learning resources!

* "Child and family web guide" is a directory of the sites rated by experts from "Tufts University" which is one of the premimier universities in the United States. The goal of the WebGuide is to give the public easy access to the best child development information on the Web.

Read more: A "Child and Family Web Guide" about child development sites

* Teacher Tap is a free, professional development resource that helps educators and librarians address common questions about the use of technology in teaching and learning.

- Search Tools for Kids, Teens, and Teachers

* A list of education search engines from "Search Engine Guide"

* Kids.net.au Search engine with the option to search for web sites, encyclopedia, dictionary or thesaurus.

* How to find and use the Invisible Web and Meta Search Engines at the Educational CyberPlayGround.
- Edu-cyber PG.com

* How to choose a seach engine or directory?

Tips To Help Prevent Health Effects Due to School Backpack

This article would help you learn how 'school backpack' can be a cause of serious back pain or other injuries. You can learn 'how it happens, how to choose backpack and guideline of proper use of backpack.

Do you know that 'National School Backpack Awareness Day is September 17'?
National School Backpack Awareness Day is an annual event held in September. Across the country, events are being held to educate parents, students, teachers and school administrators, and communities about the serious health effects on children from backpacks that are too heavy or worn improperly.

According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission there were more than 21,000 backpack-related injuries treated at hospital emergency rooms, doctors' offices, and clinics in the year 2003. Injuries ranged from contusions, to sprains and strains to the back and shoulder, and fractures.

Back pain it a normal complaint among adults, but a new but disturbing trend is emerging. Young children are suffering from back pain much earlier than previous generations, and the use of overweight backpacks is a contributing factor, according to the American Chiropractic Association (ACA).

This new back pain trend among youngsters isn't surprising when you consider the disproportionate amounts of weight they carry in their backpacks - often slung over just one shoulder. According to Dr. Bautch, a recent study conducted in Italy found that the average child carries a backpack that would be the equivalent of a 39-pound burden for a 176-pound man, or a 29-pound load for a 132-pound woman. Of those children carrying heavy backpacks to school, 60 percent had experienced back pain as a result.

To help understand how heavy backpacks can affect a kid's body, it helps to understand how the back works. The spine is made of 33 bones called vertebrae, and between the vertebrae are discs that act as natural shock absorbers.

When a heavy weight, such as a backpack filled with books, is incorrectly placed on the shoulders, the weight's force can pull a child backward. To compensate, a child may bend forward at the hips or arch the back, which can cause the spine to compress unnaturally. The heavy weight might cause some kids to develop shoulder, neck, and back pain.

Few facts about back packs:

- In one study with American students, 6 out of 10 students, ages 9 to 20, reported chronic back pain related to heavy backpacks. Among students who carried backpacks weighing 15% of their body weight or less, only 2 in 10 reported pain.

- The way backpacks are worn has an impact. Lower positioning of the backpack approximates the body's center of gravity and has the least effect on posture.

- In a study on the effect of backpack education on student behavior and health, nearly 8 out of 10 middle-school students who changed how they loaded and wore their backpacks reported less pain and strain in their backs, necks, and shoulders

Warning signs a backpack is too heavy:

- Change in posture when wearing the backpack
- Struggling when putting on or taking off the backpack
- Pain when wearing the backpack
- Tingling or numbness
- Red marks

Kids who wear their backpacks over just one shoulder — as many do, because they think it looks better — may end up leaning to one side to offset the extra weight. They might develop lower and upper back pain and strain their shoulders and neck.

According to Dr. Bautch, preliminary results of studies being conducted in France show that the longer a child wears a backpack, the longer it takes for a curvature or deformity of the spine to correct itself. "The question that needs to be addressed next is, 'Does it ever return to normal?'" Dr. Bautch added.

According to a University of Michigan study, up to 60% of children will experience back pain by the time they reach age 18. Keeping kids healthy is a full time job. Reducing the stress on their spine can help make that job a little easier. Here are a few simple guidelines to follow when picking out the backpack for the year.future problems from developing.
Functionality and safety are much more important than fashion. Your children may not like your decision right now, but tell them they will appreciate it when they are 40. You can always blame it on us too!

What Can You Do?
The ACA offers the following tips to help prevent the needless pain that backpack misuse could cause the students in your household.

TIPS:

* Make sure your child's backpack weighs no more than 5 to 10 percent of his or her body weight. A heavier backpack will cause your child to bend forward in an attempt to support the weight on his or her back, rather than on the shoulders, by the straps.

* The backpack should never hang more than four inches below the waistline. A backpack that hangs too low increases the weight on the shoulders, causing your child to lean forward when walking.

* A backpack with individualized compartments helps in positioning the contents most effectively. Make sure that pointy or bulky objects are packed away from the area that will rest on your child's back.

* Bigger is not necessarily better. The more room there is in a backpack, the more your child will carry-and the heavier the backpack will be.

* Urge your child to wear both shoulder straps. Lugging the backpack around by one strap can cause the disproportionate shift of weight to one side, leading to neck and muscle spasms, as well as low-back pain.

* Wide, padded straps are very important. Non-padded straps are uncomfortable, and can dig into your child's shoulders.

* The shoulder straps should be adjustable so the backpack can be fitted to your child's body. Straps that are too loose can cause the backpack to dangle uncomfortably and cause spinal misalignment and pain.

* If the backpack is still too heavy, talk to your child's teacher. Ask if your child could leave the heaviest books at school, and bring home only lighter hand-out materials or workbooks.

* Although the use of rollerpacks - or backpacks on wheels - has become popular in recent years, the ACA is now recommending that they be used cautiously and on a limited basis by only those students who are not physically able to carry a backpack. Some school districts have begun banning the use of rollerpacks because they clutter hallways, resulting in dangerous trips and falls.

If you or your child experiences any pain or discomfort resulting from backpack use, call your doctor of chiropractic. Doctors of chiropractic are licensed and trained to diagnose and treat patients of all ages and will use a gentler type of treatment for children. In addition, doctors of chiropractic can also prescribe exercises designed to help children develop strong muscles, along with instruction in good nutrition, posture and sleeping habits.

Source: American Chiropractic Association (ACA)

Related studies and articles:

- Backpack safety tips at 'Kids health'

- A useful article from "Web md": Which backpacks are safest for kids, and how to wear backpacks to avoid aches and pains?

- Backpack-related injuries in children

- AOTA has produced a homework tip sheet for parents, to provide strategies that assist families manage the ever-increasing load of homework. We want to show how practitioners can help families live life to its fullest.
Get the pdf version of : Home work tips sheets

- School backpack purchasing guidelines

Learn Doodling to Make You More Creative

Doodles are simple drawings of just a few meaningless lines. You add your own lines -and colour if you like - to create a sketch of anything you like. The point of doodles is not to create art, simply to use your creative vision.




These two picture show you how to do it.

Doodles are a terrific exercise to help you...

- think more creatively

- brainstorm design ideas

- unlock creative mental block

You can use it for:

- General creative exercise
- Getting started on a project when you lack ideas
- Developing into logos

doodles even make a great party game for kids

This is best accomplished by forcing yourself to complete a doodle no matter how inspiring or uninspiring it may be.

Doodles are great creative thinking exercises because they force you to use your creative vision in order to devise a completed picture from a few lines. In addition, they force you to think visually rather than textually as most people do at work. As a result you are thinking in new ways. You are thinking more creatively.

Doodles are also effective brainstorming tools for graphic designers. Designers looking for an image for a project, a logo or a design concept will find that working through a handful of doodles encourages taking a lateral approach to the problem. The result will almost certainly be new ideas and new images.

Art Doodles are more sophisticated doodles with colours and textures. They are especially designed for graphic artists to complete with their favourite graphics programme.

Link: JPB.com

-_Articles about creativity