college and graduate students
students in grades 6 - 12
students in grades K - 6
home schooling
iTunesU - "possibly the world's greatest
collection of free educational media available to students, teachers
and lifelong learners"; more than 100,000 educational audio and
video files (many of the separate educational resources listed below
can be accessed through iTunesU)
click
here to download iTunes without charge; to access iTunesU
from the iTunes home screeen, click on the iTUnes Store button
on the upper left and choose iTunesU
MIT
Open Courseware - The Masschusetts Institute of Technology
has published almost all the course content for more than 1800 of
its courses on the web, including substantial and audiovisual material.
A fun way to browse these academic offerings is with the MIT
Lecture Browser, which provides access to videorecordings of
lectures with synchronized transcripts
Openculture.com - a directory of "the best free cultural and educational media on
the web"; includes listings for university video collections (including
the University of California system), foreign language lessons,
business and law school lectures, musical performances, etc.
OpenCourseWare
Consortium - access to open educational content from more
than 200 higher education institutions from around the world, including
the University of Notre Dame, Tufts University, University of Tokyo,
etc.
UChannel/University
Channel - "a collection of public affairs lectures, panels
and events from academic institutions from around the world" made
available in video and audio format by Princeton University's Woodrow
Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.
Open
Yale Courses - provides "free and open access to a selection
of introductory courses taught by distinguished teachers and scholars
at Yale University"; available in video, audio, and text transcript
format.
TED.com ("Ideas Worth Spreading") - 18-minute video talks on Technology,
Entertainment and Design given at the annual TED conference since
1984; 200 talks are archived at the site.
LiveMocha.com:
a language learning site that provides free self-study lessons as
well as "total-immersion" practice by connecting members with native
speakers from around the world; English, Spanish, French, German,
Mandarin Chinese, Russian, Italian, Portuguese, Hindi, Icelandic
and Japanese are supported.
Edufire.com ("live video learning"): connect online with foreign language teachers
from around the world for tutorials and group lessons (not free;
charges set by individual tutors)
Bartleby.com online access to Harvard Classics - the 50-volume anthology
of classics that constituted a widely-respected approach to self-education
in the early 20th century.
Digital
Librarian - "a librarian's choice of the best of the web";
an eclectic and sophisticated collection of websites.
Open
Textbooks for Community College Students The Community College
Consortium for Open Education Resources is working to create and
make available high quality content for community college courses.
Connexions - Launched at Rice University in 1999, this open-education site
is "a place to view and share educational material made of small
knowledge chunks called modules that can be organized as courses,
books, reports, etc. Anyone may view or contribute"; could be called
the "textbook equivalent of Wikipedia"; has more than 8000 modules
covering a wide variety of academic subjects.
MERLOT (Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching)
- A collection of more than 20,000 peer-reviewed materials appropriate
for higher education online learning. 14 "academic discipline communities"
ranging from biology to world languages are supervised by highly
qualified editorial boards.
P2PU/Peer
2 Peer University - an "online community of open-study groups
for short university-level courses"; this is a new open-education
concept almost ready to launch
The World Wide Web Virtual Library - started
by Tim Berners-Lee, creator of the web, this is a collection of
high-quality guides to various areas of the web, maintained by volunteers
who are expert in those areas; some are more up-to-date than others,
including www.chemistryguide.org
Academic Research Databases available through
ICONN, Connecticut's Digital Library, which can be used at the
library and from home. While ICONN offers more than 25 databases,
those listed below are of particular value to college students
Information from magazines and journals
General One-File ICONN's largest collection of
articles from magazines, newspapers, academic journals and trade
publications; currently including more than 76 million articles
(consists of seven databases, including the college-level resources
described immediately below)
Expanded Academic ASAP A collection designed
to meet the needs of college and graduate students, offering
access to more than 16 million full-text articles covering all
academic areas
Academic OneFile an authoritative and comprehensive
information collection, providing more than 27 million full-text
articles from the world's leading academic journals and reference
sources; outstanding resource for professionals and students
Primary Sources
Biography Resource Center This comprehensive
collection includes more than 400,000 articles from a combination
of 135 biographical reference sources, 325 magazine and newspaper
sources, and Marquis Who's Who.
History Reference Center the "world's most
comprehensive" full-text history database designed for high
school and college students; includes articles from 2,400 history
books, references and encyclopedias; 130 history periodicals;
61,000 historical documents; 110,000 photographs and maps; and
more than 80 hours of historical videos
On-line study sites
These sites offer a wide range of academic review
materials, ranging from assistance with specific math or science
problems to comprehensive summaries of literary works. Some sites
offer most or all of their material without charge; others ask web
visitors to register or pay a small subscription fee. Students are
expected to use the resources offered by these sites in a manner
consistent with academic ethics.
Cramster
homework help for math, science, engineering, and business classes
Course
Hero study materials, textbook help
eNotes
literature study guides
Koofers
study guides, past exams, quizzes, notes
Sparknotes
study guides for literature and other academic areas
Cliffsnotes
best known for its literature guides
PinkMonkey.com
study guides and analysis for more than 450 works of literature
History, Geography and Current Events
New
York Times Learning Network
an efficient and entertaining way to keep up with the news
Best
of History Websites
"aims to provide quick, convenient, and reliable access to the best
history resources online"
Portals
to the World
The Library of Congress has selected online resources providing
"authoritative, in-depth information about the nations and other
areas of the world".
Country
Studies and Country Profiles
now published by the Library of Congress, originally produced by
the U. S. Army to provide information on lesser-known areas of the
world; periodic updates
Math and Science
Math
and Science Gateway
"links to resources in mathematics and science for educators and
students in grades 9-12"
WebElements:
the periodic table on the web
comprehensive presentation of the chemical elements; well-organized
and easy-to-use
Webmath
Stumped by a question in your math homework? Enter your specific
problem, and Webmath shows you how to solve it
The
Why Files:
"the science behind the news"
Writing and Grammar
Joel
Barlow High School Student Writing Tools
Purdue
University On-Line Writing Lab (OWL)
loaded with helpful advice and resources
Writing
Guides from the Writing Studio at Colorado State University
guidance on the process of writing
English
Usage, Style and Composition resources on Bartleby.com
select references on usage and composition for careful writers
Grammar
Girl
prefer to listen to grammar advice? then try Grammar Girl's podcasts
thefreedictionary.com
- excellent English dictionary and thesaurus; ten other languages
Wordreference.com
- distinctive approach to definitions and word usage; 15 languages
besides English
ALA
(American Library Association) "Great Websites for Kids"
Dewey
Browse: websites for K-12 students organized by the Dewey
Decimal classification system
Fact
Monster: combines content from an encyclopedia, a dictionary,
an atlas, and a number of almanacs
Franklin
Institute "Educational Hotlists": websites on science, education,
and culture, selected by the Franklin Institute
Gateway
to Astronaut Photography of Earth
IPL
(Internet Public Library) KidSpace
The Multnomah County Public Library in Oregon has
compiled outstanding lists of homework web sites.
Multnomah
County Library Homework Center
Multnomah
County Library: other homework reference sources
Kidsclick!
Websearch for kids by librarians
Blue
Web'n : a "library of blue-ribbon learning sites on the
web"; websites sorted by grade and subject and chosen by teachers
Discovery
Education Home Resources: a collection of free videos offering
homework help in math, science, English and social studies
A
to Z Home's Cool: an impressive compendium of home schooling
resources
Beestar.org
("Kids' Community for Academic Excellence") provides "curriculum-based
online programs for school kids, in math, English/language arts,
science. social studies, and gifted-and-talented math". The math
exercises are free; the other programs are available for a modest,
per-semester fee.
Beginning
Homeschooling (EHO Lite): part of Eclectic Home School Online,
which provides support for Christian-focused home schooling, but
also offers a wealth of information on home-schooling resources
that are not religion-based
Education
Planet/Lesson Planet - more than 150,000 teacher-reviewed
lesson plans for K-12 classes (material accessible only after paying
a modest annual fee)
Home
Education magazine - provides homeschooling information
and resources (including the "unschooling" movement"
Homeschooling
Resources (About.com)
National
Home Education Research Institute: an advocacy and research
organization focusing on the homeschooling movement
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