EDUCATION

CSC Wins Recompete For Education's Online Library

noreply@blogger.com (hazel) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 04:35:00 +0000

CSC will operate an online digital library for the Education Department under a new five-year contract worth up to $29 million, the company announced today.

CSC will support the department's Education Resources Information Center (ERIC) under the contract. The new agreement has one base year and four one-year options.

The Education Resources Information Center is designed to be a comprehensive, easy-to-use, searchable, Internet-based bibliographic and full-text database of education research and information for educators, researchers, post-secondary faculty and students, parents and the general public, according to CSC.

CSC and Education have worked together for 36 years, according to the company.

In April, the Reference and User Services Association of the American Library Association selected the ERIC Web site as one of the Best Free Reference Web Sites of 2008 for the Machine-Assisted Reference division. ERIC was one of 29 sites recognized by MARS as an outstanding site for reference information. MARS selection criteria included ease of use; currency of content; authority of producer; and quality, depth and usefulness of content, according to the association.

How To Get A Free Education Online

noreply@blogger.com (hazel) — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 09:14:00 +0000

Well, I guess it depends on if you are interested in any of the classes offered, but right now there are thousands of classes and lectures available for free on the internet. And while they might not result in your receipt of a diploma, free online courses help to break down the barriers for some people to attain a higher education. In fact, most colleges offer at least a few online classes for free, so if you have a school that you like, check out their website to see if they have any available. But for those of you just wanting to jump in and take some classes while sitting on the couch, here are some places for you to start looking:

iTunes U – I am a huge Apple nerd, so finding out I could download courses onto my iPhone was pretty cool. iTunes U is a part of the iTunes Store featuring free lectures, language lessons, audiobooks, and more, that you can enjoy on your iPod, iPhone, Mac or PC. Explore over 200,000 educational audio and video files from top universities, museums and public media organizations from around the world. With iTunes U, there’s no end to what or where you can learn.

MIT OpenCourseWare – MIT publishes pretty much all their class materials on the internet for you to dig into. MIT OpenCourseWare is a free publication of MIT course materials that reflects almost all the undergraduate and graduate subjects taught at MIT. How sweet is that?

Creative Commons Learn – Those of us who use a lot of images online know all about Creative Commons, but I had no idea they also had courses available as well! ccLearn is a division of Creative Commons dedicated to realizing the full potential of the internet to support open learning and open educational resources. Their mission is to minimize legal, technical, and social barriers to sharing and reuse of educational materials.

Open University – Talk about tons of random classes! The OpenLearn website gives free access to Open University course materials. This is the LearningSpace, where you’ll find hundreds of free study units, each with a discussion forum. Study independently at your own pace or join a group and use the free learning tools to work with others.

UC Berkeley Webcasts/Courses – Hey look, you can take courses at Berkeley without being around all those liberals! (Kidding, I am one, so no offense). Every semester, UC Berkeley webcasts select courses and events for on-demand viewing via the Internet. webcast.berkeley course lectures are provided as a study resource for students and are not sanctioned as a substitute for going to the course lectures. Of course, you don’t have to go to watch them!

Online Education Database – From the site: “A high quality education doesn’t have to come at a high cost. In fact, it’s possible to take classes from big names like Yale, MIT, and Tufts without ever submitting an application or paying a cent in tuition. We’ve compiled 200 online classes from these and other respected institutions, and you can take all of them with no strings attached.”

Do you ever take classes online? If so, where? After the holidays are past, I plan on taking as many online classes as I can in several different subjects, so please share if you have any personal favorites!

How to Make Math Fun For Kids

noreply@blogger.com (hazel) — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 08:46:00 +0000

Have you ever tried to teach a kid Math who doesn't want to do Math? Does your child love school but have trouble getting motivated to do Math? I homeschool and my daughter loves school work. She's great in every subject (including Math) but it takes her forever to complete her assignments.

1. Making Math fun for kids is easier than you think.

The first way I'm going to tell you about is Treasure Hunt Math. This can be done two ways (you may think of other ways to make it interesting for your children). First, I draw up a map with a big X somewhere on the map. As my daughter finishes a Math problem, we draw a line from one dot to the next. We continue this until we reach the X. If she has 10 problems, I make 10 dots and then the X. If she has more, I have her do two problems per dot, or however it works out to be. Once she finishes her problems she should reach the X. Then she gets a treasure. Sometimes I let her chose from a few things (a bowl of Hershey ice-cream for snack, 10 minutes longer on Art or Bible Study ~ her favorite classes, 1 extra cartoon to watch, etc.). You chose the treasure from what rewards you would normally give your child. Sometimes, I chose the treasure like read an extra book with me, or she gets to chose what's for dinner, etc.

2. The 2nd Treasure Hunt Math is like the above only I take her Math problems and hide them around the house.

When she finishes one problem (or more if she has a lot) she gets an easy clue to find the next problem. We search all over the house and the last problem gives a clue to where the treasure is found. She really loves this way but it is more time consuming and it is hard to get her to sit back down to finish her other work so we do this last when we do it.

3. You can also do a Shopping game.

We go shopping and my daughter helps me add the grocery prices at Food Lion and the shopping prices at Walmart. As we add items to the cart, she adds the total cost. Sometimes we work on rounding the amount per item before adding them together. I will also put something in the cart that I don't need. After she has added the amount, I "change my mind" and we put the item back. This gives her the opportunity to subtract.

4. If your child loves riddles, you can offer a riddle for every 5 Math problems they complete and get right.

If you are creative, you can make your own. If you aren't feeling up to that challenge, there is a website that has some neat riddles ~ http://riddles.com. I'm sure there are others but this one seem geared towards children.

5. If your child is into sports, you can make a game of sports.

If basketball is their thing, then every time they finish 5 Math problems correctly, you play a game of basketball (play to 3 points or something that won't take all day). If your child loves video games, there are some learning games you can get (Wii has a Big Brain Academy that is pretty challenging but a lot of fun).