Internet as a Homework Helper Tool for Moms: 2007

Internet as a Homework Helper Tool for Moms

Introduction

My name is Raquel Ott, I work in the Youth Wing here at Mathews Library, and I also work full time at Bullfrogs and Butterflies, working in the Nursery.

The reason why I decided to teach this class, was because I have been surrounded by moms and kids for the last 2 years both at the daycare and at the library, and I realized that most moms have a hard time finding information online for their kids. Most just use google as their main researching tool. After this class, I hope you will be able to find what you are looking for when you are trying to help your child find homework help online.

I’ll be sharing with you some ideas that will make it easier for you to help your school aged children with their homework, and therefore help them succeed and make your life easier. We will be using general reference tools geared toward children and homework help specific for their needs. We’ll also talk about some tips that will help you “google” more efficiently.

There is an infinity of wonderful websites out there. We could talk about each one of them and it would take us months to cover it all, and by the time we were done talking about those, new ones would have been made and we would have to start all over again. For this class, we will be focusing on a few great websites, which we will be exploring step by step using some examples.

After each key website is presented, you will be asked to practice what you just learned, through some very simple exercises. I will only cover a few websites in this class, but it should be enough to give you an idea on how to use websites similar to these in the future. I also have an extensive list of great links that you will be able to browse at your own pace after this class, and hopefully you will have all the skills you need to find information on those websites after we’re finished with this tutorial.

Links we’ll talk about today are “Fact Monster”, “Ask for Kids”, “Google” and “Webmath”. Only a sample of the best online resources there are out there.

On “Fact Monster”, we will talk about what “Fact Monster” is, by reading its “Help” page. After doing some readings on the website, we will follow with an activity, to make sure we understand how to use it.

On “Ask for Kids” we will read about it, what it stands for, what purpose it serves (by reading its “About” and “Help” page) and how we use it, then we will put our new skills to practice by running a simple search and then a subject search.

The next website, Google, our good old google, we will learn how to improve our search skills so that we search more efficiently and find specific results by doing a reading on Boolean terms and then running a search using the tools learned from that reading. We will also read “About Google”, how to make the best of it.

Webmath is our sample Math website. We will read “About Webmath” then we will follow up with an exercise to help make sure we know how to use it.

For the purpose of this class, I will use Power Point, which I will use to guide you through every step of the way. Each one of you will follow (…) on your screen, using the website as your guide.

Fact Monster

The first website we’re going to talk about is Fact Monster.com. Fact Monster is a kids’ reference website brought to you by the editors of Information Please (Infoplease).

To begin with, let’s all go to factmonster.com by clicking on the underlined link http://www.factmonster.com/index.html .

We will start by reading something really important that is the Help page. It is very important, when using a new website, to familiarize yourself with it, by reading its “About Us”, “FAQ” and “Help” page. Always look for these 3 little terms when browsing a new website; it can tell you a lot about a website. On this one we will also read its “Site Map”. It is always good to make sure the information is updated regularly and that there’s a way for you to contact the authors (look for “Contact Us”), and that the authors know what they are writing about.

Alright then, on to our tour of Fact Monster.com. Let’s click on “Help” on the top right of the page. Let’s read through it. This part of the website seems to be very straight forward.

Now, let’s see what we can do with this tool. Let’s start by looking up “Vietnam War” and see what we can find out about it.

Activity: Find the search box In the main screen of http://www.factmonster.com/index.html , at the top right of the page. Let’s type in “Vietnam war” and hit “GO”.

It should give you several pages of on topic results, most of them from very good sources like Kids’ Almanac, Encyclopedia and Dictionary.

If you know what you are looking for, you can also use the subjects on the website. In this case, if you wanted to go the long way, you can go back to the main page, then click on “Homework Help” under “Reference Desk” at the bottom left of the page. In the next page, click on “History” then scroll down to where it says “Wars”, and click on it. Under “Wars”, you scroll down until you find “Vietnam War” (there are more than one results), and click on the result that best fits your search.

The same goes for most Encyclopedias and ready-reference websites.

You can either type in your search in the search box or you can use the subjects or directory to narrow down to what you are searching for.

Ask for Kids

The second website we’re going to be looking into is Ask for Kids. Ask for Kids is a fast, easy and kid-friendly way for kids to search online. It is designed to be a fun destination site focused on learning and “edu-tainment”. It uses natural-language technology that allows kids to ask questions and perform web searches, using real questions instead of regular search terms.

Let’s start by clicking on http://www.askforkids.com/ .

Cool look, huh?

Now, for our first exercise, let’s explore it by clicking on some very important words on this page. Remember our favorite little words when using a new website? Yes, “About” and “Help”. And this website also has a link for “Parents”, all of them on the top right of the page. It doesn’t hurt to read their privacy policy either.

After reading those pages, you should be ready to do your first search on ask for kids.

Activity: Ready? Now, for our exercise for this tool, let’s do a search, anything you can think of, that your school age child could want to search. Share your results with your classmates.

Now that you did a regular search, try using the subjects (books) on the right hand side of the page to find the same results. How did that work?

Google

Google. Oh Google. It seems to be the search engine of choice nowadays. It’s a shame most people don’t get the best out of it. In this part of this class, we will briefly talk about some tips that will make it easier for you to find information faster and more precisely.

Keep in mind that, when using a search engine, you have to be very specific with your keywords.

Like we did with the previous websites, why not start by looking for the magic words here as well? Find any? Let’s try “About Google”. Click on “About Google”.For this class, let’s focus on web search. So, under “Help with searching, shopping and browsing the web” find “web search”. Click on it. On the “Web Search Help Center” page, on the left hand side, click on “Basics of Search”, under “Search Guides” (that should be a good start for today, make sure to get back to it later to read more on it).

In order for us to use regular search engines like google better, we need to talk about something called Boolean terms.

Let’s start by reading this tutorial on Boolean Searching from Internet Tutorials. Click on http://www.internettutorials.net/boolean.html .

Activity: Now that we read it, let’s try and put it to practice. Let’s go to www.google.com .

Let’s look for Homework Help. Based on the tutorial we just read, use the Boolean terms freely, adding and switching so that you will find the most on topic results.

Share your results with the class.

Webmath

For our next website, Web Math, let’s click on http://www.webmath.com/

Next, let’s see if we can find our favorite words on this page. See anything? (Help, FAQ, About, About us). I do! I see “About Webmath”. Let’s click on it and see what they have to say about the website. Let’s read through it.

Activity: For our activity for this tool, let’s get back to the homepage http://www.webmath.com/ . Click on the down arrow to find “Fractions, Dividing”.

Thursday, May 3, 2007

Internet as a Homework Helper Tool for Moms

Internet as a Homework Helper Tool for Moms

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