Hit the books -- and the computer

As another school year begins, the family computer will be busier than ever with students trying to keep up with homework assignments. Here are some websites worth bookmarking and other tips to help young learners in their scholarly pursuits.

Ask Kids (www.askkids.com)

The newly redesigned Ask Kids is a kid-friendly search portal, but it offers so much more. Aimed at ages 6 to 12, its search results are optimized to return exactly what they might be looking for if they typed in, say, "beagle" -- not the wide-open results of a search engine such as Google. The only drawback is a few "sponsored results" from advertisers. Even though they appear in a shaded box and are labeled, will a second-grader be able to resist clicking on a Target link to "baby beagles"? The invaluable image search -- kids always need a photo for reports -- doesn't have the ads and returns pictures that are appropriate. The Schoolhouse section contains links to a variety of homework-help sites, sorted by subject, and there are a variety of reference tools such as a dictionary and converters for world currency, measurements and more. To top it off, users can customize the look of the site's home page using a built-in drawing tool and virtual stickers.

Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)

It used to be that teachers wouldn't allow students to cite Wikipedia in papers and other work. Even though the user-contributed encyclopedia has made tremendous strides in its accuracy, writing and breadth of subjects, some educators still look down upon it. That doesn't mean it can't be used by older students as a starting point for research. Simply look up a subject to read up on your chosen topic, then scroll to the bottom of the page. For most entries, you'll find hyperlinked references to the websites from where much of the information was drawn. Those are the ones that can be cited in reports and explored for more detail.

CliffsNotes (www.cliffsnotes.com)

CliffsNotes' ubiquitous study guides have been helping young procrastinators catch up on famous literary works and other subjects since the dawn of pop quizzes -- or at least it seems that way. Remarkably, their entire contents are all available online for free, from "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" to "Wuthering Heights," and dozens of titles in between. You can even download some of them as a CramCast, an audio summary that can be transferred to an iPod or other MP3 player. With the Ask Cliff homework-help feature, students who plan ahead can submit questions about things they don't understand or that don't show up in a search of the study guides. The site is invaluable.

SparkNotes (www.sparknotes.com)

Not surprisingly, CliffsNotes competitor SparkNotes also offers a comprehensive site with free study materials. Although it also focuses on classic literature, SparkNotes plays up its reference material for other subjects, such as biology and history, more than its rival. It also makes its SparkCharts, condensed graphical guides on various topics, available to explore using a built-in viewer. One indispensable, unique feature is its No Fear Shakespeare (nfs.sparknotes.com), which takes the Bard's 16th-century writing and juxtaposes it side-by-side with modern English translations. So a kid who doesn't get "To be, or not to be? That is the question" can see that Hamlet is wondering, "The question is: Is it better to be alive or dead?" Cool.

Two worthwhile add-ons

Although the previous entries recommend sites worth bookmarking and visiting regularly, the following sites offer free programs to download and install on your computer to help with schoolwork. StudyMinder LITE (www.studyminder.com/details.html) is an electronic student planner that helps kids track homework assignments, create to-do lists and manage steps toward long-term projects. The program is available only for PCs, but Mac users can try the similar freeware Task List 5.2 (www.pure-mac.com/downloads/tasklistdl.html). Another handy tool for traversing all of the websites is ClipMagic (www.clipmagic.com). The free clipboard manager allows PC users (Mac users can try Jumpcut at jumpcut.sourceforge.net) to easily grab material and sort it by subject as they browse for material and then access it later for reading or pasting into reports. It has earned straight As, and maybe your favorite student will, too, with these online tips.

Randy A. Salas • 612-673-4542