Geek Speak…Using The Computer To Learn

Computers and education are becoming more and more directly linked.  Most schools have computer labs and it is getting harder to do most assignments without a computer either at home or with available computers at school or the library.  There has been an explosion of educational programs tailored to school curriculum as well as general interest educational products.  This is one of the best and most positive aspects of the computer’s wide-spread acceptance.

But,how about the rest of us (the ones not in school)?  Happily,there are large numbers of programs and on-line resources that give us access to incredible amounts of information and learning opportunities.  Here are just a few.

College courses.  Most colleges offer on-line courses.  They can be for credit or just informational.  Some are free but many charge a fee for enrolling,particularly if they are instructor monitored (which means that you can get input from a course instructor as you do you lessons) and almost all of them charge if you want college credits upon completion.  Go to http://education-portal.com/articles/Universities_with_the_Best_Free_Online_Courses. html for a list of some of the best free courses.

Training and information.  A couple of my favorites among the commercial programs that are designed for kids but are fun for adults as well are the Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing program and the Carmen SanDiego series which teaches geography and history.  I have enjoyed using these even though I got them originally for my kids.  An excellent on-line list of free educational sites on a variety of subjects is available at http://www.enhancedproducts.us/site/741468/page/173180.  A couple of super companies that teach computer skills through computer guided education are Video Professor (Word,Excel,PowerPoint,Photoshop,etc.) at http://www.videoprofessor.com/ or LearnKey (Business oriented training) at http://www.learnkey.com/products.

Public and Home-School Curriculum.  There are many sites that include public core-curriculum standards and information as well as complete curriculums for home-schoolers.  A couple that may interest you are http://www.uen.org/core/ and http://www.k12.com/.

There are a lot more –just use Google or other search engines and look for what you are interested in.  As always,keep backups of anything important,stay safe and happy computing.

Shaun McCausland has been in the computer industry for 27 years (locally with Musicomp &Bits ‘N’Bytes) and currently does in-home and on-site computer consultation,service,training and repair. If you have questions,you can reach him at 668-7118.