It is holiday time for school children, however most expect little rest due to preparations for major examinations in the third term. The Internet is a powerful tool for school going students. It provides many resources for information as well as online tools that can assist students to study, research, revise and to build upon what they would have learnt in the classrooms.
So many tools and resources, many of which provide up-to-date, reliable and credible information, can be found online.
These include dictionaries, encyclopaedias, educational games and applications, atlases and calculators.
Zimbabwe is in the process of embracing Information Communication and Technology as well as e-learning in schools, both rural and urban.
Despite this, there is still a long way to go in terms of fully developing and utilising the resources and tools available on the Internet to enhance the education system.
There are very few local resources and tools online (developed locally or otherwise) specifically targeted at Zimbabwe school goers, who have to rely mainly on what has been developed internationally.
One Zimbabwean bred site that is worth mentioning, specifically targeted at students who are examined under the Zimsec Examination Board, is Brainstorm Academy (www.brainstorm.co.zw).
This is a subscription-based service which helps especially those students preparing for ‘O’ and ‘A’ levels examinations. This includes online tutorials, past exam papers amongst other resources.
Another one which is for free is www.revision.co.zw: Here students can find notes and past exam papers.
The website is still under development as the team is still uploading content, however there are quite a number of topics and areas which can be accessed.
Even with this challenge, there are still many resources and tools that can be useful and we are going to explore a few highly recommended sites that students can use.
Refdesk (www.refdesk.com): Short for “Reference Desk”, this site has served as a central point to many of the world’s top dictionaries, encyclopaedias, calculators, atlases, new headlines and search engines. The site also includes a handy Homework Helper section that provides help in all subjects to students at all levels of school.
Fact Monster (www.factmonster.com): This site is more suitable for younger students. The Reference Desk on this site features a layout that is designed for easy fact finding and includes time lines and an almanac, atlas, dictionary and encyclopaedia, as well as a Homework Centre. Students can also search by visually identified topics or by typing in keywords.
Free Translation (www.freetranslation.com): Perfect for language studies, this handy website automatically converts text from one language to another, e.g. English to French or German to Portuguese.
Project Gutenberg (www.gutenberg.org): Just in case books that are required are not available, this site can come to the rescue. You are able to download more than 30 000 free electronic books to read on your computer, iPhone, Kindle or other portable device in a variety of file formats. You can search by title and author or browse their collection, many of which are available in audio editions.
Internet History Sourcebook Project (www.fordham.edu/halsall): This site, sponsored by Fordham University and edited by Paul Halsall, provides older students with access to a collection of public domain and copy permitted historical texts for educational use. It includes collections of primary sources in ancient, medieval and modern history, as well as history of science, women’s history, African history amongst others.
Novelguide.com (www.novelguide.com): This is a reliable and free source for literary analysis of classic and contemporary books such as Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn. The site offers character profiles, metaphor and theme analysis and author biographies.
Shakespeare Online (www.shakespeare-online.com): On this site, visitors can read every play or poem from the world’s most celebrated writer and make some sense of his works with free analysis, Old English translations and famous quotes.
Math.com (www.math.com): This site provides help in a number of mathematics related subjects, including basic grade-school math, calculus, algebra, geometry, trigonometry and statistics.
Practice exercises are automatically graded and this website also features a glossary, calculators, homework tips, math games and lesson plans for teachers.
Science Made Simple (www.sciencemadesimple.com): Science classes are not as easy for some to grasp as they are for others. Junior and high school students can get detailed answers to many science questions, read current news articles related to science, get ideas for school projects and take advantage of unit conversion tables.
How Stuff Works (www.howstuffworks.com): Ever wanted to know why earthquakes happen? How CD burners work? What the sun is made of? These and many other questions related to computers/electronics, vehicles, science, entertainment and people are all answered on the award winning website. Extras include free newsletters, surveys and printable versions of all answers.
Other websites worth looking at:
Student Guide from DiscoverySchool.com (school.discovery.com/students): You can get ideas for science projects, help with homework, puzzles and brainteasers, and take online tutorials on various topics.
High School Ace (highschoolace.com/ace/ace.cfm): This is a free interactive online learning centre for high school students. It includes homework help and quizzes on various topics.
Sparknotes (www.sparknotes.com): This site features plot summaries and study questions for classic works literature, as well as help with homework in Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics, History and other subjects.
As can be seen by the many examples above, there are so many resources that school students can use during the school year for their schoolwork.
This is a challenge to education professionals and application/software/website developers in Zimbabwe — emulate and come up with more local high quality products or solutions, similar to Brainstorm and others featured, that Zimbabwean students from both primary and high school levels can proudly use and rely on.
ZOL Fibroniks Home packages provide the best internet home solutions for accessing the above mentioned online resources seamlessly – as we like to say “You deserve to learn like this!” ZOL ON!