Featured
Education
Sugar Editorial Picks
Have You Taken Any Courses From iTunes U Yet?
iTunes U has been around for some time now offering up cool courses from schools around the country that you can download straight to your iPod Touch or iPhone. I don't know what took me so long, but I just took a few free courses on video editing over the past week and I gotta tell ya: it's pretty awesome.
I take public transportation every day to work, so being able to brush up on math, grammar, and even astronomy during my commute seems like time well spent.
Geek Tip: Expand Your Vocabulary With a Little Online Help
I've heard that the key to mental longevity is to always keep your mind open to learning new things. One easy way is to adopt a few new words and use them in your daily conversations. Surely you don't want to sit around all day, flipping through a thesaurus, so let me introduce you to Save the Words.
Website of the Day: Documentary Heaven
So you've finally gotten to your Summer destination spot, are ready to bask in the sunshine, but you end up getting stuck with rain for the duration of your trip. You can either pull out some books, rent some expensive movies, or you can head to Documentary Heaven and watch some free educational films.
This site which I came across on makeuseof can easily be accessed on an iPhone or laptop and offer documentaries ranging in a wide variety of categories such as evolution, law, psychology, and space.
Flash Card App Keeps the Kids Sharp All Year Round
When I was a kid, I remember getting out a stack of my mom's recipe cards and making my very own set of math flash cards. I'd like to think they helped me learn my times tables, but nonetheless, it was useful practicing in the Summer months because I'd be ahead of the game when school started.
Whether you've got children, young cousins, or brothers and sisters that are in the throws of learning arithmetic, this Math Flash Cards iPhone app is a great way to test them on all the basics.
Website of the Day: Lynda
In this competitive job market, you have to stay on top of your game, so brushing up on your skills (or learning a few new ones) is essential to getting the job you want. I can't tell you how many people I know who have lost their jobs and decided to take a class at their local community college to learn a new skill. This is great, but they'll also be spending the next six to 12 weeks in a classroom every Thursday night while watching tons of job listings change from "Wanted" to "Filled."
State of Maine Gives MacBooks to Every Public School Student
How times have changed since I was in high school, when the only thing you got for free was a dented locker: The state of Maine has agreed to provide Apple MacBooks to every public school student, grades 7 through 12.
The Maine Department of Education has already ordered over 64,000 laptops for students and staff, to make Maine the first and only US state to ensure that every public school kid in middle and high school has a laptop to work on. The students are allowed to use the computers at school and take them home, but they have to return them at the end of the school year to pass to the next classes.
Hit the Books: Facebook Makes Your Grades Drop
Maybe it's time to sign off the social and start studying, hmm? A recent study examining the academic impact of Facebook has shown that people who use the site on a daily basis are more likely to earn lower grades than their peers — as much as whole letter grades!
The inevitable conclusion is that the site is a big time-waster (although I've noticed I spend less time on Facebook since its latest redesign, so thank you for that time back, FB), causing students to sacrifice the time they should have spent studying.
Twitter to Be Taught in School: What Else Should Be Taught?
Remember back to the subjects you were taught in school; imagine then if you'd sat through a class on Twitter; learned the ins and outs of Wikipedia. That's the future my friends, at least in Britain: it seems that Twitter, Wikipedia, podcasting, and blogging will be taught in UK schools.
This will all be taught before the age of 11, and while, sure, we don't know how long the first two services will be around in their present incarnations, I suppose it's not entirely shocking that the curriculum is changing to reflect the times.
Wii Music Gets Ready For Class
Almost as heartwarming as the story about the senior citizens enjoying the Wii at retirement communities, Nintendo has just announced that it is partnering with The National Association for Music Education to bring Wii Music into the classroom.
Spanning across 51 cities, Nintendo will have music teachers use the game to help children get enthused about music and teach them about song structure, rhythm, and tempo.
I think as long as Wii Music is used in a manner that complements music lessons, then I'm all for it, but used solely on its own, not so much.
Geek Tip: Put Together a Bibliography Online
For all my students, I hate to interrupt your Winter breaks to give you some school advice, but if I can make your upcoming semester a little less painful, then I've done my job.
My most hated task when I was in school was putting together bibliographies for papers. You had to know the format, all the book's info, where to indent.
More on GeekSugar
Holiday
Top Brands
IRO
Mothercare
Milano