Good Online Learning Resources

While many of us are spending time at home, we will focus on online learning resources for personal use, work and school. We have gathered together some of the tools we use at SDM. Also, some of the best round-up posts that have been published recently to help people navigate the current situation. Our suggestions are by no means exhaustive, but will hopefully help you get started, or keep going!

Learning Resources

One of the tools that we use regularly in the shop is GCF Learn Free. This website has online tutorials across many subject areas. We use it for Microsoft Office, Email, the Internet, Online Safety, Workplace Skills, Applying for Jobs, Writing, Reading, Photos and Design, Social Media… You name it! Take a look at their website and see what’s available. If you’d like advice on where to start, send us an email and we’d be happy help.

If you’re interested in a wider range of topics, this list from Lifehack, 25 Killer Sites For Free Online Education, has some great links. 

For more specifics, let us know by phone or email what you want. We’ll do our best to help you find an online resource!

Work Resources

For some of us, working from home may be a new experience. A successful work at home day may look quite different to your normal experience. There are tools and resources that you can use to make it easier!

One of the questions that we’ve been asked most often during work-from-home is for help with video conferencing options. If your company doesn’t already use specific online meeting tools, you may want to consider setting up a Zoom account. This will help you to keep in touch with colleagues and/or customers/clients. We have just published a video and blog post to help you get started: How to Set Up Zoom and Join a Meeting. Take a look at this, and let us know if you have any questions. 

As you can probably imagine, working from home is also a popular topic online right now. Many of our favorite websites, and online newspapers and magazines, are sharing their tips. Below is a selection of the best articles we have found so far!

Articles:

PC Mag: 20 Tips for Working From Home
NPR: 8 Tips To Make Working From Home Work For You
NPR: Coronavirus Triple Duty: Working, Parenting, And Teaching From Home
Hubspot: How to Work From Home: 20 Tips From People Who Do It Successfully
Fortune: Your tips for working from home…with kids
How-to Geek: The Best Work From Home Apps for iPhone and Android

The Lifewire website has a whole section dedicated to Work from Home resources: Work@Home. including tips and technical how-tos. Head over to check out their articles. 

This is a new experience for many of us and we are all learning as go. As always, if you have any questions, please give us a call or send us an email!

Student Resources

Here we’ve gathered together some round-up posts that might also be useful. Here are some technology related opportunities that could be included in your students day to supplement their experience!

This is a great round-up of the companies that are (at time of writing) offering free subscriptions. The Kid Activities Blog’s Here’s the Entire List of Education Companies Offering Free Subscriptions Due to School Closings. And, How-to Geek’s The Best Resources for Free Books, Movies, and Games.

An online learning resource that we often recommend is Common Sense Media. They have created a dedicated page on their website: Resources for Families During the Coronavirus Pandemic. They also have resources for teachers: Resources for Educators During the Coronavirus Pandemic. This is also a great round-up of Free Online Events and Activities for Kids at Home. We’d also like to highlight the Common Sense Wide Open School. Common Sense Media provides expert reviews, objective advice and helpful tools for parents and educators and is a great place to start when looking for age appropriate online programs, games and tools for kids.

If you’re looking for specific technical learning resources, we highly recommend Scratch as an introduction to coding. If you’d like help getting started with this, give us a call and we can talk you through the basics.

We also love Khan Academy for free resources in math, science, coding and much more, and Codecademy which offers it’s basic learn to code resources for free. Check out this article, Coding for Kids: Free and Cheap Websites That Teach Kids Programming, from Mommy Poppins for more free, and paid for, options. 

Additional Lists

Lifehack has this article of cool and useful sites, many of which are great for the youngest users. Peep And the Big Wide World for example involves problem solving and science concepts, and will keep them entertained! PBS Kids also has many educational games for younger students. For the slightly older set, any list must include well known choices like Minecraft, which is clearly a popular, entertaining and educational site! Another good option are the games at National Geographic. 

Other online resources:

You could also search online for virtual field trips. Many museums and national parks offer virtual tours. YouTube is a fantastic resource for tutorials, for example online art classes and is a great place to find exercise classes too. 

There are so many resources out there that we can access from home, what will you do today?