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Learning Resources

Use the Quick Links on the right to browse our general links about learning.
Highlight Site for November: "think, analyze, evaluate, reflect"-- what are your instructors asking you to do, anyway? To find out, check  this site about how Bloom's Taxonomy Blooms Digitally; do the terms "social networking, blogging, Googling, mashing," and "programming" mean more to you?

Academic Integrity and Plagiarism -- honesty is still the best policy
Critical Thinking -- the purpose of education is to learn to think rationally for yourself
Dictionaries and Reference Books Onine -- what the web does well; mountains of neatly interconnected information
  • NYPL Digital Gallery -- "access to over 550,000 images digitized from primary sources and printed rarities in the collections of The New York Public Library, including illuminated manuscripts, historical maps, vintage posters, rare prints and photographs, illustrated books, printed ephemera, and more."
  • OneLook Dictionaries -- links to 13,587,880 words in 1024 specialized dictionaries and glossaries on the Web
  • Visual Thesaurus -- a nice 'mind-map' interactive approach to vocabulary; free use is limited and it's $19.95/yr for an online subscription, but the site also has many good articles and links about language and writing.
  • WordSmyth Electronic Dictionary-Thesaurus -- originally developed at the University of Chicago; users must register FREE for full access. You can create glossaries, quizzes, crossword puzzles, and more.
  • Yourdictionary -- the most comprehensive and authoritative language portal on the web with more than 2500 dictionaries and grammars in over 300 languages from Ainu to Zarma, plus thesauri (thesauruses?), games that build language skills, grammars, articles about language and other specialized dictionaries; created by Professor Robert Beard, former chair of Linguistics at Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania.
General Resources
  • ALA Great Sites -- more than 700 sites picked by the good people at the American Library Association especially for kids, but there's good stuff here for everyone, including how to evaluate websites yourself
  • ARC Links -- from Southwest Tennessee Community College in Memphis. Online notes, tests, and tutorials in many subjects from Accounting and Algebra to Visual Basic and WIndows from colleges all over the world! Lots of material on computers, including C++ and HTML
  • Arts & Letters Daily, a service of The Chronicle of Higher Education brings you "Philosophy, aesthetics, literature, language, ideas, criticism, culture, history, music, art, trends, breakthroughs, disputes, gossip" in a fantastic collection of recent essays, opinions, book reviews, and links that also cover politics, science, and the news.
  • The BBC/ British Broadcasting Corporation-- Much more than a source of Masterpiece Theater! News, sports, weather, and a huge site with everything from AbFab to Zoos.
  • The Big Picture, extraordinary photographs from the Boston Globe. Current news, science, people and places.
  • B.J. Pinchbeck's Homework Helper-- the pioneer of homework sites, with more than 800 resources on arts, humanities, social science, math, and science
  • Calendar of Events -- federal holidays, religious holidays, and various events and observances
  • USA.gov -- the U.S. government's official web portal, well organized and searchable. The feds gather mountains of information, and here it is for you to use!
  • Infomine -- a list of scholarly Internet resource collections, created by college librarians and run by the University of California, Riverside. These are serious web resources, great for research and scholarly work.
  • MagPortal. Articles from 150 popular magazines are indexed by subject and can lead down many a fun and informative path.
  • Martindale's Media Center is a huge collection of links, collected and maintained since 1994, including Libraries, World History, Literature, and, Newspapers. It's not fancy, but the content is solid.
  • Michigan Community Colleges -- links to all their websites; part of the Michigan Community College Association website, including the Virtual Learning Collaborative, home of the state community colleges' online courses and degrees
  • MIT OpenCourseWare (OCW) - 1900 courses from all 34 academic disciplines and all five of MIT's schools; MIT OCW
    * "Is a free and open educational resource for faculty, students, and self-learners around the world."
    * Is a publication of MIT course materials
    * Does not require any registration
    * Is not a degree-granting or certificate-granting activity
    * Does not provide access to MIT faculty.
  • National Public Radio and PBS both have great sites with many links, and Delta Broadcasting is a part of both.
  • Newseum, "the Interactive Museum of News." The physical museum is moving, but there's plenty to see in the online version: online exhibits, and every day the front pages of 764 newspapers from 73 countries around the world, from The Anniston Star of Anniston, Alabama, to Ultimas Noticias from Caracas, Venezuela.
  • RefDesk.com -- thousands, I mean thousands, of links to news, newspapers, facts, stats, fun. Organized and searchable, you oughta be able to find it here.
  • Support 4 Learning is a huge site with many links in dozens of educational topics; its UK location gives a slightly different perspective and many sites you might not otherwise access. The links on Education, Health, and Counselling (British spelling!) are extensive and excellent; browse the Site Map
  • World Lecture Hall "publishes links to pages created by faculty worldwide who are using the Web to deliver course materials in any language." Browse to find class lectures and notes from accounting to zoology. WLH is maintained by the U-Texas at Austin.
Learning and Literacy Online--just because it's on the Net doesn't mean it's good stuff

Search Engines and Directories

How to Search
  • Bare Bones 101-- a basic but excellent tutorial on searching the Web from the Library at the University of South Carolina
  • Internet Tutorials -- from the University at Albany Libraries; good guidance for every aspect, including the "Deep" web 
  • Evaluating Web Resources -- very valuable guidelines from Wolfgram Library at Widener University in Chester, PA.
  • LEO -- Literacy Education Online from St. Cloud State, focussing on the research process and research formats
  • Library Research Guide -- from Stony Brook University for tutorials about successful search strategies, especially on the Net.
  • LINKS -- good tutorials on library and web research from Lansing Community College Library
  • Union County College Library Instruction -- nice, simple instructions from UCC in New Jersey
Net Info
  • Internet Tourbus -- why surf when you can ride the little bus of Internet happiness? Search Patrick and Bob's extensive archives, sign up for their free e-newsletter, or browse the Very Strange Things.
  • LISTSERVs -- CataList, the official catalog of LISTSERV lists-- 51,613 public ones as of 17 November 2009
  • The 46 Best Ever Freeware Utilities from TechSupport.com-- Firefox, firewalls, spyware removal, and more.
  • Urban Legends Reference Pages-- first with the latest nonsense, and very thorough; by Barbara and David P. Mikkelson. Rule #1: Never forward any mass e-mail without checking it here first. And don't forward most of them anyway unless you know how to get rid of all the forwarding clutter that make them multi-KB messages overloadinging your e-mail buddies' mailboxes.
  • Skeptical Inquirer, a good place to sort out all kinds of pseudoscience, quackery, fakery, and general jiggery-pokery.
Learning and Personality Styles--to help you learn how to learn
  • All the Tests links you to a variety of tests that span topics including IQ, EQ, health, personality, career, knowledge, language, relationship, MCSE, SAT, GMAT, GRE, LSAT, and MCAT. Some are just for silly fun, like Are You a British Wannabe? People can create and post their own quizzes here, so caveat quaesitor -- seacher beware!
  • Keirsey Temperment Sorter® II-- are you a Guardian, Artisan, Idealist, or Rational? Test and interpretation online
  • Learning Styles Survey and Strategies -- from Diablo Valley College in California
  • Paragon Learning Styles Inventory -- take, score and interpret this online; similar to the Myers-Briggs.
  • Multiple Intelligences--brief description of Gardner's theory and simple inventory, from the LDPride site
  • VARK --do this latest version of the popular inventory to determine whether your style is Visual, Aural, Read/write, or Kinesthetic
Learning Strategies to Support Student Success -- There are eight million (more or less) learning centers in the world, and they all have help to offer. Here's a collection of some of the best.
  • Understanding University Success-- want to gauge your skills? Download this free study from the Center for Educational Policy Research that examines just what you need to be able to do to succeed in college (and probably anywhere else).
  • Cornell Note paper-- print your own with this GIF file!
  • Group Project Skills -- good links to help that group paper, presentation, or project run smoothly from Georgia Perimeter College
  • HowtoStudy.org-- developed by Lucy MacDonald from Chemeketa Community College in Oregon
  • Learning Centers -- visit the websites of learning centers around the U.S., from the Learning Support Centers in Higher Education site
  • Learning Skills -- good advice on college reading and survival from York University in Toronto
  • Learning Strategies -- study tips, and prep for tests like the GRE from the Center for Academic Success at Louisiana State University. Try the learning style self-tests and Online Workshops.
  • Online Workshops -- aimed at grad school students, but excellent resources for anyone on research, writing, and stress management from the Tomas Rivera Center for Student Success at the U of Texas-San Antonio
  • Skills Handouts -- more than 50 downloadable, printable handouts from the Student Academic Resource Center at the University of Central Florida.
  • Study Guides and Strategies -- online guides and links from the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minnesota; some have been translated into Russian, French, Italian, German, Arabic, and Hindi!
  • Study Skills Links -- lots from the ARC Links at Southwest Tennessee Community College in Memphis
  • Study Strategies-- tools to assess and improve learning skills from the University of Minnesota at Duluth
  • Strategies for Success--lots of information from Middle Tennessee State University and many good links to other sites
  • Test Anxiety Survey-- an online eval with followup suggestions on coping with test anxiety from Wright State U in Ohio
  • T/LC Handouts -- download and print one of our handouts on learning strategies
Libraries Online and E-Texts -- you still need to physically visit a library, if only because the librarians are there to help you with the real books and the wonderful world of cyber-sources

Links updated 17 November 2009

__________________________
Delta College
Teaching/Learning Center, A110

1961 Delta Road

University Center, MI  48710

Phone:  989-686-9314

Fax:  989-686-4131

e-mail:  tlc@delta.edu

1961 Delta Road, University Center MI 48710 | 989-686-9000 | info@delta.edu
Delta College is an Equal Opportunity Employer, committed to excellence through inclusiveness and diversity. Copyright © 2009