A high school student preparing for SAT’s or ACT’s will find these sites to be more fun than practice tests. Some may even become addicted to the challenge.
Word Definitions and Feeding the World
A favorite site is FreeRice. For every correct answer, sponsors of the site buy rice and donate it to hunger programs such as the United Nations World Food Programme. Wrong answers earn no rice, but the correct answer is shown, so that learning can occur. Stay on the site long enough and that word will come up again and the player gets a chance to show what they have learned.
As the correct answers and rice accumulate, the difficulty level increases. Languages other than English are available, but they are meant to test native English speakers who have limited knowledge of a second language. Math, geography, art or chemistry can also be selected as subjects.
Crossword puzzles are a great way to both increase vocabulary and learn about the world around us. The beginner should know that it’s best to start slowly and not go directly to the Sunday New York Times puzzle. Begin wherever it’s comfortable. A good beginner site is at Boatload Puzzles, but there are many other sites on line, including some accessible from local newspaper sites.
Scrabble can be a fun way to improve vocabulary. Lexulous is one of the most popular free scrabble sites. Play against a computer software opponent or play against a live person at these sites. Registration is required for advanced features and for play against live people.
Kids Can Play Too
Some kid friendly sites include their own games. Fun Brain has number games as well as word games. Funschool has a really fun game for matching words to their meanings called Wild Word West. Boys in particular will like this game, because it involves movement and word play.
Repetition without the Boredom
Just like athletes’ muscles need exercising, brains need the exercise of learning and the challenge of testing. Internet games provide a method of testing where the grade is immediate, but private. Players find out that they made mistakes, and as incentive to learn the correct answer, they are provided with repetition of the question for points or prizes or free rice.
Repetition is important in learning. Pathways in the brain are cemented with repetition so that future recall will be easier. Games like these make the process of learning through repetition more palatable. In a school setting, repetition is not always possible due to time constraints. A simple home method of applying internet games to the task can only help students with comprehension and retaining word definitions, especially the learners who need the stimulation of graphics.
No one would suggest that internet learning by itself is an adequate education, but properly used it can be fun and helpful. The most helpful aspect of the internet is the constant addition of new material and games. Even the most erudite adult can always find something new on the net, and when the old sites mutate or dissappear, something else will take their place to make learning a fun activity.
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