Monday, November 9, 2009

How Students Can Use Clickademics.com

The problem with school is that it happens at school.

In the old days, memorization was an important part of school. Students would be given lists of terms, names, dates, and other facts which they would commit to memory before the test. Now that technology has made fact retrieval instantaneous with the phone in your pocket, it is the skills that are most important. Students don't need to know facts, they need to know what to do with the facts.

The problem is that skills are harder to learn than facts. You can memorize a list of state capitals, but to know how to write an essay for history, you need to practice. And if you get stuck, you need someone to help.

However, when school happens at school, the best person to help is at school. Your teacher is not sitting next to you at 10:00 the night before your essay is due. Help with academics skills should be as easy to find as facts are.

We created Clickademics.com so that students could get help when they need it, not when the teacher schedules a lecture. We want to fill a number of needs:
  • With more teachers providing project-based learning, students often need to use skills that that were covered in class weeks or months earlier. Students can brush up on the basics on our site when they need it.
  • Every teacher has a teaching style, which is usually they way he or she learns best. This does not always match a student's learning style. Some students need to see a concept taught a couple of different ways before they can truly understand it. Hearing a lesson in class and following it with the same topic on our site from a different teacher can help.
  • Standardized tests are not fair. They cover years' worth or material on one day. Students are tested on math that they have not studied in two or three years. Our site is a great place for Calculus and Trigonometry students to review Algebra and Geometry concepts that could be on exit exams and college entrance exams.
  • Most people would rather watch online video than read textbooks
  • Much of the video out there is poor quality and not easy to watch.
So let our experienced teachers help when and where you need it.

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