Writing and researching are two of the most important skills students can learn before their college years. Yet, everywhere—from brief op-eds in Psychology Today to full-fledged debates in The Atlantic—discussions on our students’ poor literacy rates and declining academic integrity abound. Some demonize technology for the declining ability of students to compose a paragraph, but why not embrace the new tools available that grant access to some of English’s deeper mysteries? We’ve found eight great resources that—with a little guidance—could greatly enhance your students’ writing and research skills, both at your school and in their future communicative endeavors.
Typing
Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing
Students must know how to type—not just send text messages—to communicate in professional and formal academic settings. One classic typing program, Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing, has been around since the early 90s and is still relevant for students trying to improve their self-taught pen-pecking style.
Dragon Dictation
Sometimes, though, typing can be difficult for some students. The Dragon dictation software can “learn” a student’s voice, which could make it a good solution for audible learners. It claims to be five times faster than typing, meaning long assignments can be “typed” in a jiffy.
Research & Resources
Audible & Kindle Unlimited
Both Audible and Kindle Unlimited are literary services offered through Amazon, the famous online retailer. Audible provides a monthly audiobook subscription service, while Kindle Unlimited offers a huge selection of electronic texts, magazines, newspapers, and audiobooks for about $10 a month. If students want access to high-quality stories and instruction manuals but don’t always have time to hit the library for a physical book, audiobooks and e-readers offer a great alternative.
Wikipedia
Yes, this online encyclopedia obtains its information via “crowdsourcing,” allowing just about anyone to write on various topics within its articles. But, through a rigorous editing and citation system, Wikipedia has been found to be just as accurate as the Encyclopaedia Britannica, the seminal source for “authoritative” research, as reported in a 2005 Nature study, though researchers did say that the quality of Wikipedia’s writing was poorer than that of the professionally edited printed encyclopedia. Keeping this and other studies in mind, Wikipedia can be a fantastic resource for brief overviews and topic introductions for students.
Check Your Work
Dictionary.com & Thesaurus.com
Gone are the days when dictionaries were bought fresh off the presses and slipped beneath every student’s desk. The online dictionary staple, Dictionary.com, offers students a free and quick way to decipher complicated or esoteric vocabulary, both through the primary site and a downloadable app.
Its sister site, Thesaurus.com, provides synonyms and antonyms for students striving to avoid repetition and redundancy. (As with any thesaurus, students should be trained on the difference between a word’s connotation and its denotation before using a thesaurus.)
Grammarly
Grammarly is to spellcheck what a graphing calculator is to an abacus. Not only can it check essays for simple spelling errors, but it also checks for grammar within the context of the broader paper via either the website or a downloadable app. Of course, nothing can take the place of a teacher’s instruction in basic grammar, but for the student who generally understands the language and is caught on relatively simple missteps, it could be a great help.
Did we miss any great applications or programs? Share your “secret weapons” in the comments below or on Twitter using #isminc!
Additional ISM resources:
ISM Monthly Update for Business Managers Vol. 10 No. 1 Five Online Management Tools
ISM Monthly Update for School Heads Vol. 10 No. 4 Web Resources on Key Topics
ISM Monthly Update for Division Heads Vol. 12 No. 6 20 Free Online Resources for School Administrators
Additional ISM resources for Gold Consortium members:
I&P Vol. 26 No. 13 Estimates of Constituent Income: Salary Resources Online
I&P Vol. 26 No. 6 Sexual Orientation, Harassment, and Victimization: Resources for Administrators and Teachers
