Online educational websites

neutralvu

What do ye think of the use of paid online resources for kids in secondary school? Esp leaving cert? For or against? I see some charge 100 euro a year membership and others 30 euro a month.

Do alot of teachers encourage it for their students and use it themselves or do they even know its there at all?

seavill

The only websites I encourage my classes to are free ones. All the info is out there for free just a matter of finding it.

During the leaving very there was a website spoken about in the leaving cert forum which had "expert predictions" for about 5 subjects by giving sample papers.
I really didn't believe all the claims so I bought one paper to test it and give feedback before any lc students waste money. It was about €10 for one paper.
Most of the solutions were scanned notes but they were ancient they were actually typed pages from a typewriter not a computer so you can imagine how old they were. A disgrace wouldn't describe it.
So my opinion would be if it's out there it's out there for free.
These companies prey on the insecurities and vulnerabilities of kids who are under pressure

evolving_doors

seavill wrote: »

The only websites I encourage my classes to are free ones. All the info is out there for free just a matter of finding it.

During the leaving very there was a website spoken about in the leaving cert forum which had "expert predictions" for about 5 subjects by giving sample papers.
I really didn't believe all the claims so I bought one paper to test it and give feedback before any lc students waste money. It was about €10 for one paper.
Most of the solutions were scanned notes but they were ancient they were actually typed pages from a typewriter not a computer so you can imagine how old they were. A disgrace wouldn't describe it.
So my opinion would be if it's out there it's out there for free.
These companies prey on the insecurities and vulnerabilities of kids who are under pressure

:eek: Ten euro on a typewriter for 1 paper....

Just took a selfie there..



I haven't seen these notes sites with predictions and frankly, if you are depending on predictions yer on a hiding to nothing!!
Although, I believe for some subjects like english you can play the odds to some degree.

Come to think of it, I have seen some teachers on their own site put up study notes for sale alright but it's more of a study aid with overviews and names of topics etc. kind of revision thing.

implausible

Slightly off-topic, but scoilnet is being redesigned and updated to make it like an Irish version of tes.co.uk and it's free!

neutralvu

Hahaha nice snap there! That the new windows 8.1?
Im talking more about the websites? Between grinds n membership fees for websites its alot. But is there worth to the websites? Whats tge best features they have or could do with having?

rainbowtrout

neutralvu wrote: »

What do ye think of the use of paid online resources for kids in secondary school? Esp leaving cert? For or against? I see some charge 100 euro a year membership and others 30 euro a month.

Do alot of teachers encourage it for their students and use it themselves or do they even know its there at all?

I direct mine to websites that are free. I don't see the point in suggesting that they pay for notes when they don't need to.

Often some of the stuff on these websites is just a rehash of everything you can get on examinations.ie. Why anyone would pay for a website subscription or app when you can download direct from the source?

seavill

Can I ask are you thinking of setting up a website or what? You have posted this in 3 different forums to get the different perspectives I presume but your questioning seems to surely a website is as good as grinds?

Are you hoping to set one up or what angle are you coming from, I think obviously grinds has much greater potential for 1-1 interaction and specific instructions rather than just a set of notes, someone mentioned on the LC forum about videos, again unless these are specific skype calls there is no added benefit to a website with vids over a grind as you are obviously getting specific direction from grinds rather than just a set of notes.
As others have said notes are available everywhere and in reality most are just rehash of examinations .ie solutions, maybe put in a more student friendly version but really thats what most teachers do for their classes anyway.

I think notes websites and even the kahn academy type sites are really only useful to the top students who really want to push themselves, as one LC student pointed out others will just use them to build up a notes folder but rarely look at it so no real added benefit, the majority of middling students won't have the drive or focus to gain the real benefit from most of these websites I think

rainbowtrout

neutralvu wrote: »

What do ye think of the use of paid online resources for kids in secondary school? Esp leaving cert? For or against? I see some charge 100 euro a year membership and others 30 euro a month.

Do alot of teachers encourage it for their students and use it themselves or do they even know its there at all?

Honestly, students are sucked into the notion year on year that if they pay for notes, grinds, revision courses etc, that it is the magic solution to all their problems.

One to one grinds obviously have their merits if a student has a problem in a subject and could do with some extra tuition to help them understand a topic. Understanding is key here: I've seen countless students go for maths, chemistry grinds over the years, for topics that require understanding and can't be learned off. I never hear of students taking business or history grinds.

Students often don't believe what their teachers are telling them. Free education often doesn't have a value for them. It's only when they've paid €100 to do a revision course and the teacher giving that course tells them the same thing I've been telling them for the previous 6 months that they realise that I'm doing my job.

Case in point: I've written a textbook for my subject, it's used in a lot of schools. Obviously I use it myself. Some of my own students have gone to revision courses which have been a rehash of my textbook. They have paid for this, even though they have a copy of my book and I am standing in front of them in the classroom 5 days a week. They have come back from courses saying 'ya the teacher on the revision course recommended focusing on the same questions that you said in class' They believe it now that they've paid to hear someone say it. :rolleyes:

Grind schools are the same on a larger scale. Students believe that if they pay their €7k per year that they will magically get 600 points in the Leaving.What they neglect to factor in is that if you are made study for 12 hours a day for 9 months and learn off all the bundles of notes you are handed and do pretty much nothing else, your results will probably improve no matter where you are. But there is a perceived notion that this way is better because it costs money so it must be good.

Mardy Bum

rainbowtrout wrote: »

But there is a perceived notion that this way is better because it costs money so it must be good.

People will respect something they pay for simple as that really. It's unfortunate but it seems to be human nature.

whiteandlight

There is an increasing obsession with "notes" among students. During block classes at the end of this year with LC's they were all asking for notes. The reality is that they already have the notes, they have been given out and worked on already. They just haven't learnt them. There is no quick way to marks in the LC, particularly as the SEC are becoming increasingly less predictable. You have to learn and understand the material to get the top marks.