{"id":14199,"date":"2016-10-08T00:15:56","date_gmt":"2016-10-08T04:15:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/?p=14199"},"modified":"2025-05-27T15:08:07","modified_gmt":"2025-05-27T19:08:07","slug":"kids-online-learning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/2016\/10\/kids-online-learning\/","title":{"rendered":"Teach Me Something Fun: Media Mentorship and Online Learning"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cLibraries are about access, and we need to step up to provide ALL TYPES OF ACCESS.\u201d
\n–Amy Koester, ALSC Blog, Our Future Includes EBooks #alamw13<\/i><\/a>, January 24, 2013<\/p>\n

Online learning is a topic that deserves more focus.\u00a0 Normally, in my conversations about electronic resources, the attention is mainly on ebooks or databases. Libraries, as informal and self directed centers of learning, have been concentrating more on online learning, and it is obvious we need to remember children in this movement as well. Yet when I did a quick and informal survey of library websites, I see much work and time has been spent by libraries on evaluating and recommending online learning sites, and some libraries have even created their own. Through media mentorship, we can draw both our young patrons and their caregivers to the many online learning products, free and paid for, that we subscribe to, find, evaluate, and list on our websites.<\/p>\n

Language Learning is a good example of an area that has a few good choices for children\u2019s librarians. \u00a0Not everyone can afford to send their children to a bilingual private school or afford after school language classes. \u00a0But, if a library or a consortium subscribes to resources like Little Pim<\/a> or Muzzy Online<\/a>, many children can have basic instruction in some of the most popular languages for learning as well as ESL courses. \u00a0Little Pim is a popular language learning video company that partnered with Mango Languages<\/a> to bring online access to public libraries. \u00a0Muzzy Online is quite similar, and was created by the BBC as part of their regular programming for children.<\/p>\n

Scholastic Flix<\/a> online learning products are a good mixture of text coupled with interactive games, quizzes, and streaming videos on a wide range of topics. \u00a0The main selections in this set are BookFlix<\/a> (Weston Woods films paired with nonfiction books from Scholastic’s nonfiction series), ScienceFlix<\/a>, FreedomFlix<\/a> (American History), and TrueFlix<\/a> (based on Scholastic\u2019s True Book series). \u00a0In ScienceFlix, there are over 20 short videos that demonstrate easy to do science projects. \u00a0What I liked about these videos is that they make a rather daunting task like a science project seem simple to accomplish–for parents and kids alike.<\/p>\n

BrainPop<\/a> is an interactive online learning subscription that has games, quizzes, and videos on science, social science, and history topics. \u00a0Check out some of their free content<\/a> to get a sense of their style and online approach; I particularly enjoyed this section on Mars<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Some libraries themselves are creating their own online learning opportunities for patrons. \u00a0Hennepin County Public Library<\/a> puts up videos of fingerplays for parents and children to watch. Multnomah County<\/a> teaches spanish songs for children on their website. \u00a0Los Angeles Public Library has a wonderful page called Full STEAM Ahead: Fun with Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math<\/a>. \u00a0The librarians at LAPL have done a solid job of collecting the best of online STEAM related sites for kids. \u00a0It is there that I first read about Hour of Code<\/a>. \u00a0There seems to be increased potential for these sorts of programs and I think media mentorship could be quite expanded with libraries creating and posting online video tutorials on popular electronic resources.<\/p>\n

Charlotte Mecklenburg Library has created Story Place: The Children\u2019s Digital Learning Library<\/a>. \u00a0It is a clever mix of online stories in which students have to click to progress the story, mixed with song and takeoffs on popular nursery rhymes. \u00a0Following each story is a choice of online activities. \u00a0Check out Clyde\u2019s Smile<\/a>, the story of a crocodile who loses his tooth in the river and all his animal friends who help him. \u00a0Characters\u2019 speech is accompanied by text balloons, so students can listen and read along. \u00a0There are activities like 5 Hungry Crocs<\/a>, in which children have to listen to the instructions or read them on the screen to help all five hungry crocodiles eat. \u00a0There is a Spanish version<\/a> of the site as well.<\/p>\n

For free online learning resources, check out some of the following which seemed to be popular among children\u2019s librarians across the country:<\/p>\n