This discussion on homework help is brought to you by Verizon Wireless; all opinions are my own.
I worked in the IT department of a very large school district here in Washington State for a year. One of my jobs was to locate credible homework help educational resources for our teachers, parents, and students. Thankfully, I loved doing online research, but for most people it’s much too time and labor intensive. That’s because there are millions of sites that claim to provide quality education resources that do far from that. Some are link farms making money off of unsuspecting visitors who visit and click on their links, some are well-intended but not very well fact-checked or updated, and others are slanted to meet the content creator’s agenda.
Finding Educational Resources Online – It’s Not as Easy as You Think
My job was to not only find great homework help resources, but to investigate them thoroughly, test them for any malware and virus threats, and then put them through a small usability test I created to make sure the site was user-friendly and age appropriate. Once a site passed all my challenges, it was added to the approved list of homework resources. This list was monitored and updated regularly to make sure any homework help site we recommended was truly kid-safe, family-friendly, and provided accurate information in a way that we thought would benefit our student’s learning.
Finding Educational Resources Online – Vetted Sites Make it Easier
What I learned from my time in this position is that it took a lot of time and effort to keep up a list of qualified homework help sites manually and many districts have had to drop the service because they don’t have the manpower available to maintain them. That’s left lots of parent and students on their own to navigate the vast Internet.
But there are ways to make the process easier. Verizon Wireless, with their Verzion Education Tools app, is one such way. They’ve hired experts in the education field who have gone out and selected the best homework help and educational resources. These experts “grade” the resources and Verizon organizes those recommendations by grade and subject. Now finding the perfect video, lecture, or webpage to help your student with her homework can be done quickly and painlessly and save you hours of surfing on your own.
Plus, in addition to educational apps, Verizon Educational Tools customers receive bonus educational content and offers frome Scholastic, BrainPOP,Copia, Tutor.com, and TinyTap (Verizon’s 2013 Powerful Answers Award Winner).
Homework Help for Pennies a Day
The Verizon Educational Tools app is available for $2 a month. It runs on both Android and iOS tablets and smartphones and there’s an online version as well. Developed in partnership with Appolicious, data usage will apply for app download and use.
Get the Verizon Educational Tools App:
- Download the Verizon Educational Tools app in Google Play and iTunes
Want to read more about it? Check out these additional families who are using the Verizon Education Tool Apps:
- Ways Technology Fits in our Homeschool Classroom
- Searching for Education Apps
- Verizon Educational Tools – Using Apps Cut Lesson Planning Time
- Look! Verizon Educational Tools App
I’m not quite at the heavy duty homework situation yet but this is good to know. Exploring and getting to know it would help, I’m sure.
These apps would come in really handy. Especially in a few years time!
$2 a month is such an amazing deal! I’m already stressing about the homework that will be coming our way and the kids are 2 and 6. Ha!
I am always looking for new ways to help my teens. Their homework is way beyond my comprehension most of the times.
$2 a month is so reasonable. My daughter gets wrapped up in high school Math, and though I’ve taken post-grad. level Math, she finds it easier to learn online than in person (when doing homework). Keeps her from getting frustrated.
Great resources. Love the apps.
One thing that amazes me about modern technology is how much school work and homework even young students are required to do via the internet and computer.
I think getting help online is always a great idea when concerning academics. My daughter uses many online resources!
I’ll have to share this with my husband. He is always needing help with his homework.
There really are so many great resources online. As a homeschooling mom, we use a lot. Khan Academy is awesome for Math help.
I started teaching for the first time this year, and I have found so many online resources that have helped me in my teaching. There are just as many resources out there for students too. – Katy
Verizon’s Educational App sounds really enticing. My kids always ask for help with topics I have forgotten about.
This seems like an interesting app from Verizon. I will have to look at it next time we have a challenging homework situation.
Great app that would really help out students and parents! Always great to have an educational app available out there 🙂
I so wish I had homework help online when I was back in school! My daughter just entered middle school so I will keep this in mind for her.
Really interesting! I recently wrote an article about helping children with studying and ran into your post. Never heard of the app but will take a look.
I am so glad we’re way past the homework days! Glad there are new resources to help because homework is hard!
It is so important to make sure educational resources are actually clean and worth it. You have a very important job.
I find it so much easier as a college student to find what I need online versus what my children need when it comes to homework.
Great idea for an app… It really is hard finding ‘homework help’ so I’m definitely going to look into this app…
I always have trouble finding things to help my kids with their homework, so I think I am going to look into this.