The Internet has changed the way we teach and learn dramatically. When I was finishing school, things were as boring as most of you may still remember: we had books to learn new things, we had notebooks to summarize, visualize and structure our knowledge and we had libraries to find additional sources of information.

Nowadays things are so much more fun. My two-year old daughter can almost read because she enjoyed one iPad app so much that she had to learn the alphabet to play in it. I am not sure if student still frequent libraries as we did because they can find almost any book online now. Do they even use a pen to write things down or do they note it directly in the laptop?

I am not completely sure – but as a new parent I am excited of the new opportunities the Internet is offering to kids and adults who are learning something new.

This post looks at 5 fun learning tools and resources which both kids and adults can enjoy.

1. Fun Learning Through Interactive Games

Teaching through play is the most effective way to get your kids remember things easier and have them actually wait for the next lesson. Human beings learn new things by playing starting from the very first days – that’s the most natural learning process.

Featured tools:

• Geographic Kids from National Geographic offers the variety of educational games that teach kids to go green (“Score points by sorting trash with Gus.”), develop your memory, learn animals and natural phenomena, etc.
• NASA Kid’s Club: lots of entertaining games that help your kids learn colors, develop logical thinking and discover new things;
• SFS Kids – Fun With Music: the great website helping your kids learn music terms and sounds.

2. Learning Through Online Video

It is unbelievable how much video can do in terms of educational value. When I was learning English as a kid, spotting some authentic English video was a huge luck. Nowadays you have access to tons of video data to learn a language or anything!

Featured tool: TeacherTube provides the huge platform for teachers to exchange educational videos and share fun learning ideas.

Sample videos:

• Jamestown Colony: The first settlement
• Noun Eaters
• Global Economy

3. Self-Checking with Online Quizzes

From experience, the best way to learn anything is to start answering the questions. Therefore taking a self-checking quiz is so powerful. By answering multiple questions from the topic, you start looking for the right one, understanding your grounds and arriving at conclusions. That’s the necessary step of digging deeper into the data in order to understand the bigger picture.

Featured tool: ProProfs quiz software is a great multi-feature tool that allows to create fun learning quizzes of any type and also supports multimedia.

Sample education quizzes:

• Can you identify these historical landmarks?
• Are you smarter than a 5th grader?

4. Structuring Your Knowledge with Mind-Mapping Tools

Mind-mapping is the best way to organize and remember huge amounts of new information. With web 2.0 we have lots of interactive mind-mapping utilities that help us structure our knowledge and even share it within the group of collaborators.

Featured tools:

• Gliffy: free account comes with unlimited number of public mind maps.
• Flow Chart: multi-user support; multiple drawing tools.

5. Learning New Languages in the Community

As the one who has spent about 5 years learning a foreign language, I find these tools especially awesome. I can imagine how great it is to get help from native speakers who could manage your learning on a daily basis to improve your skills and track your progress.

Featured tool: LiveMocha (also mentioned in this post on learning new things with web tools) creates a friendly learning atmosphere where members share tips, check each other’s uploaded exercises and interact in various other learning processes.

How has the Internet changed the way you (or your kids) learn new things? Please share your thoughts!

This is a guest post by Ann Smarty, owner of My Blog Guest, the community of guest bloggers. If you seek guest blogging opportunities to get your word out or want to start guest accepting guest posts to broaden your blog’s perspective, join MyBlogGuest!

Smart people never stop learning new things. They’re naturally curious, and self-improvement is simply a part of their make up.  There’s plenty of free apps and web sites where you can learn anything you want – from a new language to cooking techniques.

Here are five of my favorite learning tools available for the asking. (Just log on and learn!)

1. How to read faster

Spreeder will have you gobbling up information faster than you ever thought possible using the site’s unique speed reading tutorial. You can set the speed text appears and gradually improve your speed reading skills – eye scan drills, key points, etc.

Another use? Let’s say you have a paper due for school tomorrow. It’s late and you don’t have time to read that 50-page white paper on the eating habits of the dreaded El Wanco wombat. No problem. Cut and paste that intriguing article into Spreeder’s text box and Spreeder extracts key points so you don’t have to read all those pages to get to the œmeat of the article, report, white paper or other academic research. Spreeder is a time-saver and a learning tool – one you’ll keep on your desktop. I do. It cuts research chores down to size.

2. How to quickly research a subject

Designed as a starting point for research, Schoolr is a research specialized search engine which points you to Wikipedia, Wolfram Alpha, Google, dictionary sites and other helpful web spaces looking for the latest information on the topic of your search.

3. How to type faster

Rapid Typing is all about keyboards and entering data faster and more reliably.

There’s a typing tutor download (free), an on-line typing œschool, a stat sheet to record your progress, a typing lessons editor for teachers and a œplay area for kids that turns learning to type into a game that’ll have you and the whole family touch typing in just a couple of hours.

If you’re a œhunt-and-peck typist, learning to type without staring at the keyboard will increase your productivity and fast. It’s fun and easy, and you can work on- or off-line, whichever makes you most comfortable.

4. How to sit in on university lectures

Lecturefox is a free web service that allows you to sit in on lectures on all kinds of topics given by professors and other scholars from major learning institutions like MIT, Yale University and other schools – all from the comfort of your laptop.

For example, today there are recorded lectures from Yale on œFrance since 1871, œIntroduction to Literature Theory, the œPsychology, Biology and Politics of Food and other things that’ll get you thinking and make you sound smart at your next lodge meeting. Just log in, scroll through the lectures and learn something new everyday. Free.

New topics are uploaded daily so bookmark the site. In just a few visits, you’ll discover your favorite professors and lecturers who provide the latest information in the most detail.

You don’t have to be an egghead to learn about Roman architecture. Just bookmark Lecturefox and learn for the fun of it. You don’t even have to œknow this for the quiz because there are no quizzes.

5. How to learn languages at your own pace

Livemocha is a combination of social media and language learning. You learn by communicating with others interested in learning your native language. You’ll make friends who share your interest in learning and, œsi, hablo espa±ol as you get to know more about interesting, educated people from around the world.

Simply type in your native language into the form field. Then, type in the language you want to learn. With a click, you’ll be sent to a chat room where people are bi- and even tri-lingual. And, instead of learning a foreign language from a book or boring audio disks, at Livemocha, you learn by carrying on discussions that interest you with people who want to learn your native tongue.

Think of it as a language swap meet. œI’ll teach you English if you teach me Swahili. It’s that simple.

So, if you’re curious. If you’re into self-improvement. If you want better grades at school, there are lots of applications and web sites that’ll set you on the path to a bigger brain.

This was a guest post by Edward Khoo who writes about blogging tips, internet marketing, and web 2.0.  Want to guest post on this blog?  Just drop me a line.

What other learning apps and websites do you use?  Tell us in the comments!