Free Education Tools for Seniors for Self-Managed Learning
Many of our boarding school seniors display a hunger for knowledge that goes beyond achieving outstanding exam grades. They have been inspired and motivated to learn! For this reason, we recommend excellent websites for older students, to support their individual studies.
Parents quickly learn that the best way to teach a child is to make the process as enjoyable as possible and to develop their offspring’s natural curiosity. Imagine an educational environment that does that in a non-judgemental and vibrant manner, every school day.
One of the wonderful outcomes of a boarding school education – where advancement at all levels is supported by like-minded friends and impassioned professionals – is that many pupils develop a dedication to lifelong learning.
The smaller classroom sizes and highly individualised teaching we provide contribute to this legacy. They help students to find their own pace and motivation for assimilating new information and skills.
Our carefully supported Junior study sessions and self-managed learning opportunities for Seniors reinforce the classroom experience.
Rendcomb College Seniors often want to explore as many credible learning techniques and resources as possible. These are the free educational tools for older students that are most often recommended by our teaching staff.
This site curates insightful and well-presented television programmes created by NOVA’s USA-based production team.
In support of its documentaries and mini-series, NOVA also provides a wealth of scientific information, including fascinating articles by some of the world’s top journalists, scientists, and engineers.
Clearly, much of the visual and written content is aimed at supporting STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) studies. However, the real-world investigations provide fascinating perspectives on everything from the intricacies of the human brain to cybersecurity and solar storms! There is a lot of source material for seniors interested in world affairs too, and trending topics in health and science.
As you would expect from the mighty Google technology platform, its Arts and Culture resource base is vast and all-consuming.
Imagine being able to step inside any arts location on the planet, from your computer!
Google uses all its technical wizardry to bring this material alive, including providing virtual visits to galleries, museums, heritage sites and performances. Augmented reality tools can be used to interact with the content, to further reinforce research and learning.
Google Arts & Culture is also well configured to make searching for specific topics and information really straightforward.
Self-testing - in their own time - can successfully embed subject matter into young brains.
This is why the Quizlet app is so highly recommended by our teachers.
It is a digitalised way to produce flashcards and other learning aids, but also offers games and quizzes from a variety of curriculum areas.
Much of its success is in the way it breaks subjects down into specific topics to focus on, and then engages users in interactive learning techniques. It becomes fun, and even small advances in knowledge are recognised and celebrated.
Some of the best learning experiences come from being creative and innovative in the way material is presented. It is why Mind Mapping is such a popular way to revise, moving around and expanding facts to reinforce them.
The modern equivalent is Adobe Spark, an educational tool that is accessible on mobiles and laptops. It enables users to input data - words, pictures and videos – and then to create a variety of presentations. It refers to them as ‘visual stories' and this can be a web page, video or graphics for example. It’s a great example of an educational website that could be valuable all through their future careers too!
As the title suggests, this recommended website for older students has gathered together 13.8 billion years’ worth of history!
This rich resource is presented brilliantly, in a vibrant and engaging way, and also goes beyond facts to explore historical references from every angle.
As it is so diverse and all-consuming, this website is not simply for students studying history. It contextualises many other areas of knowledge too, giving users great insights into how our world has been influenced and moulded.
Why self-managed learning is important
Rendcomb College students enjoy access to guided education and study support throughout their time at this leading independent school. However, we aim to give seniors the skills and inspiration to use their own initiative to expand their knowledge and skills.
That's because we aim for more than excellent exam results. We develop resourceful and resilient adults who seek new knowledge with confidence.