Department of Neighborhoods
Education Initiatives
Student Technology
• Homework and Organizational Help • Books •
Houston Colleges and Universities • Continued Learning Apps • MOOCs
There is a lot of free technology that students of all ages can use to learn, stay organized, check out free books, connect to universities, listen to speeches, and take free classes, anywhere and anytime.
Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) and online educational videos have become a valuable tool for many people around the world. They provide an opportunity to learn on the internet for free in a flexible environment. Below are a few websites and apps to help you find online educational resources that interest you.
HOMEWORK AND ORGANIZATIONAL HELP
Google
Google is a web search engine that provides information on almost anything or anyone around the world based on keyword searches. Google is a great tool to begin your research.
Google Drive
Google is more than a search engine. When you create a personal Google account, you also have access to their “Google Drive.” Google Drive allows you to create and access documents (like your résumé and college essays) from any computer when you sign into your account. These can be useful (free) resources that help you organize and manage your job and college searches.
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BOOKS
Houston Public Library
The Houston Public Library app allows you to access the HPL catalog, check your account, place holds, renew items, get information about HPL locations and events, search for books, eBooks, and other items.
Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg provides online access to more than 4,200 free eBooks that you can download into your computer or ereader. They consist of literature, historic documents, nonfiction books on all sorts of subjects and much more.
Harris County Public Library Mobile Phone App
This app allows you to access the HCPL catalog, library news, Ask a Librarian service and the Digital Media Catalog. You could also place requests for books and DVDs, renew items, pay library fines, get information about HPCL events, locations and GPS-assisted directions.
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HOUSTON COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES
University of Houston
See a campus map with buildings, restaurants, shuttle stops, parking lots, and access while offline, weather, twitter, and photos.
Rice University
Users may browse courses, read the latest Rice news, find a library book, and catch up on the latest scores, all from the Home screen.
Houston Community College
This app allows users to call or email any Houston Community College (HCC) personnel campus wide, search through available courses, events, news from HCC campuses, images, videos from HCCTV, and maps that show your exact location and search for a building and its address.
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CONTINUED LEARNING APPS
Mango Languages
Mango Mobile Library Edition is a powerful language learning platform that delivers fast, easy and effective language learning wherever your travels take you. With the free iPhone and Android™ apps from Mango, you can access the same awesome courses available through your library when you’re on the go.
iTunes U
This app allows you to take free courses created and taught by instructors from leading universities and other schools, see all assignments and updates from the instructor, take notes and highlight text in iBoks, and access more than 500,000 free lectures, videos, books, and other resources on thousands of subjects from Algebra to Zoology.
TED Talks
This app gives users access to more than 1,200 TEDTalk videos and audios from education radicals, tech geniuses, medical mavericks, business gurus, and music legends.
PBS
PBS has an assortment of mobile apps that can download directly to your iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad. They vary in age groups and functions, but are all beneficial and very educational.
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MASSIVE OPEN ONLINE COURSES
Coursera
Coursera is an educational technology company that offers nearly 400 online courses that consist of videos and certain coursework that must be completed in a certain amount of time for a similar classroom environment.
Khan Academy
Khan Academy provides more than 3,000 online videos that break down detailed courses into smaller sections of text or videos for easy self-paced learning.
OpenCourseWare
OpenCourseWare Consortiums a worldwide effort to provide college and university level course materials for free on the Internet for self-paced learning, with the option of searching in 20 different languages.
MIT Open Courseware
MIT Open Courseware is an online site that gives people the opportunity to take many courses from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for free, from your home, on your own time.
Open Learning Institute
The Open Learning Institute from Carnegie Mellon University allows access to many online course materials to help you learn at your own pace with a classroom like structure.
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