Free Internet Library Helps Students Learn, Teachers Teach, and Everyone Improve Education

Wildwood, FL (PRWEB) August 23, 2006 -- The Education Improvement Internet Library is the twenty-first free library of the Students, Teachers, and Professionals Internet Library. Accounting, statistics, mathematics and Excel are the most popular libraries. Many students find subjects requiring mathematics difficult and Google for free help. These libraries come out near the top according to Walter Antoniotti, President of 21st Century Learning Products and the creator of the libraries. The Excel library was so popular a Software Tutorials Internet Library was added last spring. A library for Criminal Justice was added because Walter saw a big interest in this area while Dean of Continuing Education for Franklin Pierce College in Rindge, New Hampshire.

Library information comes from professors, colleges, businesses, governments, foundations, and associations. The eight business books of Walter’s Quick Notes Learning System series along with many other free Internet textbooks are included in the libraries. “The goal is to provide appropriate, free learning material,” he said.

The new Education Improvement Internet Library has free material to help students learn, teachers teach, parents guide, and educational administrators improve education. Free books, audios, videos and narratives help people improve their learning skills. Teachers are provided with similar materials to enhance their academic background and teaching skills. Learning theory, human development theory, and the economic payoff from education are provided. This background information helps users fully appreciate additional material exploring how we are improving education and can continue to improve education.

Walter developed the education economic payoff analysis using information from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the National Center For Educational Statistics, and books from economists including The Future of Capitalism by Lester Thoreau, former Dean of the MIT Sloan School of management, The Accidental Theorist, by Paul Krugman, professor of Economics and International Affairs at Princeton University and from Who is Not Working and Why by Frederic L. Pryor of Swarthmore College and David L. Schaffer of the University of Wisconsin at Eau Clair.

Another recently developed library, the Educational Audio Video Internet Library, takes advantage of the dramatic improvement in Internet Technology. Learning materials include business Podcasts from the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School of Business, speaker videos of Dan Rather, Al Gore, George Soros and others from the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, a video computer lecture series from UC Berkeley, and a set of video tutorials from Great Britain covering arithmetic through calculus with interactive diagnostic tests, summary tests, and extensions demonstrating the application and importance of each subject.

Many authors, Walter included, send their free Internet textbook to Textbook Revolution, a site dedicated to providing free learning materials. “Eliminating textbooks will be difficult. Publishers and their representatives really cater to professors. They have created a comprehensive computerized student testing and grading system to substantially lower a professor’s workload. In addition, college bookstores are very profitable. A college not wanting to manage its bookstore can sell it to a profit oriented national bookstore chain, applying the proceeds as it sees fit," he said.

Internet textbooks can be better than paper textbooks. Once developed, there is no manufacturing and distribution cost. Internal and external links make learning easier and more interesting. “I continually add links, some with audio and video, to my free Economics book. Economic data is kept current while paper books lags by 3-5 years,” he said. There are five free basic economics textbooks at the Economics Internet Library. The Statistics and Mathematics libraries have even more books.    

The importance of having good Internet learning resources can not be overstated because other countries are developing their own extensive learning Internet resources. “Great Britain’s material is very good and rated highly by Google,” he said. Within the last few weeks, Walter’s has seen all of his libraries translated by some unknown person or machine into Spanish using Google Translator. Then he saw the Statistics Internet Library written in an Asia language. Interesting? Scary?

Over 2,000 people visit the libraries on a busy day. People from 211 countries have visited the libraries, all for free. Sixty-one percent come from the U.S. followed by Canada with 5.1% and India with 4.7%

Walter Antoniotti believes education and training are a continuing process and his free Internet libraries, which can be reached through Google, will help many improve their learning skills and competitiveness.

21st Century Learning Products publishes the Quick Notes Learning System Series, consisting of concise, inexpensive, business subject outlines to help people learn difficult concepts. The entire series is free for individual users on the Internet.

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