Tracking tutorial resources

A distinct feature of the Net lies in providing innumerable resources for learning almost any all subject for free. Tens of hundreds of on-line tutorial packages and audio/video teaching materials on a variety of subjects are available.

For instance, persons using PowerPoint may find the (http://www.awesomebackgro unds.com /powerpointtutorials.htm) site useful.

Students of computing will welcome the tutorial materials hosted on `Virginia Tech' (http://courses.cs.vt.edu/ <108,sym,126>cson line/). Learning modules on subjects such as algorithms, data structures and operating systems are presented on this site.

For locating such tutorials, a multitude of tutorial directories are in place. The W3Schools (http://www.w3schools.com/) with several on-line tutorials is meant for web developers. The `Technology Tutorials' (http://www.internet4classrooms.com/on-line2.htm), which contains a huge collection of tutorials on different computing technology related subjects such as MS-Office, Internet and web page development is another of the same kind.

Besides these, lots of new pedagogical resources are being rolled out almost everyday. The explosion of such teaching/learning resources has led to a hunt for special tools to find/track the new ones. Now, let us explore some of them.

Search engines

Pixel2life (http://www.pixel2life.com) is a tutorial search engine gaining popularity among netizens. The service has a database of more than 15,000 tutorials on different computing related subjects such as JavaScript, Perl, Visual Basic, Visual C++ and so on. Pixel2life is quite dynamic and to help you easily track the latest additions to its index, the service features a web feed also. By subscribing to this feed you can monitor the latest tutorials being churned out with your newsreader.

For getting help/tips on computer related troubles, you may check out the service Help2go (http://www.help2go.com/) which has web-feed capabilities as well.

TutorGig (http://www.tutorgig.com/) can be used to find tutorials on computing related subjects.

Another tutorial related service worth a look is `MyTutorials.com' (http://www.mytutorials.com/) whose goal is to develop on-line tutorials collaboratively. Here, anyone can host a tutorial that can be read/edited later by others. On `Mytutorials,' you can find tutorials on different subjects that include computers and health (http://www.mytutorials. com/tutorials.asp).

`FyberSearch Tutorial Search' (http://www.fybersearch.com/tutorials/) is another source for tutorials/lessons. By just entering the name of the topic on its search box you can collect several links to tutorials on the subject.

Learnthat.com (http://www.learnthat.com/tutorials/), Wannalearn (http://www.wannalearn.com/), eXtropia (http://www.extropia.com/tutorials. html) and TechTutorials (http://www.techtutorials.net/) are other tutorial directories worth exploring.

New search tools

One way to tame the ever-expanding ocean of web information is to create specialised search services focussing on specific subjects. The search service, Omgili (http://omgili.com/) which indexes web based discussion forums is an instance of such a trend. The service offers special commands to search for information on a discussion thread's different aspects such as topic (intopic) and reply (inreply).

Another type of special search engines gaining ground is the `answer search engine,' whose lofty goal is to provide direct answers to the user's questions. Brainboost (http://www.brainboost.com/) mentioned in the past is a famous example. The newly launched Lexee (http://www.lexxe.com/) is the latest in this category.

These services come handy while searching for factual information. Factbites (http://search.factbites.com/index. html) is another search tool competing in this sphere. You may get better output if you require information on a specific subject/phenomenon.

For instance, if you type the word `pollution', the service will list out materials related to this topic from different on-line sources.