Of course, if they browse without some structure or keep their IM and Facebook accounts open while working, the web can be a disaster. But if you help them hone in on the problem, the homework helpers on the web are pretty darn good.

Young kids need to reinforce what they learned (or daydreamed through in school). In the traditional classroom if you don’t “get it” when the teacher presents it, you’re bound to suffer as problems get complex.

I like Discovery Education because it’s engaging and fun. Its homework help site provides skill-building sessions in math, science, English, social studies, and others; many of the lessons use smart, engaging videos. Click on “Whole Number Multiplication,” for example, and you’ll get a video that walks you step-by-step through the problem using a marathon race and gym as examples. For English, you can learn nouns by taking a pictorial video tour of the desert.

OK, he’s got an unfortunate name, but one of the best stops for older kids (junior high and above) on the homework help circuit is BJPincheck’s Homework Helper. BJ started organizing websites that can help with various subjects when he was just nine years old. Today he’s in college and he’s still at it. He picks good references and indicates the targeted age.

Of course, every parent wants to know whether it’s OK or not to use Wikipedia when the kids are doing homework. Remember that Wikipedia is a collection of articles written by anyone who feels they have expertise in the subject. For the most part, Wikipedia is terrific, but there are biased and mistaken articles. Many teachers ask that kids use only one Wikipedia source, if any, in their research. In general, Wikipedia is more accurate with historical articles than recent current events. Recent articles are subject to more personal interpretation and less vetted by time.

Not sure of when the War of 1812 took place? If you want the facts–facts on every science from geology to weather and every period in history–try FactMonster for a quick dose of reality.

Now, the greatest guilty pleasure of the school-aged set…YouTube. Kids will watch fart movies or fornicating kitty cats for hours, but when tamed, YouTube can be a homework helper. For older students and lifelong learners, the YouTube Education site has lectures and talks from the great universities and professors worldwide. For kids, all you need to do is filter out the crap and leave the benign. Special web software like Vidzui or Kideos weed out inappropriate materials. Both are fun and carefully arranged from ages pre-K through grade 9.

If all else fails and you parents haven’t a clue as to what the gerund in the sentence is, you might consider an online tutor like the ones at Tutor.com. You register at the site and specify the problematic subject and your grade level. Just like a good date, you’re matched with the perfect tutor for a one-to-one session. There is a charge, but there are lots of ways to pay–for a single use, a monthly fee, or a number of sessions.

In my last post, we looked at Intel’s study on mobile etiquette. Now we can see what one company with a wicked sense of  humor is doing about it.

At last, perfect gift for obnoxious cellphone abusers. It’s called Cell-R-Derm.  Modelled on the transdermal patches you’d use to stop smoking, these patches (once you get the joke) will make you rethink your cellphone habits. Designed to cure the viral C-Cellutosis, the gift recipient gets a box of translucent patches to be applied somewhere around the neck area. Promising to “patch up your life” and get rid of your “cellular hangups,” the kit will either bring a laugh or a sharp object into the hands of  the loved one in question.

Cell-R-Derm folks went undercover to assess the disease.  You can view their research in THE BATHROOM and in THE BEDROOM. The gift box includes 13 semi-transparent patches and a lot of comic explanations. It’s the joke gift that packs a message.

The study polled over 2,000 people to find out what most of us know. Most online U.S. adults (80%) feel there are unspoken rules about mobile technology usage, and approximately 7 in 10 (69%) agreed that violations of these unspoken guidelines, such as checking emails, sending text messages, and making phone calls while in the company of others, are unacceptable.

More than half (52%) would be offended if they were at a holiday party and someone attempted to secretly use an Internet-enabled device such as a laptop, netbook, or cellphone at the table. Funny thing is that 75% feel it is perfectly appropriate to use Internet-enabled devices, including laptops, netbooks, and cellphones, in the bathroom (yuck!).

At the Tea Room, Intel’s own ethnographer, Dr. Genevieve Bell, and Anna Post, descendant of Emily Post and etiquette expert for the Emily Post Institute, were on hand with advice. “The social rules for new technologies are continuing to be established across cultures and geographies around the world, and etiquette will continue to change and adapt over time along with it,” said Dr. Bell. “Etiquette surrounding mobile technology is becoming increasingly relevant, particularly in social situations such as holiday gatherings and events,” said Ms. Post.

One area where anti-tech bias seems to have softened is the holiday greeting card. More than half of online adults (62%) would send an electronic greeting card or email in lieu of a traditional card and, despite what parents have always taught their children about the value of a handwritten “thank you” note, almost 9 out of 10 (88%) online adults would not be offended if they received an email or electronic thank you.

Intel’s holiday lesson: No matter how great the temptation or how much the thing is vibrating in your pocket, do not answer your email or phone calls at the holiday table. Not unless you want your mouth washed out with soap or, at minimum, your phone confiscated.

Read on and I’ll tell you about Cell-R-Derm, the perfect gift for the cell phone abuser in your family.

Bet Mom can't peddle and learn at the same time.

LeapFrog takes this to the max with its Text & Learn—a child-sized PDA (which, incidentally, is significantly larger than the adult version). Great for chubby fingers of all ages, it combines reading readiness, computer skills, and some music, texting, and calendaring activities, too.

Press any letter on the keyboard and you’ll be rewarded with its sound as well as an animated “O is for octopus,” for example. There are six learning activity games that stress following directions. My favorite is the special area for PDA-like activities. In the calendar application you learn the days of the week. A music player plays tunes while Scout, the PDA’s mascot, dances along. You even get incoming messages (from Scout only) and can send a message as well. Think Speak & Spell in a PDA format and you’re on the right track. Good news…it costs $21.99 and probably isn’t quite as addictive as your own Crackberry.

VTech’s lineup includes a sort of mini-gym where each piece of gym equipment has a learning and a physical activity. The series is called the VTech Jungle Gym. Kids can pedal the Ride and Learn Giraffe ($50) or do a little stair climbing on the Step and Count Kangaroo ($50). A Bouncing Turtle ($15) that teaches colors as you bounce rounds out the collection. As they’re getting fit they learn letters, numbers, object identification, and more via the equipment’s built-in LCD screens.

It’s not a Wii, but it’s cheaper than Gymboree. The animals’ colors are a bit garish and the activities are simple drill-type activities, but it beats having a kid couch potato. Kids as young as 18 months can hop on and enjoy.

With the holidays around the corner, these products might steer you towards personal nirvana and less personal agita.

The Pzziz Personal Life Coach bills itself as a combination energy enhancer and tool for insomniacs. It’s a nap program that lets you enter a relaxation state and then re-emerge, refreshed and energized after 20 minutes. The product plays that Windham Hill-like music and uses soft speech that it calls Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) to suggest relaxation. While you’re in this deeply relaxed state, pzizz delivers combinations of suggestions and affirmations that encourage you to relax and also to focus and energize. You can purchase the pzizz hardware device or just download the music to your iPod or PC.

More competitive types might want to try Vyro Games’ PIP (Personal Input Pod) in which you try to out-relax your opponent in a game-like environment. The device is a teardrop-shaped, keychain-size gadget that uses biofeedback and Bluetooth technology to wirelessly control game play. You can play on a cellphone, PC, or game console. In one mood-based game, the player who is the most relaxed can see his or her dragon outrace an opponent. A game where “calmness” triumphs.

CalmLink Relaxation Software and GSR-II System (a biofeedback mouse) looks like a computer mouse with two finger-sized dents, but it’s actually a GSR biofeedback “mouse” that measures changes to the electrical conductivity of your skin. Galvanic skin response tells a lot about whether your body is relaxed or tense. The unit translates these tiny tension-related changes in skin pores into a rising or falling tone. You learn to lower the pitch and your stress level by relaxing.

Neural Noise Synthesizer (NNS) from Transparent Corporation turns your computer into a recording studio for audio brainwaves. Based on the idea that specially designed sounds stimulate your brainwaves in precise ways, the device includes sounds that promise to enhance creativity, offer headache relief, increase focus/concentration, and lead to lucid dreams.

One of our Silvers Summit exhibitors, HeartMath’s emWave Personal Stress Reliever is a handheld that uses a combination of LED displays, audio feedback, and a stress reliever system to train you to relax. You place your thumb on the sensor or attach a special hands-free ear sensor. The unit detects your pulse, which synchronizes to your heart rhythms. Small changes in heart rhythms can signify stress. Once the heart rhythms are detected, the unit can train you to shift your body out of stress mode and into what it calls high coherence.