Homework helpers

What a concept: free academic guidance on the Web and cellphones. The Associated Press gives examples, such as WebMath.com (hard to tell who's behind it, but this page sheds some light) and retired engineer Henry Fliegler, who "spends about three hours daily answering 25 or so [math] questions." Then there are fee-based services AskMeNow.com (via email and cellphones) and Google Answers. Here's some more free advice from the AP: "Services offered by universities and government agencies may be more reliable than a commercial service with little information about its operators." The Web can also help kids exercise their critical thinking, when they use it to check out who's behind a service and figure out how much they *really* know. For more on this, see "Critical thinking: Kids' best research (and online-safety) tool." For more homework help, check out the links at Net-mom's Nice Sites, IncredibleInternet.com, and Discovery School.