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Posted By: questions CyberEd - 11/24/08 03:07 AM
www.cybered.net is going out of business.

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Dear CyberEd customers,
Please be advised that CyberEd, Inc. has decided to discontinue distribution of all products created and/or sold by CyberEd and to cease business operations.

Effectively immediately, CyberEd, Inc. will no longer accept new orders for products sold by or through CyberEd/PLATO Science.

Thank you for all your support and input over the past 14 years. It has been a pleasure and an honor creating effective interactive science software for science teachers and their students.

CyberEd Teaching Resources
Over the years, CyberEd has developed study guides, test questions, activities and other resources that could be used in conjunction with our award-winning digital courseware content.

These materials will remain available to science teachers through December 10, 2008. Please don�t miss this opportunity to retrieve these materials before they are no longer available.

Please note that PLATO Learning will continue to offer subscription-based access to our science products. Visit www.plato.com or call 800.44.PLATO for more information.


The teacher resources are fabulous - http://www.cybered.net/CyberEd_Index.asp?IndexType=Resources

Who here can tell me how I can easily copy all the links? (For instance, click on biology and check out the links). I can copy the tests and quizzes one by one, as there aren't all that many, but is there anyway to copy some of the many links without linking on them all? I plan to call plato.com tomorrow to see if they can move the info over to their site. Doubtful, but worth a try. Meanwhile, I know there are many on this site with expertise in computers.

Thanks!

Posted By: JBDad Re: CyberEd - 11/24/08 03:16 AM
There are a few pieces of software that you can use to archive a site. Like

http://www.httrack.com/

I just googled on "archive web site". There are probably a few out there you can use.

Also, the waybackmachine at http://www.archive.org/ is very handy if you don't get a chance to do that before a site goes down.

Sad to see a site go out of business, but unfortunately it's not unusual, particularly not now.

JB
Posted By: questions Re: CyberEd - 11/24/08 03:21 AM
Thanks, JBDad. Do you know how large a site like this would be? Could I just copy it to a dvd using httrack.com? That would be a huge time saver. We're using a few of the courses, and if they continue to offer the others, we'll probably do the others as well. DS8 loves them.

Seems weird to be able to copy a website. Is that legal? It does say help yourself to our resources before it goes down...
Posted By: JBDad Re: CyberEd - 11/24/08 12:27 PM
It's probably not that big of a site, so yes, I'd think it'd fit on a DVD just fine.

If you're just using it to browse a site while you're offline (off the internet) I don't see a problem with it. I'm no lawyer mind you. But in earlier versions of browsers you can tag a site as available when you're offline and many "web acceleration" tools pre-fetch web pages. So I wouldn't worry about it.

JB
Posted By: questions Re: CyberEd - 11/24/08 01:04 PM
Thanks. They're closing the site - I'd just like access to the info in the future, and they do say help yourself. Definitely worth a try.

Thanks again!
Posted By: Kriston Re: CyberEd - 11/24/08 03:02 PM
So, wait, I'm already confused. Please talk to me as if I were an English major...blush

What's the easiest way for a clueless computer loser user to copy the materials over to a DVD for our use? (I am also a subscriber, so I'm allowed to use them.)
Posted By: JBDad Re: CyberEd - 11/24/08 04:08 PM
Take a look at the software here http://www.httrack.com/ I have not use this particular one before, but I have used others. It should allow you to point the tool at a url like http://www.cybered.net and it will "crawl" the site and save all of the pages locally to your hard disk. Then you can burn that to a DVD or put it on your home network for future use.

I have not use httrack so if that one doesn't work well or is confusing to use we can google for other archive software tools. Should be able to find something free.

JB
Posted By: Kriston Re: CyberEd - 11/24/08 04:16 PM
Thanks, JBDad. smile

Sorry to be so slow, but once we get past "Turn the computer on," I am easily confused...
Posted By: questions Re: CyberEd - 11/24/08 09:23 PM
I emailed them and they are going to try to make everything into a zip file for easy downloading. Save us all the trouble.
Posted By: Kriston Re: CyberEd - 11/24/08 11:15 PM
Ah! Great.

Thanks, Questions. I wouldn't have heard anything about this if you weren't on the ball. smile
Posted By: LMom Re: CyberEd - 11/25/08 04:17 AM
Last possibility to buy CyberEd.

http://www.homeschoolbuyersco-op.org/index.php?option=com_quickbase&Itemid=322

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11-24-08 We are aware of CyberEd changes and will be releasing a statement for Co-op members very soon.

In the meantime, please rest assured that your subscription(s) are OK and will be honored. However the current group buy is the LAST opportunity to purchase CyberEd programs. The current group buy closes 11:59 pm EST, December 1, 2008.

Such a great product, I thought we would use it for years and years to come frown At least we still have till Dec 2009, hopefully by then DS6 will have finished the Earth Science (which we've been doing since September), Life Science, and Physical Science.

I cannot say enough good things about CyberEd. This is the very last chance to get a subscription for one year. Don't miss it. It's worth every penny.

I am off to CyberEd to place my order.
Posted By: NJMom Re: CyberEd - 11/26/08 02:27 PM
Could someone who has used the Life Science, Earth Science or Physical Science courses give me a rough idea of how much time it takes to complete these courses?

I'm interested in purchasing one or more but don't want to buy all three if we won't be able to get through them before the subscriptions expire.

Thanks.

Posted By: Lorel Re: CyberEd - 11/26/08 03:43 PM
My dd at 7 did the physical science and life science last year- both were finished before Christmas, though I can't recall exactly how many weeks they took. She did one after the other, so they were not concurrent. You should be fine with a year for all three.

I think they are great courses, btw.
Posted By: Genxmum Re: CyberEd - 11/27/08 05:44 PM
Thanks for the httrack software idea. I used it and it seems to work quite well. Only thing was that it looks like that cyber learning site is probably very large so I stopped it after about 5 minutes. I should probably check to see to what max depth the learning links go to and then run it again. I'm a little low on space on this computer.

Any idea how much longer that particular learning website will be up before it's took down?
Posted By: NJMom Re: CyberEd - 12/02/08 06:22 PM
Following up on the post from QUESTIONS a while back, is there any news on a zip file of the teacher resources?

AJ
Posted By: questions Re: CyberEd - 12/02/08 07:23 PM
Yes, I just noticed today that the Life Science Teacher Resources are zipped on their website. Not all of them are, but maybe they're in process.
Posted By: questions Re: CyberEd - 12/04/08 09:43 PM
FYI, from Homeschool Buyers Co-Op:

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The CyberEd division of PLATO Learning has ceased operations. However, the Co-op is exploring other ways to make CyberEd Online once again available to homeschoolers.


I wouldn't put it past them. smile

And for those of you who didn't notice, they did zip their teachers resources materials on www.cybered.net .
Posted By: JBDad Re: CyberEd - 12/04/08 09:55 PM
What was in the zipped files? Web pages?

JB
Posted By: Kriston Re: CyberEd - 12/04/08 10:06 PM
Oh, yay! I hope they do!

I went ahead and reordered through Dec. 2009 two of the classes that we have until May 2009 because I wanted to be sure we got to use them. (I think we'll finish Earth and Science before then...at least, that's the plan!) But I would love to have access to the Biology and Chemistry classes for high schoolers when he's ready for them.

Fingers crossed!
Posted By: JBDad Re: CyberEd - 12/04/08 10:23 PM
Looks like they are going to continue the subscription model. I was thinking I could throw the content up on a server. But if they are trying to turn a profit off the content, that wouldn't fly.

JB
Posted By: questions Re: CyberEd - 12/04/08 11:14 PM
Actually, JBDad, you should ask them. Email the address on the bottom of the cybered.net homepage. That's how I got them to zip the files. FYI, the copyable links are tests and curriculum guides that have been up there for free from the start (I just didn't know about them) and many, many, many links for more information on all the subjects. What they sell is an interactive lesson, application and test. That is not available for download. So, if you get permission (please, please, please!), by all means host the site. Or, I'd be happy to pay you for creating a dvd of the info (not the tests so much, which I can copy myself, but the links) - and I had said the same to the cybered people. I haven't had the time to figure out the httracker software. Still have a week to do it...

fyi, DS8 loves cybered. It's his favorite subject in HSing. He does a segment a day - lesson, application and test. We'll have no problem getting through all the first three by the end of the school year. I also ordered the biology and chemistry courses, but they're much more advanced. Chances are they won't get done before December, 2009.
Posted By: JBDad Re: CyberEd - 12/05/08 12:33 AM
Email sent. Maybe this is the gifted project I was looking for? We'll see.

JB
Posted By: questions Re: CyberEd - 12/05/08 03:50 AM
Thanks. I realize I sounded pretty desperate, but if you know what you're doing...

As for gifted projects, I'm sure you'll come up with better. But you should check out the links on the courses. Just time-saving short cuts. Some of them are dead, but there's lots of information to follow up. Who knows, by the time we get to it, we probably won't even use them, but it is a nice website, and it's very nice of you to ask them about it.

I wonder what CTY will do for science (they've been using cybered).
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