People are always asking me how they can learn to be a better photographer when they don't know much about their camera and nothing about photography in general - usually they just want to take better photos of their children, better landscapes or just better photos in general - not everyone wants to be a pro.
Im not the best photographer in the world but everyone has started somewhere so my advice is to read a lot but most importantly actually go out and take some photos - if you take one photo every six months you'll never get better because when you have finally learned something it will be forgotten the next time you go to pick up your camera.
I learned slightly differently to most, my grandmother was a photographer and her father before that. I grew up looking at photography equipment and learning the techniques behind it. I did photography at high school and absolutely immersed myself in it. When I went to university however my camera was set aside for books and computers and I didn't pick it up again...it was a lost friend that had gone on an OE, when it returned it was slightly different, the game had changed so I had to reacquaint myself.
There are a number of great and free places on the web where beginners can go to learn, I have been to each of the places below many times and picked up heaps of great tips!
Digital photography school - lots of great tips here from tips and tutorials to information on equipment to post production techniques.
Flickr - lots of people think flickr is just a place to upload and share photos, but it is much more than that. There are thousands of groups that cover everything you can think of when it comes to photography from Photoshop support to support groups for your particular camera or lenses and there's lots of knowledgable people ton help you out.
YouTube - really quite self explanatory, my only advice here is learn to weed out the good videos from the bad.
I think these are plenty to begin with, more to come later on!