StudyUK: Hobsons Study UK website offers free information and advice to students wanting to study in the UK. It provides advice about studying abroad from English universities, degree courses at academic institutions around the UK and information on how to get settled in when studying in the UK.
Springboard: Hobsons Springboard concentrates on UK students aged 16-18 who are looking for advice and information regarding careers, degrees, universities. This site also provides details and links to GapYear programs and companies, as well as 'How to write a CV' advice.
Using
the Internet in the Classroom:
Since
completing his PGCE two years ago Andrew Field has developed an impressive
website for history teachers. Andrew admits that his initial objective
was to create a resource " that would be useful for my own history
teaching - both research and direct teaching." This included
providing categorised links to useful sites. Since the launch he has
had added online lessons, downloadable worksheets and CD-Rom activities.
In
this article, Andrew
Field explains how the website was developed. Yalding
Project: Chris
Truman of Sackville Community College, East Grinstead, admits that
until a couple of years ago he was a "was a supporter of books,
chalk and talk" However, he is now a strong advocate of using
ICT in history. Over the last couple of months he has been developing
his own website, History
Learning, for his students. In this article he explains his
conversion to active learning. The
Laptop Revolution:
The The International School of Toulouse is a exciting new project
sponsored by BAE SYSTEMS (formerly British Aerospace). This purpose-built
school opened in September 1999, and accommodates children from 4
- 18 years of age. The school is growing rapidly and has 300 pupils
on its roll. It serves the international community in Toulouse, as
well as local students. Richard Jones-Nerzic, Head of Humanities at
the school, has written a fascinating article on what is like to teach
history in Europe's first laptop computer school. Designing
Websites:
A growing number of history teachers are becoming interested in creating
websites for their students. This month Teaching History Online has
commissioned Andrew Moore to write and article on web design. It contains
sections on: What are you trying to do?, Who is the audience?, Learning
how HTML works, Text editors and WYSIWYG HTML editors, What equipment
is your audience using?, Text and images, Frames and tables, Site
structure, Hyperlinks, redundancy and the three-clicks rule, Use of
colour and background images and style sheets.
Qualifications
& Curriculum Authority:
The Qualifications & Curriculum Authority is currently developing
a website using pupils' work and case study material to show what
the national curriculum in history looks like in practice. The examples
will illustrate the standard of pupils' work at different ages and
how the programmes of study translate into activities. Teachers will
be able to use the website for comparing the performance of individual
pupils against a common standard within and across the key stages,
and as a basis for developing a departmental/school portfolio. It
could also be used to plan units of work, classroom activities, and
assessment tasks that relate to the standards set out in the national
curriculum. For full details see this article by Jerome Freeman.Education
Online : During a debate held at the Royal Institution in London
last week, Professor Richard Dawkins of Oxford University argued that
the internet heralded the "most radical shift in educational
epidemiology since the invention of the printing press in the 15th
century, and probably since the origin of language itself". He
added: "The best experts I can find all expect the exponential
increase in computer power per unit cost to continue at the present
rate (doubling almost every 18 months) for at least another 10 years.
This is amply long enough to ensure that access to the Internet will
be virtually free to anyone who can afford the electricity."
Schools:
Achieving Success: The British government's new White
Paper, Schools: Achieving Success,
has just been published. The government once again is emphasizing
that quality teaching and learning lie at the heart of school improvement
and restates its mission to raise standards. It claims that this will
be achieved by "greater diversity and flexibility; delivering
high minimum standards; supporting teachers and schools to deliver
change; and encouraging innovation with the best schools leading the
system". ASandA2:
Launched in October 2001, ASandA2 intends to become a lively and exciting
community for students and teachers of the AS and A2 curriculums in
the UK. At our core is an interactive portal of subject links, to
which visitors can add resources, plus rate and review the current
links. There are also hi-tech forums for discussions under any topic
of the curriculum and an opportunity for teachers to build their own
website, for which they can receive money according to how many page
impressions they receive.Girls
and ICT: A recent survey discovered that only 22% of the IT workforce
is made up of women. This means that over the last seven years the
proportion of women in IT has dropped by about 10%. Anne Cantello
points out that there is evidence to suggest that it is the teaching
of ICT in schools that is the main reason why girls are losing interest
in the subject. She argues: "We need to make our children's experience
of IT exciting, inspiring and challenging. We need to focus on the
things that really interest them to both deliver the IT skills they
need and increase interest in IT careers." World
Tests: This week saw the launch of the British government's world-class
online tests for students. Developed by the Qualifications and Curriculum
Authority, these online tests are aimed at the top 10 per cent of
pupils. Pupils in the US, New Zealand, Australia and Hong Kong were
also involved in this experiment but over 60 per cent of the children
taking the tests were English. It is reported that only 27 schools
in England took the maths and problem-solving exams for 9 and 13 year
olds. However, the Department for Education and Skills claimed it
was pleased with the mix of schools that volunteered for the tests.
ICT
in State Schools: A report commissioned by the British Education
Suppliers Association (Besa) was published online this week. Based
on responses from more than 2,000 schools in the UK, the survey claims
that schools have an average of 26 computers with Net access. However,
the report points out that an average of just six students can use
interactive websites at the same time. This figure drops even lower
if the students are trying to access streaming video or audio. There
are now almost one million PCs in schools, although up to 25 per cent
are so old they are considered to be ineffective for Internet use.
Ray Barker, director of Besa, argues that the high cost and availability
of fast Internet access remains the main problem for teachers and
students in British schools.Becta:
In 1999 the Department for Education and Skills commissioned teams
from three universities to conduct a three-year programme as part
of the evaluation of the National Grid for Learning. Sixty schools
and 2,179 students participated in the study. The interim report has
just been published and highlights a range of problems about the introduction
of ICT in schools. Researchers found that "very few teachers
are integrating ICT into subject teaching in a way that motivates
pupils and enriches learning or stimulates higher-level thinking and
reasoning." Students complained about the lack of opportunity
to use computers at school. The report reveals that students spend
up to four times as long using computers at home than they do at school.
Website
Content: A report published by Pew Charitable Trust and American
Life claims that most people are unwilling to pay for content on websites
that used to be free of charge. The survey of 1,351 Internet users
discovered that 17 per cent have been recently asked to pay for online
content that used to be free. Of these, 12 per cent opted to pay for
the content, whereas 50 per cent found a free alternative website.
European
Schoolnet Online Workshop: Teachers, trainers and others can quickly
and easily set up their own online workshops thanks to European Schoolnet's
new website. The Workshop site gives everyone the chance to host online
discussions, collect and submit course work, collect together important
dates and more! Whether you'd like to run a workshop, or just take
part, then this site is for you.School
Managers Centre: The EUN School Managers Centre (SMC) is a resource
centre and virtual meeting place for school managers and administrators
from all over Europe. The SMC provides information on on-going policy
developments, activities, good examples of innovative practice and
results from research in management of innovation.
National
Grid for Learning: The British National Grid for Learning (NGfL)
portal is to be relaunched on 9th January at the education technology
show, BETT 2002. The site has a new image-driven design which represents
a radical change from its previous look. It has been restructured
and rebuilt to cope with the ever-increasing quantity of content that
makes it the largest educational portal of approved sites. The
NGfL is part of a Government initiative which aims to widen access
to learning for everyone in all sectors of education, both formal
and informal. The portal incorporates quality-assured educational
web sites for people of all ages and interests.
Ultralab:
Professor Stephen Heppel is head of Ultralab, the learning technology
research laboratory based at Anglia Polytechnic University's campus
in Chelmsford. In a recent interview he gave to the Guardian newspaper,
Heppel provided valuable insights into the future of online education.
Heppel is concerned by the "tick box" model that has been
developed by several major corporations. He fears it will sabotage
any really creative thinking about learning. As he points out: "marketing
executives have a great budget to tell teachers about the latest widget,
but teachers don't have any means of telling each other about the
great ideas they have in the classroom. We need to do something about
that."Professors
are Human: Steven Kries, a history teacher in the United States,
believes that the delivery of information on the World Wide Web has
the distinct possibility of enhancing and transforming current pedagogical
attitudes and practices in higher education. In his article, Professors
are Human: Breaking Down the Barriers Between Instructor and Student
he argues that teacher websites can "break down the traditional
barrier of authority erected between instructor and students and to
empower students with knowledge rather than hide that knowledge as
if it were the instructor's intellectual property alone." GTC
and Curriculum Online: The General Teaching Council for England
has responded to the government's recent Curriculum Online proposals.
The paper highlights some important issues and argues: "We see
a critical role for teachers in partnership with the research community
to offer the expertise and build the capacity for classroom innovation
and investigation of a digitally enabled education. Our concern is
that the Curriculum Online proposals fall short of understanding and
addressing the need to develop new pedagogical practice. Long-term
success of Curriculum Online will not come from the platform that
the service is delivered on or from connectivity or infrastructure
but from the capacity of teachers to ensure coherent, relevant, supported
and challenging learning." MyEUROPE:
The myEUROPE project is a European Schoolnet initiative at the disposal
of all the teachers who wish to involve their pupils, colleagues and
schools in European issues and values around three main thematic areas:
European Citizenship, Cultural Diversity and Young Mobility . It provides
news, services, tools, activities, projects and resources. Teachers
can either use the resources provided or contribute, participate in
pedagogical activities or set up cross-European collaborative projects.
The myEUROPE Schools Network is a group of more than 1100 schools
that have either been recommended by Members of the European Parliament
or have voluntarily registered. They form a unique community of teachers
who work for the development and the enhancement of a common European
identity.Future
of Online Learning: Stephen Downes is an Information Architect
at the University of Alberta in Canada. His fascinating article, The
Future of Online Learning, is well worth reading. Subjects covered
include Future Technology, New Technology in Education, Interaction
and Online Conferencing, Personalized Education, Time and Place Independence,
Learning Communities, The Triad Model, Accreditation, Modularity,
Ownership and Copyright, Instructional Management Systems, The Economics
of Online Learning and The Future.Teaching
Modern Languages: The European Forum of Technical and Vocational
Education and Training and a team of European colleges are seeking
to develop new approaches to teaching languages. The objective is
to improve teaching by selecting and visualizing language teaching
methods with an emphasis on communication activities. This approach
is based on a number of EU reports showing a need for better language
teaching methods. But it is also believed that a visual demonstration
of suitable methods will be an advantage to vocational language teaching
in general. The aim is to develop ready-to-use materials, a video
library (on DVD) for language teachers to see the methods used in
real classes with instructions and hints for better use of other existing
materials. In addition, there will be a guide manual with descriptions
and ready to copy materials. Teaching
and Learning: The Teaching and Learning section of TeacherNet
is a gateway to the very best educational resources currently available
on the internet. From this page you can access more than twelve hundred
lesson plans, tap into the support services of museums, libraries
and charities and ensure that you are making the most of the educational
activities that your local community has to offer. You will also find
comprehensive directories for Community Learning Grids, teaching unions
and other affiliated bodies. ICT
in Schools: The Fischer Family Trust carries out a yearly survey
on the impact of websites and software packages across different secondary
school curriculum areas. The main aim is to reliably identify important
resources that are already in reasonably widespread use. The survey
asked for responses to include ratings for both frequency of use and
learning impact. In total over 1,800 responses were received from
over 1,300 schools – nearly 1/3 of the secondary schools in England
and Wales. The sample was representative in terms of both geographical
spread and type of school. The results of the latest survey can be
found on the Fischer Family Trust website. ICT
in Schools: A
report published last year for the education department by Becta,
the British government's lead agency for ICT in education, found a
strong link between high standards across the secondary school curriculum
and good technology provision. The report also showed that the more
widely a school used ICT across the curriculum, the better its examination
results. The impact of the technology was found to be even greater
when good resources were combined with good teaching. However, Stuart
Millar, in this article in this week's Education Guardian, argues
that: "behind the alphabet soup of initiatives, national averages
and soundbite-size statistics, there remains a yawning gulf between
the politicians' vision of ICT in theory and the majority of schools'
experience of ICT in practice." Millar quotes from a recently
published Ofsted report "good
practice remains uncommon"; levels of LEA support "vary
greatly but are often too low to meet schools' needs"; training
for teachers has increased their use of computers "but only rarely
to the pedagogic expertise to help them make the most effective use
of ICT in their lessons".WebQuest:
This site, created at San Diego State University by Bernie Dodge,
offers teachers and students examples, with explanations, of how to
use, select, and analyze information found on the Internet for teaching
any subject at any age. WebQuest is an inquiry-oriented approach that
supports thinking at the levels of analysis, synthesis, and evaluation.
eSchoolnet:
European Schoolnet is an international partnership of 23 European
Ministries of Education developing learning for schools, teachers
and pupils across Europe. The portal provides insight into the use
of ICT (information and communications technology) in Europe for policy-makers
and education professionals through its resources on curriculum, e-learning,
practical ideas, online courses and its collaborative work-spaces. Education
World: In 1996 a group of people with a background in education
in the United States decided to produce a website that would make
the Internet easier for educators to use. The result is Education
World, a resource that includes a search engine for educational websites,
a place where educators can find information without searching the
entire Internet; original content, including lesson plans, practical
information for educators, information on how to integrate technology
in the classroom, and articles written by education experts; website
reviews; daily features and columns; teacher and principal profiles.
TagTeacherNet
is a fast growing independent network of educationalists who wish
to share and discuss ideas and skills. Today TagteacherNet has over
24,000 members and a vibrant discussion area, below are just some
of the services TagTeacherNet offers: (i) Free Community Profile and
Resource Portfolio: Recently launched, this new feature provides every
new TagTeacherNet member with their own website called a community
profile. Teachers can even use the system as a catalogue of web links
for use with digital white boards or as homework links for students.
(ii) Free Weekly Newsletter: Much more than a newsletter, the TagTeacherNet
weekly email provides advice, gossip, articles on topical issues and
offers. (iii) Comprehensive Resource Directory: Covering all curriculum
areas and devised by practising teachers, subject associations and
teacher advisors the resources areas continue to be one of the most
popular areas of the site. (iv) Jobs: By joining forces with Jobsin,
TagTeacherNet offers an unrivalled service. Jobs don’t just appear
on TagTeacherNet but in Job Centres, digital TV, local radio and on
over 27,000 other web sites. (iv) Online
Educational Planner: The TagTeacherNet online planner records and
displays educational events from around the country. TeacherFocus
features interactive forums for teachers in various areas of education.
The current list of forums includes: New Teachers' Place, Educational
Technology, Sciences and Mathematics, Literature and Humanities, Other
Subject-Related forums, Higher Education and College Preparation;
Elementary and Early Childhood Education, Special Education, and Teachers'
Lounge. Also, the site presents a calendar with upcoming conferences
and other events and a comprehensive resource directory with links
to teaching resources, professional organizations, grant opportunities,
and more.Neilsen
Norman Group: Children get just as frustrated as adults when navigating
around poorly designed websites, a new survey has found. A study by
the US design think tank, the Neilsen Norman Group (NNG), observed
children using a wide range of websites. It found that the bells and
whistles often used on sites designed for kids do not necessarily
impress. "Our study convinced us that most websites for children
are built upon pure folklore about how kids supposedly behave,"
said web design guru Jakob Nielsen from NNG. "While
it is true that kids love whizz bang animation and sound effects,
even these things won't hold their attention if they come upon something
too difficult to figure out or they get lost on a website."
Learning
Circuits: ASTD's website provides a collection of articles on
e-Learning. It currently includes a fascinating article by Randall
W. Kindley on Scenario-Based e-Learning. Kindley argues that scenario-based
e-learning differs from traditional e-learning as it places the learner
in real situations and requires behaviour choices rather than simple
answers to knowledge questions. Other articles include E-Learning:
Building the Ramp for Equal Access (Karen Beauregard), TechTools:
Blogs (Jay Cross) and Retooling for E-Learning (Laura Moushey and
James Kirk). European
Schoolnet is a unique international partnership of 23 European
Ministries of Education developing learning for schools, teachers
and pupils across Europe. It provides insight into the use of ICT
(information and communications technology) in Europe for policy-makers
and education professionals. This goal is achieved through communication
and information exchange at all levels of school education using innovative
technologies, and by acting as a gateway to national and regional
school networks.Virtual
School Library: This website reflects the fact that information
is becoming digital and this implies changes in the way we access
resources, communicate, handle meta-data, exchange, share and present
information. In The Virtual School Library you can explore the possibilities
of being providers of information instead of consumers, and the user
shall be able to communicate, publish and distribute as easily as
they can search and retrieve. The website claims it will help students
to become more and more responsible for their own learning and the
teacher progressively will become more of a mentor and guide.ENIS
is the European Network of Innovative Schools. For every Ministry
of Education that takes part in the ENIS organisation, there is an
ENIS Co-ordinator, who is responsible for the national network of
innovative schools. This person lays out the agreed European criteria
and procedures in his/her own Ministry, and identifies how they can
be integrated into national policy. The best way to identify schools
on a national level is determined by the Ministry, which certifies
ENIS schools to be integrated into the European Network. myEUROPE:
The myEUROPE project is a European Schoolnet initiative at the disposal
of all the teachers who wish to involve their pupils, colleagues and
schools in European issues and values around three main thematic areas:
European Citizenship, Cultural Diversity and Young Mobility. It provides
news, services, tools, activities, projects and resources. Teachers
can either use the resources we provide or contribute, participate
in pedagogical activities or set up cross-European collaborative projects.
Adventure
Learning Foundation: This comprehensive site takes students and
teachers, as virtual participants, on real and virtual expeditions
around the world. Through a collection of original pictures and journal
excerpts, visitors can follow in the footsteps of travelers exploring
the natural environment, culture, and peoples of different continents.
Past expeditions include Alaska and Yukon, Baja California, American
Southwest, Southern Africa, Mexico and Peru. Each expedition is accompanied
by a mixture of information, links, and classroom activities. e-Learning
Centre: The e-Learning Centre is a one stop e-learning resource.
It provides access to thousands of links to selected and reviewed
e-learning resources in 4 main categories: Resources; Showcase; Vendors
and Events. eCLIPSE, the e-Learning Centre's e-Learning Intelligence
Service, is a free subscription-based service that adds intelligence
to the vast amount of resources available by providing further value-added
information (eg its Top 10 series) and a pathway through the materials
via their work-based, role-based and technology centres.Timesavers
for Teachers is a Consortium Member of the GEM project sponsored
by the United States Education Department which accepts only quality
education sites. Timesavers for Teachers specializes in offering teachers
teacher resources and tools that save time. The website provides practical,
visually appealing often-used forms, checklists, units, timesaving
ideas, and other reproducible worksheets for busy classroom teachers..Online
Learning Magazine is the leading information source for readers
who need quick, targeted, relevant information about e-learning and
its impact on business. Through a combination of case studies, product
comparisons, trend coverage and industry news, Online Learning Magazine
helps readers make sense of an industry that's growing at Internet
speed. Stories are written in a lively, interesting, concise manner
and covers all the ways technology can be used to help people learn,
including online courses, virtual collaboration, knowledge management,
and performance support. Grid
Club: Initiated and funded by the Department for Education and
Skills, the Grid Club is designed to help 7 to 11 year old have fun
pursuing their interests online. Schools that register can recruit
pupils as Grid Club members. This enables the pupils to gain access
to a range of clubs covering interests such as sports, music, puzzles
or art. On school days GridClubbers are invited to take part in 'Talk-Live'
events: Monday to Friday 12 - 2 p.m, and Tuesdays, Wednesdays and
Thursdays 3 - 4 p.m. The Grid Club also run sessions on Sundays at
12 - 1 p.m. Here children can publish their work safely and take part
in online conversations and debates. Eteach
is the largest interactive database of teaching jobs in the UK, with
hundreds of new teaching vacancies posted on the site each week. Join
Eteach for free to search for jobs, hear about the latest jobs by
email, post your CV and apply for jobs online. The site also enables
schools to find you by matching their vacancies to relevant CVs on
the site. In addition, Eteach brings you help and advice on looking
for a job, the latest education news and an online Staffroom where
you can contact other education professionals. Guidelines
for Schools: Sophos has produced guidelines outlining how schools
can protect themselves against virus attack. These guidelines are
designed to warn pupils of the risks associated with computer viruses,
as well as assisting teachers in teaching school children about computer
security. These guidelines give an overview of what the different
types of virus are, how they infect computers and how to effectively
protect against them. The guidelines also include some suggestions
for classroom activities relating to computer virus prevention.BBC
Learning is now providing a series of short online learning courses.
This includes Computers and the Internet (Becoming Webwise), Design
& Technology (Build-A-Bot Techlab), Gardening (How to be a Gardener),
Health (First Aid Action), Modern Languages (Talk French, Deutsch
Plus, Italianissimo, Spanish Steps), Nature (Blue Planet Challenge),
and History (Archaeology, Family History, Local History, Wars &
Conflict, Victorian Britain). Spring
Day in Europe: The European Convention, with representatives from
28 countries, is discussing the future of Europe. Spring Day in Europe
is an event organised to bring this debate right into schools - your
class can take part. Every secondary school in Europe is invited to
join in. At a time when important decisions need to be made about
the future of Europe, it is an opportunity for pupils to learn, discuss,
and have their say on the European issues they care about. Schools
can decide exactly how and to what extent they participate; organise
a debate in the school, invite an expert on European issues to speak,
or join with other schools to exchange views on the future of Europe.
The Spring Day in Europe website will help with activities, ideas
and tools for teachers.Comenius
Space: Comenius is is a European action programme to encourage
schools to collaborate across borders. Comenius projects can improve
professional skills, knowledge of culture and languages, and innovation
in teaching. Comenius Space is a site for teachers and trainers active
in Comenius projects and for those that would like to join. On the
website you can find services, people, experts, and advisors that
can help set up an international project. Comenius Space is available
in English, French and German.Association
of Teacher Websites (ATW): How often have you visited an "educational"
web site, only to find an apparently random jumble of pages that bear
no relation to your subject, teaching or learning? The ATW is an association
of websites created by the real experts - teachers. The ATW helps
its members share ideas and work together. It provides a single portal,
which is a guarantee of quality for pupils, teachers and parents.
It does not charge its members for any services, and contributors
share any organizational tasks. The ATW currently has 88 approved
sites covering all curriculum areas and key stages.Simon's
Raising Achievement Website: Produced by Simon Midgley, the aim
of this website is to show how students' educational achievements
may be increased. It does this both by linking to research, in the
UK and around the world, on strategies which may help to raise achievement
and by providing practical examples of teaching approaches and resources
which may help educators do this more efficiently - and enjoyably!
In particular, the site focuses on the emancipatory power of ICT -
looking equally at theoretical and practical issues. Additionally,
there is practical help and ideas for teachers and teaching assistants
who are supporting dyslexic and other students who learn differently.
To show how all of the ideas and strategies fit together in an actual
school situation, details are included of the Raising Achievement
project at one school, Rhyddings High in East Lancashire.Gender
and Achievement: Produced by the Standards Unit this website claims
to be the first place for teachers, LEAs and parents to visit if they
want support and information on gender and achievement. It will help
those who are interested in raising the performance and aspirations
of underachieving boys and girls by providing an online resource pool
of best practice, analysis and practical advice. Teachers'
Magazine: Teachers magazine was launched in the spring of 1999
and is the Department for Education and Skills' magazine for the teaching
profession in England. The magazine is primarily written for classroom
teachers in the primary and secondary sectors. There are now two versions
of the magazine; one for primary and one for secondary teachers. The
magazine is published bi-monthly and is available online.First
School features fun preschool lesson plans, educational early
childhood activities, printable crafts, printable activities, calendar
of events, and other resources for children of preschool age. The
preschool lesson plans and activities are appropriate and adaptable
for toddlers, preschoolers and kindergarten level (ages 2 to 6). First-School's
content is ideal for home schooling, preschool and kindergarten teachers,
child care providers and babysitters. Virtual
Magazine for Teachers: Every day the eSchoolnet Virtual Magazine
offers the latest news about eLearning in Europe's classrooms. Whether
you're interested in news about events, training, resources, technology,
or the future of schools, the eSchoolnet magazine is for you and your
school. The current edition includes Technology Training for Head
Teachers, Canada: Virtual Institute for Innovative Schools and Can
We Learn Digitally?
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