Education
on the Internet
is published by Spartacus
Educational every week. The newsletter includes news, reviews
of websites and articles on using ICT in the classroom. Members of
the mailing list are invited to submit information for inclusion in
future newsletters. In this way we hope to create a community of people
involved in using the Internet in education. Currently there are 15,356
subscribers to the newsletter.
International
Student Assessment: The Programme for International Student Assessment
run by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD),
surveyed 265,000 students in 31 countries last year. It assessed the
ability of 15-year-olds approaching the end of their compulsory schooling
to apply their knowledge and skills in reading, maths and science
to everyday problems. Finland came top in reading literacy (the ability
to understand, use and reflect on written texts) followed by Canada,
New Zealand, Australia, Ireland, South Korea, United Kingdom, Japan,
Sweden and Austria.
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.
European
Schoolnet eLearning News: The European Schoolnet's News site is
for everyone working in education in Europe. The website will keep
you up to date on events, research, practice, collaborative projects
and more. If you have a newsworthy tip about eLearning, don't hesitate
to get in touch with Alexa Joyce at news@eun.org.
Axcis
Career Management: There is currently a demand for teachers from
all over the world to fill vacancies in both primary and secondary
schools in the United Kingdom. Axis is a teacher recruitment company
that can provide either supply or long term teaching jobs. If you
are a qualified teacher or student teacher looking for a job you should
find this website useful. Axis also provides a good list of links
to teaching resources and Local Educational Authorities in the United
Kingdom.
History
Cave
of Lascaux Online: The first prehistoric cave paintings in Europe
were discovered in 1879. Since then, over 200 decorated caves and
rock shelters have been found in France and Spain. The most spectacular
of these prehistoric paintings are at Lascaux. Unfortunately, the
original Lascaux Cave is no longer open to the public but this website
provides an excellent reconstructed copy of the cave.
Roman
Imperial Forums: The archaeological site of the Imperial Forums
in Rome is one of the largest areas in the world where digging, research
and studies are still under way. This website provides technical details
of the works and of the finds. Thanks to virtual reality, you can
perceive how the present archaeological area looked like at the time.
Two sophisticated webcameras, operating around the clock, will also
enable you to follow the progress of the works in the Imperial Forums.
History
of the European Union: The European Union (EU) is the result of
a process of cooperation and integration which began in 1951 between
six countries (Belgium, Germany, France, Italy, Luxembourg and the
Netherlands). After nearly fifty years, with four waves of accessions
(1973: Denmark, Ireland and the United Kingdom; 1981: Greece; 1986:
Spain and Portugal; 1995: Austria, Finland and Sweden), the EU today
has fifteen Member States and is preparing for its fifth enlargement,
this time towards Eastern and Southern Europe. This website provides
a history of the European Union and links to more detailed information
on the subject.
English
Storytellers:
Native American Authors Online is an collection of websites for published
authors. Most of these sites have been constructed with the collaboration
of the author. The rest are either the author's independent site or
a site constructed for a college course. A special emphasis has been
placed upon poets as there is less information available for these
writers. Included on each site is a photograph, a short biography,
some of the author's writing (typically poetry), the awards the writer
has won, a list of publications, including anthologies, and a bookshop
where these books may be purchased. A calendar of the public appearances
for the authors is available, and virtual greeting cards with portraits
of many of the authors can be sent. Links to related websites are
also provided.
Representative
Poetry On-line includes about 2,350 English poems by 368 poets
from Caedmon, in the Old English period, to the work of living poets
such as Marge Piercy and Mark Doty. This anthology represents poets
from Africa, Australia, Britain, Canada, New Zealand, and the United
States. Its collections build on a university teaching textbook published
by the University of Toronto Press from 1912 until 1967 to which several
dozen scholars contributed, including Kathleen Coburn, Northrop Frye,
Marshall McLuhan, Donald Theall, and R. S. Woof. Representative Poetry
On-line serves both the poetry student and teacher at school and post-secondary
levels, and the poetry lover. It offers classical critical works on
poetry, a glossary of poetic terms, annotations on words or passages
in the poems, and four indexes (poets, titles, first lines, chronology,
and calendar). It represents good poetry of all periods and types,
African-American, children's, classical, comic, feminist, and popular,
and aims at giving a reliable, helpful edition of each poem.
Poetry4kids is the biggest
collection of hilarious poetry for kids anywhere on the net. Written
by popular children's poet Kenn Nesbitt, poetry4kids is packed with
funny, whimsical, clever and zany poems, and is guaranteed to make
you giggle. In addition, Mr. Nesbitt's "How To" section
teaches children how to write their own funny poetry, and his "Link"
page boasts one of the Internet's most comprehensive listings of children's
poetry resources. If you like humorous poetry, don't miss this site.
Mathematics
Maths
Lessons: Designed
by Alan Jackson, a practising Maths teacher to serve the needs of
teachers and students who wish to have fun learning, playing and revising
their mathematics. This popular website includes online lessons, games,
tests and over 300 teacher made worksheets. Students can also sign
up for Puzzle of the Week, a challenge sent to you by email every
week.
CopyCat
is a captivating new 3D game designed and developed by Jim Morey.
The game revolves around replicating a picture created by several
patterned faces of a solid object (like a cube). This may sound easy
to some, but it can turn out to be quite tricky. So to do well at
the game, the player must first become familiar with the object. Copycat
is rich with variety. There are many different pictures that can be
created with the patterned faces of just one object and there are
many different objects that can be used. For a more subtle variation,
the way the player manipulates the object can also be changed.
Bamdad's
Math Comics: Barndad Samii's website is a collection of some math
related comics and cartoons he has collected or were sent to him through
the years. These resources can be used by teachers and students and
Barndad Samii invites visitors to submit their own materials.
Music
Music
at School: Liza Shannon's excellent website containing downloadable
worksheets and schemes of work together with online quizzes and lessons
plus categorized links to topic areas.
Music
Resources: Rob Jones has created an impressive website for British
music teachers. This includes Class Projects, a collection of ideas
for teachers that covers subjects as varied as renaissance pavanes,
Japanese songs, Arabic music and Elvis Presley. Other features include
Equipment & Instrument Reviews (written by teachers and based
on classroom experience), Ask a Expert (list of music experts willing
to answer questions on-line), Songs (MIDI file accompaniments) and
Loops (MIDI loops for improvisation).
The
Music Land: Gavin Richards provides a wide range of teaching and
learning resources for students and teachers plus online tests and
aural exercises. The website now features the popular GCSE Music Net.
Rough
Guide to Rock:
The Rough Guide to
Rock Music was first published in October 1996. It is currently being
revised and expanded and the publishers have decided to make this
major work in progress, available online. The Rough Guide to Rock
Music website currently contains details of the careers and recordings
of more that 1200 bands and artists. If you discover that your favourite
musician is missing, you can either request it to be added or you
can write and submit your own entry. If it is good enough, it will
be added online and will appear in the next edition of the book.
Science
Adrian
Dingle's Chemistry Pages: Designed for UK and US high school chemistry
students with content suitable for A Level & GCSE (UK) and Regular,
Honors & Advanced Placement (US) courses. The site has downloadable
notes, worksheets and labs.
Solar
System in Action: Reviews of, and links to, computer software
suitable for use in classroom teaching of Astronomy. For teachers,
pupils, parents - anyone - who has an interest in Astronomy.
Beyond
Discovery: The
Path from Research to Human Benefit is a series of articles that identify
and trace origins of important recent technological and medical advances.
Each story reveals the crucial role played by basic science,
the applications of which could not have been anticipated at the time
the original research was conducted. The articles are produced through
a close collaboration between professional science writers and prominent
scientists who have been directly involved with the discoveries being
described. Each article is further enhanced on our Website to include
a timeline and a rich collection of links that provide additional
details.
Sociology
Sociology
Central is designed for use by a A-level Sociology teachers and
their students. To this end it offers a range of materials and information
for use both inside and outside the classroom. These include notes
on various AS/A2 modules (Deviance, Family Life, Media and so forth);
student worksheets; lesson plans; overhead transparencies; revision
materials (such as keyword files and revision cards) and study skills
links. The website also provides short reviews of useful Sociology-related
books across a range of modules.
History
of Education: Henk
van Setten, associate professor at the University of Nijmegen in the
Netherlands, is responsible for this very impressive website. The
site lists and provides links with resources on the Internet that
contains information on education and childhood. Categories include:
Educators, Parenthood & Family, Childhood & Play, Children's
Books, Childhood Perceptions, Child Abuse, Women in Education, Higher
Education, Special Education and Vocational Education. A well-designed
website, this is an extremely valuable resource for any student of
education.
Sociologists
- Dead and Very Much Alive: This website is based at the Department
of Sociology at the University of Amsterdam. The group is involved
in several projects but the excellent Sociologist - Dead and Very
Much Alive website is an attempt to provide a comprehensive listing
of all sociology resources on the Internet. Fifty-six sociologists
are listed including several who are still very much alive. The material
includes interviews, articles, text of out of print books and discussion
groups. It is also possible to search for material by subject area.
Do you
want to have your website listed in our web directory? If so, send
a brief description (about 150 words) and the URL to spartacus@pavilion.co.uk.
