Education on the Internet
Number 10: 5th December, 2001
Introduction
Introduction
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.
John Simkin
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.
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.
