Education on the Internet
Number 109: 25th January, 2004
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 45,520 subscribers to the newsletter.
All reviews are added to our web directory. There are sections on Internet Services, Online Seminars, Primary Education, English, Mathematics, Science, Modern Languages, History, Geography, Design & Technology, Business Studies, Special Needs, Media Studies, ICT, Sociology, Music, Politics, Economics, Photography, Art & Design, Theatre Studies, Physical Education and Religious Studies.
John Simkin
Online Debates
School Buildings: Marco Koene, who teachers in the Netherlands has posed the question: "Do we really need school buildings anymore?" He goes on to argue that with today's technology there is no need for schools to be formal institutions. Raymond Blair, who teaches in the United States, agrees that it is possible to get a good education away from a school building. However, he believes that "there are many other things that can and should be part of public education. These include the discipline of showing up and keeping a schedule, socialization including exposure to diversity, and the personal contact with teachers and peers". If you have views on this subject, register with the International Education Forum and join the debate.
News and Articles
Global Curriculum Projects: This British Council website explains how up to £1,500 is available for schools in the early stages of school partnership. This grant allows at least one teacher from each school to visit their partner institutions. The scheme supports partnerships between the UK and countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean. Up to £6,000 is available from the British Council for more established partnerships looking to embed a global dimension within their respective curricula through joint activities and projects.
Playing for Success: The Department for Education and Skills Playing for Success initiative is establishing out of school hours study support centres at football clubs and other sports’ grounds. The centres use the environment and medium of football, rugby and other sports as motivational tools, and focus on raising literacy, numeracy and ICT standards amongst KS2 and 3 pupils who are struggling a little and often demotivated.
Exam Results: Pupils from every ethnic group have improved in their GCSE/GNVQ results, according to figures released this week. Schools Minister Stephen Twigg welcomed the data, which clearly shows how pupils are doing in all Key Stage tests and GCSEs, broken down by ethnicity, gender, English as an additional language, special educational needs and free school meals. The data broadly shows the following improvements with the percentage of pupils getting five or more grades A* to C at GCSE/GNVQ: White (51.3 per cent), Black Caribbean (32.9 per cent), Black African (40.7 per cent), Indian (65.2 per cent), Pakistani (41.5 per cent), Bangladeshi (45.5 per cent) and Chinese (74.8 per cent).
History
Imperial War Museum Collections Online: It is now possible to access the Imperial War Museum catalogues online. If you want to browse there are short essays on major historical themes which lead you to selected highlights from all the collections. The Imperial War Museum contains objects and works of art, a library, plus archives of documents, film, photographs and sound. The present database covers the collections of documents, film and sound in detail; other collections will be added over the next few months.
First Call: Although they only entered the First World War in 1917 the United States produced thousands of posters were created. The country's top illustrators such as Howard Chandler Christy, James Montgomery Flagg, Harrison Fisher and Edward Penfield, became involved in this process. The posters helped not only with the obvious aim of recruiting members for the armed forces, but with the parallel home-front efforts embodied in various conservation efforts, in the multiple aims of the United War Work Campaign and the work of the Red Cross. This Georgetown University Library collection features 25 of these posters.
Maths
Making Mathematics Count: According to a government-backed report published this week, maths education is failing on every account and needs a fundamental multi-million pound overhaul. The current system of GCSEs and A-levels is not meeting the needs of students, teachers, employers or universities, the report's author, Professor Adrian Smith, said today as he published the damning 186-page document, the result of a 15-month inquiry into the future of maths in schools. Less than 10% of GCSE students go on to take A-level maths, and less than 10% of A-level students go on to a maths degree, the report says. Incentives should be considered to halt the "disastrous" decline in pupils taking maths at A-level - examples mooted include waiving university tuition fees for maths students.
Maths File Game Show: A collection of maths games produced by the BBC. All the games need site needs the Shockwave 7 plug-in. They are organised into four different areas: Number (Grid Game, Saloon Snap, Builder Ted, Rounding Off), Data Handling (Fish Tank, Train Race, Data Picking), Shapes and Measures (Bathroom Tiles, Animal Weigh-In) and Algebra (Planet Hop), Late Delivery and Equation Match).
Geography
Country Portals: InsideCountries features a growing number of country portal sites. These portals are designed to give you a comprehensive overview of the websites available for that specific country. Covered topics include: business, news, travel, education, government, and much more.
Online Atlas: This website provides a choice of physical or political maps of each part of the world, which may be selected by clicking on the appropriate continent. It is possible to zoom in further to an individual country or region for a more detailed map. The reference section provides a set of online specialist maps covering world history, volcanoes, time zones and aerial images.
Media Studies
Truth and Propaganda: The use of propaganda campaigns has been a crucial aspect of modern warfare. Various techniques and media have been employed by governments to attempt to modify their citizens' behaviour and outlook: to encourage recruitment for the armed service, bolster home morale and undermine the enemy. The diverse collections of the Imperial War Museum illustrate many aspects of the history of propaganda in the era of modern conflict. The material is organized under the headings: De-humanising The Enemy (the subtle employment of propaganda strategy), Myths And Heroes (icons, heroes and martryrs) and Machinery Of Delivery (media technology at war).
Great War Photographs: This Dutch website claims to have one of the largest collections of First World War photographs. The material is organized in galleries such as: Tinted War (more than 150 colour photographs of the war), They Die Young (40 photographs of underage soldiers), Shooting-Match (pictures of the Gallipoli campaign), Bloody Picnic (explicit photographs of the death and destruction caused by the war), The Americans are Coming (photographs of the American Expeditionary Force), Unforeseen Epidemic (shellshock victims) and Love & War (romantic postcards from the war).
Physical Education
Leichtathletik Animationen: This German website provides online animations to help teach athletic techniques. Subjects covered include sprint, long jump, high jump, triple jump, steeplechase, pole vault, relay, hurdles, hammer, discus, shotput and javelin. It is not in English but this does not matter as it uses pictures rather than words to communicate its message.
English Schools Athletics Association: Established in 1925, the ESAA is dedicated to promoting the enjoyment of athletics in schools, thus enhancing the moral and physical welfare of children, by providing the right environment so that hidden talent can be discovered and visible talent can be encouraged. It achieves this aim by organising some of the premier events in the Country, and by running an award scheme for pupils of all ages. The ESAA website provides advice on how athletics may be introduced to pupils in primary schools.
Politics
The Welfare State: An article by David Goodhart in the February edition of the Prospect Magazine has caused a great deal of controversy in Britain. The article looks at the future of the welfare state in Britain and other European countries. Goodhart argues that diversity, individualism and mobility characterises developed economies mean that more of our lives is spent among strangers. "We share public services and parts of our income in the welfare state, we share public spaces in towns and cities where we are squashed together on buses, trains and tubes, and we share in a democratic conversation - filtered by the media - about the collective choices we wish to make. All such acts of sharing are more smoothly and generously negotiated if we can take for granted a limited set of common values and assumptions. But as Britain becomes more diverse that common culture is being eroded."
Liberty: Seventy years ago today Liberty was launched in a letter to the Manchester Guardian. Clement Attlee, Harold Laski, H. G. Wells and others drew attention to the "general and alarming tendency to encroachment on the liberty of the citizen". The organization is currently campaigning against the government decision to detain people under new terrorism laws without charging them or putting them on trial. The organization is also involved in the defence of Katharine Gun, who used to work as a translator at GCHQ, the Government’s eavesdropping centre. In the weeks leading up to the Iraq War, at a time when the UN was still considering whether to pass a second resolution authorising war, she disclosed that the American National Security Agency had asked the British Government to help in the illegal surveillance of the six delegations holding the balance of power in the UN Security Council.
Book Section
The Millennium Problems: In May 2000, the Clay Foundation in the US announced that a prize of $1 million would be awarded for the solution to each of the seven most difficult unsolved problems in mathematics today, known as the Millennium Problems. In this book Kevin Devlin, renowned expositor of mathematics, describes here what the seven problems are, how they came about, and what they mean for mathematics, science and society. (Keith Devlin, Granta, ISBN 1 86207 686 3, £20.00)
