Education on the Internet
Number 111: 10th March, 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 46,350 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
Differentiation: John D. Clare argues that differentiation is one of the least understood elements of teaching. It mystifies NQTs, and terrifies many older teachers. In his view differentiation is an entitlement, not a teaching strategy. He adds: "Differentiation is the right of each pupil to be taught in a way specifically tailored to their individual learning needs. The process of differentiation, consequently, is the adjustment of the teaching process to meet the differing learning needs of the pupils, and it involves every teacher having sufficient appropriate knowledge of the pupils, plus the ability to plan and deliver suitable lessons effectively, so as to help all pupils individually to maximise their learning, whatever their individual situation." If you have views on this subject, register with the History Forum and join the debate.
News and Articles
International Education Forum: Established just over two months ago, the International Education Forum now has 463 members from over 25 different countries. The forum allows members post information, ask questions, and to take part in debates about education. The forum also helps teachers to find partners for subject specific and cross-curricular curriculum projects. It is hoped that the forum will provide a world community of teachers. Most of the website is in English but there is also sections in German, Spanish, French, Italian, Dutch, Swedish, Czech and Greek. Please register and if possible, add a brief biography on the forum.
Collaborative Learning Project: This project was established in London in 1983 and supported by the Inner London Education Authority until 1988. It is now a non-profit making educational trust: a support for a network of teachers working with children at all ages and in every subject area. The main objective of the project is to promote inclusive education for all. The project particularly concerns itself with the inclusion of minority ethnic, and other disadvantaged children and those with special needs. It addresses issues of curriculum access, the development of interactive, cognitively demanding and motivating activities and the matching of learning to the needs and abilities of all children.
GCSE Revision: The GCSE booster pack provides a set of materials offering guidance for teachers and school leaders on organising a revision programme and preparing students for the GCSE examinations. The GCSE booster pack contains resources suitable for all GCSE students, but they are particularly aimed at those who are predicted a grade D and need support to achieve grade C at GCSE. The pack contains a series of leaflets for both teachers and students in eight of the most popular subjects: English Language, English Literature, Mathematics, Science, French, German, Geography and History.
History
Match Girls Strike: On 23rd June 1888, Annie Besant wrote an article in her newspaper, The Link. The article, entitled White Slavery in London, complained about the way the women at Bryant & May were being treated. The company reacted by attempting to force their workers to sign a statement that they were happy with their working conditions. When a group of women refused to sign, the organisers of the group were sacked. The response was immediate: 1400 of the women at Bryant & May went on strike. This website provides an account of the strike. It also includes a tutors' pack produced by Ben Walsh.
Investigating the Titanic: A webquest on the Titanic. Students carry out the following activities: Use the resource provided to gather enough information to construct a simple chart comparing and contrasting the Olympic, Brittanic, and the Titanic. Make a list of the engineer's duties during the Titanic voyage before she struck the iceberg and after she struck the iceberg. Was the Titanic really an American ship and not British? Choose a name from the passenger list provided and research that individual.
Science
Interacting: This excellent Open University website provides a Virtual Planisphere (spectacular photographs by leading astrophotographers that allows you to view the constellations at any time of the year), Brit-o-meter (see where you sit in the multicultural spectrum), Virtual Holiday (take yourself on a virtual holiday from Milton Keynes to Nice, and balance the costs - can you afford to save the planet?) and a Digital Microscope (allows you to examine plant and animal material and a selection of microbes).
BBC Science: Portal website providing the latest news on science. This includes articles on the Hubble Space Telescope, Nasa's Mars Expedition, Genetically Modified Maize, Fossil Louse, Hottest Summer in 500 Years, Beagle 2, Perfect Lenses, Quantum Cryptography, Dodging the Firewall, Water on Mars, Computer Equipment and Environmental Damage, Whaling and Climate Change.
Geography
NationMaster: Luke Metcalfe admits that the idea for NationMaster arose as he was surfing around the CIA World Factbook. As he points out: "It's a great read but I felt the individual figures (like number of TV's, or kilometres of coastline) didn't mean much on their own. They'd be more illuminating if they were placed alongside other countries and shown relative to population. So I decided to put together a website that allowed users to generate graphs based on numerical data extracted from the Factbook." Metcalfe's objective is to make it easy to engage with the indicators that shape global commerce, health, politics and ecology.
Learn Geography: A collection of online geography tests for secondary school students. Subjects covered include Flood Disaster, Earthquakes & Volcanoes, People Everywhere, Exploring England, Environmental Geography, Geography Skills, Rivers, Coastal Environments, Investigating Brazil, Limestone Landscapes, Weather Patterns, Shopping, Crime and the Local Community, Development, Mining, Tourism and Globalisation.
Politics
Nation States is a simulation game for people interested in politics. You create your own country, fashioned after your own ideals, and care for its people. When you begin you will be asked to choose a name for your nation, a motto, a national animal, and a currency. Then you answer a short questionnaire about your politics. This will determine what sort of nation you end up with: authoritarian or permissive, left-wing or right-wing, compassionate or psychotic. Once a day, you'll be faced with an issue, and need to make a decision as to what to do about it. This determines how your nation evolves.
Catalyst: Peter Hain, leader of the House of Commons, has just written a pamphlet that is freely available from this website. Hain argues that the Labour Party is over-centralised, undemocratic and closed to new ideas. He says that the policy-making structure "is losing credibility among members because they do not believe it influences major policy decisions" and urges the party leadership to address the issue urgently or "become divided and unable to renew itself in office." Hain adds that the party needs to imitate the Liberal Democrats by setting up groups to bring together party members, ministers and outside experts to look at specific issues.
Citizenship
World Ecitizens: The aim of the World Ecitizens Project to encourage understanding between peoples and communities and to share the fascinating diversity within nations and across the world. The organization's website provides a web based learning environment and is a rich resource for educational collaboration in topics such as responsible citizenship, mutual respect, combating social injustice and conflict prevention and resolution. Since January 2003 communities and classes of young people in the UK have presented posters, video clips and comic strips about citizenship issues that concern them. Some of the young people have been working with artists and writers in residence. So far homelessness and international citizenship have emerged as major areas of concern.
eHow: In the past, when people wanted to know how to do things, they found answers from a variety of sources: friends and family, store clerks, instruction manuals, reference books and Internet sites. Their experiences became complicated tasks, comprised of figuring out how to accomplish the project, making an itemized list of necessities, remembering what is already on-hand, finding what products or services are needed, and making numerous purchases with multiple payment methods to get everything. And all of this was done before they could even start their projects. eHow.com was created to give people a fast and easy way to find out how to do a variety of real-world activities, provide ways to accomplish them, and join a community of like-minded people who share a passion for getting things done.
Internet Services
Colours on the Web: Knowing the names of the most common colours can be very useful, especially if you do web design more professionally. Clients usually do not tell you what colours they want as a hex or as a pantone (though sometimes the latter happens) but they give you names such as plum, tan or lavender. And though you think you know what those colours look like, you might find it hard to define them as an exact colour on a computer screen. This list is dynamic, and is updated constantly by users. If you wish to add your own definition to a colour, simply click on the 'add definition' button, and follow the instructions.
SUNET: The main goal of this website is to encourage the use of net-based meetings (simultaneous communication between two or more participants over an IP-based network). Created by the Swedish University Computer Network (SUNET) its aim is to enable people to use net-based meeting solutions (typically, but not exclusively video conferencing) as easily as possible. Much of what is presented is specific in nature, and applies to the SUNET environment.
Book Section
Assassination Science: If you have ever been tempted to believe that President Kennedy was killed by a lone, demented gunman named Lee Harvey Oswald, then Assassination Science is the one book which will convince you, beyond any reasonable doubt, that there was indeed a conspiracy and a cover-up. Completely lacking the wild speculations that have marred some books on the shooting of Kennedy, Assassination Science sticks to the hard facts, interpreted by medical and scientific expertise. (James H. Fetzer, Catfeet, ISBN 0 8126 9366 3, £9.00)
