Education on the Internet
Number 115: 7th April, 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 48,085 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
News and Articles
Thinking Skills in Primary Schools: Since the explicit inclusion in the National Curriculum, interest in the teaching of thinking skills has burgeoned in the UK. Thinking skills approaches are emerging as a powerful means of engaging teachers and pupils in improving the quality of learning in classrooms. However, as programmes to enhance thinking have grown in popularity, differences in understanding of the nature of such 'skills' and the best way to tackle the underlying issues in the classroom have both widened and deepened. The aim of this website therefore is to provide information for classroom teachers working in primary schools in the UK about thinking skills programmes and approaches that are currently available.
Study Support: This government website offers information on all aspects of study support, such as guidance on establishing and managing study support activities, good practice, and how study support can bring real benefits in terms of improving attainment, behaviour and attendance for those who participate. It is hoped it will act as an online resource to support anyone with an interest or involved in out of school hours learning - schools, teachers, Local Education Authorities (LEAs), other study support providers, and parents.
Schemes of Work: This DfES Schemes of Work website has a brand new look. As well as updating the original design that had been in service since 1999, the DfES have reorganised the content and improved the way you move around the units and supporting information. Three new sections have been introduced as well: information on planning how to use the schemes; examples of adaptations teachers have made to unit to better suit their particular teaching needs; and information on combining units practically.
History
Assassination of President Kennedy: A detailed look at the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. There are biographies of 212 people involved in the case: Major Figures (26), Important Witnesses (42), Investigators (74) and Possible Conspirators (70). Other sections include: Organization, Issues and Reports (14) and Key Issues (6). The website also looks at the possibility that different organizations such as the Mafia, CIA, FBI, Secret Service, KGB and the John Birch Society might have been involved in the planning of the assassination. Other possibilities such as anti-Castro activists, Texas oil millionaires and the Warren Commission's lone-gunman theory are also looked at. The website has an activity section and a forum where students and teachers can enter into debate with the author of the material, other investigators and witnesses to the events of 1963.
The Flying Scotsman: Designed by Sir Nigel Gresley, was built at the London and North Eastern Railway's Doncaster works, became the first steam engine to achieve a speed of 100mph, and completed the first non-stop journey from London to Edinburgh in 1928. It retired from British Railways service in 1963 and later toured North America and Australia, where it set a world record for a nonstop steam run by hauling a train for 422 miles in New South Wales. The locomotive will now have a permanent home at the National Railway Museum in York. It will to move to York in time for Railfest at the end of May, a celebration at the National Railway Museum of 200 years of rail travel. It will then haul excursion trains from York to Scarborough.
Maths
Maths is Fun: This website has been developed by a maths teacher from the South West of England to encourage an interest in Mathematics. The idea behind the site is to offer mathematics pages as well as some fun bits. The main content of the site is aimed at Key Stage 3 and 4 (11-16 years old). The material is organized under the following headings: Maths Menus (Number & Algebra, Shape, Space & Measures, Handling Data), Maths Help (Discussion Forum and Online Form), Puzzles & Quizzes, Calculators and Computer Programs.
SchoolsNet Maths: A collection of GCSE Maths lessons. This includes Algebraic fractions: "Changing the subject of a formula", "Expanding single and double brackets", "Harder percentages", "Linear equations containing algebraic fractions", "Linear equations containing brackets", "Quadratics 1: introduction and factorising", "Quadratics 2: completing the square and other methods", "Rational and irrational numbers", "Significant figures", "Simple factorising", "Simultaneous equations" and "Solving equations using trial and improvement".
Religious Studies
Children Talking: The National RE Festival in Autumn 1997 involved over 1,250,000 children and young people in around 14,000 schools along with people from about 9,000 different faith community groups. The purposes of the Festival included offering opportunities to children and young people to explore and articulate their own beliefs and perspectives on a range of religious and spiritual topics, and one way in which the PCfRE sought to put this aim into action was by developing and distributing a questionnaire for pupils to complete. About 500 pupil records were selected, searchable by phase, age, gender, religious affiliation and question. The online version of the database, launched in May 2003, allows pupils to participate in the questionnaire, adding their own ideas and views. All additions will be moderated before being made available for public viewing.
RE Today is wholly owned by the charity Christian Education, and is committed to the teaching of the major world faiths in Religious Education, and to an accurate and fair representation of their beliefs, values and practices in all its teaching materials. It carries forward the work of the former Christian Education Movement (CEM). It also provides teaching materials and background papers, together with the termly magazine REtoday and the British Journal of Religious Education.
Science
Biology: This is a new multimedia and interactive website for A level biology. You can access selected services for free, or subscribe for the full range. A total of 218 different topics cover the entire curriculum of all UK A level boards. Topics come with a range of learning features, from text book data to videoclips. Each topic can be reached in three easy ways: via the topic contents list, through the A level specifications of the exam boards or using the search engine.
The Deep: Hull is home to Britain's leading aquarium and includes a huge tank containing 2.5m litres of water. The Deep is an environmental and educational charity dedicated to understanding and protecting the world's oceans. Its Learning Centre has a collection of teaching resources for Biology, Science, Maths, Design & Technology, Art & Design and English. The Discovery Zone includes games and a Fish Library.
Modern Languages
Zompist Phrasebook: Mark Rosenfelder has created a funny website that includes translations of sentences that you are unlikely to find in a typical phrasebook. This includes phrases in French, Spanish, German, Russian, Italian, Danish, Dutch and Chinese. The website shows you how to say: "How much is that in real money?", "I'm a personal friend of the Ambassador", "Where can I find the dissidents?", "Can I have fries with that?", "Officer, this is an outrage" and "Have you ever considered that we might be insulted because you haven't learned English?"
French Revision: This site is primarily aimed at students (aged 11 to 18), but there is a lot of material available for teachers too. It contains a large number of interactive French exercises. There are listening, reading and writing exercises. The exercises mark themselves and a score is given! You will need the RealAudio player for the listening exercises. Parts of this site make use of Flash and Java. You will need a Java-enabled browser to access these areas. The flash plug-in should automatically install itself, if not you can download it from the downloads section of the site.
Internet Services
Gmail: As part of Google's mission to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful, it is testing an email service called Gmail. Gmail is a free, search-based webmail service that includes 1,000 megabytes (1 gigabyte) of storage. The backbone of Gmail is a powerful Google search engine that quickly recalls any message an account owner has ever sent or received. That means there's no need to file messages in order to find them again. When Gmail displays an email, it automatically shows all the replies to that email as well, so users can view a message in the context of a conversation. There are no pop-ups or banner ads in Gmail, which places relevant text ads and links to related web pages adjacent to email messages.
Vivisimo ToolBar: Vivisimo was last year's Search Engine Watch winner for Best Meta Search Engine. You can now download the Vivísimo toolbar to get organized search results from many of the top search engines. It's simple to install, it's free to use, and the on-the-fly categories will make your life easier. The Vivísimo Toolbar is dynamically upgradeable - whenever new features are available they will be automatically added as options to your search bar. One useful feature is that it blocks annoying popup ads.
Book Section
Who's Who in the JFK Assassination: An A-to-Z Encyclopedia: This book presents vital information on each of more than 1,400 individuals related in any noteworthy way to the murders of President John F. Kennedy, Dallas Police Officer J. D. Tippit and alleged assassination Lee Harvey Oswald on 22nd and 24th November, 1963. It is the complete resource for anyone who wants to know more about the key players involved in one of the most infamous chapters in American history. This all-new who's who will prove an essential companion to the many best-selling books, documentaries and feature films about the JFK assassination. (Michael Benson, Cital Press, ISBN 0 8065 1444 2, £12.50)
