Education on the Internet
Number 119: 5th May, 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 50,180 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 Seminars
History and Citizenship: Dan Moorhouse points out that the following are listed in the Citizenship Curriculum: legal and human rights; the criminal justice system; diversity of national, regional, religious and ethnic identities; central and local government; characteristics of parliamentary and other forms of government; the electoral system; the work of community based, national and international voluntary groups; the importance of resolving conflict fairly and the significance of the media in society. In this seminar Dan Moorhouse explores three major issues: (1) How Citizenship can be incorporated into the history curriculum for 11-14 year olds. (2) The role citizenship should play in 14-19 History. (3) The resources available for effective lessons. If you have views on this subject, register with the History Forum and join the debate.
News and Articles
Sasser Virus: A new computer virus began spreading rapidly across the internet last night. A Russian programming team called the Skynet Anti-Virus Group is responsible for the Sasser worm. It is also sending out an email claiming to offer an antidote to the worm. When users open the file attached to the email, they are infected with another virus called Netsky. The Sasser worm is not spread via email. Instead, the worm searches for computers connected to the Internet which do not have the latest security updates loaded and downloads itself to the machine's hard drive. Users who have firewall software installed and switched on, or who have chosen to receive automatic security updates from Microsoft, are unlikely to be affected by the Sasser worm.
Independent Schools Council: The latest details on private education in the UK were published yesterday. Children attending independent schools make up 7.1% of all pupils. This is a 0.1% growth on last year. This is the slowest growth-rate for many years. The main reason for this was a 9.6% increase in fees. Average fees are now £3,074 a term. Boarding fees are up to £5,909. A large percentage of these children come from abroad. Continental Europe contributes 28% of foreign pupils with Germany being the largest single source.
Directgov: The government has launched its latest attempt to give direct online access to countless local and national services. This includes Education and Training (higher education, including qualification, courses, colleges, online resources, and advice); Employment (information on finding a job, training and careers); Health (an attempt to answer questions about health concerns); Home and Community (information about housing options, buying and selling a home, renting and letting, affordable homes, planning and repairs, safety and security, community issues and the local environment): Motoring and Transport (information and services about motorists, travel abroad, travel in UK, travel safety and commercial vehicles).
History
Lyndon Baines Johnson Library: Last week the LBJ Library released 23 hours of Johnson's telephone conversations recorded between April and July 1966. The library has now made available a total of 464 hours of phone conversations. Claudia Anderson, the library's senior archivist, said Johnson was more of a phone person than a writer. In a conversation with Supreme Court Justice Abe Fortas - a Johnson nominee to the court - Johnson expressed concern that Robert Kennedy was using polls to suggest a link between Johnson and the assassination of President Kennedy. Johnson said pollster Lou Harris operated at the whim of Robert Kennedy. "He's got everybody raising questions about it," Johnson said. "And 2 percent of them think that I did it."
Family History Research Guide: If you are new to doing family history, this Family Search guide will help you start. It provides copies of Pedigree Charts and Family Group Records forms. It also provides a Personal Ancestral File, a family history computer program available free on this site, to help you keep track of your information. The website also includes 957 million records relating to family history. This includes 100 million that relate to the British Isles, including several baptismal registers and the England and Wales 1881 census index.
Science
Microbes: Although it adopts a gimmicky format, with microbiologist Sam Sleuth solving microbe mysteries, this website provides students with a comprehensive account of the subject. This includes information on what they are, where they live, there use in pollution control, medicine and industry. The material is organized in several different sections: Solving Microbe Mysteries, Microbes in the News and Experiments.
Science Experts: Allexperts, created in early 1998, was the very first large-scale question and answer service on the net! The website has thousands of volunteers, including top lawyers, doctors, engineers, and scientists, waiting to answer your questions. All answers are free and most come within a day! The material is organized under the following headings: Alternative Science, Applied Science/Engineering, Computer Sciences, Earth Science, Life Science, Physical Science and Social Science.
Arts Education
Curriculum Network: The Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures & Commerce (RSA) was founded in 1754. Curriculum Network builds on the success of the RSA's Opening Minds project, a study that looked at the need for government, education and society to introduce systemic change within the national curriculum, proposing that education be re-engineered to focus on a competence-based curriculum. This curriculum would change the way learning is organised in schools in order to make it more relevant to the demands placed on it by life in the 21st century. Curriculum Network maintains the momentum generated by Opening Minds and responds to recommendations made at the RSA's education conference in June 2003.
Creativity Education: This National Curriculum in Action website gives practical ideas on how to promote pupils' creative thinking and behaviour. At the heart of these materials are examples of pupils' creativity across the national curriculum. One section looks at how teachers, senior managers and governors can promote and develop pupils' creativity. It asks three questions: How can teachers promote creativity? How can teams of teachers promote creativity? How can senior managers and governors promote creativity? These questions are answered in some detail. There is another section that provides practical examples of creative work taking place in schools.
Modern Languages
BBC Italian: The Italian zone of this language site contains a good selection of resources for anyone wanting to study this subject. Courses available include Italian Steps (a self-contained online course for beginners), Talk Italian (short introductory course with TV series and book), Italianissimo (video clips, language notes and activities accompany this well-established course). Other features include: Voices of the World (See the people. Hear the language. Test your understanding with a quiz.), Euro Guide (How to ask for euros in Italian) and Languages across Europe (Who speaks it, where it can be found).
Parlo: This website was founded to meet the immense but underserved global demand for language learning. Parlo's co-founders, Varun Bedi and Anish Rajparia, each speak five languages and have lived on four continents. They recognized the growing need for language instruction and saw the emerging potential of the Internet and other technologies to meet it. Working with a team of top technologists and educators, Bedi and Rajparia developed Parlo's Virtual Immersion TM approach. Using the interactivity of the Internet, Virtual Immersion TM surrounds learners with realistic, practical and fun information about the language and culture they're studying, replicating the study abroad experience online.
Media Studies
Media Smart: Children are exposed to a variety of media every day, some of which contain complex messages. Media plays an important role in children’s lives today; they watch programmes and advertising via satellite and terrestrial television, the Internet, billboards, magazines and newspapers, mobile phones, videos and DVDs. Although not all messages are aimed at children, a child must nevertheless interpret and make informed choices in response. As a child develops and grows, these skills are fine-tuned and used both as an individual and as a consumer. Media Smart is a media literacy programme, initially focused on advertising and is designed for primary school children aged 6-11 years old. It is the first UK media literacy programme to run inside the classroom and the home using broadcast and written educational materials.
Film Education is a registered charity supported by the film industry and the BFI in the UK. The website's aim is to encourage and promote the study of film and other media within the Curriculum through online resources, CD ROMS, downloadable study guides and educational video packs. In addition to providing a range of free educational materials, the site also includes information on INSET courses, workshops, seminars, free screening events and television programmes. The Film Library section, currently one of the site's most visited areas is a comprehensive list of titles recommended by Film Education by Key Stage and subject area and includes downloadable study guides for many of the films listed.
Book Section
Someone Would Have Talked: Forty years after John Kennedy's murder in Dallas, the event remains a part of the American conscious. Polls show the majority of the public still believes there was some sort of conspiracy involved in his assassination and the average person thinks it just might be exposed once the government releases all the confidential documents some day. Those that deny the conspiracy question scoff at all this, stating that no conspiracy could have been good enough that somebody would not have talked after all this time. After all we all know even successful criminals feel compelled to tell someone, sometime. Someone Would Have Talked tackles that objection head on, examining a number of examples of individuals who talked when they shouldn't have. Some talked before the assassination and some afterwards. These are not the people who sold their stories or whose names you would see in the tabloids. These are real people, many of them involved in the secret war against Castro and the U.S. Government project intended to assassinate him. You find their remarks in reports made to Police, the FBI and Secret Service. Reports which were never addressed in any coordinated or proactive criminal investigation. The records have been released, people have talked, witnesses have finally revealed the elements of both the conspiracy and the cover-up, the real history is here in Someone Would Have Talked and the 1,400 pages of reference exhibits that come on this CD with it. (Larry Hancock, JFK Lancer, ISBN 0 9656582 7 9)
