Education on the Internet
Number 123: 2nd June, 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 51,840 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
Teachers or Facilitators: Dafydd Humphreys speculates that "if our esteemed rulers are right - perhaps you don’t need teachers in the classroom - maybe teaching assistants (TAs) could supervise the kids while one teacher per cluster of schools wrote lesson plans and marked work?" He adds: "Those of us left in the education sector could be facilitators - allowing students to follow their own learning pathways along the ready-prepared and prescribed National Curricula (with little tick-boxes for numeracy, literacy, science, ICT, citizenship, personal, social, health and moral education encountered in each lesson). We facilitators would write individual lesson plans for each of the children in the teaching groups, based on computerised tests taken when they were 3, 5, 7, 9 and 11 years old." If you have views on this subject, register with the History Forum and join the debate.
News and Articles
Foundation Stage Profiles: In a Guardian article in October 2002, Ted Wragg wrote a strong protest about the introduction of the Foundation Stage Profiles. Wragg pointed out that reception class teachers had to assess children on 13 scales, each with nine different statements: 117 judgments. Wragg wrote: "These labels are being assigned to four- and five-year-old beginners: for a class of 30 a grand total of 3,510 assessments each term. Many of the tickboxes are ludicrous. Some are brainlessly vague, such as "maintains attention and concentrates" (on what, for goodness sake - setting fire to the wendy house?)." A recent Ofsted report criticised these Foundation Stage Profiles but as Wragg points out, there is still no sign of them being abolished.
Value-Added League Tables: Research conducted for the National Association of Head Teachers by Durham University's Curriculum, Evaluation and Management Centre has found that the new value-added league tables introduced by the Department for Education and Skills last year, are very misleading and contain "fatal flaws". This report claims that the information is skewed by school size, pupil turnover and children's social-economic background. As a result of this research the NAHT general secretary, David Hart, has urged the government not to publish value-added results for tests taken by pupils this term.
A Life in Secondary Teaching: Last week a group of academics from Cambridge University, led by professors Maurice Galton and John MacBeath, published a report based on the study on questionnaire responses from 233 teachers in 65 schools. The report says that bad behaviour was the worst obstacle to teaching, followed by a lack of discussion time and large class sizes. The sharp decline in behaviour during the past 15 years was blamed on the "overloaded" curriculum, parental attitudes, large class sizes, inclusion strategies and the lack of time teachers had to talk to pupils and to each other. The report says that teachers work between 45 and 70 hours per week. Outside lessons and "directed time" they spent an average 22.1 hours on other work-related activities such as preparing materials and displays (6.1 hours) and marking (5.3 hours).
History
Civil Rights in the USA: A comprehensive encyclopedia of the struggle for civil rights in the United States. Each entry contains a narrative, illustrations and primary sources. The text within each entry is hypertexted to other relevant pages in the encyclopedia. In this way it is possible to research individual people and events in great detail. The sources are also hypertexted so the student is able to find out about the writer, artist, newspaper, organization, etc., that produced the material. So far there are sections on: Campaigners (1860-1900), Campaigners (1900-1980), Issues, Events & Organizations (1840-1900) and Issues, Events & Organizations (1900-1980).
What Shall We Study in History?: A group of history teachers from all over the world are discussing on this forum if it is possible to develop a history curriculum that could be taught in all schools. One suggestion is that a study of history could be based on a series of themes (Democracy, Poverty, Conquest, Capitalism and Conflict). Each component would be made up of a series of case-studies, including at least one based on a local study unit. If you have views on this subject, register with the International Education Forum and join the debate.
English
Strongest Links: This website, produced by Anne M Robinson, Learning Resources Centre Manager, Nicholas Chamberlaine Technology College in Bedworth, provides resources and links for school librarians. The material is organised under the headings: Organisations and Mailing Lists, Promotion and Advocacy, Research and Reports, Schools Library Services, General Information Literacy, School Library Websites, Website Design and WebQuesting.
Universal Teacher: Andrew Moore's website is a site is a collection of guides and tutorials for students, teachers and trainee teachers of English language and literature. The materials are aimed at the upper end of secondary education in the UK, but many are suitable for college and university students. The number of resources on the site is not vast - just over a hundred - but this can be misleading, as each guide is very substantial. The guides currently cover the whole curriculum for GCSE English, and most areas of GCE English Language. There are also plenty of materials for KS3 English, media at KS3, GCSE English literature and media, and GCE English literature and theatre studies. The author is an experienced teacher who has worked as an examiner for English and literature.
Primary Education
Kindersite: The Kindersite Project was founded to build an Internet-based system that will add to the body of research on the subjects of early-learners’ use of technology and to provide Internet-based content as a an educational tool. This non-commercial project has two aims: The building of a child-safe Internet site where children, either on their own or with the attention of caregivers, can search and find the best, graded and age-relevant content on the Internet. The creation of a research tool that will enable academic educational researchers to ascertain the effectiveness and relevancy of technology and types of content as a tool of learning and language acquisition for the very young.
Face It: This website provides an online exploration of portraiture designed for KS2 (or upper KS1) children. It's interactive and engaging with instinctive, visual navigation and a non-linear layout - giving children a sense of control over their learning experience. Developed in partnership with the National Portrait Gallery, the site is based on four portraits from the National Portrait Gallery's collection: Sir Bobby Charlton by Peter Edwards (1991), Catherine Maria Fisher, by Nathaniel Hone, (1765), Ellen Terry by G.F.Watts (c. 1864) and Queen Elizabeth I by Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger (c. 1592).
Politics
Colossus: Niall Ferguson, professor of history at New York University, has just published a new book entitled Colossus: the Rise and Fall of the American Empire. Ferguson takes the view that American Imperialism is a force of good. He argues: “Many parts of the world would benefit from a period of American rule” Ferguson adds that despite America's overwhelming military, economic and cultural dominance, it has had a difficult time imposing its will on other nations, mostly because the country is uncomfortable with imperialism and thus unable to use this power most effectively and decisively. A television series that examines these ideas starts this week on Channel 4.
An Empire of Denial: George Monbiot does not agree with Niall Ferguson thesis put forward in his book, Colossus: the Rise and Fall of the American Empire. "He (Ferguson) shows that there was little difference between the westward expansion of the founding states and the growth of "the great land empires of the past". He argues that its control of Central America, the Caribbean, the Pacific and the Middle East has had long had an imperial character. He makes the interesting point that the US found, in its attempt to contain the Soviet Union, "the perfect ideology for its own peculiar kind of empire: the imperialism of anti-imperialism". But he asks us to remember only in order to persuade us to forget. He seeks to exchange an empire in denial for an empire of denial."
ICT
ICT in Practice Awards: Becta's ICT in Practice Awards 2005 are now open for nominations. Into their fifth year, the awards identify models of good practice and use these to develop the use of ICT in education. For these awards, Becta is looking for practice that is replicable, that will say to teachers 'you too can do this'. Each award winner will receive £2,500, with an additional £2,500 going to their school. Nominate a practitioner by the closing date (23 July 2004) and you could win an ICT product in the free prize draw.
ICT in Schools: More than 90 per cent of teachers are competent users of ICT, according to a new report from the Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted). The report, ICT in schools: the impact of Government initiatives five years on, says that ICT resources in schools are at record levels and the competence of school staff in ICT has risen dramatically since 1997. It also says that the incidence of effective application of ICT in lessons across subjects is increasing slowly but steadily.
Internet Services
Webquests: TeachersFirst is a collection of lessons and web resources for classroom teachers and their students. Materials are arranged by subject area and grade level, making it easy to locate lesson plans and associated web resources quickly. This tutorial, Putting Discovery into the Curriculum, is an introduction to Webquests – an internet activity which lets you create something useful for your students while increasing your web "comfort level" at the same time. A well-designed webquest lets you turn your students loose on the web for a specific project and get results that both you and your students will like.
Ask Jeeves Mini Searchbar: Ask Jeeves is one of the most popular search engines on the Web. Recently it launched its Mini Jeeves Searchbar. It claims it "is the fastest and easiest way to get the information you want, when you want it, from anywhere on the Web". The Mini Jeeves Searchbar is free to download and appears every time you open a new Internet Explorer window. The toolbar also includes a very good dictionary and thesaurus.
Book Section
The Stalin Organ: Gert Ledig was born in Leipzig and grew up in Vienna. At the age of 18 he volunteered for the arm, and was wounded at the battle of Leningrad in 1942. He later reworked his experiences in the book, 'The Stalin Organ'. Switching between the German and Russian lines, Ledig brings us the experience of war from both sides of the conflict. Gert Ledig describes in horrifying detail the graphic and resourceful violence that maims and kills soldiers. In 'The Stalin Organ' Ledig has written an absolutely authentic and powerful account of the horrors encountered in war. (Gerd Ledig, Granta Books, ISBN 1 86207 652 9)
