Education on the Internet
Number 126: 23rd 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 51,525 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
Essay Writing Skills at AS Level: This week's seminar is led by Carole Faithorn. She has provided some great ideas and strategies for helping the AS candidate to learn how to write “a good essay”. As Carole Faithorn points out, it helps to have a variety of strategies aimed at different learning styles. Strategies suggested include "card sorting activities which involve putting reasons into an order of importance (or ‘Significance Stairway’) help students to visualise relative importance and is effective in helping students to see how to structure an essay effectively." If you have views on this subject, register with the History Forum and join the debate.
News and Articles
Cooperative Learning: The Macclesfield Performing Arts Network is a group of schools in the Macclesfield area. They have all made a commitment to educate their staff and pupils in the use of co-operative learning techniques. Based on the work of Dr Spencer Kagan, cooperative learning is a way of delivering your course content. Pupils work in teams of four rather than as individuals. The teams are mixed gender and ability. Lessons are designed such that all members of each team participate simultaneously using cooperative structures, ensuring 100% class participation during any task; from a question and answer session to a revision lesson. Each member of the group is accountable to the rest of their team for the work they produce.
Social Market Foundation: According to the think-tank, the Social Market Foundation, oversubscribed schools should use a secret lottery to allocate places, ending middle class queue jumping. It argues that a ballot or a lottery is fairer than the current system in which parents buy expensive houses in the catchment areas of popular schools. The SMF report says: "The concern is that effective school choice has become the preserve of the middle classes, who can afford to buy into the catchment areas of the best schools. This can be quantified through the so-called 'house price premium', whereby being in the catchment area of a good school can add tens of thousands of pounds to the value of a property, which has the effect of crowding out the poor." The report also proposes radical changes to the role of local education authorities by giving schools freedom to expand according to demand from parents.
Waste Online: In the UK we produce more than 430 million tonnes of rubbish per year. The majority of this comes from industrial processes and business, with over 25 million tonnes being created in our homes. The main problem with rubbish is that we keep producing more of it every year. For example, the amount we produce in our homes is said to increase at a rate of 3% per year. This doesn't sound like much, but that means we'll be doubling the amount we produce today by 2020. Where will we put this rubbish? What happens to it once it's taken away from our rubbish bins? What happens to it in the long-term? The education section of this site has advice on how this subject can be studied in the classroom.
History
Salem Witchcraft Trials: From June through September of 1692, nineteen men and women, all having been convicted of witchcraft, were carted to Gallows Hill, a barren slope near Salem Village, for hanging. Another man of over eighty years was pressed to death under heavy stones for refusing to submit to a trial on witchcraft charges. Hundreds of others faced accusations of witchcraft; dozens languished in jail for months without trials until the hysteria that swept through Puritan Massachusetts subsided. This website provides a detailed account of these events.
Encyclopaedia of the First World War: The encyclopaedia is being created in sections (entries in parenthesis). So far the following sections are available: Chronology (1), Outbreak of War (22), Countries (22), Allied Armed Forces (32), Important Battles (34), Technology (10), Political Leaders (94), British Home Front (20), Military Leaders (58), Life in the Trenches (24), Trench System (22), Trench War (18), Soldiers (44), War Heroes (12), Medals (8), War at Sea (24), War in the Air (48), Pilots (28), Aircraft (30), War Artists (34), Cartoonists and Illustrators (90), War Poets (16), Journalists (28), Newspapers and Journals (16), Novelists (36), Women at War (56), Women's Organisations (14), Weapons & War Machines (42), Inventors and the War (12) Theatres of War (6) and War Statistics (18).
Politics
The Mendacity Index: Washington Monthly has just produced a Mendacity Index. A committee of noted journalists and pundits to pick the most serious fibs, deceptions, and untruths spoken by each of the four most recent presidents. It selected the top six for each commander-in-chief, then presented the list to a panel of judges with longtime experience in Washington. Panel members were instructed to rate each deception on a scale of 1 (least serious) to 5 (most serious). Then we averaged the scores for each deception and for each president. The overall rating is: George W. Bush (3.6), Ronald Reagan (3.3), George H. W. Bush (3.2) and Bill Clinton (3.1).
Democracy: In this article Martin Jacques argues that "democracy has become the universal calling card of the west, the mantra that is chanted at every country that falls short (when politically convenient, of course), the ubiquitous solution to the problems of countries that are not democratic". He adds "If it is mistaken to regard western democracy as a universal abstraction that is equally applicable across the world, it is also wrong to see it as frozen and unchanging. Indeed, there are grounds for believing that western democracy, as we have known it, is in decline. The symptoms have been well-rehearsed: the decline of parties, the fall in turnout, a growing disregard for politicians, the displacement of politics from the centre-stage of society. These trends have been observable more or less everywhere for at least 15 years."
Geography
Migration: Rates of migration vary widely between regions. Rural districts in the north-east gained around 800 people in 2001-02, while their counterparts in the south-west gained 29,500 new residents. Net migration from urban to rural districts is estimated at 115,400 people in the 12 months to June 2002, and the overall trend towards rural life has been taking place for the last 15 years. Fourteen million people (28.5% of the population) now live in England's rural areas. This is causing housing problems. In 2003, 37% of the rural population spent more than half their income on mortgage payments, compared with 26% of urban residents. However, for many people living in rural areas, buying a house on their low income is out of the question.
Exploring the Environment: This website is being developed by Wheeling Jesuit University as part of the NASA Classroom of the Future Project. Supported by NASA's Information Infrastructure Technology and Applications Program, Exploring the Environment is a series of interdisciplinary, problem-based leading modules for students. The project enables students to address real-world problems related to weather, population growth, biodiversity, land use patterns, volcanoes, water pollution and global warming. Excellent section for teachers which provides module notes and advice on planning, facilitating and assessing.
ICT
National Whiteboard Network: Interactive Whiteboards are becoming an increasingly common classroom resource and already schools and LEAs are seeing the benefits that this technology has in transforming teaching and learning across the curriculum. Teachers are using the technology to develop their range of pedagogical strategies and are beginning to exploit the technology to act as a catalyst in enhancing teaching and learning. Guidance on how teachers use of Interactive whiteboards can be found in the "Review and Implement" section of the National Whiteboard Network website.
Computer-Based Assessment: This section of the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) website aims to provide an authoritative guide to Computer-Based Assessment (CBA), which is becoming an increasingly important part of the assessment agenda. A number of influential thinkers have argued that such an integration with the curriculum could lead to a future in which assessment played a more positive role in education. However, others have sounded a note of caution, and have reminded enthusiasts that not all would be pleased by more complex assessment. NFER has conducted a variety of research into this branch of assessment and this guide is based on that expertise and experience.
Primary Education
All About Animals: This is a pictorial database designed for pupils in Key Stage One. The database can be used to support the teaching of ICT, particularly Unit 2C of the QCA Scheme of Work: Finding Information. It is also a useful non-fiction resource for use in Literacy. There are currently records on 65 animals, grouped according to habitat and listed in alphabetical order in the index. For each animal in the database there is a simple description with a large image. Clicking on the 'Find Out More' button gives access to more detailed information, while the Back button allows the user to retrace their steps. All the images and fact files about the animals are available as Word files which can be printed out or adapted as necessary by the teacher.
Big Sums: Another excellent resource from the Northumberland Grid for Learning. These two maths programs are aimed at using with projectors and whole class teaching. They can however be used with small groups around a standard monitor. The screens start with the maximum numbers set to 10 but this can be altered by the user. The main screen allows the user to hide or show the first, second or answer digits. Numbers can also be changed whilst they are hidden. The resources on this website are freely available for use in education establishments but must not be used for commercial purposes or distributed on other websites.
Internet Services
TrustToolbar: This plug-in is a free browser enhancement that integrates seamlessly into Internet Explorer. It provides you with a trusted, safe and easier way to surf the web. It provides you with realtime visual identity assurance of who your current website really is! Let's you surf to the website you want simply by entering their brand, company or product names - remembering complex URLs is a thing of the past! Let's you search for specific products and services offered within the validated and Trusted Commercial Web containing millions of companies selling the product or service you want! It also brings you the power of your favourite search engines right to your fingertips - simply search directly from TrustToolbar.
Mail2web: Recent research claims that 14% of emails contain viruses or spam. It is therefore sensible to delete offending items on the server. Mail2web is an Internet based email client that allows you to pick up your email from almost any POP3 or IMAP4 email server. You simply enter your email address and password to access your inbox. You can then read, reply and forward your messages. No registration is required to access this application that has been developed, maintained and supported by SoftCom Technology Consulting Incorporated, a global leader in reliable and cost effective Internet based services.
Book Section
Granta: Hidden Histories: This issue of Granta excavates histories both personal and political: repressed memories, unexplored lives, forgotten wars, secret careers. Giles Foden sails down Lake Tanganyika, Jennie Erdal reveals her life as a literary ghostwriter, and Brian Cathcart investigates how his namesake came to be burned alive. Plus new fiction by Orhan Pamuk, T.C. Boyle, Jackie Kay, Diana Athill, J. Robert Lennon, Jackie Kay, Daniel Smith, David J. Spear, Jonathan Tel, Geoffrey Beattie and Anne Enright. (Granta, ISBN 0 903 141 67 1, £9.99)
