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 18,166
subscribers to the newsletter.
US
High Schools Online:
Over half of high schools in the United States now offer online courses
or are planning to do so. A study by Interactive Educational Systems
Design found that over 40 percent of high schools already offer online
courses or plan to during this school year. A further 17 percent plan
to offer them in the future. Thirty-two percent of public school districts
will adopt online learning for the first time this year. The main
reasons cited by high schools for turning to online learning are cost
effectiveness, providing educational equity and resolving scheduling
conflicts.
Fulcrum
Analytics: According
to Fulcrum Analytics traffic to adult education sites has increased
by 60 percent since 1997. These educational websites provide training,
preparation for standardized tests, seminars, and graduate degrees,
among other services. Fulcrum Analytics says that visitors to these
sites spend more time online than the average Internet user (15.3
hours per week compared with 11.5 hours). Furthermore, adult education
sites have used the Internet for an average of 4.5 years, in comparison
with the average Internet user, who has been online for 3.7 years.
ICT
in Schools: A
report published last year for the education department by Becta,
the British government's lead agency for ICT in education, found a
strong link between high standards across the secondary school curriculum
and good technology provision. The report also showed that the more
widely a school used ICT across the curriculum, the better its examination
results. The impact of the technology was found to be even greater
when good resources were combined with good teaching. However, Stuart
Millar, in this article in this week's Education Guardian, argues
that: "behind the alphabet soup of initiatives, national averages
and soundbite-size statistics, there remains a yawning gulf between
the politicians' vision of ICT in theory and the majority of schools'
experience of ICT in practice." Millar quotes from a recently
published Ofsted report "good
practice remains uncommon"; levels of LEA support "vary
greatly but are often too low to meet schools' needs"; training
for teachers has increased their use of computers "but only rarely
to the pedagogic expertise to help them make the most effective use
of ICT in their lessons".
History
Teaching
History Online: Teaching History Online is a free monthly email
journal for anyone interested in using the internet to teach or study
history. The journal includes online news, reviews of websites and
articles on ICT history. Members will also be able to submit information
for inclusion in the newsletter. In this way Spartacus Educational
hopes to bring people together who are involved in using the internet
to teach history. You can subscribe to Teaching History Online by
sending an email to IwantHistory@keepAhead.com.
Modern
World History: This site is designed for pupils aged 14 to 16
studying the topic to exam level. Topics covered are the Treaty of
Versailles; League of Nations; Weimar Germany; Nazi Germany; the Russian
Revolution; the era of Stalin; America in the 1920's; the New Deal;
Italy 1900 to 1939; the causes of World War Two; World War Two; the
Cold War and the use of evidence in History. There is also a link
page to other valuable sites.
American
Labor Unions: Helen
Marot (1865-1940)
worked as a librarian in Wilmington, Delaware, before moving to Philadelphia
to open her own private library on social reform.
In 1903 Marot joined with Mary Kenney O'Sullivan, Jane Addams, Mary
McDowell, Margaret Haley, Agnes Nestor, Florence Kelley and Sophonisba
Breckinridge to form the Women's Trade Union League (WTUL). She is
today best remembered for her book American Labor Unions. This pioneering
work on the early history of the trade union movement in the United
States is now available from the BoondocksNet Editions website.
Modern
Languages
LinguaCentral
is a website dedicated to learners and teachers of French, Spanish
and German. Italian, Russian and Japanese are also featured. There
are hundreds of links to online language-learning material for specific
skills practice or broader language and vocabulary learning. Most
content is created by LinguaCentral but other websites are linked
from the LinguaCentral web pages. The emphasis is on purposeful and
motivating resources giving rise to real progress in the learning
of the language. Resources available are varied but all are focused
on enjoying the learning process.
ICT4LT:
The Information and Communications Technology for Language (ICT4LT)
website contains a rich bank of ICT training materials for teachers
of modern foreign languages. The development of the site was funded
under the SOCRATES Programme of the Commission of the European Communities
from September 1998 to December 2000. During this period an international
team of experts and practising teachers and teacher trainers produced
a set of 15 training modules. These modules are being continually
updated and added to. There is also a Resources Centre and a comprehensive
glossary of terms relating to ICT and modern foreign languages. The
site has been produced in four languages - English, Italian, Finnish
and Swedish - and contains over 700 links to language-related websites.
A 16th addition to the 15 modules (in English only at present) has
just been completed: Module 4.1 on Computer Aided Assessment (CAA).
The ICT4LT site has been given the stamp of approval by the UK National
Grid for Learning (NGfL) and attracts an average of over 400 visitors
per day.
Physical
Education
Skills
of Curling: The Firoda National school website tries to give the
reader the opportunity to sample the day to day life of the pupils
in this school in Ireland. It also gives a good insight into life
and customs of people living in the area. There are some historical
projects and information in easy to view format but possibly the best
section is the comprehensive guide to the "Skills of Hurling".
This section contains instructions and short video clips on how to
play this great game - the fastest field game in the world.
History
of Football: The Association of Football Statisticians have produced
a detailed history of football on its impressive website. Starting
with its beginnings in the Middle Ages, when over 500 people could
be involved in any one game and the football field was the length
of a town, it moves onto the 20th century with a detailed account
of how the United States defeated England in 1950.
Photography
Farm
Security Administration-Office: The images in the Farm Security
Administration-Office of War Information Collection are among the
most famous documentary photographs ever produced. Created by a group
of U.S. government photographers, the images show Americans in every
part of the nation. In the early years, the project emphasized rural
life and the negative impact of the Great Depression, farm mechanization,
and the Dust Bowl. In later years, the photographers turned their
attention to the mobilization effort for World War II. The core of
the collection consists of about 164,000 black-and-white photographs.
This American Memory website provides access to over 160,000 of these
images.
History
of Photography: This website is not designed to be a course on
the history of photography such as a resource to explore. In addition
to pen-portraits of many of the most important photographers, it contains
information on some of the most significant processes used during
the early days of photography. This
work is intended to be of general interest, but it may also be a useful
starting-off point for students preparing for courses which include
a brief study of the history of photography.
Science
Kosmoi:
Worlds of Science, Nature, and Technology: This site offers hundreds
of pages on a wide range of scientific and technical topics, from
Astronomy to Zoology, complemented by recommended books, posters,
videos, and software. The home page grabs the attention quickly, with
a daily quote and feature article summary, followed by a Top 20 and
a site map. There's a lot to explore, and anyone with an interest
in science should find it a treasure trove of fascinating articles
and tidbits. The author has degrees in physics and mathematics, and
has worked with scientists in Europe and the USA, programming systems
for international research projects such as a nuclear fusion device,
a synchrotron, Hubble, etc. He established one of NASA's first web
servers and founded WDVL.com.
Scientific
American: The magazine, Scientific American, has provided readers
with the latest news and information on science and technology for
more than 150 years. As well as recent issues, the Scientific American
website includes readers' favourite articles. Other features include
Nano Technology, Exhibits, Explore, Today's Trvia, Ask the Experts,
Quick Poll and the opportunity to subscribe to a free newsletter.
Geography
Atapedia:
Atlapedia Online contains full colour physical and political maps
as well as key facts and statistics on countries of the world. The
Countries A to Z section, provides facts, figures and statistical
data on geography, climate, people, religion, language, history, economy
& more. The World Maps section, provides full colour physical
and political maps for regions of the world. There is also a Resources
section that contains
additional school or homework material for Teachers & Students.
Geography
Pages: A Secondary
Geography website produced by a teacher from Norfolk. Has over 800
external links: most of them with a brief review, and organised into
logical Key Stage 3, GCSE, AS & A2 areas. The website also has
a Top Ten, and details on a research project currently being undertaken
by the website author. Feel free to download the questionnaire and
send it back - further details in the BPRS section of the site. There
are lesson plans, lecture notes and digital images of coastal fieldwork
on the Norfolk coast. An ever expanding site, with regular updates.
Reader's
Letters
The Hawaii Division of
the United Nations Association is helping to introduce computers and
the Internet to schools in Pacific Island countries. One of the serious
problems is that the countries are so small that they do not have
critical mass to get things moving on their own (Tonga has about 100,000
people, and Samoa about 165,000, but Tuvalu has only 10,000 and Nauru
only 6,000) so we are working on a regional level.
We have established a model
computer lab at Samoa College (a secondary school) and will bring
representatives from the education departments of 12 of the island
countries to Samoa later this year to familiarize them with the Internet
and with the use of computers in schools. At the meeting we plan to
have the participants spend most of one day on a hands-on exercise
that will give them some idea of the scope and potential of computers
and the Internet as teaching and learning tools. Your site has a host
of such exercises, but it is a question finding something suitable.
Can you recommend one or two computer based teaching exercises that
might be effective in this demonstration to a group of middle aged
government officials who have limited experience with the Internet?
Ideally the programs would have some relevance to the Pacific Islands.
Dr. James F. McDivitt
1909 Ala Wai Blvd., #1110
Honolulu, HI 96815
Tel: 808 942 2914
E-mail HISOPAC@aol.co
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