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 18,574
subscribers to the newsletter.
WebQuest:
This site, created at San Diego State University by Bernie Dodge,
offers teachers and students examples, with explanations, of how to
use, select, and analyze information found on the Internet for teaching
any subject at any age. WebQuest is an inquiry-oriented approach that
supports thinking at the levels of analysis, synthesis, and evaluation.
eSchoolnet:
European Schoolnet is an international partnership of 23 European
Ministries of Education developing learning for schools, teachers
and pupils across Europe. The portal provides insight into the use
of ICT (information and communications technology) in Europe for policy-makers
and education professionals through its resources on curriculum, e-learning,
practical ideas, online courses and its collaborative work-spaces.
Statistics
for Education has launched a new web bookshop to provide teachers,
lecturers and other customers with easy access to a selection of the
most useful statistics and related publications. The aim is to provide
a one-stop shop for data from different national, international and
business organisations. The Statistics for Education Bookshop offers
a carefully selected list of useful publications for data users within
schools, colleges and universities.
Web
Directories
Topmarks
is a mine of information for teachers, parents and pupils alike. The
search engine features only the best educational resources carefully
selected by teachers. It has a keyword search option as well as the
facility to browse by age group and/or subject. Topmarks prides itself
on keeping 'dead' links to a minimum through regular checks of featured
sites. The Teachers' Area provides opportunity for Internet interaction
with other schools both in the UK and further afield. Practitioners
can also use the Teachers' Forum to share ideas. The Parents' Area
provides advice and information on preparing children for school to
give them the best start, together with a useful selection of sites
to help make sense of educational jargon. The site is clearly laid
out and is easy to navigate, enabling children and those not so familiar
with the World Wide Web to use the Internet effectively, especially
as a homework helper.
Schoolzone:
The Schoolzone website is based around an educational search engine
designed to help you find good material on the internet. Set up by
parents and teachers in 1996 there is no charge for usage and content
is arranged into three areas: students, teachers and parents. The
Schoolzone site indexes and has in searchable format: 40,000 UK teacher
reviewed educational resources; educational events all around the
UK; schools database; school suppliers database; software reviews;
links to on line games, free downloads and shareware; homework helpers;
revision guides; educational news; exam boards; fundraising ideas
and competition listings.
English
Wired
for Books: Read, listen, watch: these are the options for visitors
to the website, Wired for Books. Using streaming media to deliver
sound and video, the folks at the Ohio University Telecommunications
Center are trying to get people, both young and old, excited about
books. The offerings range from scholarly discussions to children's
stories, from Shakespeare to Anne Rice. In-house audio productions
of Macbeth and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland attract the audio
book lovers, as do CBS Radio's famous author interviews, conducted
by Don Swaim from the 1970s to the 1990s. The site also provides a
virtual space for Ohio University writers and scholars. Notable local
authors include Terry Anderson reading his poems from The Den of Lions,
written while he was held hostage in Beirut during Lebanon's bloody
civil war. Sometimes, special visitors to the university, such as
Antonya Nelson, (In the Land of Men) stop by to record a story.
INKENT:
Gareth Thomas teaches secondary English at the Archbishop's School
in Canterbury. The inkentENGLISH website began in 1997 as an English
teachers' links site, but since the advent of a number of good sites
catering for English links, the site has evolved into a practical
platform for his own teaching. It contains material to support lessons,
homework, and e-texts for current work. The site is under constant
revision and by the end of August 2002 it will contain all his Schemes
of Work for English planned out for the school year.
ProQuest
Literature: This subscription service website features over 106,000
fully searchable plays, poems and prose works. These are presented
alongside thousands of secondary resources including reviews, articles,
reference works, video clips and contextual images. The service also
contains a growing range of teaching resources including a series
of GCSE schemes of work.
Art
JMW
Turner Archive: In 1856, nearly five years after Turner's death,
his estate was settled by a decree in which the works found in his
studio that were considered to be by his own hand were accepted by
the nation as the 'Turner Bequest'. This comprises nearly 300 oil
paintings and around 30,000 sketches and watercolours (including 300
sketchbooks). Turner left instructions that they had to be kept together
in a special gallery. It was never built and although an extension
was added to Tate Britain to house the collection, it could only display
a fraction of it. However, after a 150 year wait, the entire Turner
bequest has now gone online at the Tate gallery website.
Hieronymous
Bosch: The Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam have created
an adventure game on the life and works of the painter Hieronymous
Bosch. The website, which won a Euro-Prix 2001 in December, also includes
sections on Bosch's Works, Bosch's History and Bosch's Influence.
Design
& Technology
IEEE Virtual Museum: This
website is premised on the belief that examining what was increases
our understanding of what is. It explores the global social impact
of electrical and information sciences and technologies and demonstrates
the relevance of engineering and engineers to society. Designed for
educators, pre-college students, and the general public, the virtual
museum debuted with two exhibits. The first, Socket to Me! How Electricity
Came to Be examines the early history of electricity and how it has
been used in fields such as communications, computing, laser technology,
and medicine. The second, The Beat Goes On: How Sounds are Recorded
and Played explores sound recording from the early days of the phonograph
to digital recording and distribution. Exhibits feature interactive
features and animations, audio and video clips, and images of artifacts
and historical social events. Three more exhibits are scheduled for
release by third quarter 2002. These will explore the different applications
of microwaves, the works of Thomas Edison, and contributions women
have made to electrical and information technologies. A teacher section
is currently in development and will provide educators with instructional
classroom materials.
Design
and Technology Site: This is a site for teachers and pupils of
Design and Technology and provides a range of information sheets.
It covers aspects of technology such as; the design process, basic
electronics, gears, cams, moments of force, computer control, graphics
techniques, technology and cultures, vocational education, PCBs, keywords,
pic-microcontrollers, basic CNC work and more. One
of the main aspects is the design process section, which guides pupils
and teachers through folder work aimed at GCSE success in Systems
and Control, Resistant Materials and Graphic Products.
Science
ChemNet:
The ChemNet website is a portal and resource site for the UK's email
discussion list for chemistry teachers primarily on issues concerning
A-level and GCSE teaching. It presently links 400 school chemistry
departments. The website is sponsored by Cambridge Software (producers
of the industry standard chemical structure software, ChemDraw), and
is split into teaching areas, focusing on the use of the Internet
and ICT in teaching Chemistry. Thus there are links to Periodic Tables,
Chemical Databases and databooks, as well as free software members
have recommended. The ChemNet email discussion forum was set up by
Keith Wilkinson in 1997 from Winchester College. The forum offers
support, ideas, reviews and is a non-profit group run for and by enthusiastic
chemistry teachers. ChemNet has also produced downloadable freeware,
notably the Solutions Assistant, a calculator written for teachers
and technicians to assist compute the mass of compounds needed to
make up standard solutions.
A
Level Biology: This site by Mark Rothery is aimed primarily at
AS and A2 level biology students. It contains comprehensive notes
that cover the whole specification that are well illustrated interactive
past paper questions with answers , keypoint summaries, word documents
of handouts, galleries of practicals and dissections, a discussion
forum and links to high quality biology websites.
Geography
Scalloway
Geography: The author of the site, Danny Mc Neill, is a Geography
teacher at Scalloway Junior High School, Shetland. His website is
designed to help revision for the Scottish Qualifications Authority
exam, Standard Grade Geography. Students revising for GCSE Geography
should also find much of the content helpful. It is divided into 13
sections - Physical Landscapes, Weather, Climate, Physical Environment,
Land Use, Settlements, Farming, Industry, Population, International
Relations, Trade Aid and Self Help and a unit on Revision. Each section
has a number of short pages of text and diagrams, followed by a mixture
of interactive exercises. These encourage the student to think and
learn rather than just read. Past paper questions are arranged by
section which allow students to see the levels required in the actual
exam. Recent additions are mind maps that can be clicked and printed.
Bishop
Heber Geography: Graham Russell designed Bishop Heber Geography
Department's website to support students in all years who are studying
Geography. It is essentially a 'gateway' site, pointing them to 'good
Geography' on the web. Pages are organised into Key Stages, and there
is a 'Help with Homework' page. Students are encouraged to access
links to various websites to support work they are doing.
Religious
Studies
Fundamentals
of Buddhism: The
Fundamentals of Buddhism has been produced by BuddhaNet, an organisation
based in Sydney, Australia. The creators explain that this website
is the "result of a vision to link up with the growing world-wide
culture of people committed to the Buddha's teachings and lifestyle,
as an on-line cyber sangha". It provides information on twelve
areas of Buddhist teaching and covers the life of Buddha, the Four
Noble Truths, the Noble Eightfold Path, Karma, rebirth, dependent
origination, the three universal characteristics and the five aggregates.
Sikhism:
Sandeep Singh Bar began this impressive website in October 1994 after
discovering there were no websites about Sikhism. He has produced
a wonderful resource for the religion's 20 million followers and all
those interested in Sikhism. One of the features of the website is
the downloadable audio files of all the daily Sikh prayers. Other
categories include: a Glossary, the Sikh Alphabet, Sikh Names and
Reading List. The Essay section contains articles on specific aspects
of Sikhism. For example, one essay explains the background to why
smoking has been banned for followers of Sikhism since the 1780s.
GCSE
RE: This website is a resource for all teachers and students of
Religious Education. Divided in two main sections the site covers
both content and coursework assistance. The coursework section has
guidance on essay writing and coursework writing as well as help pages
on common coursework topics as a growing number of question and answer
pages from questions that students have e-mailed. The Revision section
contains notes, sample questions and tests on: Buddhism, Christianity
Islam, Judaism, Mark's Gospel, Roman Catholicism and Christian Perspectives.
Do you
want to have your website listed in our web directory? If so, send
a brief description (about 150 words) and the URL to spartacus@pavilion.co.uk.
