Education
on the Internet
Number
35: 11th September 2002
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 26,610
subscribers to the newsletter.
All
reviews are added to our web
directory. There are sections on Primary
Education,
English,
Mathematics, Science,
Modern Languages, History,
Geography, Design
& Technology, Business
Studies, Media Studies, ICT,
Sociology, Music,
Politics, Economics,
Photography,
Art & Design, Theatre
Studies, Physical Education and
Religious Studies.
John Simkin
spartacus@pavilion.co.uk
News
and Articles
Homework
in Canada: According
to a recent Ipsos-NPD report teenagers in Canada spend an average
of 2.4 hours per week online conducting research for school. Girls
spend an average of 2.9 hours online per week researching for school,
compared to an average of 2.0 hours for boys. Around 56 percent of
Canadian teenagers go online to research for science classes, while
42 percent conduct online research for social science classes and
36 percent for English projects. Geography, Modern Languages and Maths
are also popular subjects that are researched online.
GSN:
Global SchoolNet is a not-for-profit education organization. GSN,
a developer of online content since 1984, partners with schools, communities
and businesses to provide collaborative learning activities that prepare
students for the workforce and help them to become responsible global
citizens.
Explore
the Web Competition: In eXplora, students and coaches are challenged
to explore a theme together and to collaborate beyond borders. The
eXplora Challenge is an Internet competition for teams of pupils in
secondary education. The teams create websites that are interesting
and fun for fellow pupils. Winning teams are invited to attend the
eXplora Youth University Camp on the Canary Islands, in autumn 2002.
ICT
to Develop Literacy and Numeracy: The University for Education
(Ufi) who administer Learndirect have produced two papers in the use
of ICT to develop literacy and numeracy. The first is a summary of
a research project that looked into the effectiveness of using ICT
to support people with literacy and numeracy learning needs. The research
project, carried out by the Institute of Education, University of
London on behalf of Ufi, ran from April 2000 to March 2001. The second
is a guide that was produced in response to the conclusions of the
research It was designed to help staff in learning centres to develop
ways of working that attract and support basic skills learners to
develop skills through ICT. It provides examples of current good practice
from a variety of learning centres.
History
Census
Online: The 1901 British census was first
posted on the Internet eight months ago. Margaret
Brennand, from the Public Record Office, said at the time: "A
huge amount of work has gone into taking the original census forms,
scanning them, creating digital images and a comprehensive index to
enable people to search for more than 32 million individuals living
in England and Wales in 1901."
The website was so popular that the system could not cope and the
service was withdrawn. Now the Public Record Office has announced
the availability of a new test site that will be accessible between
9am and 7pm (Monday to Saturday). A queuing mechanism has been introduced
to stagger the number of database searches. Users are allowed to spend
only two hours on the site.
Donner
Party Online: The Donner Party wagon train of some twenty vehicles
and about 100 men, women and children, left Independence, Missouri
in April 1846. Badly organized, with overloaded wagons and a late
start, they struggled over the Oregon Trial to Fort Bridger, where
they decided to take the little-known Hastings Cutoff route. The party
was caught by early snowfalls in the Sierra Nevada mountains and forced
to camp at Truckee Lake. By the time the ordeal was finally over more
than half the Donner Party had perished. Tom March's excellent website
provides some good ideas of how to use the Internet to study this
dramatic subject in the classroom.
Peter
Cooper: In 1830 Peter Cooper's Canton
Iron Works in Baltimore built America's first steam locomotive. His
business flourished and he established the largest blast furnace in
America at Philippsburg, New Jersey. Cooper was also involved in laying
the first Atlantic cable, and was president of the New York, Newfoundland
& London Telegraph Company. Cooper had a social conscience and
in 1875 he established the radical Greenback Party. However, his attempts
to get himself elected president of the United States ended in failure.
This website provides a brief overview of this amazing man.
English
Teachit
Primary Competition: In a bid to develop its new Primary resources
area further, Teachit is offering great prizes to Primary teachers
in return for Primary English and Literacy resources. The first prize
is a school site licensed version of the excellent Kar2ouche Primary
Curriculum The Romans interactive educational software (worth over
£270) and the second prize is a complete Oxford Spelling Kit.
To enter, teachers simply need to send their resources, ideas or worksheets
to Siobhain Archer, the Site Editor, by the end of this month.
Jane
Austen: A comprehensive website on the life and work of Jane Austen.
The site has links to annotated and illustrated e-texts versions of
Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Mansfield Park, Emma,
Persuasion, and Northanger Abbey. Students can also access her minor
works, poems and letters. There is also a collection of online academic
articles on Austen available from the site.
Modern
Languages
ZUT:
Catherine Murphy as worked as a French teacher for the past ten years.
In this site, you will find a list of topics for each year, and for
each topic at least a couple of exercises for each skill, reading,
writing and listening. A lot of these exercises can be used in conjunction
with an interactive whiteboard. Although best done online, a lot of
the 400 exercises can be printed out and used in the classroom.
Languages
Online: German: This website includes a collection of online lessons
under the headings: Grammar, Vocabulary, Read, Write, Listen, Speak,
Pronunciation and Quizzes. There is also a section on culture, examining
several German-speaking nations, such as Austria, Germany and Switzerland.
Search
Engines
Google:
In 1937 H. G. Wells travelled around the world promoting his World
Brain scheme. His plan was to create a vast repository that contained
every piece of knowledge in the world. He argued that the World Brain
would be freely available to everyone and would therefore eliminate
the ignorance that sustained tyranny. His scheme never got off the
ground but some observers have claimed that Google is on the way to
becoming this World Brain. A recent report by OneStat reveals that
Google now carries out 53.2 per cent of all web searches. Yahoo!,
the second largest, has only 20.4 per cent. This is followed by MSN
Search (9.1), Terra Lycos (3.7), AOL Search (2.9), Altavista (2.8)
and Ixquick (2.2).
Google-Watch:
Daniel Brandt is founder and president of Public Information Research
(PIR) and programmer and webmaster for the organization's several
sites including Google-Watch, a website that monitors the activities
of Google. Brandt argues that Google's "crawlers" (software
which creeps daily through the web to monitor and catalogue new and
changing websites) are prejudiced in favour of larger and older websites.
Brandt suggests that Google is now so powerful that it should be registered
like a public utility company.
Book
Section
ISBN
0 00 274095 8
|
The figure of Sir
Christopher Wren looms large in English national consciousness.
The man behind the work was as remarkable as the monuments
he has left us. Wren was a versatile genius who could have
pursued a number of brilliant careers with equal virtuosity.
A mathematical prodigy, an accomplished astronomer, a skillful
anatomist, and founder of the Royal Society. Lisa Jardine
takes us deep into Wren's imagination and discovers the unique,
exacting nature of his mind. Through the prism of Wren's intellect
she unfolds the vibrant, extraordinary emerging new world
of late-seventeenth-century science and ideas.
Author:
Lisa Jardine
Publisher:
HarperCollins
Price:
£25.00
|
ISBN 1 84115 552 7
|
The South Sea Bubble
was a share scam that had its origins in the designs of a
brilliant Scots economist, John Law, who while exiled in France
launched a scheme that transformed Paris and French society.
He persuaded people of all classes to exchange their gold
and silver first for paper money and then for share certificates
in a company whose fortunes seemed guaranteed. The shares
soared in value almost overnight and the country's first millionaires
were created. Unfortunately, the English version was run by
a group of reckless and ruthless men. They sold similar paper
shares, but in a company that had no assets. Malcolm Balen
uncovers the story of corruption and scandal that attended
the birth of the first shareholder economy, and with it uncovers
a parable for our times.
Author:
Malcolm Balen
Publisher:
Fourth Estate
Price:
£17.99
|
ISBN 1 86207 534 4
|
Wesley
and the Wesleyans challenges the cherished myth that at the
moment when the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution
were threatening the soul of eighteenth-century England, an
evangelical revival - led by the Wesleys - saved it. It will
interest anyone concerned with the history of Methodism and
the Church of England, the evangelical tradition, and eighteenth-century
religious thought and experience. The
book starts from the assumption that there was no large-scale
religious revival during the eighteenth century. Instead,
the role of what is called 'primary religion' - the normal
human search for ways of drawing supernatural power into the
private life of the individual - is analyzed in terms of the
emergence of the Wesleyan societies from the Church of England.
Author:
John Kent
Publisher:
Cambridge
Price:
£13.95
|
Available from Amazon
Books (order below)
