Education on the Internet
Number 38: 2nd October 2002
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 26,770 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
Society for Information Technology: The International Conference of the Society for Information Technology will be taking place at Albuquerque, New Mexico in March 2003. This society represents individual teacher educators and affiliated organizations of teacher educators in all disciplines, who are interested in the creation and dissemination of knowledge about the use of information technology in teacher education. This international forum will offer numerous opportunities to explore the research, development, and applications in this important field.
Cards 2002 is an Internet project organised on behalf of Libanus Primary School, designed to assist children from ages 4 to 11 to grasp something of the size of our world and the instant way in which use of the Internet can connect communities. With the younger children it is a case of the teachers demonstrating, but with the older children most of the emails can be made by the children themselves. In schools were English is being taught as a second language, slightly older pupils are welcome to allow for language difficulties.
Online Centres: A survey, carried out by Hall Aitken Associates, of early users of UK online centres (one year on from their first involvement) found that half of all respondents felt that the centres had helped them find a job, secure a better job or move on to further education or training. Eighty-five per cent said that coming to their local centre had increased their confidence to some degree.
Learning and Skills Development Agency: Short courses in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) are breaking down barriers to learning with the over 60s and younger people from the minority ethnic groups, says new research from the Learning and Skills Development Agency (LSDA). The research was based on a sample of 10,000 learners in England taking part in three to six hour courses at further education colleges, since spring 2000. Approximately 73 per cent of the sample were new to learning, and 50 per cent have progressed on to further learning, usually higher level ICT courses. A key factor to this was having a positive first experience.
History
Life in the Trenches: This First World War decision-making simulation has been created by Russel Tarr of Active History. In this activity students play the role of a British soldier who joins the army in 1914 to fight in the war. The simulation involves students using selected websites in order to carry out required research tasks. While playing the game students learn about the conditions which soldiers lived and fought in, and the dangers they faced.
Augustus Washington is one of the few African American daguerreotypists whose work has been identified and whose career has been documented. The son of a former slave, Washington was born in Trenton, New Jersey. As a youth, he embraced the abolitionist movement and struggled to obtain an education, studying at both the Oneida Institute and Kimball Union Academy before entering Dartmouth College in 1843. Washington learned to make daguerreotypes during his freshman year to offset his college expenses. In 1846 he opened one of Hartford's first daguerrean galleries. Washington attracted a broad clientele, and by the early 1850s was regarded as one of the city's foremost daguerreotypists. Convinced that emancipation alone would not remove the barriers that American society imposed upon its black citizens, he came to regard resettlement in the West African nation of Liberia as the best course of action. Accompanied by his wife and two small children, Washington sailed for Africa in November 1853. Once in Liberia, Washington opened a daguerrean studio and prospered. This National Portrait Gallery online exhibition provides a detailed account of his life and work.
History Books Online: Naomi Symes Books is a bookselling service to academics, collectors and enthusiasts in the field of social history and women's history. It supplies out-of-print, antiquarian and in-print titles to individual customers and academic institutions worldwide. Over the summer months, the website has been making improvements to its online booksearch to allow for easier, more informed browsing. This means that in addition to its fast search facility, which pinpoints specific books, the visitor is presented with a range of options related to your likely interests.
Geography
Encyclopedia of the Sustainable Development: This excellent website has been developed by the Atmosphere, Climate & Environment Information Progamme, and is supported by the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs. The Encyclopedia is a one-stop source of information on sustainable development.
Geography Open Directory: The Open Directory follows in the footsteps of some of the most important contributor projects of the 20th century. Just as the Oxford English Dictionary became the definitive word on words through the efforts of a volunteers, the Open Directory follows in its footsteps to become the definitive catalog of the Web. The Open Directory was founded in the spirit of the Open Source movement, and is the only major directory that is 100% free. Its directory on Geography contains 1,059 websites: Cartography (89), Dictionaries (4), Education (100), Geographic Information Systems (632), Geomatics (883), Human Geography (63), Navigation (65), Organizations (21), Physical Geography (21), Place Names (56), Publications (13) and Regional Planning (378).
Science
Physics: Using powerful natural language query software (EasyAsk) the site answers your question with a series of relevant and accurate websites from its database of refereed resources. If you provide more information such as age and knowledge of physics the answers become even more focused. By registering, the site will remember your profile for your next visit and allow you to rank and comment on search results. As well as asking questions you can explore the relevance and importance of physics in all our lives with Physics Life.
Science Education Resources: The main objective of Shaun Allison's website is to provide science teachers everywhere, with a site where they can download resources which have been tried and tested in the classroom. This particular site concentrates mostly on word and excel documents, which can be downloaded by the user - adapted to fit their own purpose or used as they are. It is hoped that users will also send in their own resources, to be published on the site, in order to build up a thorough resource bank. This site is completely free. Resources are organised according to GCSE AQA modules and KS3 QCA modules.
Science Education: This is an email discussion site for science teachers. Members can ask each other questions, ideas, seek advice and ideas on tricky practicals, find useful resources etc. Their are also a number of member databases, where colleagues can leave links to useful websites, resources they have created etc.
Book Section
Women Agents of SOE: The Special Operations Executive was formed by Winston Churchill in 1940 "to set Europe ablaze". Thirty-seven women were dropped in occupied France to work as Special Operations Executive agents. Thirteen were executed in Hitler's concentration camps. This is the fascinating story of ten female agents, all from civilian life, who were warned of the likelihood of arrest, torture and a brutal death before they volunteered. In his book Marcus Binney tells of a life of a life of Resistance work and uncover operations, clandestine activities, extreme bravery and devotion to duty. (Hodder & Stoughton, ISBN 0 340 81839 5, £20.00)
