Education
on the Internet
Number
38: 2nd October 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 26,770
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
spartacus@pavilion.co.uk
News
and Articles
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)
Available from Amazon Books
(order below)
