Education on the Internet
Number 41: 23rd 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 27,850 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
Eteach is the largest interactive database of teaching jobs in the UK, with hundreds of new teaching vacancies posted on the site each week. Join Eteach for free to search for jobs, hear about the latest jobs by email, post your CV and apply for jobs online. The site also enables schools to find you by matching their vacancies to relevant CVs on the site. In addition, Eteach brings you help and advice on looking for a job, the latest education news and an online Staffroom where you can contact other education professionals.
MIT OpenCourseWare reflects the commitment of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology faculty to advancing education by increasing access to their academic materials through the Internet and the World Wide Web. MIT hopes that by promoting the idea of openly sharing course materials it will inspire other institutions and help create a global web of knowledge that will enhance the quality of learning worldwide. The OCW pilot has now been made available to the public for review and feedback.
McGraw-Hill Survey: An independent survey sponsored by McGraw-Hill Ryerson found that web-based technology is considered by higher education faculty to be the most effective institutional resource in encouraging student success, outweighing traditional resources such as the library and tutoring. Following three years of data collection at U.S. and Canadian Colleges and Universities, the survey confirms that 83% of higher education faculty members are almost unanimous in their opinion that web-based technology is a key contributor to student success. The survey revealed that presently 62% of faculty use web content for course preparation, 56% use the web to supplement textbooks and 51% use the web to ensure up-to-date course content.
History
Tom Mooney: In a survey carried out in Europe in 1935 and it was discovered that the four best known Americans were Franklin D. Roosevelt, Charles A. Lindbergh, Tom Mooney and Henry Ford. The reason that Tom Mooney was on this list was because at the time there was an international campaign to get him freed from San Quentin Prison. Mooney had been convicted of throwing a bomb into the midst of a military parade in San Francisco during the First World War. He was sentenced to death but in 1918 this was commuted to life imprisonment. By this time the American government knew the truth about the case as the Secretary of Labor, William Bauchop Wilson, had arranged for a dictaphone to be installed in the private office of the District Attorney in San Francisco and had discovered that Mooney had been framed. Despite this information being reported in the national press, Mooney was not released from prison until Culbert Olson became Governor of California in 1939. This website provides biographies of all the main characters involved in this tragic case.
Megalithic Map: This website allows you to find megalithic and prehistoric sites in England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. The map is divided into sections that users may click upon to obtain more specific information. After clicking on a particular section, users will be directed to another interactive map containing detailed information about each particular megalith in the region, accompanied by information about the closest village and other relevant geographical details.
Science
Science Teaching: How do websites help students to learn and the teacher to teach? Drawing on the experience of teaching Biology and Science in a laptop school this account by David Faure outlines ways of successfully incorporating websites into lessons. The material is organized under the sections: Magic Moments, Curriculum Enhancement, Reward and Revision, Display Pages and Hypothesis Research.
El Niño: This award-winning site contains comprehensive information on the past and present impact of El Niño on the climate of Canada and its effects on the global climate. Through animation, this website shows the changes in the Canadian climate and climatic extremes that accompany El Niño. A scientific explanation of the El Niño phenomenon, comparisons between various El Niños and forecast of El Niño are also provided.
Politics
Noam Chomsky Archive: This website contains articles, interviews, essays, and other materials related to American dissident Noam Chomsky. As a member of various popular movements, and a long-time professor of linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Chomsky writes and speaks frequently on a variety of social and political issues.
American Experience: Jimmy Carter: This website by PBS has been created to support the recently produced documentary about his life and provides a good introduction to this global humanitarian and peace maker. There is a transcript of the documentary, a timeline, photo gallery and an essay on President Carter's many contributions to humankind in the twenty years since he left the presidency.
Religious Studies
World Minorities Alliance was conceived 25 years back with a view to bringing all religious minorities of the world at one platform. The objective was to promote world peace through ending inter-community hatred, prejudices and bias. The five point agenda of Alliance which is now being thrown open for discussion at the forthcoming international conference was aimed at economic, social and political uplift of minorities which are generally backward and downtrodden in many countries.
American Jewish Historical Society: The mission of the American Jewish Historical Society (AJHS) is to foster awareness and appreciation of the American Jewish past and to serve as a national scholarly resource for research through the collection, preservation and dissemination of materials relating to American Jewish history. The Society tells the story of American Jewry through its distinguished quarterly journal, American Jewish History, as well as through other publications, exhibitions, lectures, symposia and public programs.
Media Studies
Z MAGAZINE is an independent monthly of critical thinking on political, cultural, social, and economic life in the United States. Z Magazine is available in print and online. The online system, updated monthly, reproduces the print version of the magazine. The current edition includes articles on Corporate Globalization (Raymond Ker), The Next Arms Race (James John Bell) and Palestine: Ethnic Cleansing By Starvation (Rania Awwad).
FAIR is a United States media watch group and has been offering well-documented criticism of media bias and censorship since 1986. The organization argues for greater diversity in the press and scrutinizes media practices that marginalize public interest, minority and dissenting viewpoints. Fair is an anti-censorship organization that attempts to expose neglected news stories and defend working journalists when they are muzzled.
Book Section
Art of the Andes: This wide-ranging survey has established itself as the best single-volume introduction to Andean art and architecture. Now fully revised, it describes the strikingly varied artistic achievements of the Chavin, Paracas, Moche, Chimu and Inca cultures, among others. Their impressive cities, tall pyramids, shining goldwork and intricate textiles constitute one of the greatest artistic traditions in history. For this revised edition, Rebecca Stone-Miller has added new material covering the earliest mummification in the world at Chinchorros, wonderful new Moche murals and architectural reconstructions, the latest finds from the Chachapoyas culture, and a greater emphasis on shamanism. Throughout, Stone-Miller demonstrates how the Andean peoples adapted and refined their aesthetic response to an extremely inhospitable environment. (Rebecca Stone-Miller, Thames & Hudson, £8.95)
