Education on the Internet
Number 43: 6th November 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 28,415 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
My Account: As an additional service to its catalogue of thousands of high quality social science Internet resources, SOSIG, the Social Science Information Gateway, now offers My Account. My Account is a feature that enables you to customise SOSIG to create your own, tailored SOSIG information services. This free registration service can help you to keep up-to-date with events in your areas of interest, develop your career through contact with like-minded colleagues and publicise your conferences and events. Specific features of the service allow you to receive weekly email notification of new Internet sites and to set up your own Web page on SOSIG that displays Internet channels of your choosing.
Dyslexia: A report on a revolutionary exercise programme for children and adults with dyslexia and similar learning difficulties has just been published. David Reynolds of Exeter University, and Rod Nicolson of Sheffield University, who monitored the progress of 35 children in the West Midlands, said those who had undergone the treatment showed "significantly greater improvements" than others in dexterity, reading and verbal fluency. Ten thousand children and adults are on or have completed programmes which effectively try to improve the working of the cerebellum, the part of the brain that controls motor functions, such as eye, leg and arm movements.
NewsSeer: NewsSeer is both a straightforward news search engine and an adaptive tool that's constantly learning your interests to deliver personalized news tailored to your own needs. In addition to its search capabilities, NewsSeer will attempt to learn your interests by using several criteria from the material you select to view. This includes article selection, the text of the article, how long you looked at a story, the source of the material and the age of the story. This process is automatic. However, you can also choose to assist NewsSeer by rating your interest in the story.
Web Directories
Kevin's Playroom is a unique multi award winning web site produced by children for children, listing all school subjects with hundreds of approved links to curriculum based information. The site is aimed at children from pre-school (working with parents) to primary, junior and secondary pupils to assist with class work and homework tasks. It also has a big kids section which is proving very popular with teachers and pupils for project work, as here you can compare the different mobile phone tariffs, find comparative costings for holidays and flights etc. all without leaving the classroom.
Mr. Flack's Ultimate Educational Resources: Jim Flack of Lancaster, Ohio, has produced a resource website encompassing all curriculum areas. Listed as a Yahoo! K-12 Teaching Web Directory and a winner of the USA Today "Best Bets For Educators" award. The website has 10,000+ active links and and has been visited by over 75 countries.
Primary
Boggles World: The website is maintained by four teachers, two in Korea and one in each of Canada and the United States. Boggle's World is is a resource site for teachers who teach elementary and middle school English, ESL and EFL to children. The site hosts original materials that teachers download to supplement classroom activities. Worksheets include crosswords, word searches, worksheets, science activities, and lesson plans. There are also extensive flashcards exploring themes such as animal habitats and outer space. All materials have been teacher tested in EFL and ESL environments.
Mr. Jennings' Website: Graham Jennings is a teacher at Westdale Junior School in Mapperley. The purpose of his website is to share teaching resources with junior school colleagues. It also allows him to share his termly and weekly curriculum planning with pupils, parents and colleagues. Currently, the main teachers' resources are an index to the National Literacy Strategy Framework document and Science self-assessment/RoA sheets linked to the QCA Scheme of Work for Science at Key Stage 2.
History
Women's Library is a cultural centre, housing the most extensive collection of women's history in the UK. Its collections cover a range of topics relating primarily to women in Britain, but some international material is available. Published materials include over 60,000 books and pamphlets, including first editions and rare items, and 2,400 periodical titles, ranging from popular magazines to academic quarterlies. Special collections consist of 350 archival collections, including diverse personal papers, records of societies and associations, and research and oral history projects. There are also rich holdings of photographs, posters, postcards and other visual materials.
Origin Search: Origin Search allows searching, via a single search request, of millions of web pages containing genealogy data. By entering a surname, and any other relevant information such as forename, year, place of birth, residence, the search engine will link you directly to sites where that name and information appears. Origin Search is not an interface for databases, but a specialised genealogical search engine saving users time and ensuring that they find information which may not be found on other general search engines. This search engine currently covers over 300 million names from around the world.
Modern Languages
Aiglon College Language Link is a resource site for German and French. For each language there is a large bank of interactive exercises, grouped by GCSE topic area or Grammar area. In German, there is also a corresponding bank of exercises for A Level. The exercises are of various different types, and each link has a brief description of the nature and level of the exercise. The site also contains material for printing, a revision section, and a set of links to other useful resources. A number of projects by students at the school have also been published on the site, and can be found in the 'Student Work' section.
Beowulf in Cyberspace: Beowulf on Steorarume (Beowulf in Cyberspace) centres on a free online edition of the Anglo-Saxon epic poem "Beowulf", including: the original Old English (OE) text with MS notes; new English translation with facing OE text; German translation with facing OE; supplemental OE texts with translation; Old English glossary (in progress); audio & visual resources.
ICT
WebWise: This new online course is the easy way to get to grips with the Internet. It lets you learn at your own pace and can lead to a nationally recognised qualification. The eight key sections, or trips, will take you through the Internet basics in a simple and easy to follow format. It will probably take you about ten hours to complete the course. WebWise will help you find out about getting connected, e-mailing, searching, bookmarking, making your own address book and the very basics of building your own web page. You will also learn about technological developments like Digital TV and WAP phones, your legal rights online, the history of the net, and the other ways in which you might get online.
Richard's Things: Richard Finnigan has been involved in co-ordinating ICT in middle schools since 1996. He has created this website in order to share work and ideas so if you are an ICT teacher hopefully you will find this website useful. Richard Finnigan has explained what each resource is about and what it can be used for. On this website you will find teaching resources, lessons plans and schemes of work and a few homemade applications.
Citizenship
Consumer Education: Buying things on the Internet? Taking a pair of faulty jeans you bought in a sale back to a shop? Wondering where all those empty soft drink cans go after you throw them in the bin? Young people all over the UK can learn how to become informed and responsible consumers, aware of their rights and aware of how their actions affect other people across the globe. Young people can now find out everything they need to know about their rights and responsibilities as consumers by visiting the site. This consumer education website launched by the Welsh Consumer Council provides a wealth of information to support and build the confidence of young consumers learning how to live in a complex and independent world. The colourful site makes learning about consumer issues simple and fun, with information, worksheets and quizzes on consumer law, shopping, advertising, money, health and safety, the environment and how to complain.
DfES Citizenship: This government website has been designed as a source of information about education for Citizenship in the curriculum for young people in schools and colleges in England. Information on the site has been arranged in three main areas for teachers, pupils, and parents and governors. There are sections on Curriculum Issues, Assessment, Training & Development, Teaching Resources and Case-Studies.
Citizenship Foundation: The Citizenship Foundation is an independent charity working to promote more effective citizenship through education about the law, democracy and society. Founded in 1989, it encourages understanding of the rights and duties of citizenship, the workings of the political, social, and legal systems and the democratic process. It also advocates the provision of experiences which enable citizens to become caring, confident and effective members of society. In particular, the Foundation seeks ways of enriching provision for those for whom the quality of citizenship would otherwise be poor.
Book Section
Ralph Miliband: Based on exclusive access to Miliband's extensive personal papers and supplemented by interviews, this book analyses the ideas and contribution of a key political figure whose lifelong aim was to help build a form of socialism which would avoid the dictatorship of the Soviet bloc and the timidity of social democracy. Miliband's life and work form the central focus, but the book also provides an interpretative history of the evolution, debates and dilemmas of socialists throughout the period, and of the problems they faced both at work defending academic freedom and in society at large. (Michael Newman, Merlin Press, £15.95)
