Education on the Internet
Number 47: 4th December 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 29,810 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
Gender and Achievement: Produced by the Standards Unit this website claims to be the first place for teachers, LEAs and parents to visit if they want support and information on gender and achievement. It will help those who are interested in raising the performance and aspirations of underachieving boys and girls by providing an online resource pool of best practice, analysis and practical advice.
Microsoft Update: Microsoft has urged Windows users to take swift action to prevent leaving their PCs open to abuse by hackers. The company announced that security flaws affecting Windows 2000, Windows Me, Windows 98 SE, Windows 98, and Windows NT 4.0 are "critical" and could leave users vulnerable. It points out that hackers could exploit the weaknesses to carry out a range of attacks, including reformatting hard disks and editing web page content. A security patch is available from the Microsoft website.
Teachers' Magazine: Teachers magazine was launched in the spring of 1999 and is the Department for Education and Skills' magazine for the teaching profession in England. The magazine is primarily written for classroom teachers in the primary and secondary sectors. There are now two versions of the magazine; one for primary and one for secondary teachers. The magazine is published bi-monthly and is available online.
Internet Services
Sygate Personal Firewall: A firewall is a piece of software that monitors all incoming network traffic and allows in only the connections that are known and trusted. Without a firewall, your computer is operating under an "open door" policy. Port 80 is open so that you can browse web pages, port 1863 allows you to engage in instant messaging with friends whereas port 443 gives access to secure web pages used by online merchants to encrypt purchases. Sygate Personal Firewall is software that provides a multi-layered shield of network, content, application, and operating system security. There is a free version available from its website.
Security Scan: The BlackCode Security Scan is an online tool which makes an exhaustive test on your computer or firewall searching for open ports. After completing the well known port numbers scan, the BlackCode Security Scan will proceed to scan your system for possible trojan infections. This scan is made using a Trojan database with more that 1500 different trojans and worms.
Puzzlemaker: Puzzlemaker is a puzzle generation tool for teachers, students and parents. It includes Word Search (type in a list of words and the computer will hide them in a grid of letters), Criss-Cross Puzzle (your list of words will be linked together, numbered and formatted, ready for you to print and hand out), Number Blocks (creates a block of numbers that will challenge arithmetic and algebra skills), Cryptograms (enter a phrase and the computer will assign a number to each letter) and Math Square (math formulas are linked together to form a square).
History
Russia 1917-41: The Greenfield Modern World History GCSE site has a useful section on Russia for GCSE pupils wanting to gain a basic initial understanding of the topic. The site includes a topic 'mini-book' on Russia 1917-41 offering a clear account of the key syllabus topics - the government before 1914, why the Tsar was overthrown in March 1917, the Provisional Government, the Bolshevik coup d'état of November 1917, the Bolshevik state, the Civil War, the NEP, and Stalin (how he gained power, his agricultural and industrial policies and the Terror). Hyperlinks allow visitors to extend their knowledge beyond the basic information given in the text. The site also offers exemplar essays, a revision sheet and an online test. Mini-book texts and revision sheets are available as free downloadable Word versions.
Political Graveyard is a web site about U.S. political history and cemeteries. It is the Internet's most comprehensive source for American political biography, listing 107,137 politicians, living and dead. The coverage of the site includes certain federal officials, state office holders and candidates in all 50 states, state and national political party officials, federal and state judges, and mayors (including candidates at election for mayor) of qualifying cities. The listings are incomplete as the development of the database is a continually ongoing project.
Religious Studies
Virtual Tours of Monasteries: Dr. Deborah Vess of Georgia State University has visited some of the most well-known medieval monastic sites in the world. She has decided to share these experiences with others through a series of virtual tours. This includes online tours of Fountains Abbey, Rievaulx Abbey, Lindisfarne Priory, Celtic Holy Wells, St. David's, Mellifont Abbey, Whitby Abbey, Kirkstall Abbey, St. Augustine's Abbey and Battle Abbey.
Medieval Pilgrimages: The Standards Site is managed by the Department for Education and Employment's Standards and Effectiveness Unit (SEU). The main objective of the site is to supply teachers with "guidance and tools to help schools improve effectiveness, raise standards and reduce workload". This scheme of work deals with the question: "Why did people go on pilgrimages?" Aimed at Y7 pupils (11 to 12 year olds) the material attempts to explain why the cult of relics was an important aspect of medieval religion.
Modern Languages
Abraham Darby Language Site: Kim Neale of the Abraham Darby School in Telford in Shropshire is the person behind this impressive website. The site offers class pages for pupils in Years 7 to 10. There are numerous interactive French activities: quizzes, word searches and an assortment of educational games. The majority of which are based on the Heinemann Metro 1 and 2 books. Relevant feedback is provided with all activities. Click on Bienvenido and Spanish and you will be taken to a selection of Spanish resources, many of which are based on The Arriba Textbook. The site is constantly updated and it provides instant lessons either for use in the computer suite or for whole class teaching. It is useful for homework tasks especially for pupils using Metro 1 and 2. There are also many links to other useful language websites.
Centre for Information on Language Teaching (CILT) is the national centre of expertise on language teaching. CILT was established in 1966 as an independent charitable trust supported by central government grants, with the aim of collecting and disseminating information on all aspects of modern languages and the teaching of modern languages. CILT is not a membership organization; anyone concerned with language teaching and learning is welcome to visit the Centre or write for information. CILT's prime objectives are to promote a greater national capability in languages and to support the work of all those concerned with language teaching and learning.
Photography
Pencils of Light: The Edinburgh Calotype Club, the first photographic club in the world, was formed in the early 1840s after a group of Edinburgh gentlemen were introduced to the calotype process by Sir David Brewster, the Principal of the United Colleges of St. Salvator and St. Leonard at St. Andrews and a close friend and associate of William Henry Fox Talbot, who had discovered the process in 1840. The National Library of Scotland has now put over 200 of these rare images produced by this group on its website.
Brighton Photographers 1841-1910: This website includes a comprehensive Directory of Photographic Studios which operated in Brighton and Hove during the period 1841 to 1910. Over 380 photographic studios are listed alphabetically and alongside the name of each studio is given the years of activity. The Directory of Photographic Studios will help owners of photographs taken in Brighton or Hove in Victorian and Edwardian times to date family photographs and hopefully as a result make it easier to identify the people portrayed. Another feature of the website is a History of Photography in Brighton, which traces the development of photography in Brighton from 1841 to 1910. Beginning with William Constable's Photographic Institution, which opened in Brighton in November 1841, this history recounts the story of photography in a large Sussex town, while outlining the major developments in photography in general explaining along the way photographic processes and formats such as the daguerreotype, the talbotype, collodion 'wet plate' photography, the albumen print, stereoscopic photography, the carte-de-visite, cabinet portraits, gelatin 'dry plates', roll film and the birth of the snapshot. Technical terms are explained in detail in a separate glossary and biographies are provided on the most important and influential photographers in Victorian and Edwardian Brighton.
Web Directories
Kids Net: A search engine designed for children. The site, based in Australia, contains over 20,000 child safe sites, and over 4000 categories. Categories include: Arts, Computers, Directories, Entertainment, Games, Health, News, People and Society, Pre-School, School Time, Sports and Hobbies, and Family. Kids Net contains sites and categories that are of direct interest to children, in this regard the site is a niche search engine for children.
HERO: Higher Education and Research Opportunities - is the official national portal into Higher Education in the UK. The purpose of the site is to provide a comprehensive, clearly annotated and easily navigable body of links to all relevant HE related bodies and activities and to effectively highlight the world-class work carried out within the sector.
Book Section
China's New Rulers: At the Chinese Communist Party's 16th Congress in November 2002, a group of new leaders will take over the world's most populous country. Their accession signals the end of a long, complex struggle for power, yet little has been known outside high Party circles about either the struggle or the men who emerged victorious from it. Now China's New Rulers, based on leaked secret Party files that were compiled in choosing China's "Fourth Generation" of leaders, offers an unprecedented glimpse into the most orderly transition in the history of the People's Republic. It reveals the backgrounds, characters, and visions for the future of the seven men who will rule China for the next five years, profiles other key figures in the Party, government, and military, and provides new perspectives on Jiang Zemin's thirteen years in power. This is an extraordinary account of how a new generation of leaders came to power, how they will face the challenges of China's politics, economy, and culture, and how they may act as international partners and competitors. (Andrew J. Nathan & Bruce Gilley, Granta, £14.99)
