Education
on the Internet
Number
48: 11th December, 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 30,280
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
TeAch-nology:
This website offers teachers free access to 19,000 lesson plans, 5,600
printable worksheets, over 200,000 reviewed web sites, rubrics, educational
games, teaching tips, advice from expert teachers, current education
news, teacher downloads, web quests, and teacher tools for creating
exciting classroom instruction.
First
School features fun preschool lesson plans, educational early
childhood activities, printable crafts, printable activities, calendar
of events, and other resources for children of preschool age. The
preschool lesson plans and activities are appropriate and adaptable
for toddlers, preschoolers and kindergarten level (ages 2 to 6). First-School's
content is ideal for home schooling, preschool and kindergarten teachers,
child care providers and babysitters.
Top
Ten Viruses: Sophos, a world leader in corporate anti-virus protection,
has revealed that the Klez worm has accounted for almost a quarter
of reports to Sophos's customer support department during 2002. Klez
topped Sophos's monthly chart for seven months in succession this
year - officially making it 2002's most prolific virus. The second
most common virus was the Bugbear worm, which makes the number two
slot even though it was only detected in October 2002. In third place
comes Badtrans, the password stealing worm which was first detected
in November 2001. Sophos has detected 7,189 new viruses, worms and
Trojan horses to date this year, bringing the total protected against
to more than 78,000. On average, the Sophos virus labs produce detection
routines for more than 25 new viruses each day.
Internet
Services
Zone
Alarm is probably the most popular free firewall on the Internet.
Bank account information, passwords, credit card numbers and documents
are all available to anyone with bad intentions and basic computer
skills. Hackers can get in, take what they want, and even leave open
a "back door" so they can turn your computer into a "zombie"
and use it to attack other computers. Every minute that your computer
is connected to the Internet, either through a dial-up (modem) connection
or through a broadband (DSL or cable) service, it is at risk.
Cleanfeed
is a high-quality, pre-filtered broadband Internet connection. It
eliminates the problems associated with delivering the Internet to
vulnerable users and public environments, such as schools, libraries
and the workplace. Features include fast Internet, download at speeds
up to 40 times faster than a modem; high-quality web content classification
and blocking, built-in web page and download accelerator, core network
technology - centrally hosted and managed, zero administrative overhead,
delegated responsibility for web filtering, instant site updates and
does not rely on periodic database synchronization.
SpamCop:
Junk e-mail, also known as spam (inspired by the monotonous repetition
of the word in the Monty Python song), is a growing problem for web
users. SpamCop's original spam reporting service will help you report
spam quickly and accurately. You can choose from a variety of filtering
options ranging from the easiest web-mail account to advanced network-wide
spam blocking.
History
Life
in the Whitehouse: The White House is more than 200 years old
and its next door neighbor, the West Wing, is celebrating its 100th
birthday this year. Learn about the White House and the people who
have lived there through these activities and games.
Country
Reports: This website has over 1,500 pages of information about
every country in the world. As well as covering issues such as economy,
government, armed forces, geography it also includes a detailed history
of the country. Other features include flags, national anthems, exchange
rates and current weather.
Mathematics
Summer
School Math is a web site for elementary children to practice
math facts during Summer recess. A wonderful on-line tool allowing
your child to spend a few minutes each morning during the months of
Summer reviewing math facts or preparing for the new year.
Euclid
Challenge: This
website by Milton A. Mintz looks at the Euclid Challenge. It was necessary
to go beyond "Traditional Euclidian methods", since it was
proved by Pierrre Wantzel in the 19th century that when following
these methods, it was impossible to "trisect any angle"
or "square a circle". Mintz, an American Professor of Mathematics,
uses only Euclid Tools: an unmarked straightedge and compass.
Science
TryScience
Museum: TryScience is a virtual science museum - the first Web
site to capture the very best science from more than 660 museums around
the world. Now, anywhere and anytime, children, parents and teachers
have instant access to experiments, exhibits and scientific breakthroughs.
IBM scientists created the site in collaboration with the New York
Hall of Science and the US Association of Science-Technology Centres.
It is now available in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish and
Brazilian Portuguese as well as Chinese and Japanese.
Science
Education Centre Soweto provides innovative teaching and learning
materials, target groups: teachers & learners of Grade 8-12 available
online resources: teaching and learning activities for maths, physics,
biology & chemistry; HIV/Aids materials; lesson plans; experiments,
kitchen physics (improvisation), crosswords, interactive crosswords,
e-learning (multiple choice tests) and a physics revision course.
Profiles
in Science: The National Library of Medicine's Profiles in Science
website makes the archival collections of prominent twentieth-century
biomedical scientists available to the public through modern digital
technology. The collections have been donated to the National Library
of Medicine and contain published and unpublished materials, including
books, journal volumes, pamphlets, diaries, letters, manuscripts,
photographs, audio tapes, and other audiovisual materials.
Sci-Fi
Today is a community discussion website, focused 75% on science
and 25% on science fiction (as they go hand-in-hand, each influencing
the other) and how "fiction becomes reality". SFT is a forum
for scientists, science writers, science students and science enthusiasts,
as well as sci-fi authors and fans. A place where people can speculate
on the implications of the most recent scientific discoveries and
technological inventions, discuss the latest science book or the latest
sci-fi novel/film/show, read the fictional short stories of anyone
willing to share, or simply muse about what the future holds for our
world.
Modern
Languages
ITÉ
Christmas: This website provides lots of language teaching and
learning activities on a festive theme for French, German, Irish,
Italian, Spanish and Japanese. There are two competitions this year
with Christmas Hamper and individual prizes to be won!
Wild
French: This website, produced by Julian Atkinson, is intended
to assist both teachers and learners of French by making available
a range of online resources that complement many of the popular published
courses and GCSE examinations. Its online exercises are linked to
several different textbooks produced by Heinemann, Hodder & Stoughton
and Oxford University Press. For GCSE there are online reading papers
for Edexcel and links to sites offering reading/listening papers for
other boards.
French
Revision: This website was created by Bernard Dyer, a Modern Foreign
Languages teacher at Holywells High School, Ipswich. The
students can test their knowledge in all skills using these interactive
activities with audio files. The material is organized under the following
headings: Key Stage 3, Formule X, GCSE, 'A' Level, French Grammar,
Exam Revision and Java Games. A recent edition to the site is the
Edexcel Exam Papers from 1998 to 2001.
Vacancy: History teacher,
Secondary, West Midlands. Vacancy: English teacher, Secondary, Essex.
Vacancy: KS2 teacher, Kent. These are just a few of the hundreds teaching
jobs currently available at eteach, the UK's no.1 teacher recruitment
website. To apply, or search for more jobs like these, click on the
following link: Eteach.com
Available
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