Education on the Internet
Number 48: 11th 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 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
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
