Education on the Internet
Number 49: 18th 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 30,750 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
Virtual Magazine for Teachers: Every day the eSchoolnet Virtual Magazine offers the latest news about eLearning in Europe's classrooms. Whether you're interested in news about events, training, resources, technology, or the future of schools, the eSchoolnet magazine is for you and your school. The current edition includes Technology Training for Head Teachers, Canada: Virtual Institute for Innovative Schools and Can We Learn Digitally?
Partner Schools: Peer Brok, the international coordinator from a school for vocational education in the sector healthcare, welfare and services, in Tilburg, The Netherlands, is looking for partner schools, who are interested in students exchange (Leonardo da Vinci programme), for placements/practical training periods for students in education: nursing care, social work (handicapped people, community work, youth work), sports and movement, fashion and clothing, haircare, doctors assistant, pharmacist assistant and dentist assistant. Peer Brok can be contacted by email at pbrok@rocmb.nl.
Broadband: UK consumers are taking up broadband services at a faster rate than other key European countries, according to Oftel. Broadband connections have now reached 28,000 a week in the UK, a higher rate of growth than in France, Germany. Sweden and the USA. Oftel’s research also indicates that residential broadband prices in the UK have fallen substantially in recent months and are now as cheap as in France Germany or the US. DSL prices have fallen 27 percent in the UK since February 2002, while cable modem prices continue to be cheaper than DSL.
Internet Services
E-mail Anywhere: This free service lets you check your existing email account using a standard web browser. You can use it to keep in touch from anywhere with access to the Internet. You can read any messages waiting for you, send replies, and delete unwanted items from your Inbox. The only thing you need to use the service is an active POP3 email account. This includes virtually all email accounts provided by internet service providers, schools and universities.
Brightmail: According to Brightmail spam now accounts for 40 percent of all email, up from eight percent last year. The company’s statistics indicates that more than 5.5 million unsolicited emails were intercepted during November, three percent more than in October. The research also reveals that 15 percent of unsolicited email is of a pornographic nature, while financial services mail accounts for 32 percent of all spam. Product advertising accounted for 29 percent of all unsolicited email sent during November 2002, according to the filtering firm.
Google Catalogs: Google has made it a lot easier to find the perfect present from mail-order catalogs that are
not available online anywhere else. Google Catalog Search includes the full contents of hundreds of catalogs selling everything from industrial adhesives to clothing and home furnishings. Whether you're looking to buy for yourself, your business, or that special someone in your life, Google Catalog Search can help.
Christmas Resources
Santa Penalty Shootout: In an update from previous versions, the hugely popular Santa Penalty Shootout from SchoolHistory is now available again for the Christmas season. Ideal for something a little different at the end of term. With either Santa, or one of his helpers (complete with Santa suit), in goal you are asked 10 random questions about the history and traditions of Christmas. One and two player versions add to the fun. However, as before, Santa isn't too generous in goal.
Christmas in Europe: Did you know that in Spain children wait until January 6th for their Christmas presents. Children put shoes by the front door to get their gifts which are brought by the Three Wise Men. This website, created by Núria de Salvador for the Spring Europe Project, explains the different ways that Christmas is celebrated in Europe. The website is in English but the activities have been constructed for modern language students.
Seasonal Fun: A series of seasonal activities produced by Teaching and Learning Resources. Includes a Christmas Wordsearch, Christmas Crossword, Christmas Webquest (find the answers to these Christmas questions by visiting a variety of Christmas websites) and the Christmas Pelmanism Challenge.
Citizenship
Speak Out! This is a pan-European project that aims to get young people thinking and talking about European issues in the classroom and online. It is now in its third year and has proved very popular with teachers and students across Europe. The website hosts discussion for about nine European issues. A teacher guide accompanies the project, which gives informative briefings on the issues as well as ideas for classroom activities and discussion topics.
Citizenship: Schemes of Work: 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 part of the website provides guidance about the citizenship aspects of the non statutory framework for PSHE and citizenship at key stages 1 and 2. It includes: a Teacher's guide, with practical ideas about whole-school planning, approaches to and provision of citizenship; exemplar units with learning objectives based on the citizenship aspects of the PSHE and citizenship framework, suggested teaching activities to meet those objectives and defined outcomes of pupils' learning.
Lesson Plans
Education Resource Center: This website is dedicated to helping professional educators, student teachers, parents, mentors and tutors educate students by providing access to education resources of the highest quality. The Education Resource Center provides: (1) Education news published by the most creditable news sources. (2) Assistance writing lesson plans. (3) Links to thousands of Lesson Plans. (4) Internet search assistance that provides access to all available education resources.
In2Edu: Free educational resources, lesson plans, integrated themes and thematic units, free downloads and software, teaching ideas, ICT units, and education links. All links in a unique downloadable educational database. World wide education use with a New Zealand sites feature. Unique certificates and banners for classroom display.
Photography
American Museum of Photography: An outstanding website for anyone interested in photography. Current exhibitions include: The Face of Slavery, Ghosts & Ectoplasm Captured by the Camera, Scot Mutter: A More Perfect World, The Daguerreotypes of Southworth & Hawes, The Outlandish World of William H. Martin, Masterworks of Photography, At Ease (early American portrait daguerreotypes), An Eye for the World (photographs of Shotaro Shimomura) and Of Bricks and Light (architectural photographs 1845-1915).
Through the Lens of Time: This website allows you to search or browse nearly 300 images of African Americans dating from the nineteenth and early twentieth century from the Cook Collection of Photographs. These digitally scanned images are of prints taken by George S. Cook (1819-1902) and Huestes P. Cook (1868-1951). The Through the Lens of Time website is a joint project between VCU Libraries and the Valentine Richmond History Center.
Advertising
Times Literary Supplement: Subscribe online today and enjoy a reduced subscription rate, free access to the TLS Subscriber Archive. Subscribers can search every issue of the paper back to October 1994.
Scholarship Experts: Fill out the form on the website and with some basic information about yourself to see how many current scholarships you are potentially eligible for. Once the nine-step profile is complete, you can see how many scholarships match your profile and then decide whether or not to subscribe to the time-saving Scholarship Experts service.
Teacher Created Materials: Teacher Created Materials is an educational publishing company founded in 1982 by Rachelle Cracchiolo and Mary Dupuy Smith, two classroom teachers. All the products available on the website are "created by teachers for teachers and parents." You can search by item number, title, keyword, topic, subject area, or age/grade.
