Education on the Internet
Number 61: 12th March, 2003
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 33,410 subscribers to the newsletter.
All reviews are added to our web directory. There are sections on Internet Services, 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
e-ENVOY: The Office of the e-Envoy is leading the drive to get the UK online, to ensure that the country, its citizens and its businesses derive maximum benefit from the knowledge economy. In September 2000 Tony Blair announced the decision to set up 6,000 UK online centres across England. UK online centres are based in community centres, libraries, shops and many other places where the people who need to use them can easily access them. The e-Envoy's office is now planning a "major campaign" this Spring to promote the free introductory course to the Internet, which will run in all UK Online centres nationwide.
Friends Reunited: Stephen and Julie Pankhurst, the co-founders of Friends Reunited has shelved plans to sell itself to the highest bidder. Instead, the UK schools and colleges reunion company has recruited Michael Murphy, to help expand the business. According to the newspapers, the site is looking to double in size by turning itself into a multinational operation. It already has 8m registered users but numbers could increase dramatically if the Friends Reunited concept can be exported and reworked for other countries. There are also plans to develop the Friends Reunited brand with ideas to branch out into dating and introduction services, plus an idea to run a "Friends Reunited" music festival.
IDC: Traffic over the Internet is set to double every year for the next five years, according to IDC. The market research firm predicts the volume of Internet traffic generated by end users worldwide will nearly double annually between 2002 and 2007. The research firm forecasts greater adoption of high-speed Internet access by consumers globally will make broadband the fastest growing and largest segment in terms of Internet traffic volume. IDC also predicts that consumers will account for 60 per cent of all Internet traffic generated, compared to around 40 per cent for business users, by 2007. Mobile Internet users are expected to have a minimal impact only on overall traffic volume during this time.
History
Recalling the Vietnam War: The Vietnam War drove two presidents from office and destroyed the U.S. foreign policy consensus. This research gallery highlights the complex environment in which decisions were made that shattered a generation's perspective on America's role in the world. In their reminiscences, leading players in the drama and analysts of the events conjure up a fascinating portrait of the causes and consequences of US decisions. What emerges is a rich tapestry where the pressures of global and domestic politics, the implications of a flawed strategy, and the influence of human weakness and moral blindness come together to produce a tragic turning point in the history of US foreign policy.
The Union Makes Us Strong: TUC History Online, a partnership initiative between London Metropolitan University and the Trades Union Congress in support of their strategies in lifelong learning, made possible through a grant from the New Opportunities Fund as part of their NOF-Digitise programme. Trade unions have played, and will continue to play, a decisive role in shaping economic and social developments in Britain - yet much of their history is at present unknown and inaccessible to the public. This site provides a dynamic new resource allowing us to connect with the working lives of our predecessors, helping to analyse historical developments and to build for the future. The site consists of five learning resources, which will be released in phases throughout 2003. At present you can take a journey through 150 years of labour history with our Timeline, or learn about the Match Workers strike in 1888. Future developments will include the full manuscript of the novel The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, an archive of material from the General Strike of 1926 as well as every TUC Report from 1868-1968.
Science
ScienceNet: Science Line is the original part of the service, it is a free telephone service based in the UK which has been running since 1994. It is open from 1pm to 7pm Monday to Saturday. You can also search its ScienceNet website to find an answer or send in a new question. If you want to be kept up to date with happenings at Science Line and ScienceNet you can sign up to receive its monthly newsletter.
Essaybank: Chemistry: This website is the UK's largest database of free student written essays. It offers a database of student written essays on a wide variety of topics to assist students and non-students educate themselves, appreciate wider points of view, and see concise overviews of complex issues. All of the essays on Essaybank have been purchased by Essaybank or have been contributed by its users.
Religious Studies
Jewish Women's Archive: The "Primary Sources" section of this website gives students direct contact with the past by allowing them to work with facsimiles of actual documents. The material is searchable by type, time period, or topic. Features of the this section include: digitized versions of photographs, documents, video, and audio; printable text and PDF versions of documents; historical background and discussion questions for each primary source; teacher notes and student activity sheets for each type of primary source.
Politics
Tony Blair and Winston Churchill: People often look back in history for help when they are trying to make sense of current problems. In recent weeks politicians have been comparing the situation in Iraq with other events in history. Important figures in the unfolding drama have been compared to past political leaders. Saddam Hussein has been described as a new Adolf Hitler and Tony Blair has been portrayed as acting like Winston Churchill. In this activity students given the chance to compare Tony Blair with political leaders from the past.
Mother Jones: "If you were to spin the globe and look for real estate critical to building an American empire, your first stop would have to be the Persian Gulf. The desert sands of this region hold two of every three barrels of oil in the world - Iraq's reserves alone are equal, by some estimates, to those of Russia, the United States, China, and Mexico combined. For the past 30 years, the Gulf has been in the crosshairs of an influential group of Washington foreign-policy strategists, who believe that in order to ensure its global dominance, the United States must seize control of the region and its oil." This is the opening passage of an article by Robert Dreyfuss for the online journal, Mother Jones. He goes on to argue: "Iraq, in this view, is a strategic prize of unparalleled importance. Unlike the oil beneath Alaska's frozen tundra, locked away in the steppes of central Asia, or buried under stormy seas, Iraq's crude is readily accessible and, at less than $1.50 a barrel, some of the cheapest in the world to produce.
Media Studies
News Corporation and the Iraq War: Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation owns more than 175 titles on three continents. He publishes 40 million newspapers a week and dominates the newspaper markets in Britain, Australia and New Zealand. In a recent interview in the Sydney Daily Telegraph, Murdoch came out strongly in favour of the forthcoming war in Iraq: "We can't back down now, where you hand over the whole of the Middle East to Saddam... I think Bush is acting very morally, very correctly, and I think he is going to go on with it... I think Tony (Blair) is being extraordinary courageous and strong... It's not easy to do that living in a party which is largely composed of people who have a knee-jerk anti-Americanism and are sort of pacifist." In this article Roy Greenslade explores the reasons why Murdoch's 175 editors around the world are also backing the war with Iraq.
CNN International Network: Chris Cramer, president of CNN International Network, has recently pointed out that the US government is using the Internet to wage an "information warfare campaign" against Iraq. This has included sending messages calling them to defect to all people with Iraqi email addresses. Saddam Hussein has responded by closing down all internet service providers in Iraq. Cramer argues that the net will play a key role in the reporting of the war. He urges people to remember the quotation from Mark Twain: "A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes."
Art
Artyfactory is a free online workshop for artists of any age. The website is building a growing resource of ideas and techniques designed to improve artistic skills. The workshops are carefully designed to meet classroom needs. Convenient bites of information are comfortably navigated on pleasantly stylised interfaces. Artyfactory currently host comprehensive courses on Ancient Egyptian Art, African Mask Design and Pencil Portraiture. Each workshop has an interactive quiz or games associated with its theme. Artyfactory enhances the practical side of each workshop with appropriate background knowledge of its theme.
Book Section
Iraq: Already a bestseller in the US, Dilip Hiro's new book tells you everything you need to know about Iraq today. George W. Bush could succeed where Osama bin Laden failed in provoking a clash of civilisations between Islam and the West by launching a 'pre-emptive' attack on Iraq. This is one of the disturbing conclusions to Iraq: A Report from the Inside, a wide-ranging and thought provoking book by Middle East expert Dilip Hiro. Hiro looks beyond the spin of the Bush administration and Saddam's Baathist regime to explore Iraq in all its complexity - from the daily life of its people to its turbulent history and complex regional relations. Drawing on the most up-to-date information and first-hand knowledge of the country itself, he poses difficult questions to which our leaders urgently need to provide answers: - Why, when Iraq is 'disarmed to 90-95%' according to a former senior weapons inspector is the US bent on war? (Dilip Hiro, Granta, 1 86207 627 8, £8.99)
