Education on the Internet
Number 65: 9th April, 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 35,310 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
Gender and Achievement: This website, produced by the DfES, hopes to become the first place teachers, LEAs and parents will visit if they want support and information on gender and achievement. The site has been designed to help all those who are interested in raising the performance and aspirations of underachieving boys and girls by providing an on-line resource pool of best practice, analysis and practical advice.
Digital Video and Multiple Intelligences: Despite 50 years of technological advance, the exercise book is still the most important expression of student learning in schools all over the world. Doing 'well' in school, whether in 1950 or in the year 2000, is still largely calculated by how well the student performs within the artificial constraints of the lines of the traditional exercise book. On this website produced by the International School of Toulouse, it is argued that this is neither relevant or fair. "It is not relevant because the skills required to succeed in an exercise book classroom no longer resemble the skills required by a multimedia 'real world'. It is not fair because exercise book assessment privileges 'traditional' linguistic learning styles at the expense of non-linguistic learning styles." This website is dedicated to the types of learning that could only be widely disseminated through the use of digital photographs and video.
Raising Boys' Achievement Project: Funded by the DfES, the Raising Boys' Achievement project is looking at exciting and innovative ways of raising achievement across a range of primary, secondary and special schools. Working with over 60 schools across England, the research team aims to identify and evaluate strategies which are particularly helping in motivating boys. It is a research and intervention project which seeks to identify the strategies schools have employed to raise educational standards for boys (and girls), the processes by which this has been achieved and the extent to which any improvements in performance have been sustained over time.
History
Spanish Armada: After the Spanish Armada rounded Scotland it headed south for home. However, a strong gale drove many of the ships onto the Irish rocks. Thousands of Spaniards drowned and even those who reached land were often killed by English soldiers and settlers. Of the 25,000 men that had set out in the Armada, less than 10,000 arrived home safely. This website provides an insight into how this military disaster is taught in Spanish schools. It also includes a series of classroom activities that raises issues about how nationalism influences the writing of school textbooks.
Tower of London: This website has been created in association with the Yeoman Warders of the Tower. The producers of this website have attempted to capture some of the magic and excitement that you get when visiting the Tower in person. They have also tried to bring you as much information as possible about the tower and show you some of the areas that are not accessible when you visit in person.
Mathematics
Online Conversions: This website enables you to convert just about anything to anything else. This includes the following categories: Length/Distance, Temperature, Speed, Volume (Liquid and Dry), Weight, Metric, Computer, Date/Time, Cooking, Angles, Area Square, Power Watts, Energy Joules, Density, Force, Pressure, Astronomical, Numbers, Finance, Clothing, Light, Flow Rate and Acceleration.
Handbook of Mathematical Functions: This online book includes the following chapters: Mathematical Constants, Physical Constants and Conversion Factors, Elementary Analytical Methods, Elementary Transcendental Functions
Logarithmic, Exponential, Circular and Hyperbolic Functions, Exponential Integral and Related Functions, Gamma Function and Related Functions, Error Function and Fresnel Integrals, Legendre Functions, Bessel Functions of Integer Order, Bessel Functions of Fractional Order, Integrals of Bessel Functions, Struve Functions and Related Functions, Confluent Hypergeometric Functions, Coulomb Wave Functions, Hypergeometric Functions, Jacobian Elliptic Functions and Theta Functions, Elliptic Integrals, Weierstrass Elliptic and Related Functions, Parabolic Cylinder Functions, Mathieu Functions, Spheroidal Wave Functions, Orthogonal Polynomials, Bernoulli and Euler Polynomials, Riemann Zeta Function, Combinatorial Analysis, Numerical Interpolation, Differentiation and Integration, Probability Functions, Miscellaneous Functions, Scales of Notation and Laplace Transforms.
Politics
Election Results: A collection of election results. It includes details of the UK General Elections (1935-2001), USA Presidential Elections (1992-2000), European Elections (1994-1999), Welsh Assembly (1999) Scottish Parliament (1999) and London Elections (2000). The website is also planning to include election results from Israel, Canada and Australia in the near future.
Common Dreams NewsCenter: Common Dreams is a national non-profit citizens' organization working to bring Americans together to promote progressive visions for America's future. Founded in 1997, it is committed to being on the cutting-edge of using the Internet as a political organizing tool. Its NewsCenter is an eclectic mix of politics, issues and breaking news with an emphasis on progressive perspectives that are increasingly hard to find in the corporate-dominated media.
Mass Media
Paperboy: This website, created by Ian Duckworth, started out in November 1997 as a hobby to satisfy his own craving for easy access to quality news and has grown from there. The website now provides access to 5,635 newspapers. The "Newspaper Search" box is located at the top of the left column on the front page. This powerful search feature is the quickest way to track down the paper you're hunting for. Click on the appropriate newspaper name in the list of search results to visit the site.
Reporting the Iraq War: The Daily Mirror and the Daily Telegraph have reported the invasion of Iraq very differently. The editors of these newspapers, Piers Morgan and Charles Moore, hold very different views on the conflict. This website, hosted by the Guardian newspaper, includes a collection of interesting exchange of emails on the subject. In doing so, it provides a good resource for a project on how newspapers report a modern war.
Modern Languages
Modern Languages Web Guide: Created by Education Unlimited, this web guide contains recommended links to hundreds of websites for teachers, parents and students. The websites are organized under the following categories: Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Russian and Spanish.
Learn Spanish: With Cactus Language you can learn Spanish in amazing locations like Santiago de Cuba, Playa Tamarindo (Puerto Rico) and of course a variety of other places across Spain and South America. It also offer Self Study and Face to Face courses in many different languages. The combination of the structured self-study courses with the dynamism of face-to-face sessions with Cactus trainers at critical points throughout provides a cost-effective solution for those students who want to study at their own pace but do not want to feel isolated and value the motivation of teacher support.
Book Section
Towton 1461: On 29th March 1461, the army of King Edward IV met that of his Lancastrian enemies on a snow-covered battlefield south of the village of Towton in Yorkshire. The struggle lasted all day in the longest and bloodiest battle of the Wars of the Roses. With the arrival of Yorkist reinforcements under the Duke of Norfolk, the Lancastrian line eventually broke and their troops fled. The book examines the campaign that marked the resurgence of the Yorkist cause and established Edward IV as king. (Christopher Gravett, Osprey Publishing, 1 84176 513 9, £12.99)
