Education on the Internet
Number 69: 7th May, 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 35,060 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
Online Seminars
Educational Seminars: The first of the online seminars hosted by the History Forum started this week. The first seminar looks at research carried out by the US National Learning Lab that suggests that the most effective learning strategy is when students teach other students. The author supports this view and provides evidence from his own teaching. Most contributors to the seminar have so far agreed with this proposition and have provided further examples of how this can be achieved. If you have views on the best way that students learn, register with the History Forum and join the debate.
European Training Village: The ETV is an interactive platform; a meeting point for policy-makers, social-partners, practitioners, researchers and all those with an interest in vocational education and training. Experts in the field can share and exchange knowledge and experience with associates within and outside the European Union. Established in 1998, it has become an expertise community, which counts up to 25,000 members and is rapidly growing. The site is divided into four main areas, "ETV News", "Exchange of Views", "Projects and Networks", and "Information Resources".
Careers Information in Europe: This site has been developed as an example for the supply of information and professional advice, at a distance, on careers guidance, both for those who connect from home, and as a support to existing public careers information and guidance services. The project was developed during the period 1998-2000 by Leonardo Evangelista, an Italian freelance careers adviser, with the support of the Careers Guidance Service of the District of Florence, Italy, and the European Union's Information Society Project Office.
OPEUS gives your school or college a secure foundation on which to use ICT to transform teaching and learning. It is built specifically for schools and colleges and recognises the problems and opportunities presented by new technology. It offers a simple and accessible learning tool which all your staff, students and parents can use to support learning development.
History
Your History Online: This website, produced by Simon & Schuster and HieroGraphics Online, provides a chronological history of Africans in America, in Africa, and in the Diaspora. The material is divided into the following chapters: Empires Rise and Fall (1600 BC to 1400), African Underdevelopment (1441-1770), The Contagion of Liberty (1770-1800), Taking Giant Steps (1800-1828), Building Self-confidence (1829-1839), Organizing for Struggle (1840-1850), The Rising Storm (1851-1858), The General Strike (1859-1865), Reconstructing a People (1866-1870), Revolutions Go Backwards (1871-1876), The Betrayal (1877-1883), Scramble for Empire (1884-1895), Accommodation and Protest (1895-1915), One God, One Aim, One Destiny (1916-1928), The Bottom Falls Out (1929-1949), Taking It to the Courts (1950-1959), Taking It to the People (1960-1971), Neocolonialism at Home and Abroad (1972-1974) and The Struggle Continues (1975-1980).
Coalbrookdale Database: Coalbrookdale, a small town in Shropshire, is famous as the cradle of the Industrial Revolution: a place of blast furnaces, roaring forges and busy factories. Its iron bridge still attracts visitors from all over the world. In the 19th Century some people thought it was hell on earth; others thought it was an industrial wonderland at the heart of the British Empire. This activity allows you to investigate which of these interpretations is most accurate by interacting with the 1851 Census of the town. A powerful, searchable database will provide you with very specific information: how many people lived in overcrowded houses, for example, or how many people under the age of 12 were in full-time work.
ICT
History ICT Advice: The Historical Association have joined forces with Becta to deliver some of Becta's ICT Advice services over the next year. This will give the HA the opportunity to greatly expand its provision of ICT-related activities in the future. Habet, the HA's ICT committee, is co-ordinating these events. Later this year Ben Walsh, John Simkin and Lez Smart will all be available to answer questions on using ICT to improve teaching and learning in History.
Superhighway Safety: This site provides advice on all aspects of Internet safety for schools and LEAs. It includes advice on Internet filtering, the use of chat rooms and e-mail in education, the use of pupil photographs on school web sites and lots of case studies of good practice.
Science
Space Exploration: A collection of articles on space exploration that originally appeared in the Guardian newspaper. This includes the Columbia Disaster, Benefits of Space Travel, Unmanned Missions, Japanese Spy Satellite and Space Missions. The website also contains interactive guides such as the Space Shuttle, International Space Station, Escape from Soyuz and Mars Lander.
Art
Art and the First World War: This is an excellent website devoted to the art produced during the First World War. Created to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the Armistice, the database includes 54 artists and images of 100 pictures from museums in London, Paris, Berlin, Bonn, Vienna, Caen and Verdun. All the exhibits includes background details of the work and a brief biography of the artist. The paintings are listed under seven different categories: War Declared, Fighting Men, Age of Artillery, The Battlefield, Total War, Suffering and Death.
World Myths & Legends in Art: Myths are stories that explain why the world is the way it is. Throughout history, artists have been inspired by myths and legends and have given them visual form. This website produced by the Minneapolis Institute of Arts allows you to explore myths and legends from around the world with these great works of art and in-depth interpretation and interactive features.
Geography
World Bank Research Tools: The World Bank collects extensive data and information and uses a wide range of tools to disseminate this knowledge. This includes News & Events (Development News is a weekly newsletter produced by the World Bank’s External Affairs Department which offers up-to-date information on the Bank's activities), Electronic Newsletters (annotated tables of contents of printed journals produced by the World Bank), Research (gives you access to works in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues).
Euroguide is a subject gateway to websites which contain information about the European Union. It has been developed by Essex County Libraries with input from members of the EARL European Task Group. EARL (Electronic Access to Resources in Libraries) is a consortium of 146 public library authorities who are working together to develop and deliver networked information services in public libraries. The website has been designed to help visitors find ways to authoritative sources of European Union information on the web. The guide currently offers access to 60 subject categories, which have been chosen to represent the terms generally used, rather than 'Eurojargon'.
Book Section
Motion Studies: In 1872 and Englishman called Eadweard Muybridge photographed a running horse in California and succeeded for the first time in capturing an image of high-speed motion - the crucial breakthrough that eventually made movies possible. Muybridge became a famous inventor and an internationally renowned photographer whose pictures of the American West have now become classics. He also stood trial for the murder of his wife's lover. Gripping and erudite, this is a fascinating biography of a true pioneer and the larger story of how time and space were revolutionised in the nineteenth century. (Rebecca Solnit, Bloomsbury, ISBN 0 7475 620 2, £16.99)
