Education on the Internet
Number 73: 4th June, 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 36,035 subscribers to the newsletter.
All reviews are added to our web directory. There are sections on Internet Services, Online Seminars, Primary Education, English, Mathematics, Science, Modern Languages, History, Geography, Design & Technology, Business Studies, Special Needs, Media Studies, ICT, Sociology, Music, Politics, Economics, Photography, Art & Design, Theatre Studies, Physical Education and Religious Studies.
John Simkin
TES Staffroom: The TES Staffroom is open for discussion on all aspects of education. You can ask questions, help colleagues or just talk. Forums include Flexible Working, Marketplace, Early Years, Further Education, General Teaching Council, Governors, Graduate Teacher Programme, New Teachers, Opinion, Personal, Pay and Employment, Professional Development, Primary, Student Teachers, School Management, Administration, SEN, Supply Teachers, Teaching Assistants and Teaching Overseas.
Open Directory Abuse: Compiled by a global legion of more than 50,000 volunteers, the Open Directory Project (ODP) is one of the most important websites on the web. However, it relies on the integrity of editors and the listings they maintain. Unfortunately, there have been numerous reports over the years of editors promoting their own sites, or demoting or deleting competitor sites. The Open Directory Project is now testing a new system to allow anyone to report suspected abuse by editors more committed to their own self interest than the general good of the project. The Abuse Report System interface is currently available in English, German, French, Spanish, Japanese, and Italian.
Information Research: Professor Tom Watson has been publishing Information Research, an international electronic journal, since 1995. Information Research includes both refereed papers and working papers in the fields of information science, information management, information systems, information policy and librarianship. The current issue has four papers, including an interesting look at web search. All back issues are freely available on its website.
History
Interactive Games: Learning history doesn't have to be all about reading textbooks and watching drab documentaries. At the ActiveHistory website interactive games add a completely new dimension to history studies. Subjects covered include the Murder of Archbishop Becket, Bayeux Tapestry, William Rufus, Henry VIII, Medieval Time Machine, Coalbrookdale, Home Front, Victorian Entrepreneur, Emily Davison, Bolshevik Revolution, Wall Street Crash, Adolf Hitler, Weimar Republic and the League of Nations.
Prime Ministers in History: There have been 51 British Prime Ministers since 1721. These figures include some of the most influential and interesting figures in British history. At this 10 Downing Street website you will find a biography and interesting facts about each Prime Minister from Robert Walpole to Tony Blair. More interesting and bizarre facts about past Prime Ministers can be found at the Prime Ministerial record breakers section.
English
Shakespeare's Life and Times: This site is divided into the ten sections: Shakespeare's Life, The Stage, Society, History & Politics, Background of Ideas, The Drama, Literature, Art, and Music, Some Plays Explored and Reference & Indexes. Each section is divided into "chapters." Links followed by an asterisk open up a "pop-up" note on the same page; links without the asterisk go to a different page; links external to the site are signalled in green, and open a new window in your browser.
Teachit: A year ago Siobhain Archer, Garry Pratt, and their team of part-time editors launched Teachit Mark II and TeachitPLUS. Since then the site has developed and expanded - now you have the pick of over 3700 pages of completely free PDF resources, or, if you're one of the growing band of TeachitPLUS members, over 2400 of these pages can be customised, differentiated or used on screen.
Modern Languages
Spanish Romance: This website provides free resources to those wanting to learn Spanish. Spanish Romance provides students and teachers with Spanish Words, Spanish Proverbs, Spanish Poems, Spanish Recipes, Spanish Lyrics, Spanish Vocabulary, Spanish Phrases, Spanish Sayings, Spanish Riddles, Spanish Stories, Spanish Jokes, Spanish Schools, Spanish Penpals, and much more.
Musselburgh Modern Languages: Musselburgh Grammar School has recently launched a website to support pupils and staff in teaching and learning. It pulls together existing resources, together with presentation files, internet challenges and lessons teaching staff can use directly. There are also links to cultural resources, including newspapers, magazines (and translation tools), webcams, photo galleries, cyber school visits. The site also contains ideas and research articles, many of which have been linked to from specialist sites, including the Partners in Excellence programme in the West of Scotland.
Politics
Red Tape, White Lies: Notes & Queries began in 1989 as a weekly column in the Guardian, and rapidly acquired a cult following. Now, thanks to the Internet, it is reaching a worldwide electronic audience. The questions and answers are organised into different categories. This section deals with politics and includes questions such as "How old is the current use of the words terrorist and terrorism?" and "Why do national unemployment statistics differ from OECD statistics? Who is counted in UK statistics and who is not (and why not)?"
Political History: A collection of articles on political history. Subjects covered include the English Revolution, General Strike (1926), Paris Commune, Russian Revolution, Berlin Wall, Falklands War, Six-Day War, Spanish Civil War, Suez Crisis, Vietnam War, Chartists and Diggers.
Geography
Mapsarea: This website provides a portal of world maps and atlases. On the front page there are links to some of the best map websites available on the web. This includes National Geographic Society's Map Machine Atlas and the University of Texas' map library collection. The site also features a keyword search engine. In addition to maps, there are links to map companies, map magazines and forums, and a large list of historical map resources.
WorldAtlas: An outstanding website for all students of geography. As well as maps the site contains features such as country flags, current time (different countries), currency conversion (latest rates), continents (populations and sizes), map clip art, outline maps, map questions, and a daily geography quiz with prizes. There is also a list of of continents, countries, dependencies, islands, territories, lakes, rivers, seas, oceans, mountains, and the highest, lowest, biggest, smallest, tallest, deepest, oldest, youngest, richest, poorest places on the planet.
Internet Services
Daypop Search Engine: Daypop is a current events search engine. Daypop crawls the living web at least once a day to bring you the latest information relevant to your searches. Daypop specializes in accumulating information from sites that update on a daily basis: newspapers, online magazines, and weblogs. Currently, Daypop indexes over 35000 of the best news sites and weblogs on the net every day.
Wondir: The premise behind Wondir is that there are thousands of organizations, corporations and service providers, and millions of individuals throughout the world who want to help others by providing information, guidance and expertise. The Wondir information service strives to be a simple yet effective way for people with an information need to ask a question and get a good answer from those sources who are out there, ready to help. Since a primary goal of Wondir is to open up the gifts of knowledge to people with fewer advantages, the service is free.
Book Section
Second Opinion: In these essays, Dr Richard Norton, editor of The Lancet, explores the history of the unique relationship between doctor and patient, from ancient times to the present day. He examines how our conceptions of disease and its treatment have evolved over the centuries. And he looks at what part the doctor might play in the future of medicine, especially after the scandals of Harold Shipman, Bristol and Alder Hey. He argues that the answer lies in recovering the idea of human dignity. These essays cover urgent contemporary issues, such as the global threat of infectious disease and bioterrorism; the impact of war on health; diseases in the developing world; and controversies over vaccination, HIV and Aids, the pharmaceutical industry, genetically modified foods, euthanasia, the human genome, breast cancer, the future of surgery and today's institutions of medicine. (Richard Horton, Granta, ISBN ! 86207 587 5, £17.99)
