Education on the Internet
Number 76: 25th 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 36,050 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
Online Seminars
Teaching History in a Laptop Classroom: How will the fact that every student has a laptop computer change the way you teach and how your students learn? In this seminar, Richard Jones-Nerzic shares some of his experiences of teaching history in a laptop classroom over the last four years and encourages speculation from all members of the History Teachers' forum about what they would do if presented with the same opportunity. If you have views on this subject, register with the History Forum and join the debate.
Classroom Online: Virtual Learning Environments (VLE’s), apart from being the newest educational buzz-phrase, are increasingly being adopted by schools and colleges as part of their teaching and learning strategy. While there are (expensive) commercial VLE’s available, it’s worth checking out Classroom Online (or “Clara” to give it its affectionate name) to see if it meets your institutional needs. It’s Open Source software and so is, effectively, free to use. It’s also powerful in terms of what it offers (password access, message boards, external linking, document upload and presentation, video display and exercise creation for example) and extremely easy to understand and use from the viewpoint of teachers and students. It requires some IT knowledge to set-up and maintain, but probably nothing that’s beyond the ability of the majority of IT teachers.
Kids on the Net Competition: The aims of Kids on the Net include: (1) To give children an international voice on the internet in a safe and supportive environment; (2) To encourage the use of the Internet to develop young people's writing and reading; (3) To encourage young people to read and be aware of new media writing and art; (4) To help young people to create writing specifically for new media including the web; (5) To provide resources to the education community to support the use of the Internet in teaching literacy, reading and writing. You can win a Alphasmart 3000 by entering the websites latest competition.
Certificate in Online Education and Training: Developed by the Institute of Education, this long established course has now been restructured as two choices: either the 10 week international online option from 30 January 2004, or the 4 week online course plus 5 separate days in London from 26 April 2004..All the tutors have many years of experience as online tutors and trainers. The Certificate takes a critical approach to both old and new technologies for on-campus as well as for distance students. It provides opportunities to investigate in depth the nature of new media and online discussions to assess their role in the creation of virtual classrooms. Crucially, it offers the experience of being an online student and thus a starting point from which to observe the advantages and problems of course design by new media, in collaboration with a wide range of informed peers.
History
History Mad: This website contains home-produced content (quizzes, worksheets, etc.), competitions, and an extensive selection of links. What is special about the links pages is that they are more specific than other sites and include star-rating reviews written in pupil-friendly language. The site is easily navigable and lends itself well to project work since project support pages are also included. For example, pupils studying Victorian Life or British History 1950-2000 will find carefully selected links to follow and support pages with suggested questions to answer, ways of structuring their project work and other tips.
Islamic Medicine Website: Roz Stirzaker teaches history at the Latifa School in the United Arab Emirates. With the help of the Ajman Museum Roz Stirzaker and her students have created a website that looks at the impact of religion on medicine during the Middle Ages. There are sections on Impact of Islam on Medicine, Impact of Arabia on Medicine, Ibn Razi, Albicasis, Ibn Sina, Arabic doctors and Private & Public Health. One of the most interesting features is the comparison between medicine in the Islamic empire and in Europe during the same period.
Science
British National Space Centre: The British National Space Centre (BNSC) is a voluntary partnership, formed from 10 Government Departments and Research Councils, to coordinate UK civil space activity. The BNSC Learning Zone contains lots of information about space and space exploration. Younger students are hosted by cartoon-character Cosmo who provides a planet-by-planet guide. Advanced Explorers (14-18-year-olds) get detailed information on the Solar System, space exploration and the planet Earth.
Planet Energy: Renewable energy comes from continuously available sources which do not rely on exhaustible fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas. The main sources of renewable energy in the UK are wind (both on and offshore), the sun (solar photovoltaics), water (conventional hydro, and the developing technologies of tidal stream and wave) and biomass (including energy crops). This website, produced by the DTI provides case-studies for classroom use and links to investigate topics in more detail. It provides renewable energy information for teachers (Information Zone) and students (Energy Trail). The site also contains a guide to funding sources for renewable energy in schools.
Geography
Milking It: This Cool Planet Oxfam website focuses on world trade and globalisation. It deals with issues such as international trade and unfair trade, and how these can affect the lives of dairy farmers in very different countries. This includes the case-studies of two farmers from Jamaica and Wales. The website also includes differentiated activities and interactive quizzes.
Slamnet: A collection of geography Powerpoint presentations for primary school students produced by teachers in Suffolk schools. Titles include: Homes across the World (Jackie Derbyshire, Sally Rose, Martine Sills), What do we know about where we live? (Amy Gray), "Handa's Surprise", "A Walk Around the Farm (Becky Flint and Jo Smith), Geography Through the Window (Sarah-Jane Sharman) and How has the seaside changed? (Aileen Bale).
Art and Design
Arts Alive: This website is the outcome of a QCA curriculum development project set up to identify ways in which the contribution of the arts to pupils' education can be maximised. It is designed for use by headteachers, arts subject leaders, school governing bodies and arts practitioners. The site invites schools to contribute their own work so that other schools can benefit. Schools interested in sharing their work should complete the case study template and send it to QCA with examples of their pupils' work.
Psychology
Psychade is developed from teaching materials used in the classroom over several years. The site offers notes, resources, links and advice for A-level Psychology (AQA specification A) as well as compact revision notes and other useful material."Psychade" is produced by Adrian Frost, an experienced teacher and examiner, with an emphasis upon providing compact sets of revision notes for the whole of the AS specification, as well as for selected sections of the A2 specification.
Internet Services
Proxomitron: Do you dislike pop-up ads when you are surfing the web? This website allows you to download Proxomitron, a free piece of software that allows you to block pop-up ads, Macromedia Flash ads, banner ads, sound files, on websites.
Doxdesk: A large number of PCs now have unknown programs that have either been installed from a website or included with file-sharing software. Andrew Clover's Doxdesk website provides information on how to block or remove programs that have been installed without your consent.
Book Section
World War II German Women's Auxiliary Services: Under the Nazi regime, Hitler's conservative views on the place of housewives and mothers in society limited German women to a much less active role in the war than their British and Allied counterparts. Nevertheless, the demands of a prolonged war did see German women in a range of uniforms as auxiliaries with the Army, Navy, Air Force and SS, particularly in the signals and air defence services. This unique book explains and illustrates these organisations and their uniforms and insignia, as well as Red Cross nurses, and auxiliaries of the Labour Corps, Customs Service, National Socialist Women's Organisation, and League of German Maidens. (Gordon Williamson, Osprey, ISBN 1 84176 407 8, £8.99)
