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 15,028
subscribers to the newsletter.
Council
of Europe: All over Europe countries are debating what should
be taught in their schools. This is a particular problem in those
countries which were part of the former Soviet Bloc. Education ministers
from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, the Russian Federation and Chechnya
met recently in a bid to reach agreement on a joint history book.
There is also a debate going on in Sweden and Italy about the topics
that should be covered in history lessons. The Council of Europe,
an organization that represents 41 member states, has recently produced
a document that claims that teachers have a duty to warn students
that history books can "lie, conceal and manipulate." The
council's handbook also warns that the Internet can increase the risk
of falsification, obscuring the origin and authenticity of source
material.
Becta:
In 1999 the Department for Education and Skills commissioned teams
from three universities to conduct a three-year programme as part
of the evaluation of the National Grid for Learning. Sixty schools
and 2,179 students participated in the study. The interim report has
just been published and highlights a range of problems about the introduction
of ICT in schools. Researchers found that "very few teachers
are integrating ICT into subject teaching in a way that motivates
pupils and enriches learning or stimulates higher-level thinking and
reasoning." Students complained about the lack of opportunity
to use computers at school. The report reveals that students spend
up to four times as long using computers at home than they do at school.
Gifted
Children: A Senate Committee in Australia has just published a
report into gifted children in the classroom. It is available from
the Australian government's website and includes sections such as:
defining the problem; characteristics of gifted children, identifying
gifted children, differentiating the curriculum, accelerated learning,
enrichment and extension, difficulties of curriculum support, ability
grouping and the the role of universities in gifted education.
Primary
Clickteaching:
Free downloads of worksheets, lesson plans, activity ideas and teaching
resources for primary schools, teachers and parents.
Sciencezone:
Contains interactive information pages designed to complement the
national curriculum. Each page also contains an online quiz or other
activity to aid assessment. Primarily aimed at year 5, though new
materials are being developed.
Literacy
Lessons: Free Literacy Strategy planning and resources for Years
4 - 7. Plans devised to use reading as a model for writing with SATs
practise built into Year 6 planning.
Online
Ideas: A free site where primary teachers and trainee teachers
can find teaching resources and links to recommended web sites for
every curriculum subject.
Educational
Web Adventures
is an award-winning Web developer that creates immersive, interactive,
and in-depth adventures about art, science and history. Eduweb specializes
in educational games, simulations and learning modules and brings
broad experience in museum and education to the Web medium to produce
exciting and innovative educational experiences. The web adventures
cover art, science, and history.
English
Andrew
Moore's English Resources: English language and literature teaching
resources targeted at exam syllabuses and the secondary curriculum.
Online tutorials and documents to download.
English
Teaching in the UK: Links for English teachers, also of value
to students especially those on NEAB GCSE courses and AQA English
A Levels. Also includes some teaching resources.
Poetry
Society: The Poetry Society exists to help poets and poetry thrive
in Britain today. Established in 1909 and now one of Britain's most
dynamic arts organizations, the Poetry Society is a membership organization
open to all. Leading the way for online poetry news and innovative
services, is at the heart of all Poetry Society activities. It features
poets and poetry in the news, extensive education resources, current
activities by the Poetry Society and Poetry Cafe, excerpts from the
latest Poetry Review, Poetry Places archive, a members' arena to meet
other poetry enthusiasts, information on the National Poetry Competition,
Young Poets of the Year Award, and National Poetry Day and an extensive
links section including a rotating 'Lively Links' featuring work or
publishing opportunities for poets. We continually update and expand
our site, so it's always worth logging on to see what's new.
Design
& Technology
Bristol
Engineering Dept: Introducing and Demonstrating Earthquake Engineering
Research in Schools: Bristol University site for learning all about
earthquakes, how they affect buildings, and what engineers can do
to protect buildings.
Food
Forum: A professional development web site providing free guidance,
advice and materials to support the teaching of food, consumer and
citizenship education. Maintained by Ali Farrell, an ex teacher and
advisory teacher.
Health
and Safety: This
new addition to Design and Technology Department was developed to
help GCSE students study for their Resistant Materials examination
paper. It offers a revision guide on Health and Safety including Finishes,
Ergonomics and Anthropometrics, Scale of Production, One-off production,
Batch production, Mass-production, Flow or continuous production,
Injection moulding, Vacuum forming, Jigs, Moulds, Thermoplastic, Thermosetting
plastics, Hardwoods, Softwoods and Performance Specification.
Science
Gondar
Science: Site designed and written by a teacher; optimised for
Internet Explorer with Java enabled. Revision aids were created with
Java and Flash version 5.
Spinneret:
GCSE teaching/revision material (85 topics) with interactive graphics
and text effects, educational animations, and some pupils' howlers
for light relief!
EuroTurtle:
Dedicated to Environmental Education and the Conservation of Mediterranean
sea turtles. Contains on-line curriculum linked resources. Authored
by a teacher and Exeter University.
Science
and IST: Online lessons, links, problem solving activities primarily
designed for students at the International School of Toulouse, but
contains material that could be used by any student or teacher.
Geography
Standard
Grade Geography: Interactive revision for the Scottish exam, Standard
Grade Geography. Sections of it should also be useful for GCSE students.
Pupil
Vision: This quality site for pupils and teachers of geography,
provides links, virtual fieldwork, lesson plans, original GCSE/AS/A2
articles, revision guides and much more in an easy to navigate fashion.
Business
Studies
Economics
Tutor: Economics, Politics and Business Studies web portal site
with revision resources, forums and links databases for students and
teachers.
Trinity
Department of Economics and Business Studies: The site aims to
help all teachers and students of economics and business studies.
It contains revision notes, on-line tests, links and a great deal
more.
Modern
Languages
Wildernesse
School French Site: Online exercises that match closely to Avantage.
For GCSE there are online reading papers for Edexcel and links to
sites offering reading/listening papers for other boards.
French
Revision: Test your knowledge in all skills using these interactive
activities with audio files. There are hundreds of exercises to help
you revise and do well in your exams from Year 7 upwards.
Modern
Languages Portal: Directory of French, German, Russian and Spanish
resources; registered users may submit their own links. Site also
contains languages forums, online languages bookshop and GCSE revision
notes.
Do you
want to have your website listed in our web directory? If so, send
a brief description (about 150 words) and the URL to spartacus@pavilion.co.uk.
