Education on the Internet
Number 8: 21st November, 2001
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 15,028 subscribers to the newsletter.
John Simkin
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.
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.
