Education on the Internet
Number 84: 20th August, 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 36,830 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
Raising Attainment at Key Stage 4: In this seminar Dan Moorhouse discusses how to improve student performance at GCSE. He argues persuasively that "to raise attainment at any level the teacher and department has to be fully aware of the strengths and weaknesses of the student and any potential barriers to learning that they may face. At the beginning of KS4 a vast array of information is available to us as teachers and this has to be used effectively to provide us with a firm basis upon which we can build." If you have views on this subject, register with the History Forum and join the debate.
Microsoft Update: The Blaster worm exploits a critical Remote Procedure Call (RPC) DCOM flaw to infect vulnerable Windows machines. The Blaster worm will infect vulnerable Windows PCs, often causing them to repeatedly crash as soon as they are connected to a network. The worm will attempt to download malicious code and run it. The worm has no mass-mailing functionality. Estimates of the number of machines infected by Blaster vary but its generally reckoned hundreds of thousands of machines have caught the worm. Symantec, for example, reckons that 188,000 machines were infected by yesterday afternoon, with the US and UK leading the way in pox-ridden PCs. Protect yourself from this worm by visiting the Windows Update website.
Digital Video Awards: Following the success of last year's awards, Becta (the government's lead agency working to promote the use of ICT in education) has launched the Digital Video Awards 2004. The awards offer students of all ages an opportunity to showcase their creative skills in digital film making. The Awards aim to celebrate excellence in the creative use of digital video and to inspire students and teachers to exploit the full potential of this exciting technology. All students across the UK, between the ages of 5-18 are encouraged to enter their digitally edited films in the awards. All entries should be creative, imaginative and linked to the curriculum. The Digital Video Awards 2004 are open for entries until 31st October 2003.
Star Learning: This Australian website designed for Early Childhood, English as a Second Language and Students at Education Risk. It comprises 4 sections - Skills, Themes, Activities and Resources designed to assist learning. Skills (PowerPoint presentations for each skill); Language Skills (Alphabet, Consonant Blends, Dolch Lists, Digraphs, E-Readers, Final Consonant Blends, Vowel Blends), Maths Skills (Counting, Counting by, Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, Division, Time); Themes (Facts, Games, Web Cam, Clip Art) and Activities.
History
American Civil War Encyclopedia: A comprehensive encyclopedia of the American Civil War. Each entry contains a narrative, illustrations and primary sources. The text within each entry is hypertexted to other relevant pages in the encyclopedia. In this way it is possible to research individual people and events in great detail. The sources are also hypertexted so the student is able to find out about the writer, artist, newspaper, organization, etc., that produced the material. So far there are sections on:Civil War Chronology, Famous Battles, Political Figures, Military Leaders. Organizations, Events and Issues, Soldiers, Women & the Civil War, Writers, Artists and Photographers:, Assassination of Abraham Lincoln.
Pit Ponies: Horses and Pit Ponies have been associated with coal mining ever since coal was first extracted from the earth in commercially viable quantities. When pits were nothing literally nothing more than pits or holes in the ground, horses were used for transporting the coal away from them. As the pits sank deeper, horses were used to power the ‘gins’ and windlasses that were used to raise the coal to the surface. As the demand for coal grew and its importance to industry and the National Economy increased, so mining knowledge and technology advanced and the working coal faces moved further and further out from the pit shafts. Then horses, so much stronger than humans, were taken down the mines to provide the power for haulage that until then had been supplied by men, women and children. This website provides a detailed history of pit ponies working in the Rhondda Valley.
Science
Guglielmo Marconi: For the first time Marconi have opened their Archive to the public through the world wide web. MarconiCalling is a fascinating exploration of Guglielmo Marconi's life, his scientific discoveries, the impact of wireless and the development of modern communications. You will need Flash v.4 (or above) to view the site. The HTML, non-Flash version provides quick access to the online archive only.
Nine Planets: This website is designed by Bill Arnett, a software engineer from San Jose, California. Bill Arnett is one of the pioneering figures of the Internet and is developing standards that hopefully others will try to maintain. Bill Arnett is to the Internet what D.W. Griffith was to the movies. The Nine Planets provides an overview of the history, mythology and current scientific knowledge of each of the planets and moons in our solar system. Each page has text and images and some have sound and video. Contents include 'Express Tour', 'Overview of the Solar System', 'Other Solar System', 'Spacecraft', 'Discovery Chronology', 'The Origin of the Solar System', 'Planetary Linguistics' and 'Astronomical Names'. The photographs of the planets and moons are spectacular. There is also an excellent glossary and links with other relevant websites.
Media Studies
Hurtwood House Media Studies Department. This website is aimed at 16-18 year olds studying Media Studies at A-level and is for students and teachers. It offers resources, worksheets, PowerPoint presentations and examples of our practical productions (video, print, websites and radio). The website has been created by Charles McKenzie of Hurtwood House in Surrey.
John Garfield: In 1952, the Hollywood actor, John Garfield, was blacklisted for refusing to providing the names to the House Un-American Activities Committee of friends who had been members of left-wing organizations in the 1930s. John Garfield died of a heart attack on 21st May, 1952. Only thirty-nine years old, his family and friends claimed that the stress brought on by McCarthyism was a major factor in his early death. This excellent website plays tribute to this fine actor.
Geography
The Met Office: The Met Office provides the latest information on the world's weather. It now also has a Curriculum Learning Centre that includes worksheets and classroom activities, leaflets to download and a "Did you know?" section. There is also a Teacher Training Centre that claims to help "to teach the curriculum effectively - in areas like the atmosphere, fronts and clouds". It also includes a bibliography and suggested essay questions.
CIA World Factbook: The US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has been collecting and evaluating information on foreign countries since 1947. Now the CIA has agreed to make this information available to the world. Just choose a country from a menu of 262 countries and the CIA will give you several pages (United Kingdom has eleven) of detailed information. At the beginning you are supplied with a map and flag. The rest of the information is listed under: 'Geography'; 'People'; 'Government'; 'Economy'; 'Transportation'; 'Communications' and 'Defence'. The section on Geography includes location, co-ordinates, area, land boundaries, coastline, climate, terrain, natural resources, land use, irrigated land and environment. Constantly updated this is one of the most important educational sites on the Internet.
Modern Languages
Wild French: This website, produced by Julian Atkinson, is intended to assist both teachers and learners of French by making available a range of online resources that complement many of the popular published courses and GCSE examinations. Its online exercises are linked to several different textbooks produced by Heinemann, Hodder & Stoughton and Oxford University Press. For GCSE there are online reading papers for Edexcel and links to sites offering reading/listening papers for other boards.
Open Directory in French: The Open Directory follows in the footsteps of some of the most important contributor projects of the 20th century. Just as the Oxford English Dictionary became the definitive word on words through the efforts of a volunteers, the Open Directory follows in its footsteps to become the definitive catalog of the Web. This new part of its website gives you access to the Open Directory's French-related listings through a French-language interface.
Internet Services
Spyware Guide: This website was created to provide an all inclusive and updated resource on spy ware applications, what they do and how they’re used. These resources include: which software applications can detect and defeat spyware, an extensive database of all known spy software and adware applications and contact information as well as other privacy related products. As the spy versus spy battle rages on we have decided not to take sides, but to merely document the battlefield.
Crimes of Persuasion: In-depth fraud coverage of computer crimes such as pyramid schemes make this crime library of internet crimes the cyber crime location for the schemes and scams that con artists perpetrate. White collar crimes such as prime bank fraud, pyramid scams, Internet fraud, phone scams, chain letters, modeling agency and Nigerian scams, computer fraud as well as telemarketing fraud are fully explained. This crime report on organized crime topics include credit card fraud, check kiting, tax fraud, money laundering, mail fraud, counterfeit money orders, check fraud and other who's who true crimes of persuasion.
Book Section
Genghis Khan: The history of the Mongol conquests is a catalogue of superlatives. No army in the world has ever conquered so much territory, and few armies have provoked such terror as the Mongol hordes. So vast was the extent of the Mongol Empire that the samurai of Japan and the Teutonic Knights of Prussia had each fought the same enemy while being unaware of each other's existence. This book provides a concise yet thorough account of the Mongol conquests, including the rise of Genghis Khan and the unification of the tribes with up to date information on campaign logistics, tactics and horse breeding. (Stephen Turnbull, Osprey, ISBN 1 84176 523 6, £9.99)
