Education on the Internet
Number 85: 27th 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 37,125 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.
Campaign for Digital Rights: This website is run by a group of citizens who are concerned about control over digital media. In particular, CDR is worried about proposed laws, regulations and technological systems that will make digital media more expensive, less useful, less diverse and less democratic. Its main target is the European Union Copyright Directive. CDR is concerned about how this legislation will impact on education. For example, it is argued that if certain big copyright owning companies have their way, libraries won't be able to lend out digital media in the future.
SALIDAA: This digital archive covers South Asian literature, art, theatre, dance and music in England and features collections of materials by individual artists and organisations. Collections include creative writings, images of art works, photographs, leaflets, programmes of events, stage and costume drawings of theatre and dance performances, press releases, CD and record covers. On this website you can browse through collections by subject area: literature, arts, theatre, dance, and music and read about the development of these art forms.
New Media Writing: What can you create that can't be done in print? Are you interested in exploring new kinds of narratives? Do you want to develop your writing in a digital format? Are you a digital artist wishing to work with text? TEXTLAB is a free 5 day residential workshop being held at Nottingham Trent University (10th-14th November). This week-long workshop is the first of its kind in the UK, offering writers and artists an opportunity to work together intensively in a supportive creative and critical environment to develop new media work.
History
History of Russia: There are sections on: Events and Issues, 1860-1914 (20); Revolutionary Philosophers (8); Russian Revolutionaries, 1860-1910 (32); Russian Political and Military Figures: 1860-1920 (34); Events and Issues in Russia, 1914-20 (12); Russian Revolutionaries: 1914-20 (28); Political Groups and Organizations (10) and Foreign Witnesses of the Revolution (16). There are also online lessons and a historical simulation on the events between July, 1914 and November, 1917.
Oregon Trail Archive: The Trail archive is our growing collection of full-text period documents. This includes Diaries (firsthand accounts of the Trail experience written during the journey); Memoirs (firsthand accounts of the Oregon Trail journey written many years after the fact) and Period Books (full-text of books written during the overland period). Most of the books included were guides designed to help future travelers.
English
Charlotte Bronte: One of the many websites produced by George Landow and his team at Brown University. The Biographical section includes a 'A Brief Biography', 'Autobiographical Elements in Jane Eyre', 'Charlotte Bronte Chronology' and on a website in Japan, an 'E-text version of Elizabeth Gaskell's 'The Life of Charlotte Bronte'. The 'Political and Social Contexts of Jane Eyre' is particularly interesting with information on 'The Governess and Class Prejudice', 'Class Attitudes in Jane Eyre', 'Age Difference in Victorian Marriages', 'The Position of Middle Class Women' and 'Is Jane Eyre a Feminist Novel?'
William Shakespeare: Created and maintained by Jeremy Hylton at the Corporation for National Research Initiatives, this website contains the electronic version of the Complete Works of Shakespeare. A powerful search-engine enables the user to search all the material for selected words or phrases. There is also a chronological and alphabetical listing of the plays, a collection of the most popular Shakespearean quotations, and a detailed glossary. Another section deals with the most frequently asked questions by users. The discussion area is very popular and often involves pleas for help with essay titles such as "Comic Female Monologues" and "Triumph and Tragedy in Shakespeare's Life". There is also a comprehensive list of other Shakespeare resources on the Internet.
Science
Nutty Birdwatcher: This website offers information on birdwatching, backyard bird feeding, comprehensive bird feeder preference chart, suet receipes, what are the natural foods of birds which includes insects, mammals, etc., spring and fall bird migration timetables, the do's & dont's of building bird nestboxes, comprehensive guides to identifying birds with checklists. Other features include information about bird habitats and their breeding and nesting habits, galleries which include paintings and pictures of birds with species accounts, facts and hard-to-find information such as bird group names, predators to birds, feeder facts, etc.
Virtual Tuck Shop is part of the Education pod of Tripod, an online community building tool developed by Lycos. Students in Mr. Neerohoo's Year 8 science classes looked at different aspects of digestion, researching, drawing and animating the process. Click the food you want to find out some facts about it. Click the body parts to see that particular bit of digestion. The website warns that "some bits are really yuk!" This is the first step in departmental student-authored websites that are a part of the Stoke Newington School website.
Sociology
NationMaster is a massive central data source and a handy way to graphically compare nations. Using the form provided you can generate maps and graphs with ease on all kinds of statistics. The graphs cover topics such as crime, currency. democracy, economy, education, energy, environment, geography, government, health, identification, labour, language, media, military, people, religion, sports and transportation. It also lets you look back in history with the popular GDP per capita statistics for the years 1820, 1900, 1950 and 1973. You can also look ahead to 2050 with these projected population growth rates.
Myth Busters: The Refugee Council is the largest organisation in the UK working with asylum seekers and refugees. It has recently launched a campaign to "demonstrate the valuable contribution that refugees make to the UK economy and society". The issue of asylum is rarely out of the British press. But can you believe everything you read? The website's Myth Buster provides the facts behind the headlines.
Art
V & A Learning: This experimental digital teachers’ pack has been designed to support teachers using the British Galleries in the Victoria and Albert Museum independently with their classes. The resource is aimed at primary and secondary school teachers and will be of particular use to teachers of History and Art and Design. It includes suggestions for activities linked to the National Curriculum together with supporting historical information, downloadable worksheets, a facility to design your own worksheet and a forum for teachers to share their ideas on how to make best use of the galleries.
Kinder Art: This website claims to have the largest collection of free art lessons on the Internet. What began in 1996 as a few helpful ideas for teachers and parents, has since grown into an enormous collection of resources featuring over 800 free lesson plans. The material is organized under the following headings: Architecture, Make an Art Book, Artists/Art History, Bulletin Boards, Crafty Ideas, Cross Curriculum Ideas (Math, Science, Geography, Language Arts), Drama, Drawing, Folk Art, Multicultural, Painting, Printmaking, Recycling (Art on a Shoestring), Seasonal Themed Ideas, Sculpture and Collage, Textiles and KinderArt Kitchen.
Internet Services
W32/Sobig.f@MM is a High Risk mass-mailing worm. It arrives as an email attachment with a.pif or.scr extension. When run, it infects the host computer, then emails itself (using its own SMTP engine) to harvested email addresses from the victim's machine. In addition, when it propagates, the worm "spoofs" the "from: field", using one of the harvested email addresses. Sobig can also open up a user's computer port, making it vulnerable to hackers, who can plant dangerous Trojans. These malicious programs often let unauthorized users remotely take over a system, steal personal information or use the infected PC to send spam. Common subject lines, attachment names and message content associated with W32/Sobig.f@MM emails include: Your details, Thank you!, Re: Thank you!, Re: Details, Re: Approved, Re: That movie, Re: Your application and Re: Wicked screensaver.
Educationalists: The Educationalists website provides a contact database of educational resources, advice, consultancy and support organisations. The site is organised into over 1600 subjects, broken down where appropriate by key stage or category so that teachers can quickly get to the relevant information and contacts. Individual contributors self manage their listing and can also supply articles and event notifications.
UK Phone Book: This week the government privatised directory inquiries. Instead of paying 48p to BT you can now go to different companies, all charging different amounts, all applying different conditions. Why bother when you can get the person's number free at the UK Phone Book website. It will also supply the full address and a map of the area.
Book Section
Japanese Warrior Monks: From the 10th to the mid-17th century, religious organisations played an important part in the social, political and military life in Japan. Known as sohei ('monk warriors') or yamabushi ('mountain warriors'), the warrior monks were anything but peaceful and meditative, and were a formidable enemy, armed with their distinctive, long-bladed naginata. The fortified cathedrals of the Ikko-ikki rivalled Samurai castles, and withstood long sieges. This book follows the daily life, training, motivation and combat experiences of the warrior monks from their first mention in AD 949 through to their suppression by the Shogunate in the years following the Sengoku-jidai period. (Stephen Turnbull, Osprey, ISBN 1 84176 573 2, £10.99)
