Education on the Internet
Number 86: 3rd September, 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 37,555 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
Learning Styles: All teachers are aware of the fact that students learn in a variety of different ways, and that even the same information given to a class by the teacher is received by the students in a number of different ways. Therefore all teachers need to ensure that they develop their lessons to tap into the varied learning styles of their students. This seminar sets out a number of approaches for doing this and explains how to ensure that the lessons you prepare are fit for the students in your school. Many different methods of ensuring success in planning are suggested such as interviews with pupils to find out what teaching and learning styles work for them, departmental discussions with colleagues as the planning process continues to share ideas. The seminar is aimed at those at the start of their teaching careers looking for a way to tackle this crucial and complex challenge, as well as at more experienced teachers looking for ideas or inspiration on how to plan to meet the needs of the full range of their students by using a diversity of teaching and learning styles. If you have views on this subject, register with the History Forum and join the debate.
ICT Advice for Teachers: Need specialist advice? The Ask an Expert service provides teachers with the opportunity to put questions direct to a panel of experts. Each month the website looks at two new themes, one focusing on ICT in the curriculum and the other being a more general topic relating to ICT in education. In September the general theme concerns ICT and the transfer of pupils between primary and secondary. The second topic looks at how ICT can improve learning in history?
Comenius: The new call for proposals for 2004 has been published. This is an annual document published by the European Commission which draws attention to any programme changes and outlines the new priorities for the 2004 application year. Some of these priorities are horizontal, which means that they apply to all areas of Socrates, while others are action-specific. The new horizontal priorities are the following; Preparation for the enlargement of the Union; Sustainable Development; Stability and security and the future challenges to education and training systems and lifelong learning.
Becta is the Government's lead agency for ICT in education. Working to support the development of ICT in education throughout the UK, Becta's unique contribution is to combine knowledge of the needs of education with an understanding of the power of technology. Findings from Becta's research activities and reports published on behalf of the DfES are targeted at all those interested in educational research. This site also provides a gateway to organisations, publications, websites and databases in the field of ICT in education.
History
Comparisons: Britain has been a multi-cultural country for many centuries. In recent years historians have begun to build up knowledge of how particular ethnic minorities have been treated in the past. What has not received any attention, however, is how these minorities have treated and viewed one another. As the diversity of modern Britain develops further, this will become an increasingly important issue. The authors of this exhibition have researched this hidden history of inter-ethnic relations and revealed fascinating stories of cooperation, mutual learning as well as tension, prejudice and competition.
Tudor Encyclopedia: A collection of articles on the Tudor period. As well as 62 biographies there are articles on the Battle of Bosworth, Act of Union, Agriculture and Enclosures, Anglicans and Puritans, The Babington Plot, Catholics and Protestants, Elizabethan Theatre, Elizabeth and Marriage, Henry VIII and the Pope, Kett Rebellion, Poverty in Tudor England, The Protestant Reformation, Pilgrimage of Grace, The Ridolfi Plot, The Spanish Armada, Sports and Pastimes, The Throckmorton Plot, Tobacco in Tudor England, Tudor Artists, Tudor Heretics, Tudor Monasteries, Tudor Parliaments, Tudor Wales and the Tyndale Bible.
English
Informed Librarian Online is a monthly compilation of the most recent tables of contents from over 275 titles - valuable domestic and foreign library and information-related journals, e-journals, magazines, e-magazines, newsletters and e-newsletters. This current awareness service helps keep you informed and abreast of all library trends. It is an easy, timesaving way to tame your professional reading tiger, and is very popular among all types of library and information professionals.
Poetry Class: The Poetry Class website reflects the ethos of taking the fear out of poetry. What this site offers is plain language, printable poetry workshops for immediate use in classrooms, a glossary of terms, interviews with poets, recommended books, and key stage requirements tagged to particular poetry workshops on our site. Poetry Class vet each external poetry site listed in our resources section to ensure that it matches its standards for clear language, contains useful information about (or examples of) poetry and poetic forms, and is easily navigable for all users.
Mathematics
Mathematics Newsletter: In conjunction with the subject associations, Becta are now able to offer a wide range of curriculum focussed newsletters. Each newsletter will contain news, reviews and suggestions of ways in which you can integrate ICT into your curriculum area. There will be updates on training events and conferences that you can take part in around the country and online. The newsletters can be downloaded below or you can choose to subscribe to receive the publications direct to your email account.
Google Calculator: To use Google's built-in calculator function, simply enter the expression you'd like evaluated in the search box and hit the Enter key or click the Google Search button. The calculator can evaluate mathematical expressions involving basic arithmetic, more complicated mathematics, units of measure and conversions and physical constants. You can also experiment with other numbering systems, including hexadecimal and binary.
Music
The Music Finder: The search engine has a database of over 13,000 bands and artists. Enter the names of several bands or music artists that you like. Based on your preferences, the search engine finds new bands or music artists that are likely to fit your taste. You can then refine the results by eliminating bands that you already know. You can also search albums by a particular band or artist.
Music Resources: Rob Jones has created an impressive website for British music teachers. This includes Class Projects, a collection of ideas for teachers that covers subjects as varied as renaissance pavanes, Japanese songs, Arabic music and Elvis Presley. Other features include Equipment & Instrument Reviews (written by teachers and based on classroom experience), Ask a Expert (list of music experts willing to answer questions on-line), Songs (MIDI file accompaniments) and Loops (MIDI loops for improvisation).
Religious Studies
World Religions: This website is for Secondary school pupils and teachers. It covers the main six world religions, Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Sikhism and Judaism. There are introductions on each religion, plus additional sections for pupils who wish to go into greater depth on any of the religions. There are links for each religion to external sites of interest. For teachers there are teacher resources and interactive lessons for Y8 (Creation, The Hajj, World Festivals) and Y9 (The Resurrection). The resources can be used in school or you can use them as part of their homework tasks. The site also covers the Edexcel GCSE Short course and aspects of the Philosophy & Ethics A level.
Fundamentals of Buddhism: The Fundamentals of Buddhism has been produced by BuddhaNet, an organisation based in Sydney, Australia. The creators explain that this website is the "result of a vision to link up with the growing world-wide culture of people committed to the Buddha's teachings and lifestyle, as an on-line cyber sangha". It provides information on twelve areas of Buddhist teaching and covers the life of Buddha, the Four Noble Truths, the Noble Eightfold Path, Karma, rebirth, dependent origination, the three universal characteristics and the five aggregates.
Internet Services
Eureka Toolbar: This new toolbar allows you to search throughout 40 different search engines at once. General tools include Web Catalog, Latest News, Spam Remover, Links Manager, Applications Manager, Language Translator, Dictionary, Clipboard History, Agenda with World Clock, Currency Converter, Quotes, SMS, Password Keeper, Password Revealer, Weather Forecast, Memory Defragmenter, Backup Utility, Popup Killer, Fill Form, Horoscope, Love Calculator, Dating Calculator and Games.
BrainBoost is a question answering search engine. It was specifically designed to answer questions, asked in plain English. BrainBoost queries multiple search engines to retrieve potentially relevant documents related to the question. It then downloads each document and analyzes its sentence structure, looking for the very best sentence(s) that answer the original question. BrainBoost outputs actual sentences extracted from web pages. The BrainBoost engine determines that these sentences are potential answers to the original question.
Book Section
Comrades and Cousins: In this ambitious, challenging and innovative study, Neville Kirk focuses on organized labour's attitudes and practices towards class, race and politics in Britain, Australia and the USA during an earlier period of globalization and imperialism, from the 1880s to 1914. Based upon a range of largely unexplored primary sources drawn from the author's extensive research in all three countries, it breaks new ground in terms of subject matter, geographical focus, questions posed and answers given. (Neville Kirk, Merlin Press, ISBN 0 85036 515 5, £14.95)
