Education on the Internet
Number 90: 1st October, 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 38,735 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
Educational Visits: In this seminar Dan Moorhouse argues that running educational visits are a vital part of a History curriculum. This seminar looks at the reasons for taking students out of school and offers advice on ways of ensuring that every visit is effective, enjoyable and safe. If you are interested in running educational visits or have any thoughts on the way that they can be organised, visit the History Teachers' Discussion Forum and post your comments. If you have views on this subject, register with the History Forum and join the debate.
News and Articles
Nielsen/NetRatings: According to Nielsen/NetRatings, the UK has the highest number of children online of any European nation, with some 4.5 million youngsters accessing the Net, compared to over three million in Germany and 1.5 million in France. In all, there are more than 13 million young people in Europe online, four million of them under the age of 12. According to Tom Ewing of Nielsen/NetRatings: "As the Internet matures, the demographic profile of users moves closer to the European population as a whole and what we're seeing now is families using the Internet more. It's likely that this is linked with the growth of broadband access – perhaps when they're not paying for access by the minute, parents are likely to let children use and explore the Web more."
Comic Relief: Red Nose Day 2003 was the most successful ever, raising an incredible £60 million! Since 1985 Schools across the UK have helped Comic Relief raise over £310 million. From the Comic Relief website you can obtain some free online teaching resources and ideas that have been written by teachers for teachers. You can also download Powerpoint presentations and access online stories. There is also the a teaching pack that provides ideas for PSHE/PSE, RE, Geography and English.
Save the Children Education Unit: Save the Children was founded in 1919, as a response to conditions in Europe immediately following the First World War. Save the Children works to ensure that all children get access to good quality education by tackling poverty, helping communities run schools, training teachers, developing education policies and curricula, supporting flexible learning schemes, developing educational opportunities for very young children, and providing education for children caught up in emergencies. The Save the Children's Education Unit works across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to promote global child rights education and offers a range of free and priced materials and services to teachers and youth workers.
English
Art of Letter Writing: There was a time, not so long ago, when letter writing was taught in schools and when it was still considered one of the major subjects one needed to learn in order to progress through life on both a social and a business level. Nowadays the business letter holds sway above all forms of letter writing, but the art of composition has given way to a sudden influx of form letters, and to a series of well-meaning, if limiting, publications on how to write a business letter. The aim of this website is to give readers a few ideas on how they might begin writing personal letters, either to penfriends or to their own families. It also provides some great examples from writers such as Virginia Woolf, John Greenleaf Whittier, Lord Byron and Fanny Kemble.
To Kill a Mockingbird: This website on Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird was developed by Linda Taggart-Fregoso in the Schools of California Online Resources for Educators (SCORE) Project, funded by the California Technology Assistance Program (CTAP). The novel depicts the themes of misunderstanding and prejudice and this unit presents an opportunity for students to explore these concepts. This unit asks students to consider the following questions: Why do good writers use symbolism in their writing? Why is point of view an important technique to consider when writing? Why is it difficult to persuade others to be just and courageous? How do you support interpretations? What makes a good piece of persuasive writing?
Science
Ashfield Science: This site has been produced by Daniel Powell a Physics Teacher in Nottinghamshire. The site is almost entirely made up of flash animations relating to the teaching of Science for pupils aged 11-18 and over. The author is a practicing teacher and the site is constantly been added to for the use of his pupils. The animations are arranged in topic areas and are designed to be suitable for use in the classroom or at home on PC or multimedia projector. They span various topics such as electricity, radioactivity, waves, forces, rocks, bonding and earth sciences. As an example the Radioactivity section takes year 11 pupils through an interactive tour of the atom including simple radioactive decay types such as beta, gamma, and alpha. Each section shows an animation with help and annotation. This is followed by an overview, historical link to a great physicist, and a series of short questions and answers.
Ask Dr. Universe: A wonderful site produced for children by Washington State University. Visitors can ask scientific questions and the university's team of researchers will find you the answer. The site also contains a database of previously answered questions. The keyword from the question is listed in alphabetical order. Question range from: What is a black hole? to "Why are my eyes blue?" Answers are usually two pages long and include a photograph of the person answering the question. Although answered by academics, the answers are written in a style that most children will understand. It is also possible to send follow up questions directly to the person who provided the first answer. A well-designed website that fully deserves the many awards that it has won.
Politics
Britain-USA: This site is maintained by British Information Services (BIS), the New York based Press and Public Affairs Office of the British Embassy in Washington DC, an overseas post of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, London. BritainUSA aims to answer the questions most frequently asked in the United States about Britain and provide up-to-date government comment on current events. The website provides video/audio recordings of recent Prime Minister's Questions in the House of Commons. There is also an online daily review of British Newspapers.
Children’s Rights Alliance for England: CRAE is an alliance of over 180 organisations committed to children’s human rights. It exists to improve the lives and status of all children in England through the fullest implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. CRAE monitors developments in children's rights; advocates for laws and policy to be fully compatible with the Convention on the Rights of the Child; and disseminates information to professionals and the public (including children and young people). Its website provides news relating to the rights of children.
Business Studies
Business Studies Online: This website has been created by the Codsall Community High School Business Studies and Economics department. Although still being developed in contains interactive activities for a range of Business-related courses, particularly GCSE Business Studies. Many of these are suitable for use on an interactive whiteboard. Although some content is accessible only to Codsall's students (ie the online tests), many activities can be used by anyone.
Tutor2u is a portal site for students of Economics, Business Studies and Politics. The objective of Geoff Riley is to build a comprehensive, user friendly study portal, and to contribute to the study and examination success of all our users. At the heart of Tutor2u lies the Discussion Forums. A widening range of bulletin-board style discussion groups that provide users with a unique opportunity to interact with each other. In just 16 months, the Discussion Forums have attracted over 2,000 registered users and some 19,000 posts. Tutor2u also includes a range of study materials. The comprehensive collection of revision notes covers the key areas of economics and politics. Tutor2u maintains one of the Web's most comprehensive collections of reviewed study links, carefully categorised and described to help users find the data and support they need.
Physical Education
Teach PE is a learning tool, designed to support students and teachers. There are many sections, including separate GCSE and A Level Zones. GCSE zone includes Interactive quizzes containing pictures and readings to illustrate. The quizzes come in many formats including crosswords, multiple-choice, gap-fill and word matching exercises. They are automatically marked online giving a percentage score as you progress through each quiz. Many give subject specific feedback as well as taking into account incorrect “guesses” in the final score. Other sections of the site include worksheets, analysis questions, example essays, links, funny photos, directories of clubs and governing bodies, rules of sport, online sports injury clinic, fitness testing, information on leadership, etc.
Physical Education: Schemes of Work: The Standards Site is managed by the Department for Education and Employment's Standards and Effectiveness Unit (SEU). The main objective of the site is to supply teachers with "guidance and tools to help schools improve effectiveness, raise standards and reduce workload". This includes a large selection of schemes of work for Physical Education.
Internet Services
Microsoft Update: The MS blaster worm infected many Microsoft Windows XP, 2000 and NT users when they connected to the internet in August. Their system were vulnerable because of a flaw in the Remote Procedure Call (RPC) utility. Microsoft published a patch to rectify this problem. However, Microsoft has now found more holes in the RPC code and a new patch has just been made available at its update website.
Froogle is Google's product search service and offers a great way to find information about things for sale online - especially now that it includes a way to sort your search results by price. Other enhancements to Froogle include the new "grid view" option, which enables you to view 20 product thumbnail images on each results page. Froogle is still in the development (beta) stage, so please send us your thoughts on how we can make getting information about products faster and easier.
Book Section
Teaching Humanities in Primary Schools: This concise introduction to teaching humanities subjects in primary schools supports trainee and newly-qualified teachers in their teaching of the core humanities subjects: geography, history and religious education. Written around the professional Standards for QTS, it includes practical guidance on topics such as the National Curriculum, planning, teaching and learning strategies, assessment, differentiation and teaching using ICT The authors all work as Senior Lecturers at the Institute of Education, Manchester Metropolitan University teaching on initial teacher education and training courses. (Learning Matters, ISBN 1 903300 36 3, £15.00)
