Education on the Internet
Number 92: 15th 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 38,810 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
Supply Teaching: The purpose of this seminar by Dave Wallbanks is to suggest that the current system of supply teaching is not working and to offer a few suggestions for solutions to the main problems facing schools today. It is entirely subjective, being drawn largely from the author's personal experience and discussions with other teachers and colleagues. If you have views on this controversial subject, register with the History Forum and join the debate.
News and Articles
European eLearning Awards: An Irish project about the coastline from Skerrydoo to Carrickfadda has won first prize in the eLearning Awards 2003. In awarding the Irish project first prize, the judges said that the "project served as a great inspiration and source of ideas that may be replicated". Second prize went to Italian project Panta Rei (Water Mission) and third prize to Iceland's Learning Science Through Play. Following the tradition of the eLearning Awards, the ceremony took place during the annual European Schoolnet EMINENT conference, held this year in Geneva. Prize money totalling 17,000 euro was presented to the winning teams at a glittering evening ceremony in the city's Grand Théâtre on 9 October 2003.
Electronic Schoolbag: New technologies enable us to develop new school activities that we were unable to organise in the past. The software, cartable électronique, is designed to support all sorts of school activities. It lets teachers create a network in which students from all over the world can collaborate in teams on subjects related to literature, culture and economics. The students learn to communicate in a foreign language (English, German, Italian, French), both in written form and orally (with video conferencing), to work with people from different cultures, to respect one another and to behave responsibly. The first electronic schoolbag project involved 54 virtual classes composed of 523 students from Brazil, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, United-States, Spain and Sweden. This is an intercultural, interdisciplinary project involving 22 teachers of English, German, Italian, French, economics, accounting, mathematics, marketing and management.
Comenius Week 2003: The Comenius week (10-14 November 2003) will enhance the positive aspects of international cooperation in education and create festive meeting opportunities for teachers and pupils. In Brussels, about 250 pupils and teachers will take part in creative activities, showcase their projects and attend experience-sharing workshops. Here is a short overview of some of the planned activities: Tour of Europe in One Hour (will give the children a chance to discover and practise three languages, other than their native language, and also to discover minority languages in Europe); Karaoke (a number of songs from French, English and German catalogues will be selected and taught to the children); EuroReporter (each child to meet and "interview" another child in English, French or German and asking them to present their "Comenius Project").
History
Earl of Clare: Richard FitzGilbert, the 1st Earl of Clare, arrived in England with William the Conqueror in 1066. As a reward for his contribution to the Norman victory, Richard was granted 179 manors in England. The next 200 years was a profitable time for the Clare family. By the 13th century, the Clare family was the second most powerful family in England. However, this all came to an end when Gilbert de Clare, the 10th Earl of Clare, was killed at Bannockburn on 24th June, 1314. Gilbert, who was only 23 years old, did not have any children and so his death brought an end to the male line of the Clare family and the family estates were divided between his three sisters. The resources on this website enable students to examine the influence that one family had on Norman England.
ICT in History Conference: A major one-day conference on the use of ICT in history will take place on October 18th in Lincoln, at the Lincoln School of Science and Technology. The conference is free to members of the Historical Association and teachers from Lincolnshire LEA, and £35 to others. Booking forms and further details are available from Alf Wilkinson at sue.alf@btopenworld.com, or by telephone 01529 460553. Speakers at the conference include Christine Counsell, Ben Walsh, Jerome Freeman, John Simkin, Tom O'Leary, Lez Smart, Neil Thompson, Dean Smart, Andrew Walker, Isobel Randall, Dan Moorhouse and Andrew Field.
Geography
From Skerrydoo to Carrickfadda: This study of Sligo's Coastline is a heritage and ICT project involving more than 300 pupils from 12 primary schools in County Sligo, Ireland. The children learned about the flora and fauna of their area, conservation and pollution issues, stories and folklore of the sea and the importance of the sea in the local economy. Pupils also learned to use ICT as a presentation and research tool. The project website is now also a resource for teachers and can be a model for schools in other coastline communities wanting to use ICT creatively in a heritage project. In awarding the Irish project first prize, the judges of the European eLearning Awards, said that the "project served as a great inspiration and source of ideas that may be replicated".
Learning Science Through Play: This website shows various science projects made by 2- 5 year old children. Daily life at the Iðavöllur Kindergarten in Iceland revolves around play, activities, work and cooperation which works towards giving the children the opportunity to learn, to discover themselves and to explore their boundaries, both on their own and also with the help of others. Teachers at this kindergarten consider education and development as integral and therefore, when they work on projects they try to bring together as many aspects of the curriculum as possible, together with the development of the person.
Design & Technology
eLearning of CAD: This Secondary Technical School in Zdar has created webpages for eLearning of CAD. These pages can be used either directly in lessons or by any users at home, they serve to students missing from school because of illness. The webpages give the detailed methodology of modelling and technical drawing. The theory is supported by a great number of figures, pictures and practical examples from the companies where the school's leavers work. The user can learn how to draw and design assemblies and parts, use animation and strength calculation, learn CAM (Computer Aided Manufacturing) processes. There is a special chapter in which users can contact teachers and discuss learning problems with them. At the moment there is only a Czech language version available, but the teachers are working on English and German versions.
Virtual Craft Place: Käspaikka (Virtual Craft Space) is a national virtual community linking learners, teachers and researchers. It’s purpose is to support the sharing of the newest knowledge of design and bring it available to all. Käspaikka, based in Finland, includes free study materials produced by crafts teachers and learners. Käspaikka represents a significant step in the process of establishing working relationships and dialogue between schools and other educational institutions. Käspaikka represents an important development in establishing project-based learning and collaborative designing between schools and teachers. All these activities will facilitate social creativity and will foster the emergence of best practices and new knowledge concerning craft education.
Modern Languages
E-Train: A strong database forms the backbone of dynamically generated English Online Exercises by which young learners of English can improve their basic grammar, listening and writing skills. Their input is instantly checked, corrected – if necessary – and a feedback is given after ten examples, encouraging the learner to go on. Repetitions of the same exercise are done with different model sentences, taken from the database by random choice. Pupils stay in their traditional classroom reality, where they meet daily and enjoy their communicative English, but they use the computer mainly at home to train their grammar and vocabulary skills.
Autonomy and English Teaching: This is an advanced course in English as a foreign language produced in Iceland. The main emphasis is on English drama and dramatists, as well as vocabulary and overall competence in English. Students are aged 17-20. An experiment has been made this year in having fewer classes a week, two hours instead of four. Emphasis is put on student autonomy - the student is responsible for his studies. This was made possible by using a web-based environment - ANGEL (a global environment for learning). Assignments, tests, essays, discussion, announcements and email go through this web-based tool. By having the course web-based students can access course material wherever they are, whenever they want - if they have a computer with Internet access.
Internet Services
Cache Problems: Your ISP's network might intercept all attempts you make to connect to the web and route your request through a transparent web proxy cache, technically known as an interception proxy. For example, NTLworld uses Inktomi Traffic Servers. Your ISP does this in order to reduce the traffic on their backbone, and to reduce the traffic they exchange with other operators' networks. If a proxy cache works well, it can also improve performance for the customer, by supplying locally cached copies of web pages and graphics much more quickly than by fetching them from the remote original web server. You can often make it fetch a new version by Pressing Ctrl-F5. Robin Walker's useful website provides a guide to cache problems.
Watch That Page: This service enables you to automatically collect new information from your favorite pages on the Internet. You select which pages to monitor, and Watch That Page will find which pages have changed, and collect all the new content for you. The new information is presented to you in an email and/or a personal web page. You can specify when the changes will be collected, so they are fresh when you want to read them.
Book Section
Imperial Japanese Naval Aviator: The fateful attack on Pear) Harbor forced the Western world to revise its opinion of Japan's airmen. Before the war, Japanese aviators had been seen as figures of ridicule and disdain; yet the ruthless skill and efficiency of their performance in December 1941 and the months that followed won them a new reputation as a breed of oriental superman. This book explores the world of the Imperial Japanese Naval airman, from the zenith of his
wartime career until the turning of the tide, when the skill and experience of the average Japanese airman declined. Cultural and social background, recruitment, training, daily life and combat experience are all covered.
(Osarnu Tagaya, Osprey, ISBN 1 84176 385 3, £10.99)
