From alchemy to chemistry: five hundred years of rare and interesting books The Web Site "From alchemy to chemistry: five hundred years of rare and interesting books" is a project directed by the Chemistry Library of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. It is a fascinating and well-constructed site which is easy to navigate and will prove to be an excellent teaching aid. Thirty-six books have been scanned onto the site from Hieronymus Brunschwig's "Liber de arte distillandi: Das buch der rechten kunst zu distillieren" of 1500 to Linus Pauling and Roger Hayward's "The Architecture of Molecules" from 1964. There are works in French, English, Latin, From New Humbul Resources on June 25, 2005 at 10:30 p.m..
Archivio Franca Rame Dario Fo The Archivio Franca Rame Dario Fo is an online archive of millions of documents relating to the life and works of the Italian playwrights and actors Dario Fo (1997 Nobel Laureate in Literature) and Franca Rame. Fo and his wife Franca Rame are well known for their satirical works and left-wing criticism of modern society. The site makes available original handwritten and typed manuscripts, showing the authors' notes and corrections, as well as sketches and drawings relating to their theatrical and television productions. Also included are: interviews; speeches; personal and official corres From New Humbul Resources on June 25, 2005 at 10:30 p.m..
New Chalkface website To celebrate Summer, Chalkface has a new skin on the website. Thanks to my international team:
Will your job get moved to India? James Miller doen't think in half measures. He proposes to move teaching jobs to India, having Indian teachers interacting with students in the West by by video connection (via Stephen). First question: how do you feel about this? Incredulous? Threatened? Or inspired by the socialist vision of global redistribution of wealth? Personally, I'm i From Chalkface: Blog on June 25, 2005 at 3:31 p.m..
More thoughts following the BECTA report The full BECTA report into open source software has been out for a few days now, long enough to digest. As I (and others) predicted, its tone is pro-open source, but by no means evangelical. What I failed to predict was that the report would come out more in favour of open-source operating systems than open-source desktop software. I'm impressed. When you build a house, start with the foundations. The BECTA report carries a strong bias for network servers first, client OSs second and desktop so From Chalkface: Blog on June 25, 2005 at 3:31 p.m..
Labour's promise: access to computers at home for every pupil Catherine's done her homework on the Labour Party manifesto, and come up with this exciting promise that I don't think has had much coverage until now: We will deliver our cross-government strategy for closing the digital divide and using ICT to further transform public services... By 2006 every school [will be] supported to offer all pupils access to computers at home. I've been saying for some time that we already have a pu From Chalkface: Blog on June 25, 2005 at 3:31 p.m..
Deaf and Blind (written May 11) I've been without internet access since I got back from Kharkov. I'd fondly imagined that this would be like going back to a more leisured age; I'd have time to really think things through without distraction; I could focus on 'real' work. The reality is that all my communication and all my access to resources takes place online. I can't effectively manage my team because I can't observe what they are doing. I can't think things through because I can't read essential background information. I can't even post this short piece until I From Chalkface: Blog on June 25, 2005 at 3:31 p.m..
Learn Cyrillic! I'm off to Ukraine next weekend to see Alex and the crew. I'm a little nervous because not only can I not speak the language, I can't even read the writing. To help me learn, I've knocked together a little quickfire quiz in Yacapaca. If you want to try it out, first read the 'official' National transliteration on Wikipedia, then try the quiz preview. Notice your own thought process as From Chalkface: Blog on June 25, 2005 at 3:31 p.m..
Becta says 'go open-source': three alternatives to Microsoft It's been widely leaked that BECTa's latest report, iced until after the election, will finally spell out the blindingly obvious fact that free, open source, software is better value for schools than the equivalent bought from Microsoft. So the first step is to move to Open Office when your MS Office license comes up for renewal. But what if you decide to go the whole hog and dump Bill's troublesome and expensive operating system along with the software suite he sells to run on it. Where could you go? He From Chalkface: Blog on June 25, 2005 at 3:31 p.m..
Author your own assessments in Yacapaca: now in Alpha Finally, Yacapaca has an authoring environment for teachers. It's not even in beta yet; we've labeled it an 'alpha' release, and we're making it available only to a very small number of invited teachers. Nonetheless I'm excited, the more so because it took twice as long as expected to get to this point. We've been working on it solidly since I first annouced we'd do it in January. To recap what this means, Yacapaca authoring enables teachers to:
Bullying via new technology Chalkface publishes some 23 resources on bullying, or with bullying-related content. Over the years, we've covered every aspect of bullying as it affects young people....or so I thought. Stop Text Bullying is a new site aimed at raising awareness of bullying via new technologies. It is structured around a list of seven ways of using technology to be unpleasant to people - texting, phone calls, ph From Chalkface: Blog on June 25, 2005 at 3:31 p.m..
P(r)oxy Servers When any online service goes wrong, there are four possible loci for the problem
Emergency subscription quota Miranda says Just been chatting with Barry Blake fom Mangotsfield School who rang because he'd used up all his [Yacapaca] tests and not realised. He needed more, urgently. The idea came up of having a facility which would enable teachers in a similar position to access an additional 100 emergency uses from their interface without having to ring us first. The info. then would feed through to us for invoicing. It shall be done. From Chalkface: Blog on June 25, 2005 at 3:31 p.m..
'Easynet' may be a misnomer Today we celebrate an anniversary. It is precisely one month since telecoms company Easynet (via their UK Online brand) cut off my broadband connection. In the name of 'upgrade', I'd foolishly let myself be seduced by the promise of an 8meg connection for the same price as the half-meg connection I'd had from BT. Every day I phone them to politely ask about progress, and one of their trying-their-best but hopelessly undertrained customer service people adds another note to my file. About one day in three, I'm promised that an engineer will look into it real From Chalkface: Blog on June 25, 2005 at 3:31 p.m..
Teach Touch Typing - Online! I'll not repeat my previous rant about how appallingly disadvantaged young people who cannot touch-type really are. But I will point you to goodtyping.com and their Free online Typing course. Via Jane. From Chalkface: Blog on June 25, 2005 at 3:31 p.m..
Doonsbury From Friday's Doonsbury: Education is the membrane between [social] classes, and it's permeable. From Chalkface: Blog on June 25, 2005 at 3:31 p.m..
Launching the KS3 ICT Assessment update Back in January we got a mauling from a couple of local authority ICT advisers who felt that our KS3 ICT Assessment didn't cover the full range of processes at the higher levels. "Never mind" said I, "it's all online so we can change it in a trice". Ahem. The 'trice' turned out to be six months, almost to the day. Between creeping elegance (we more than doubled the number of quesions, and added formative feedback to every one), the schedule of a very busy author, various emergencies at our end and the need to test and retest everything before it From Chalkface: Blog on June 25, 2005 at 3:31 p.m..
LEonardo DaVinci This site has many interesting aspects of LeonardoDavinci's life as a mathematician, artist and man. From MERLOT - 10 Most Recent Materials on June 25, 2005 at 3:30 p.m..
THE UNIVERSAL LAW OF ORGANIZATION After a long practice as organizer and manager, suddenly I have discovered that ALL IMPORTANT CONCEPTS REGARDING ORGANIZING ACTIVITY ARE INTEGRATED NATURALLY INTO A DOUBLE FEEDBACK CYBERNETIC LOGICAL SYSTEM IN CONFORMITY WITH A MODEL I NAMED "THE UNIVERSAL MODEL OF ORGANIZATION". This model - a simple scheth - is a law of nature, always the same, whereever in universe. For us, it is a powerful mind-tool to analyse in a systemic vision, organize and manage efficiently all kind of activities. If you wiil utilise it, write me, please, in some words, haw it help you ! Thanks ! From MERLOT - 10 Most Recent Materials on June 25, 2005 at 3:30 p.m..
Linux Penguin Waddles to Increased Market Share - Will Tux Get Vote from Laptop Public? Linux continues to grow in popularity, with those seeking a different computer operating system than that offered by Windows. From Read laptop reviews and notebook news at the laptops weblog - Laptopical on June 25, 2005 at 2:30 p.m..
PBS: Evolution Activities And Lesson Plans This site, part of a larger effort in support of PBS's Evolution series which first aired in 2001, contains many activities and lesson plans suitable for Grades 8-12. From MERLOT - 10 Most Recent Materials on June 25, 2005 at 2:48 a.m..
Justice Learning Justice Learning is an innovative, issue-based approach for engaging high school students in informed political discourse. The web site uses audio from the Justice Talking radio show and articles from The New York Times to teach students about reasoned debate and the often-conflicting values inherent in our democracy. The web site includes articles, editorials and oral debate from the nation's finest journalists and advocates. All of the material is supported by age-appropriate summaries and additional links. In addition, for each covered issue, the site includes curricular material from From MERLOT - 10 Most Recent Materials on June 25, 2005 at 2:48 a.m..
Multimedia Lessons for Strength of Materials Interactive instructional software for Strength of Materials From MERLOT - 10 Most Recent Materials on June 25, 2005 at 2:48 a.m..
BeamBoss interactive 2-D frame analysis system From MERLOT - 10 Most Recent Materials on June 25, 2005 at 2:48 a.m..
Beam Calculator Calculates beam shear moment and deflection From MERLOT - 10 Most Recent Materials on June 25, 2005 at 2:48 a.m..
Statics Tutorial Tutorial for statics From MERLOT - 10 Most Recent Materials on June 25, 2005 at 2:48 a.m..
Osmosis This site allows students to observe the process of Osmosis through a simulation. It will also help them understand why a celery stick, a carrot or a potato wilt when they are left out without water for long periods of time. From MERLOT - 10 Most Recent Materials on June 25, 2005 at 2:48 a.m..
Is Pluto a Planet From MERLOT - 10 Most Recent Materials on June 25, 2005 at 2:48 a.m..
The Blind Spot This site will explain and tell students how to find the bling spot in each eye. It also explains why everyone has a bling spot. From MERLOT - 10 Most Recent Materials on June 25, 2005 at 2:48 a.m..
Microfinance: Stressing the Human Angle Stories highlighing the human angle of microfinance. Stories of ordinary people being able to overcome extraordinary odds, access to credit, skills gained, enterprises begun, of markets opened up, and homes built and children sent to school. From Recent Items on June 25, 2005 at 2:48 a.m..
Borrower Success Stories (Microcredit Summit Campaign) Short stories of borrowers of small amounts of money to develop microenterprises in countries including: Ethopia, Zaire, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. From Recent Items on June 25, 2005 at 2:48 a.m..
Microcredit Summit Campaign - Best Practice This set of best practices in microcredit was developed by leaders in microcredit, government, business, banking, and the non-profit sector as part of the Microcredit Summit. Covers: Ensuring Loan Repayment; Moving Toward Institutional Sustainability; Targeting the Poorest and Covering Costs; Sustainability in Industrialised Countries; Empowering Women; Summit Campaign Establishes Poverty; Measurement Tool Kit; Measuring Impact on the Lives of Clients; Mobilising Savings and Ensuring Their Safe Use; and Recruiting, Training, and Retaining Excellent Staff. From Recent Items on June 25, 2005 at 2:48 a.m..
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