CCCnet
Look out, Sesame Street, make way for the Internet and CCCnet. While CCCnet may not sport the likes of our yellow feathered friend, it's got just as much educational and entertainment value, and it's interactive! A leading publisher of multimedia education titles, Computer Curriculum Corporation wins the honor of being the first Web site to provide original, interactive curriculum online. And it's accomplished this task with exceptional grace.

For starters, it looks great. CCN teamed up with the outstanding crew at vivid studios (http://www.vivid.com) in San Francisco to create a high-resolution, creative, and astonishingly quick site. It's powered by a monster SGI server to add to the speed factor, so even those with slower connections can reap the benefits of nice graphics.

CCCnet offers lesson plans to teachers on a subscription basis - though no fees have been set yet. It also supports these teachers with a message board to interact with other teachers and post questions (both technical and subjective). The super bonus: For two hours everyday, there's a tech person live, online, to answer questions immediately. CCCnet also encourages parents to get involved with a "school-home" section. This way, parents get to participate in what their kids are learning and offer help and encouragement.

My favorite part about the site: It strives to teach children not only about the subjects at hand - math, science, the environment, art, etc. - but also how to use the Internet and maximize the Web. Many of the assignments involve children using the Web actively to complete projects - using search engines, libraries, and other online resources to hunt down information. Students are also encouraged to network and communicate with students at other schools involved in the program. Very cool.

The current online project, Energy Flow In Amazonia, teaches kids about life forms in the rainforest. The final assignment is to pick an organism (of the millions living in the Amazon, from protozoa to tiger), learn about it, and post its biography online, in a templated Web form. Kids from all across the country will be adding to the real-time food chain. Outstanding!

This site is one of the most innovative Web accomplishments I've seen so far, and I can only hope it's positive precedence will be replicated many times over. Teachers, pay attention to these kats. -BG

A+

Career Explorers
This site, launched by United Multimedia, a CD-ROM publisher, is designed to let (presumably young) visitors with an eye toward the future learn about various careers. Well... one career, anyway: right now, there's not much here. But the sole area, I Want to be a Veterinarian, covers quite a bit of territory: what training is needed, typical tasks, helpful skills, and so forth. The long blocks of small type may be daunting to young readers, though, and there are some minor HTML errors throughout. It will probably improve, though, soon enough, as more careers are added.-TG

C-

College Board Online
The College Board oversees tests such as the SAT and AP exams, administers financial aid programs, suggests standards among its 3,000 member schools, and acts as a general intermediary between students and colleges. And now, many of its services are available via the Web, through colorful image maps, clever forms, and genius-level search engines. Separate indices direct students, guidance counselors, faculty, and member schools to the most relevant information. The technical level is high, making this a user-friendly entry to the intimidating world of college admissions.-TG

A

Distance Learning Laboratory (DLL)
This site is part of a project to get historically black high schools and universities online with distance learning programs. The DLL wants to teach educators how to get online, set up Web servers, archive curriculum and so on. Good idea! Unfortunately, you have to call DLL or register online for the seminars and workshops in order to actually learn something. The site is merely an informational pamphlet. Perhaps DLL staff might consider practicing what they preach, and offer the seminars online.-BG

B-

General Organic and Biochemistry
There are lots of Web sites designed to supplement college courses, but most of them fall just short of the mark. Not this site! Designed to supplement the textbook "Chemistry for Today," it includes dozens of concise and illustrative slides the professor used to compliment his lectures - and his use of frames in presenting the material is inspired. He even includes a summary and form-based test! Visit his other classes via The Virtual Classroom at http://odin.chemistry.uakron.edu/classroom.html. And don't miss his "favorite excuses from students" page at http://odin.chemistry.uakron.edu/excuses/.-TG

A+

Global Online Adventure Learning Site
John Oman, a sailing adventurer, left the port of Seattle in November 1995 with the hopes of sailing around the world in 150 days via his 60-foot yacht. He may be alone at sea, but we've been invited to follow along via this Wev site: Read his logs, check the current sailing conditions in his location, see pictures he's taken, and even consult maps indicating his position. As a result, we get a superb background in the nautical sciences. His isn't the only travelogue on the Web, but it's one of the most "realistic,"with hard data augmenting his lyrical notes. This site is a must for all would-be seafarers.-TG

A

K12 World
If you are a K12 teacher with a fair amount of patience, amble on over to K12 World, a very tidy and useful site packed with Web resources of interest to you. You'll need patience because there are two top pages for each topic, and the download can be mighty slow. But once you're in, you'll find classroom goodies; (Internet) library information; funding sources; lesson plans; and more. Especially cool is Internet Live, a page of live camera links and exploration events geared to eager net students. The Classroom area features several disciplines, so whether you teach science, journalism, or art, there are helpful links for you here.-KW

B-

Media Literacy On-Line
Media Literacy is a movement to educate youth and adults about the media - how to use and maximize its benefits, and how to guard against its tricks. The Web site is a stockpile collection of, you guessed it, media literacy-related information available online. While there isn't an extreme amount of original content filling up the bandwidth (nor will you find snazzy graphics or HTML 3.0 wizardry), it is outstanding as a collection of resource links in one convenient place. With smart organization and enough color to keep us from getting the "Netscape Gray" blues, this is a very valuable site.-BG

B+

Mr. Trockman's Earth Science
Sure, this may just be the humble Web page of a humble eighth grade earth science teacher in humble Minnesota, but without a doubt, one may safely say: The Trock rocks! (all puns intended). Dan Trockman is obviously one wacky dude who knows how to make science fun. You'll find playful backgrounds of lava and snowflakes, as well as photos of volcanoes and blizzards (the Trock, in a flurry of photo-journalistic inspiration, even posted local Minnesota photos from last winter's arctic snow storms). All the levity is balanced with concise lecture notes for home-bound students. This is a model for using the Web to augment traditional curriculum.-JP

B

North Hagerstown High School
Get acquainted with students and teachers at this central Maryland high school, population 1,000. A modest effort, the site promotes net education and communication. The ninth grade Prejudice Reduction Project, for example, invites classes and students to send essays, bios, and URLs "that will help gain a better understanding of the world around us." There's also an Environmental E-Mail Project the lets readers report on environmental concerns "faced by your region or state." This could be a good resource for other teachers to use.-KW

B-

Princeton Review
High school juniors and seniors who simply *must* attend the best universities would do well to visit this site presented by the "nation's leader in test preparation." That's right: The Princeton Review offers classes on preparing for standardized tests like the SAT, GRE, and MCAT, which will later get you into - guess what? - more classes. Study, study, study. Achieve, achieve, achieve. That's the Princeton way, but there's no disputing the Review's attraction if you aspire to a career in law, business, or medicine. A search engine eases navigation, but lengthy download times of frivolous graphics may leave you peeved.-JP

B

School Is Dead
Not only are kids rebelling against formalized schooling, their parents are, as well; and, as sites we've reviewed in the Blue Pages have shown, there are plenty of Web resources out there for those interested in home schooling. But what about "no-schoolers"? For both groups, Karl Bunday's site is a convincing (although ugly) collection of quotes and arguments emphasizing that the one who learns best schools least. The points are presented as one heavily linked screed, making the site great for browsing, but it's hard to find specific information unless you use the index. -TG

B-

Thomas Edison State College
What home-schooling does for the under-18 crowd, "distance learning"colleges like Thomas Edison State do for those seeking higher educational degrees. According to the college's Web site, "students in any state or nation can earn credit for college-level knowledge acquired outside the classroom." It's a pity the college hasn't done more with its Web pages: considering how far-flung the students must be, the potential for Internet-based instruction is tremendous. Indeed, the site isn't nearly as deep or interesting as many other colleges', and the occasional misdirected link mars the experience. -TG

C

Urban Education Web
Learning about learning: that's what the Urban Education Web is about. It's part of the Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC), a well-known and highly-respected database of studies on education. It, in turn, is funded by the U.S. Department of Education. All these layers of support point to two attributes of this Web site: it's densely academic, and it's excellently supported. Here, you'll not only find out if the government has published information about gangs in the schools, you'll probably find the monographs themselves, hyperlinked internally and with other documents. I don't know what poor souls are sitting in a windowless office doing all this, but they deserve to be thanked.-TG

B+

Washington Gifted School of Communication
Can we talk adorable for a moment? This site is absolutely fun fun fun by way of enchanting graphics. Unfortunately, there isn't really much of interest otherwise, unless you're already involved with the school. The schedule of events, mission statement, and student bios are well done and seem helpful enough, but it's missing the original content that makes a site interesting and worth repeated visits. I say, post the student artwork and stories, and up the ante a bit! After all, it's a site for a school of communication whose students are gifted.-BG

B-

Worcester Polytechnic
Most online education fails because it tries to transplant subjects to the screen that are best-suited for the classroom. But Professor Cyganski's class at Worcester Polytechnic Institute has an edge of relevance here, as it's all about telecommunications transmission technologies. Since I'm not an electrical engineer, most of the highly-technical content of this site eluded me, but its basic "learning is as learning does" mission comes through loud and clear: Engineers should not be afraid of their tools. Or, as the prof says, "This course is not for WIMPs (Whining Internet/Multi-media Phobes)." Some of the meatier areas of the site are available only to WPI accounts, alas.-TG

B-