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-