-----Original Message-----
From: psci-com: on the public understanding of science
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Steven Chapman
Sent: 17 November 2002 21:32
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Educational web sites for kids
Dear Jenni,
Sorry, but I could n't let that one lie.
There are a multitude of great educational websites for young people,
many of them are known to teachers and children, many of them have been
around for years.
The main complaint is not the lack of sites, but the fact you need a
sieve to sift the good from the bad and to find those good ones relevant
to your needs.
The National Grid for Learning, www.ngfl.gov.uk is the portal for all
educational sites whether aimed at kids or teachers, some of them are
very curriculum focused, some are fun.
I could add a sentence about wheels and reinventing but I'm sure you get
the point.
-----End Quoted (and cut) Message-----
I'd like to let this one lie, but that would be to tell a lie.
Could you also add a sentence or two to explain to the people who have
posted suggestions here telling them how on Earth you find anything on
the NGFL web site?
I spend some of my time writing about web sites. One lesson I have
learned, and hammered home to readers, is that you think about the
people who need the information rather than those who supply it.
If I turn up at NGFL looking for web sites, where do I start?
The "What are you looking for?" pages deal in a number of excellent
categories. Where is the one that screams "web sites"? It may be there
and I missed it.
I confess that I could not persuade the site map to load. Maybe it is
all there.
Sure, information is what people really need, regardless of source. But
you also have to recognise that some suddenly thinking "web site" is not
going to want to wander down a "museums" route.
I plugged the word "conservation", the subject of the original query,
into the NGFL web site and shrunk back in horror.
First results page had no general web sites. Some very obscure reports.
"conservation web site" was a bit better. But it delivered none of the
suggestions offered here.
It did deliver the names of those suggestions if you put there names
into the search. But, hang on, if I knew their names I wouldn't be
searching.
Yes, avoid reinventing wheels, but do ensure that the wheels on offer
are round rather than square and life will be so much easier for
beleaguered teachers.
Bugger, just done another stupid thing. Asked Google to find "web sites
for schools". No mention of NGFL on page 1. British Council there
though. Wheels within wheels.....
MK
PS is there any link between NGFL and
http://www.dfes.gov.uk/curriculumonline/? I think we should be told.
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