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Vol. 11 No. 6 — Nov/Dec 2004

NetNEWS

New ERIC Web Site Launched

A new Education Resources Information Center (ERIC) Web site has been launched, with a series of improvements scheduled to continue throughout the coming months. The new site provides increased search capabilities using streamlined retrieval methods to access the existing ERIC bibliographic database (1966-2004). Users can refine search results through the use of keywords, publication date or type, or the ERIC thesaurus. A My Eric personalization feature provides the capability to save and rerun searches. Free full-text nonjournal ERIC resources have been added to the site, including 105,000 full-text documents previously sold through E•Subscribe from the ERIC Document Reproduction Service. In December, new bibliographic records and full-text journal and nonjournal resources will be added. Newly indexed materials not available free of charge will be accessible through links to commercial sources. ERIC, a digital library of education-related services, is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences. ERIC, 800/LET-ERIC, http://www.eric.ed.gov/.

State School Guides Online

QED has released an online edition of its State School Guides. The Guides provide access to up-to-date contact and demographic information for every school and district in the nation. Print editions are also available. QED, 800/525-5811, http://www.qeddata.com/.

NetLIBRARIES

ProQuest Offers Standards-Based Searching

ProQuest Information and Learning has launched dynamic standards-based searching in its K-12 databases. The new feature allows educators to locate resources in ProQuest's portfolio of K-12 products by content standard and benchmark. Standards-based searching will be available in eLibrary, eLibrary Curriculum Edition, and the SIRS suite of databases. In total, these databases will allow searching by standards across more than 50 million documents. Free trials are available. ProQuest, 800/521-0600, http://www.il.proquest.com/.

NetLEARNING

Rainforest Heroes

The Rainforest Action Network has launched RainforestHeroes.com, a new Web site based on the Network's Kid's Corner Web area. Features include an interactive rainforest quiz, the downloadable Rainforest Hero Action Packet, creative activities, games, and an interactive library with information about saving Earth's last remaining endangered rainforests. A Teacher's Lounge provides lesson plans, resources, and worksheets for the classroom. A free Rainforest Forever! curriculum supplement for grades 3­6 is available online. The site is located at http://www.rainforestheroes.com/. Rainforest Action Network, 415/398-4404, http://www.ran.org/.

Envision Your World/Science

Olympus America has launched Envision Your World/Science, an online educational resource guide for students, educators, and parents. The site's classroom applications give students the opportunity to participate in a hands-on exploration of the basic scientific concepts relating to measurement, space travel, and the nature of light. Also included is a study of the invention of cameras and an examination of scientific procedure including experimentation, data collection, and hypothesis testing. The materials are designed to meet national standards. The site is located at http://www.envisionyourworld.com/. An online newsletter, the Visionary Educator, is available at http://www.olympusamerica.com/education/. Olympus America Inc., http://www.olympusamerica.com/.

NetTEACHING

NOAA EstuaryLive Curriculum Materials

The National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration offers online curriculum materials for its EstuaryLive program. A complete Teacher's Guide assists in leading classrooms through the program—from getting computers prepared to view EstuaryLive to providing suggestions for follow-up activities. The guide can be downloaded at http://www.estuaries.gov/curricula.html/. The EstuaryLive program showcases seven ecosystems: The Rachel Carson site of the North Carolina Reserve; the Mullica River-Great Bay, N.J.; Puget Sound, Wash.; The Peconic Estuary, Eastern Long Island, N.Y.; South Slough, Ore.; Weeks Bay, Ala., and Waquoit Bay, Mass. Additional estuary information can be found at http://www.estuaries.gov/. NOAA, 202/482-6090, http://www.noaa.gov/.

Alliance to Save Energy Web Site

The Alliance to Save Energy has launched a new Web site for educators at http://www.ase.org/section/_audience/educators/. Site features include multidisciplinary K-12 lesson plans, information on the Alliance's Green Schools program, and an energy-efficiency Web page for kids. The Alliance is a coalition of business, government, environmental, and consumer organizations. Alliance to Save Energy, 202/857-0666, http://www.ase.org/.

iEARN Professional Development

The International Education & Resource Network (iEARN) offers interactive 9-week courses for teachers who want to learn how to integrate an online collaborative project into their teaching. The courses provide a step-by-step guide to using international collaborative projects in the classroom. Participants complete hands-on activities, discuss related readings, and collaborate with partner teachers. Each course, facilitated by two experienced iEARN online educators, includes 25 teachers from the U.S. and around the world. Course offerings include Creative Arts, Creative Writing/Language Arts, Social Studies/Contemporary Affairs/Geography, Science/Environment/Math, English as a Second Language, Helping Students Cope with Trauma in Schools, and Learning Circles. iEARN-USA, 212/870-2693, http://www.iearn.org/.

NetTOOLS

NetCrunch

NetCrunch offers a Web-enabled management application that provides integrated, out-of-the-box network visualization, monitoring, alerting and reporting across platforms (Windows, NetWare, Linux), devices, services, and applications. The program's key features include automatic network discovery; mapping of the logical and physical network topologies; user-defined network views based on various criteria; agentless fault and performance monitoring of network devices, servers, workstations, and network services running on them; syslog monitoring; threshold-based event notification, alert escalation, and automatic corrective actions; performance trending and reporting; and full-fledged SNMP management with an option to modify SNMP parameters. AdRem Software, Inc., 212/319-4114, http://www.adremsoft.com/.