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Vol. 10 No. 4 — September 2003

NetNews

Teens and the Internet

TeenSites.com: A Field Guide to the New Digital Landscape, a report from the Center for Media Education, surveys the new media culture directed at and, in some cases, created by teens. The report examines the interactive nature of the new media and explores the ways that teens are shaping and being shaped by the electronic culture that surrounds them. The full report is available online at http://www.cme.org/teenstudy/index.html/. The Center for Media Education is a national nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to creating a quality electronic media culture for children and youth. CME is funded by the Carnegie Corp. of New York, the Ford Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and the Atlantic Philanthropies. Center for Media Education, 202/331-7833 or http://www.cme.org/.

NetTeaching

Web Tech Curriculum

The Adobe Web Tech Curriculum offers a yearlong course designed to teach high school students professional Web site design and development with Adobe software. The free Web-based curriculum offers teachers a resource that guides students through the design process using a digital workflow. Content can be accessed from school or home. The curriculum complies with academic requirements from the U.S. Department of Education's Career Cluster Information Technology Initiative and the national standards for information technology from the National Center for Emerging Technologies and the Education Development Center. Adobe Systems Inc., http://www.adobe.com/webtech/.

NetTools

Aspire Updates

The Aspire suite of teaching, reporting, and communications tools has been updated with new instructional features, new grading and reporting tools, and new communications options. The new features include lesson plan and state standards integration, lesson plan sharing, file sharing, and a quiz builder. The new tool features include grade and attendance export, an elementary school gradebook, report card generator, and state test score and gradebook integration. The new communications options feature emergency announcements to Aspire home pages and parent, teacher, and student e-mail; District Administrator 2.0; and password distribution providing a turnkey way to distribute and manage user names and passwords. Aspire Learning Corporation, 888/335-3788 or http://www.aspire.com/.

Net Libraries

PERSI on HeritageQuest Online

ProQuest Information and Learning has acquired exclusive publishing rights to the PERiodical Source Index (PERSI), the largest subject index to genealogy and local history periodicals in the world. The comprehensive subject index covers genealogy and local history periodicals written in English since 1800. The 2003 edition will contain more than 1.9 million citations from more than 6,000 periodicals published in the U.S., Canada, and abroad. PERSI will be published as a key database in ProQuest's HeritageQuest Online, a Web-based genealogical resource available to libraries. Free trials are available. ProQuest, 800/521-0600 or http://www.il.proquest.com/.

Wildlife Reference Center

The Marshall Cavendish Wildlife Reference Center database available on EBSCOhost is designed to help student researchers of all abilities learn about wildlife issues, animal profiles and behavior, endangered plants, and the world of dinosaurs. The Reference Center includes three encyclopedias: the 17-volume Encyclopedia of Mammals, the 12-volume Endangered Wildlife and Plants of the World, and the 11-volume Dinosaurs of the World. The Reference Center includes links to thousands of articles on wildlife issues and topics; the related articles are updated monthly. EBSCO, 800/653-2726 or http://www.ebsco.com/.

NetLearning

Hotmath Available by Subscription

Hotmath.com, the formerly free online mathematics homework help site correlated with middle and high school textbooks, is now available only by subscription. The service shows students step-by-step explanations for actual homework problems in popular math textbooks from middle school math through calculus (the odd-numbered problems only). Available through CCV Software, the subscriptions range in price from $49 per year for a teacher license for one class to $350 for the largest school license. Hotmath, http://www.hotmath.com/.

Climbing Mt. Everest by Computer

Nationalgeographic.com is hosting an Everest site as part of the Society-wide celebration of the 50th anniversary of the ascent of Mt. Everest. The Surviving Everest virtual ascent begins at the Khumbu icefall with a crevasse crossing by ladder. The site also features a multimedia Sights and Sounds presentation of Sir Edmund Hillary and the Sherpa culture, a zoom-ready 360-degree view from the summit, stories of some of the survivors, a tally of the costs involved in climbing Everest, a trivia game, a news series on the region, the famous National Geographic photography, lesson plans for all ages, maps, and rare historic video. National Geographic Society, http://www.nationalgeographic.com/everest/.

Spanish and French Texts Online

The Holt Online Learning world languages series is available on the Web in Spanish and French [http://www.hrw.com/wlse]. The Spanish and French texts are available in a complete series, from Level 1A and 1B to Level 1 and Level 2. Each online textbook includes all of the information and activities of the print-based texts, as well as many enhancements and interactive features, including audio presentation of vocabulary, functional expressions, and cultural notes; an interactive Review and Assess section; Practice Activities; Self-Test; and a Student Notebook for record-keeping. More than 26 minutes of video footage are embedded in each chapter. The material is accessiblein high- or low-bandwidth options. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 800/992-1627 or http://www.hrw.com or http://www.harcourt.com/.