An annotated list of all internet resources I use would be excessively lengthy and cumbersome so the 'short list' of links below either point to sites I have found highly useful as broad resources or to sites that focus on specific pedagogical interests in science and technology literacies.
Internet Scout
Since 1994, the Internet Scout Research Group (Scout) has focused on developing better tools and services for finding, filtering, and presenting online information and metadata: Open source software tools are designed with academic and non-profit groups and users in mind; reports and resource archives provide educators, students, researchers, and librarians with fast, convenient ways of staying informed about the most valuable online resources; the Scout Report, published every Friday, is one of the Web's oldest and most respected current awareness services.
Featured Technology Educator
Martin Ryder for his extensive Instructional Technology Connections site, a well annotated and cross referenced resource of considerable depth. And another nod to Ray Schroeder for continuing to take the weblog (blog) concept to a higher level; e.g., Online Learning Update, Educational Technology and Techno News.
WatchKnowLearn
WatchKnowLearn has indexed approximately 50,000 educational videos, placing them into a directory of over 5,000 categories. The videos are available without any registration or fees to teachers in the classroom, as well as parents and students at home 24/7. Web site invites broad participation in a new kind of wiki system, guided by teachers.
Understanding Evolution
Developed by the University of California Museum of Paleontology, this site provides something very close to "one-stop shopping" for evolution education as does the National Center for Science Education. Supplements such as the extensive FAQ'S at Talk.origins or additional illustrations of diversity such as those from the Census of Marine Life can add to the overall experience.
Computing Technology for Math Excellence
Resources for teaching and learning mathematics and the standards movement in education: Software reviews, technology integration, project based learning, multimedia, national math initiatives and professional development. Additional tools for learning and strengthening core mathematical concepts are available at The National Library of Virtual Manipulatives for Interactive Mathematics; highly recommended.
Curriki
A community of educators, learners and experts collaborating to create an online environment in support of the development and free distribution of world-class educational materials including textbooks to anyone who needs them. The name is a play on the combination of 'curriculum' and 'wiki,' the latter being the technology used to make this site responsive and universally accessible.
Project Gutenberg and FullBooks.com
Thousands of free, full-text books: Many rather uninteresting titles to be sure but also many classics, some new titles and a few rarities. Project Gutenberg files can be downloaded in multiple formats including eBooks and Kindle while FullBooks files are usually in HTML. And don't forget the magnificent Life Books now available online: Excellent scholarship and superb photography inform and motivate in near-perfect unison.
Urban Legends Reference Pages
An excellent site for researching modern mythology and hoaxes. Misinformation is sufficiently widespread that skepticism is mandatory and, where claims are particularly controversial, multiple sites should probably be consulted to confirm facts or claims made about facts: Truth or Fiction is a useful general fact-checking site; more specialized sites are Hoax-Slayer for email/spam and FactCheck.org for political claims. Some additional sites to improve fact checking include: www.crank.net; www.quackwatch.com; www.randi.org; www.straightdope.com/; www.skepticalscience.com. I strongly recommend you create a special sub-directory in your browser for these and use them regularly: The anti-knowledge, anti-science wave in America is growing and the number of fools eager to repeat lies and nonsense online is growing with it.
Educational Laboratories and Technology in Education Consortia
The federal grants initially supporting these regional institutions have either dried up or been diverted to support initiatives such as No Child Left Behind with the end result that many good ideas and tools have been lost. This is nothing new in American education but, as is often the case, jewels may still be discovered amid the rubble; e.g., classroom research results at Labs such as Mid-continent remain available to the teacher willing to search for them.
Education Resources Information Center
A primary site for conducting searches into the large compendium of published educational research. Timely access to free, full text materials is much improved but a rather unproductive turn in the research method 'paradigm wars' may limit search breadth and, eo ipso, efficacy; e.g., it has been reported that some forms of qualitative research are no longer considered sufficiently 'scientific' for inclusion in the ERIC® database.*
*A major reorganization of ERIC ordered by President Bush's Department of Education (DoE) ended support of ERIC clearinghouses and associated services as of December, 2003. Older documents must be ordered from the original publisher because the DoE also terminated Educational Document Reproduction Service (EDRS) in September, 2004.
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