Scoilnet Goes From Strength to Strength
Date:
2008-11-15
Scoilnet, the official portal for Irish education which is responsible for the promotion and use of the Internet in education continues to grow in popularity with approximately 1 million visits to the site in the first half of 2008. This is an increase in the number of visits compared to the figures for both 2006 (approx.1 million visits) and 2007 (approx. 1.27 milliion visits).
Scoilnet is the Department of Education and Science's official portal for Irish education. Developed by the NCTE, it currently provides over 11,000 resources in a digital database covering all subject areas of the primary and post primary curriculum. All resources which are constantly reviewed and categorised by a panel of teachers are accessed through the Resource Finder.
The recently enhanced Resource Finder and Search Function will make searching for resources faster and easier.
The Resource Finder and the Search function are the two key vehicles for retrieving
resources on all strands or topics within the curriculum. Both functions have been
recently redeveloped with the intention of providing:
- More results on each page
- Results that are now more defined within the Search function and are categorised according to Resources, Images and Articles
- An ability to view resources from the European Learning Resource Exchange (LRE)
- Easier navigation through each page of results
- The possibility of sorting resources by material type, e.g you can view lesson plans for a particular part of the curriculum.
There are five Resource Finders in total which cater for the following users:
1. Primary teachers
2. Post primary teachers
3. Primary students
4. Post primary students
5. Special needs teachers.
The Resource Finder allows you to search for resources such as worksheets, lesson plans, study notes, experiments and multimedia on any given topic or strand relating to the curriculum. Each resource is reviewed in the context of its suitability to the curriculum and includes learning outcomes, extension activities and where relevant special needs notes.
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Other resources that have been specifically created by Scoilnet Subject Matter Experts when a gap in a particular area of the curriculum has been identified:
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The Search Function
The Search function is another effective means of finding resources and is located on all pages within the site. Enter a keyword and a list of weblinks, images and articles will be retrieved.
Scoilnet Search is now connected to the European Learning Resource Exchange (LRE).
The inclusion of over 100,000 resources from educational databases across Europe as part of the European Learning Resource Exchange project has brought new range of quality resources to the site. This is where learning and teaching resources which have been created and sourced by teachers across Europe have been uploaded to the Resource Finder within Scoilnet with the result that more teachers and students across Europe are using the site.
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Scoilnet continues to create Partnership Sites! Scoilnet has worked with the primary and post primary professional development and curriculum support services to develop a number of subject specific websites and projects. See below for detaisl on some of these: |
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Scoilnet Maps (http://maps.scoilnet.ie/)
Supports teachers in the delivery of the recently revised Leaving Certificate Geography curriculum. The NCTE has licensed all of Ordnance Survey Ireland's mapping data and made it available to all second-level schools.
Geography Support Service (http://www.geog.ie/)
Provides learning and teaching resources for geography teachers and students at Senior Cycle level.
French.ie (http://www.french.ie/)
A supportive resource for students and teachers engaged in the Junior and Senior Cycle curriculum.
HIST (History In-service Team) http://www.hist.ie/
Supports the in-service of teachers relating to Leaving Certificate History and provides curricular resources for both students and teachers.
ImageBank (http://www.imagebank.ie/)
A searchable photo library website containing thousands of moderated, safe photos for teachers and students to use in teaching and learning.
Scoilnet is also currently developing German.ie, Fón (Fón Foghlaim ón Nuatheicneolaíocht) and the European Learning Resource Exchange in conjunction with partnership bodies.
Other areas of Scoilnet continue to prove popular.
Storytime http://www.scoilnet.ie/storytime/default.aspx
This increasingly popular section of the site is aimed at young readers and writers aged 7-12 years. It encourages students to publish their work and focuses on improving students’ vocabulary, writing skills and critical thinking skills. Students publish their stories to the site and week the best story is highlighted.
Schools Online http://www.scoilnet.ie/SchoolsOnline/WebDir.aspx
Schools Online is another key component of the Scoilnet site. It features a searchable database of schools in Ireland, school websites that have been presented with the Star site award and teachers who feature their top three favourite sites.
Scoilnet News
New resources, articles, comments, enquiries and news items of interest to the different users of the site are featured on Scoilnet on a daily basis. Scoilnet uses “New” symbol to bring your attention to the latest updates.
Scoilnet also has a newsletter which you can sign up for to get regular updates on what it going on in the site and in education in general.
There are many ways in which you can contribute to Scoilnet. For example, you may like to update Scoilnet on your new school website, blog or favourite site.
Scoilnet encourages feedback and makes it is possible to do the following
• Get in touch via Contact Us
• Get involved in our opinion polls and arguments on the homepage
• Submit your favourite sites to Schools Online
• Nominate your school for the Star Site Award
• Get your students to post a story to Storytime
• Upload a photo to Imagebank
