Essential Websites for Educational Leaders in the 21st Century (CD-ROM Included).

Essential Websites for Educational Leaders in the 21st Century (CD-ROM Included). ESSENTIAL WEBSITES FOR EDUCATIONAL LEADERS IN THE 21ST CENTURY(CD-ROM INCL INCL IncludeINCL IncludingINCL InclusiveINCL Inclination UDED) JAMES LERMAN SCARECOW EDUCATION, 2004 $34.95, 120 PAGES Lerman's Essential Websites for Educational Leaders in the21st Century attempts to give an insight to the technologicaladvancements of educational resources and research. In the not sodistant past, words like website, URL URLin full Uniform Resource LocatorAddress of a resource on the Internet. The resource can be any type of file stored on a server, such as a Web page, a text file, a graphics file, or an application program. , World Wide Web, or Google, wouldhave had no place in our educational vernacular ver��nac��u��lar?n.1. The standard native language of a country or locality.2. a. The everyday language spoken by a people as distinguished from the literary language. See Synonyms at dialect.b. . As educators, we cannotdeny the impact of the Internet. The days of card catalogs are longgone, and the need for a website address has become as common as thephone number or home address. Lerman endeavors to give us a nicesampling of an enormous informational highway by spotlighting 280websites that provide valuable resources to our educational community. Anyone that has ever "surfed the web" knows thechallenges of using search engines. The increasingly competitive markethas created a strategic plan in luring consumers to purchase goods onthe Internet. Lerman made it a part of his criteria in choosingresources that all sites were "free of charge." Although therewere a fair share of solicitations for journals, newsletters, ormembership privileges, the websites were user friendly and offered anarena to browse and discover an abundance of literature and sometimesinteractive programs. Using five areas of criteria, Lerman evaluated thesites and looked for them to demonstrate: "ease of access, contentof value, ease of navigation, credibility/reliability of content, andrelevance for the reader" (p. x). Consulting a variety of venues,the author assembled the collection from professional magazines,conference presentations, recommendations, and award-winning websites bycredible organizations. In an attempt to provide a wide variety of interest, Lermanorganized the book into 25 sections that were specifically geared towardmeeting the needs of the given topic. Lerman summarizes the collection: Whether you need policy research, data on school expenditures or student achievement, lesson plans in advanced placement physics, sources for grants, a free online collaborative workspace, or exercises for elementary students to practice their spelling, you will find current, relevant, and reliable information through the websites listed here. (p. viii) In an effort to evaluate the content of Lerman's findings,this reviewer re��view��er?n.One who reviews, especially one who writes critical reviews, as for a newspaper or magazine.reviewerNouna person who writes reviews of books, films, etc.Noun 1. randomly selected one website from every chapter. Basingthe overall impression of websites on three criteria, the first was on"curb appeal." There are thousands of websites that offersimilar content, but lack the ability to be appealing to the eye.Websites are expected to be more and more inviting to the user to comeand explore what they have to offer. Without the ability to solicitattention, the content can become as flat as the screen. The secondcriteria was identifying the predominant audience for the content.Specifically, is the content geared toward elementary or secondaryeducation? The final area of assessing quality was the accessibility tocontent. Navigating through these webs can offer too much distraction DistractionDivination (See OMEN.)Porlocka “person from Porlock” interrupted Coleridge while he was recollecting the dream on which he based “Kubla Khan”. [Br. Lit.: Poems of Coleridge in Magill IV, 756] inreaching the intended destination. Eye fatigue can quickly set in fromreading page after page of like content. When this happens, the risk ofmissing the information becomes greater and the time-on-task startsdecreasing. Sorting through Lerman's websites, certain topics lentthemselves to more creative designs. The websites on assessment, generalreference, personal productivity, and selected strategies for teachingfailed to inspire a desire to spend the time searching through them,while websites such as School Grants, Fact Monster Fact Monster is a website geared towards children. It is owned by Infoplease and, like the Infoplease site, it contains several reference works under one umbrella, including the Columbia Encyclopedia, Random House Dictionary, an atlas and an almanac. and TeacherNet-Lessons A-Z created a desire to spend more time browsing through thepages. While looking at chapter 4 (Curriculum Resources), theinteractive "creating music" site offered plenty to see anddo. In looking at the resources with regard to target audience, twothings were found. The majority of lesson plans, hands-on activities andoverall practical, applicable items seemed to be geared for elementary.The general knowledge or information websites could apply to bothelementary and secondary education. An overlapping of material onmultiple sites was inevitable given that the websites objectives were tooffer a variety of resources. A number of websites utilized the searcheson keywords and titles to help identify specific topics. While helpful,linking from one source to another became laborious la��bo��ri��ous?adj.1. Marked by or requiring long, hard work: spent many laborious hours on the project.2. Hard-working; industrious. . On numerousoccasions one could find the message of "file not found" or"currently not found" on pages where information was simplynot available or had found a new address. The last observation left this reviewer with the concern of aconstantly changing Internet. While not in possession of the number ofwebsites created and closed everyday, the number is most likely high.Lerman acknowledges this concern in the introduction by addressing that"sites may be here today are gone tomorrow, with a new name orlocation, or they may have just disappeared into the ether ether, in chemistryether,any of a number of organic compounds whose molecules contain two hydrocarbon groups joined by single bonds to an oxygen atom. . It can bequite frustrating frus��trate?tr.v. frus��trat��ed, frus��trat��ing, frus��trates1. a. To prevent from accomplishing a purpose or fulfilling a desire; thwart: " (p. xi). Lerman used good judgment in having acd-rom included. The accessibility of locating the websites waspractical given that the addresses did not have to be typed in. However,the practicality of creating a book that appears to be outdated uponpublication is questionable. Regardless, this is a good resource forschool personnel. Reviewed by Jim Deputy Jim Deputy is an assistant principal at Clearwater Central Catholicin Clearwater, FL.