Links to educational resources
The problem here is in choosing the most useful sites from
the vast number of educational resources on the web. We have
listed the best we know of, under the following categories:
Irish Education Links
Social Change Links
General International Links
Specialist Education Links
Search Engines
Scroll down the page to find our recommendations.
Irish Education Links
Third
Level Points System
This is our own short explanation of how the current points system
works for entry to courses in Irish universities, institutes
of technology and other colleges.
CAO
Complete and submit your CAO application over the net, using
the on-screen form. Automatic checking eliminates common mistakes
and ensures accurate application. You get a printed record of
your application and you may amend your course choices at any
time up to the change-of-mind closing date on 1 July. This is
the official CAO website and "the only source of accurate
online information about CAO". Accept no substitutes.
Qualifax
A searchable database of over 3,500 full time courses covering
all higher education institutions in all of Ireland, including
degrees, diplomas, certificates and PLC's.
Careers World
Claims to be Ireland's premier careers development website, providing
the tools and support needed to develop a successful career,
including course info, employee profiles of some large Irish
companies, and job opportunities.
Department of Education
The official website of the Department. Contains a lot of information
for students, teacher, parents and the community, on the Irish
education system, including the marking schemes for all the subjects
in the Leaving Cert and Junior Cert exams.
Leaving Cert Vocational Programme
LCVP is a Senior Cycle Programme of the Department of Education
and Science, designed to give a strong vocational dimension to
the Leaving Certificate. This site has lots of valuable resources
for students and teachers of the programme.
Career Directions
A very useful site for careers information from FAS, to some
extent spoiled by the need for specific software which not everybody
will have.
The National Centre for Technology
in Education
An Irish Government agency established to provide advice, support
and information on the use of information and communications
technology (ICT) in education.
Skoool.ie
Award winning site is a vast resource of informative interactive
content for lecond-level students, teachers and parents.
ScoilNet
Has sections for educators and for school pupils, both primary
and second-level.
Topstudy
Topstudy.com provides teachers and students with a useful source
of curriculum based information and free access to educational
tools, including free online interactive tutorials for students,
rather than static information.
Pro-Teen Matters
Web magazine for young people dealing with mental health issues.
A magazine with articles, comic relief, health issues, sport,
cookery, prizes to be won and lots more. Devised by students
for students.
SkillsIreland
The Expert Group on Future Skills Needs has identified a number
of career sectors which are likely to experience skills shortages
in the future. This website provides profiles of these careers.
Social Change Links
Trócaire
The website for the charity and social change organisation.
Concern
A voluntary non-governmental organisation that works to eliminate
extreme poverty in the least developed areas of the world. The
site contains over 300 web pages on issues ranging from advocacy,
project and country information to employment opportunities and
fundraising ideas.
The Columban Website
Useful for religious education, geography, economics, development
education, etc. At the moment has an article arguing for the
Irish government to withold debt repayments to the International
Monetary Fund, as well as many more articles in the sections
on justice, ecology and dialogue.
Amnesty International
Working to protect human rights worldwide.
APC - Association for
Progressive Communications
The world's most extensive network of Internet providers dedicated
to serving non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and citizen
activists, supporting the people and organisations working together
worldwide for social, environmental and economic justice.
General International Links
Brian's
Great Educational Web Sites
Over 500 links, organised into an extensive selection of education-related
areas.
Children's
Literature - Recommended Books and Bestsellers
Loaded with great suggestions about books for young people. Based
at the University of Calgary in Canada.
The ERIC Pages
The Educational Resource Information Centre is considered to
be one of the key educational resources on the Internet for students,
teachers, parents and researchers. Has a network of further links
and a searchable database that it claims is the world's largest
source of education information.
Homework Heaven
Homework Heaven is a huge online academic research directory,
with over 12,000 hand picked links and 70 special school subject
search engines. The links provide access to specific information
and research sources covering hundreds of school subjects.
Gifted Resources
Homepage
The TAG site links to all known on-line resources for gifted
students of all ages, including enrichment programmes, talent
searches, mailing lists and activities for gifted students.
B.J. Pinchbeck's
Homework Helper
Has search tools, news, English, history, socal studies, languages,
music, art and much more.
The European Union
Server
Has wide range of information about the European Union and the
countries in it. Can be accessed in all the official languages
of the Union and has a useful search facility to find specific
information that you might require for projects.
Specialist Education Links
Wild Ireland
A new website, still developing, dedicated to Irish wildlife,
featuring a database of information on plants and animals, along
with educational materials.
ALERT Home Page
Project ALERT is a program, designed by NASA, that uses hypertext
and the Web to promote science education and literacy.
Institute
for the Advancement of Science Technology and Economics
IASTE represents a vision of what a future Irish Virtual science
museum would look like.
The Why Files
Coverng topical subjects like global warming and cloning, this
University of Wisconsin-based website tackles the scientific
issues behind current news items.
Centre International d'Etudes
Pedagogiques de Sevres (CIEP)
Un site Web a l'intention des professeurs de francais langue
etrangere et de toutes celles et de tous ceux que la langue,
la culture ou la linguistique francaises interessent.
E-Conflict World Encyclopedia
"Over 1,400 pages of content intended to eradicate conflict
by building cultural awareness". Profiles the nations of
the world. View maps and flags or listen to national anthems.
Test your knowledge with the monthly quiz.
Dictionary.com
On-line dictionaries in English and links to on-line dictionaries
in 150 other languages.
Technical Drawing
Solutions Online
This is a good source of reference for students and teachers
of the Leaving Certificate Technical Drawing course. From each
of the years featured, the student can view annotated solutions
from Paper 1 (plane and solid geometry) or Paper 2B (building
applications) at either ordinary or higher level.
Junior Cert
IT Website
A new website which covers much of the IT material of the Junior
Certificate Business Studies Course.
UCAS
This the UK equivalent of the CAO, standing for the Universities
and Colleges Admissions Service. Very useful for searching for
courses, and entrance requirements in terms of the Irish Leaving
Cert are given if you follow the "entry profile for this
course" button, once you locate a course of interest.
Search Engines
There are many ways of finding information on the internet,
but for general searches the following sites are among the best.
FAST Search
The fastest search engine on the net, even giving a timing on
each search, often less than one second. Try it out below.
Google
Rivals FAST as the best search engine on the net for general
searching; if neither of these two can find it for you, it's
probably not there!
Ask Jeeves
This allows you to enter a fully-phrased question if you cannot
decide on a keyword.
Northern Light Search
Trawls through all the big search engines and presents the results
in clearly labelled folders.
Web
Search