Three Sites That Help
Ever felt that you
just found a gold mine on the web only to realize you can’t use the information at
all because it has no Canadian content?
By Denys Gigučre
A
Made-in-Canada Web Site for Students
http://www.campusaccess.com
Campusaccess.com was designed to help Canadian students avoid the
frustration of not being able to find Canadian content on the web. This all-Canadian site
offers more than 400 pages of information and resources compiled by Canadian students for
Canadian students. There is so much information here anybody can benefit from a site tour.
The site includes a roster of experts who answer students, questions and
can offer advice on a range of issues. The list includes former Olympic Gold Medallist
Mark Tewkesbury, Marco Di Buono, a nutritionist and researcher at the Hospital for Sick
Children in Toronto, as well as Karen Schaffer, author of The Job of Your Life and Hire
Power.
Campusaccess.com also offers a number of practical resources such as job
offers, a comprehensive internship and volunteer work database, a reference library with a
French verb conjugation tool and a medical dictionary, and on-line scholarships
application forms. The site also links to an extensive list of Canadian universities.
The only disappointment of this all-Canadian site is that French content
is rather light and hard to find.
An avalanche of information
http://snow.utoronto.ca
The Special Needs Opportunities
Windows (SNOW) web site is a useful tool for teachers who teach students with special
needs, are interested in special education or want to share information and experiences
with their colleagues. The site is a clearinghouse of information that covers a wide range
of topics – from teaching methodologies and best practices to professional
development.
The curriculum section includes materials adapted by the Canadian National
Institute for the Blind, a teacher’s guide to teaching Braille to children and
electronic resources submitted by teachers to share with others.
Snow Kids, a related site, is a great link from this site. In the Snow
Kids Empowerment Zone, special needs students, their parents and teachers will find
activities, camps, resources available on the web – one that caught my attention was
the link to the No Bully web site – as well as an education and future career page.
This site is well worth a visit and may catch you in its web for a few
hours.
Hunger Relief on the Web
http://www.thehungersite.com
"Every 3.6 seconds, someone
dies of hunger; 3/4 of the deaths are children under 5. When a country dims on this map,
it signifies a death from hunger in that country." This is the greeting that welcomes
you to www.thehungersite.com , a web site dedicated to bringing relief to the world’s
hungry.
I was a little sceptical when I first heard of the Hunger Site, but this
innovative approach to raising awareness of starvation deserves a close look. The site
links to the United Nations World Food Programme, as well as the site’s corporate
sponsors.
Here’s how the site works. Every time you click on the Donate Food
button, a corporate sponsor makes a food donation on your behalf.
By mid-October, the site had generated close to 7.5 million food donations
this year. Most of the site visits that generate food donations originate in the United
States, but the "donations" list includes surfers from 135 countries around the
world.
This is an interesting web site with an important mission. Have a look at
it, you may be interested in discussing it with your students. And while you’re
there, don’t forget to click on the Donate Food button.
College Web Site Has New Look
http://www.oct.ca
We have refreshed the College
web site with a new design, which was launched on October 5th, World Teachers’ Day.
The new design reflects many of the helpful comments we’ve received from our more
than 180,000 visitors since we established the site in 1997. Please check us out and let
me know what you think.
Denys Gigučre is the College web editor and media relations officer. He can be reached at
dgiguere@oct.ca
