AcademicNet Instructors should welcome this site, which fosters a marketplace of ideas specific to education. Now educators can collaborate on projects that focus on using technology to enhance student achievement. Teachers can congregate here, and bypass the aging administrative hierarchies that don't employ computers. Call it the "education underground," if you will. The site requires registration to obtain the full resources available.-WKC

B

American Montessori Society Most parents and educators have, at one time or another, become disgusted with the state of education in the United States. A small but significant minority has opted for innovative montessori schools, which follow the lead of Italy's Dr. Maria Montessori. This site fulfills three purposes: It promotes (endlessly) the montessori method; acts as conduit to the American Montessori Society; and provides a list of public montessori schools. This last 76K tidbit (probably the most useful for most visitors) is found at the bottom of the home page. But wander about: You'll be surprised at what you'll learn!-TG

B-

Elementary Spanish Curriculum Are you looking for an online source for Spanish language instruction? Well, you won't find it here. Instead, educator Leslie Veen outlines her method of teaching Spanish to elementary- and middle school-age children. The one-page document includes goals for grammar, vocabulary, and cultural understanding, from the point of view of the teacher. It's not that this site is badly done - the curriculum is as good as anything you'll get from your local high-school teacher. But that's all there is to it, and, as such, it's of limited interest.-TG

D

Ethnologue Database One of my favorite books is *Languages of the World*, by the genius lexicographer Kenneth Katzman. It includes information on several hundred of the world's 6,500 languages, with - and this is the good part - examples of each. The Ethnologue Database is a similar project, minus the examples. On this web site, the world's languages are cataloged according to name, linguistic family, and region in which they are spoken. Despite the shallowness of information on individual languages and some inaccuracies, the Ethnologue Database belongs on every linguist's hotlist.-TG

B

eWorld Learning Community The eWorld Learning Community has gathered an impressive set of quality links under categories such as News Rack, Apple Education Resource, Museum, and School House. Unfortunately, links are pretty much all this site has to offer. It's a misnomer for eWorld to claim that this is its Learning Community. The links belong to the Internet; the site should be called the Internet Learning Community. But enough on semantics. The design is tasteful, but , save a search engine, there are no cool technical devices to add any pizzazz to this site.-WKC

C+

Home-Ed-Kids So, you think you're going to find treatises on the advantages of home schooling at this site? Not on your noodle. This page is dedicated to the kids themselves. It is an area for home-schooled youths to meet and interact, just as their public school friends interact on physical playgrounds. Much of the site is developed by preteens. The content is uneven, but when it is good, it soars - and the technical sophistication is astounding (chat rooms, bulletin boards, image maps, and search engines all play a part.). Get bowled over by incredible depths of information by visiting the parent directories as well.-TG

B

Homespun Web of Home Educational Resources Homeschooling - do-it-yourself education, if you will - is how a select few parents gain more control of their kids' education. This site is a clearinghouse on that subject, with special emphasis on archival data like FAQs, newsgroups, and lists of contact people. While a high percentage of homeschooling proponents teach their kids at home for religious reasons, the site is mostly unbiased on such matters. It *is* heavily Texas-oriented, though, as that state seems to have the most active homeschooling movement. While its content isn't terribly deep, the Homespun Web is a good place for concerned parents to start.-TG

C+

Internet College Exchange This is a resource primarily geared toward high school seniors and juniors who are trying to find a good college - although it would also be helpful for parents who are trying to nudge aging progeny out of the house. The concept behind the site is solid, although content is sparse. It's certainly a page that's aching to grow. A snazzy search utility provides names of colleges based on entered criteria. The best content on the site can be found in The Dunce's Cap, an informative and irreverently written newsletter about college admissions.-WKC

B

Invention Dimension Besides finding some crucial information I needed about the inventor of Bakelite (Leo Baekeland, known affectionately as the "Father of Plastics") this site offered little of interest. I expected to find profiles of wacky inventors and their crazy projects - you know, the inventions we laugh at today, but can't live without tomorrow. But no, the site just offers information on a few famous inventors, and links to invention information, plus winners of the prestigious Lemelson-MIT Prize.-WKC

C+

Kaplan Educational Centers Kaplan - famous for helping underachievers earn admission to their parents' swanky alma maters - has an extremely useful Web site. To be fair, there are plenty of people who chose educational paths to law and medicine a little late, and definitely benefited from Kaplan testing materials. The site features summaries of the current climates for admission into professional college programs. Kaplan books and software can be purchased online, and a special feature section displays an offbeat sense of humor. Though a commercial site, Kaplan offers invaluable free resources for those interested in professional development.-WKC

A-

Library of Congress Amazing content. If you want to feel one with the democratic process, go here and peel through the Thomas legislative database. Read the actual text of the bills that you *think* you know something about. There is also a great bibliography of published works that can be searched by title or name. The library features exhibits on specific themes, such as women in World War II. And if that weren't enough, there's also a great image archive. The main drawback is that the site isn't very intuitively organized; it does require some effort to locate points of interest.-WKC

A

Nellie Mae Loan Link Resource for Student Loan Info Nellie Mae runs a tight ship with no loose ends, and no extraneous information or pages. It's a very streamlined site - and this is not my ironic way of saying there's little content. You'll find a number of pages filled with very practical information about student loans, focusing on the student loans Nellie Mae specifically offers. There is also a page on when to start applying for loans, and some brief explanations of the different kinds of loans. This site *could* be more in-depth.-WKC

B

Nizhoni School for Global Consciousness This is a one-page information board for a school located in Santa Fe, New Mexico. There isn't much reason to go here unless you feel a strong need to attend classes that teach people to "follow their hearts to their purest source of intelligence, the Higher Self." That's about all the information this page offers, but there is a book you can order (offline) that will tell you more about this Navajo-inspired course of study.-WKC

D+

Peterson's Education Center Wow. It's not often that information resource companies give you full access to their material via the Web: There's still no effective way to make money off of it. Peterson's does, however, providing a huge stock of info about schools, summer programs, and business management. As with most pages, this site is under continual construction; you'll frequently be greeted by a "We're sorry..." message. But the areas that *are* fully implemented - such as those with Graduate School information - are gorgeous, complete, and easy-to-use. Peterson's Education Center is a gem that will only get better - until you have to pay for it.-TG

A-

The Student Guide 1995-96 For most students, the most difficult hurdle of higher education isn't the course work - it's finding the money to pay for it. A lot of college funding ultimately comes from the federal government in the form of loans and grants. But how can you learn more about financial aid? That's where The Student Guide comes in. Released each year by the Department of Education, it tells you how to qualify, whom to contact, and how you can expect to repay the loans. This web site is really just a more "browsable" form of a 126K document, which is also available for downloading. Regardless of how you view The Student Guide, every prospective college student should check it out.-TG

B-

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign OK, Web users, lets collectively bow in the direction of UIUC, host to the National Center for Supercomputing Applications. Without the bright boys and girls at NCSA, the Web would not be what it is today. Sadly, I can't say if that's a good thing or bad thing. But for a site of such distinction, UIUC lacks wild HTML tricks. It *is* big and fast, however, and provides so much information, you could spend a few days just finding your way around. You'll find complete college catalog-type information, plus the university's library site.-WKC

B+

UT Austin Web Central Austin can be considered the birthplace of the "slacker" archetype: a center for high-tech companies, one of the few progressive cities in Texas... and, rumor has it, there's a university down there, too. Well blow me down. UT is a gargantuan university, and its WWW presence reflects its size. The site's internal search engine bears this out: A search for the word "racquetball"returned 17 references, mostly on students' personal pages. Altogether, there are more than 25,000 web pages on 170 servers (so they say, anyway), including everything you ever wanted to know about UT. Beware the badly designed image maps.-TG

B

Word Page Well, let's award Word Page an "E" for effort - although I don't know how to factor an "E" into a GPA. The purpose of this site is to help people learn 10 new words a week - an admirable enterprise. Unfortunately, it doesn't help if you already know the words the site's editor happened to pick. Also, the definitions provided are a little weak, consisting of a short phrase or sentence. It wouldn't take much effort, and certainly not much space, to include full dictionary definitions. And, finally, the misspellings littered throughout the site aren't going to impress any educators out there.-WKC

C+