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The following reviews were written for ISRSA newsletters.   There are links to each of the sites from the main RESOURCES part of this site, but the links below also work.

Modern Church History    Project Canterbury Website

Ethics:  University of San Diego 'Ethics Updates' Site

Christianity GCSE:   The Armchair Travel Company

Project Canterbury Website: 

http://justus.anglican.org/resources/pc/

This is an Anglo-Catholic site concerned with publishing the primary sources of the Oxford Movement, its precursors and nineteenth century Anglo-Catholicism.  The site contains much useful information for A'level teaching in these areas.  In particular, the site has the following texts available on-line, which can be downloaded or copied in whole or part as they are out of copyright.
The complete texts of all ninety  Tracts for The Times
The text of Keble's sermon 'National Apostasy'
Keble's collection of poetry The Christian Year [- broken link when I tried it]
Official Anglican Documents
Pictures of Anglican divines
Overall, this is a very useful site for teachers as a resource.  Finding specific things of the site is not always easy [especially Keble's sermon, which is tucked away in 'Official Documents'], so pupils may struggle with navigating around the site at times.   Selected links, say to the index for The Tracts or to Keble's sermon, bookmarked on a library computer may be useful for pupils who enjoy using the internet for their research. 

 

University of San Diego 'Ethics Updates' Site 

http://ethics.acusd.edu/index.html

If you are teaching A'level ethics this is your dream website, it has everything.   The site is managed by Lawrence M. Hinman who runs the Ethics programme at USD and he has put the whole of his undergraduate course on this site.   The site is very easy to use, and if there is one criticism to make of it, it is that there is simply too much choice. 
The site has an accompanying text-book, which is very well suited to A'level pupils 
Ethics - A Pluralistic Approach to Moral Theory Ed.2
Hardcourt Brace ISBN 0-15-503707-2
He distinguishes between Ethical Theory and Applied Ethics and there is a vast amount of material on each area.  Most of the applied ethical sections have the following range of resources:
PowerPoint Presentations of his lectures which can be downloaded
In some cases his lectures can be viewed online, although if you are watching at a busy time there is a considerable amount of buffering [the picture isn't consistent]
Surveys and Poll data of [American] public opinion about a particular issue
American Court decisions relating to the particular issue
Any religious [esp. Papal] documents on the issue
Excellent links on each issue
Academic papers in full text on each issue
RealAudio links on the issue [chat show discussion and lectures]
On-line discussion forums to discuss the issues
The site is US-oriented so there are some deficiencies in terms of the legal history of an issue and the pressure groups relating to the topic, so this is best for the arguments which are much more universal.
The Armchair Travel Company

http://www.armchair-travel.com/index.html

Armchair travel are a company who are producing some excellent 360 degree panoramas of famous buildings.  From this site you can download panoramas of St. Paul's Cathedral and Westminster Abbey.  The programmes run using QuickTime software, which can be downloaded free from the internet
St Paul's Cathedral -
Two versions are available on CD ROM from Armchair Travel
the tourist version at £20.95
the scholastic version at £30.95
The following can be viewed and downloaded free

If you have a PC, I have found that these work best when down loaded if you change the file suffix from .mov to .qt.  That way Windows recognises the file as QuickTime and does not try to open in with some other movie program, which won't manage to get anywhere with it.

Great West Entrance - (QTVR 560k)
The Chapel of St Michael and St George - (QTVR 560k)
The Centre of the Cathedral - (QTVR 560k)
The High Altar and Choir - (QTVR 560k)
Nelson's Tomb - (QTVR 560k)
The OBE Chapel - (QTVR 560k)
Westminster Abbey
is not yet available on CD ROM.
The following can be viewed and downloaded free
The West Entrance - (QTVR 544k)
The Nave and Altar - (QTVR 576k)
The High Altar and Sanctuary - (QTVR 576k)
The Choir - (QTVR 560k)
The Henry VII Chapel - (QTVR 576k)
These give an excellent impression of what it is like to be in the building.  You control the rotation of the panoramas with the mouse [left click and drag] or with the arrow keys.   You can zoom in with the 'Shift' key and out with the 'Control' key.  Hence you can focus on the lectern, and then move across to the pulpit, and then zoom in on the altar giving the impression of moving down through the choir.  Hours of endless fun here.

M.S.S. 10/2/00