The area of "information collection" offers a number of exciting possibilities for collaboration, exchange and access to information for teachers of history and current affairs. Here are some examples:

Kidproject's 'multicultural calendar' is a site where students from around the world can exchange information about culturally specific holidays. This is a good site to read about historical commemorations and events related to local histories. (See sample messages.)

Social studies classes can also get background information from a growing number of holiday- related Web resources. This year there were feature articles on the origins of the American holidays "Halloween" and Thanksgiving , The Chinese New Year, Christmas in France and Canada, Winter Festivals, and Holidays and Seasonal Information . Third and fourth grade students in Denmark created a World Wide Christmas Calendar as a class project where children from around the world contributed texts and artwork about how they celebrate Christmas and other winter holidays.

A spinoff project from the "Multicultural Calendar" is the KIDLINK Flag Project. Students are invited to submit pictures and historical information about their national flags to share with other classes.

In another example of an 'information collection' activity students from a social studies class in Mendocino, California in a project called 'Discovering Canada' were asked to search relevant newsgroups and Web pages to draw conclusions about current issues facing Canada. Students were then asked to use their Internet research to compare Canadian data with similar data from their own country.

The Internet is an excellent medium for accessing historical information from several perspectives. Through World Wide Web sites such as City Net and Yahoo we were able to locate local and national histories about Amsterdam, Surinam, Hawaii , Bangladesh, Spain, Luxembourg, Lebanon, Iraq, Greece, Florence, Italy, Estonia, Sweden, Finland, Israel, Great Britain , Scotland , Ireland , Khazaria , Japan, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Anatolia, Central Eurasia, Kenya, Somalia, Zanzibar, and the Egyptian city of Alexandria.

NEWS AND CURRENT AFFAIRS

An excellent source for viewing sources of information related to a particular news story or topic is the Poynter Institute's website "Hot News / Hot Research". Nora Paul is the researcher who assembles this rich collection of information, often providing the opportunity for students and teachers to research a topic from several points of view. The site is updated frequently and her links are ususally 'spot on'. (Requires at least Netscape 2.0 browser.)

Other sites of interest for current affairs' classes include the information from Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, Somalia Rwanda, and Bosnia.

For topical articles there is Contemporary Conflicts in Africa , The Nando Times, The Washington Post Seven Regional Pages, Time Magazine and Time for Kids (with extensive archives 1995-1998), Life Magazine, US News and World Report, CNN Interactive, monthly archives of Le Monde Diplomatique (English edition), and comphrensive listings of .International News Media Online as well as online newspapers from around the world (including The Zambian Post).

An additional sites from a US university features Anthropology in the News.