(Oklahoma City - October, 98) - Education World (www.education-world.com) holds a clue that will help unlock a treasure chest containing more than $100,000 in cash and prizes for participants of Lycos CyberSurfari '98, the Internet's largest treasure hunt. Running from Oct. 20 to Nov. 20, the month-long online contest made possible for the fourth year by the Software Publishers Association (SPA) is designed to help students, teachers and families learn how to benefit from surfing the Web. Education World serves as one of 100 outposts - the sites participants must search to reveal clues. Outposts are selected to represent a broad spectrum of leading educational, cultural and entertainment sites.
"Education World is proud to serve as an outpost for Lycos CyberSurfari '98," said Education World Executive Producer Rob York. "The contest reflects our commitment to increasing the value of Internet experiences for students and adults and making their online experience as rich as possible. We are confident that many treasure seekers who visit Education World during the contest will understand why we were just named the world's best education Web site by FamilyPC."
As schools across the nation ramp up with technology, educators are teaching students how to utilize the Internet by incorporating CyberSurfari into their Fall curriculum. In 1997, more than 4,500 school teams competed with family teams and individuals from 97 countries - a sixteen-fold increase over 1995. Over half the teachers who organized school teams indicated that CyberSurfari had been designated as part of their educational curriculum as opposed to an extra-curricular activity. This signaled a major breakthrough for the event and is a result of the popularity of the contest with students and the educational value of a structured Web activity.
"CyberSurfari has become one of SPA's greatest achievements in promoting the integration of technology and schools," said Ken Wasch, SPA president. "The contest focuses on navigating the wealth of information available on the World Wide Web in a team or individual format that's just plain fun. Many classes hold a pizza party to kick off the competition and students are eager to find clues both at school and with their parents' help at home. We consider Lycos CyberSurfari '98 a perfect vehicle to introduce students to the Internet, and we're proud that educators agree."
Education World is the home for educators on the Internet. The free site is a valuable on-line resource that helps simplify the education community's ability to use the Internet. Education World is designed to help educators in lesson planning and classroom projects as well as in their own continuing education and professional development.
This unique Web site features the Internet's largest education-specific search engine with links to over 100,000 sites. Plus it offers monthly reviews of other educational Web sites, a grade-specific search engine, national education employment listings, curriculum tools, lesson plans, forums, news, and other weekly original content.
SPA is the principal trade association of the software industry, representing the leading publishers as well as start-up firms in the business, home office, consumer, entertainment and education markets. SPA supports companies that develop and publish software applications and tools for use on the desktop, client-server networks and the Internet. SPA's 1,200 member companies account for 85 percent of U.S. revenue for packaged and online software. Additional information on SPA and its activities on behalf of the software industry can be found at http://www.spa.org.
Additional Info:
Visit Education World at http://www.education-world.com.
Further information on CyberSurfari '98 is accessible at http://www.spa.org/cybersurfari. Sample "outpost" clues are accessible at http://www.spa.org/cybersurfari/practiceclues.htm.
The CyberSurfari '98 graphic may be pulled from http://www.spa.org/cybersurfari/cyberads/cyberads.htm.
