Jump to content
The Education Forum

Guardian E-HELP Article


John Simkin

Recommended Posts

Richard Doughty, editor of the ICT in Education supplement in the Guardian, originally commissioned an article about our E-HELP meeting. He initially said he was pleased with it and I was contacted by his picture researcher. It was agreed to go into Doug Belshaw’s school to photograph him using ICT in the classroom. Doug was unfortunately off sick. Plans were made to go in later but this caused problems with deadlines and either for this reason, or some other reason, the article did not appear.

Richard contacted me and apologised for pulling the article. As the supplement was not due to appear for anther 3 months it could not be published it its original form. Understandably as the references to the Toulouse meeting made the article appear outdated. He therefore asked me to rewrite it as an example of E-HELP’s link with using ICT in an innovative way. This I did. At first it was ok but he said it needed a new opening paragraph. This I did.

On Friday afternoon he told me he wants it completely restructured. In essence he wants me to remove all reference to E-HELP and instead wants an article on the latest developments in using ICT in history. In other words, he wants me to completely rewrite the article. I do not have the time to do this (he wants it done in the next couple of days). Therefore, we will not be getting an article about E-HELP in the Guardian.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On Friday afternoon he told me he wants it completely restructured. In essence he wants me to remove all reference to E-HELP and instead wants an article on the latest developments in using ICT in history. In other words, he wants me to completely rewrite the article. I do not have the time to do this (he wants it done in the next couple of days). Therefore, we will not be getting an article about E-HELP in the Guardian.

This is all very frustrating. I am very sorry that you seem to have wasted so much time on this.

Is it worth exploring the possibility of getting coverage in other Educational 'supplements' or should we wait until we have got something concrete to show people?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is all very frustrating. I am very sorry that you seem to have wasted so much time on this.

Is it worth exploring the possibility of getting coverage in other Educational 'supplements' or should we wait until we have got something concrete to show people?

The important point about this is the national press is not interested in E-HELP as such. What they are interested in exciting ways of using ICT in the classroom. So far I have had articles in the Guardian and the TES about the JFK research part of the forum. In both cases, the articles were initiated by the journalists and not by me. The same is true of Salon Magazine. See my posting here:

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=3801

What we have to do is to create exciting projects that we can sell to the national press. See this section on Watergate:

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showforum=217

I suggest we do something similar on European History. First we need to come up with a topic that creates passion in its contributors. It would also help if it is linked to the history of other big internet users such as America, Canada and Australia. One possibility is something controversial on the Second World War. Maybe an examination of the concept of a “war crime”.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is all very frustrating. I am very sorry that you seem to have wasted so much time on this.

Is it worth exploring the possibility of getting coverage in other Educational 'supplements' or should we wait until we have got something concrete to show people?

The important point about this is the national press is not interested in E-HELP as such. What they are interested in exciting ways of using ICT in the classroom. So far I have had articles in the Guardian and the TES about the JFK research part of the forum. In both cases, the articles were initiated by the journalists and not by me. The same is true of Salon Magazine. See my posting here:

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=3801

What we have to do is to create exciting projects that we can sell to the national press. See this section on Watergate:

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showforum=217

I suggest we do something similar on European History. First we need to come up with a topic that creates passion in its contributors. It would also help if it is linked to the history of other big internet users such as America, Canada and Australia. One possibility is something controversial on the Second World War. Maybe an examination of the concept of a “war crime”.

As part of the E-HELP project I have started an international discussion on war crimes in the 20th Century.

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=3813

Hopefully, people from a wide range of different countries will join in this debate. To start the ball rolling I have posted an article that appeared in today’s Guardian. Richard Drayton is senior lecturer in history at Cambridge University.

I will also post details of this debate on other forums for history teachers.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...