Newsletter 15 Education Forum: First Six MonthsWhen we established this forum in January 2004 we had certain objectives. This included providing a place where people from all over the world could post information, ask and answer questions, and to take part in debates about education. The forum also hoped to help teachers to find partners for subject specific and cross-curricular curriculum projects. Most of all, we hoped that the forum would provide a world community of teachers.
We have had mixed success in our objectives. Although we now have sections in German, Spanish, French, Italian, Dutch, Swedish, Czech and Greek, the involvement of foreign language speaking teachers is still fairly small. However, we have not given up on this ideal and will do what we can do to improve this situation.
We have been pleased with the number of people who have joined the forum (774) and the overall number of postings (7,187). However, we have been unable to maintain the early high percentage of members who posted messages. As a result, we are still too dependent on a fairly small number of posters (Only 30 members have made more than 50 postings).
Some sections have been much more busy than others. For example, History, ICT, English, Politics and Science, have all done well. That is understandable as these were the subjects that the group of teachers who set up the forum taught. For obvious reasons E-Learning and Debates in Education have also been popular.
The main success has been the JFK Assassination section. In just a few months it has become a major source of information for international researchers. It is a place where they can communicate details of the latest material being released by the FBI and CIA. It is also been a place where the world’s experts on the subject have been willing to discuss their latest books and articles with their readers. It is hoped that other sections of the site will learn from this example of how you can use the forum to communicate information to other educators.
One of the most successful aspects of the forum has been our ability to attract non-teachers as participants. I now believe that one of our objectives was wrong. We should have used the term educators rather than teachers. I know some of these educators were at first reluctant to join. I hope you have not regretted it and we have made you feel welcome. You have definitely made an important contribution to the forum’s success.
The main disappointment has been the decision by Becta (British Educational Communications and Technology Agency) to withdraw funding. To quote its website:
“We are the Government's key partner in the development and delivery of its Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and e-learning strategy for schools and the learning and skills sector. As a UK agency, we support all four UK education departments in their strategic ICT developments, facilitating knowledge transfer among them in order to encourage innovation and improvement, and bring coherence and synergy to UK-wide developments.”
Although it has many millions to spend, it decided that the few hundred pounds it cost them was too much. Officially “forums for teachers are not our priority this year”. In reality, they did not like the idea of teachers commenting on government educational policy. Not only did they stop funding the project, they insisted all logos and links were removed from the forum.
Finally, I would like to thank all those who have made the venture a success. Remember, this is very much a cooperative project. By starting threads and by posting your comments, you are shaping the direction the project takes. Please encourage friends and colleagues to join. Let them also help influence the future of education.
Ask an ExpertThe government pays Becta to provide an “Ask an Expert” section on its website. Every month it employs three subject specialists to answer questions from teachers. I recently was paid to do this for history teachers. However, very few people bothered to ask me questions. This is hardly surprising as a recent survey of teachers revealed that very few knew of the existence of Becta’s website. Those who did go to it rarely returned. It is of course another example of how this government wastes taxpayers money.
Another disadvantage of this “Ask an Expert” idea is that it only lasts for a month. For the rest of the year teachers are not able to have their questions answered. Therefore I would like to suggest that we take over responsibility for this service. I cannot offer you any money for your help in this. But if we got three per subject area we could make it work. Please post your comments at the thread below if you are willing to answer questions about ICT and your particular subject.
http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=1170 Ask an Expert: StudentsThe administrators of the forum also hope to create a series of Ask an Expert sections for students. We think this could be particularly useful for coursework assignments. The first one to be created is for students studying American history between 1960-66. A group of historians, authors and researchers have already agreed to answer student questions. So far fourteen have signed up for this experiment. This includes educators from United States, England, Australia, Canada and Belgium.
The idea is that students ask questions via their teacher. However, if you have a sensible student who could make use of this service, please encourage them to join and ask their question directly. Over the next few weeks I hope to establish similar sections on Black History, the Cold War and the Vietnam War. Please feel free to send me your ideas for other sections.
http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=1169http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=1174SHP ConferenceI recently attended an excellent SHP Conference in Leeds. Most of the speakers at the conference agreed to post details of their lectures/seminars/workshops on the Forum. If this experiment is a success we will repeat it with other conferences. Please let me know if you are involved with a conference that would like to communicate information to a wider audience.
http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showforum=128Education on the InternetEducation on the Internet is a free weekly email newsletter for anyone interested in using the internet in schools, colleges or for private study. The journal includes online news, reviews of websites and articles on ICT. Currently Education on the Internet has 52,000 subscribers. If you are interested in me publicizing a website or conference in the newsletter please send me a description (150/200 words) by email.
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/internet.htmMembershipWe now have 792 members. Reading the biographies section it seems we now have members from Britain (98), USA (40), France (14), Australia (14), Spain (9), Netherlands (6), Canada (6), Sweden (5), Belgium (4), Italy (4), Greece (3), Finland (3), Brazil (2), Ireland (2), China (1), Denmark (1), Germany (1), Poland (1), Serbia (1), Belarus (1), Israel (1), South Korea (1), Romania (1), Sudan (1), Philippines (1), Austria (1), India (1) and Hong Kong (1).
NewslettersPast copies of newspapers can be found at:
http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=163 DebatesAt the moment, the following issues provide opportunities for good debate. I would welcome your contributions to these and other debates taking place on the forum.
School Uniform
http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=736 Review of Special Needs
http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=1156Butler Report
http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=1159Success and Happiness
http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=1018Government’s Five Year Education Plan
http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=1127Home Tutors
http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=1151 Teaching the British Empire
http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=1149CIA: Incompetent or Politically Motivated?
http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=1135Military Industrial Complex: 2004
http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=1160Fahrenheit 911
http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=889Using Film to Explore Historical Interpretations
http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=1115ICT and Education
http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=42 John Simkin