Richard Jones-Nerzic

As promised, Russel and myself had our students make 'digital stories' of their trip to Carcassonne in November. We were both impressed with the whole process. Because the the students knew they we're going to make films of the day they we're much more focused and attentive than would normally be the case. After the films were made we we're able to engage in relatively high level philosophical discussion about the nature of historical discourse. The students had been turned into historical commentators telling 'the history' of their day. The stories were all very different and of varied quality; thinking about why they differed made usually abstract concepts associated with interpretation very concrete. Most interestingly they were able to make qualitative judgements on what constitutes good (and bad) history.

http://194.3.120.243/humanities/y8/term1/c...sonne/index.htm

Thank you Dalibor for the work you did put into this - and thank you all members for adopting a big hairy Swede. It's great to have a continuation in E-HELP!

For lots of reasons I have only just noticed this thread. I'd like to add my thanks to Dalibor for inviting me to join the VS and the Swedish ministry of Education for funding my participation. The more I think about it and the time I spent at various VS meetings, the more I realise this was quite a remarkable organisation. Thanks.

I think this would be a great idea. To be able to get everybody ready I would suggest a trial next weekend - one time at Saturday (1/10) and one time at Sunday (2/10).

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Sounds good to me but I might be otherwise indisposed. We are expecting Inessa Jones-Nerzic to arrive on Thursday so I am either likely to be Oliver watching or at the hospital with mother and baby...

It would also be good if the movie file of their presentation be attached here or on the E-Help website as a training resource

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I actually captured this video (90 minutes) yesterday. The quality is not as good as in the Toulouse meeting (largely a sound issue) but it is certaily good enough. I will be sending Donald a DVD and Windows Movie File copy of the video in the next few days. He has hinted that he is willing to edit some of the key aspects for us.

The exiting aspect of digital storytelling is that it gives far more power to the individual to construct their own understanding of the past. It would make an interesting history project for students to work with grandparents in order to reconstruct their past.

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Yes, this aspect struck a chord with me also. Oral history can be a fantastic experience for students and a wonderful way of bridging generational gaps particularly within a family. But oral history can also be a bit onesided and tends to be one-off. The idea of scripting and performing a documentary together over a series of meetings, could be a wonderfully challenging experience. I have already thought of getting some of my students to have a go next summer.

The other idea I picked up from the seminar was storytelling of the school trip. What a brilliantly simple way of getting students to reflect on the educational experience of field work. Have all the students share their digital photos of the trip on the school network. Make them choose a set number of images (say, 10) give them a strict time-limit, a headphone microphone set, MovieMaker and a choice of music and away they go. Students can then compare their 'stories' and reflect on the subjectivity of history production and documentary technique. IST students will definately be doing this in the next year.

If someone is learning in a way that uses information and communications technologies (ICTs), they are using e-learning. They could be a pre-school child playing an interactive game; they could be a group of pupils collaborating on a history project with pupils in another country via the Internet; they could be geography students watching an animated diagram of a volcanic eruption their lecturer has just downloaded; they could be a nurse taking her driving theory test online with a reading aid to help her dyslexia - it all counts as e-learning.

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The title of our Comenius project - e-Help (European History e-Learning Project) - has even caused confusion amongst some of our members, who for sometime assumed that is was all about using the Internet to teach and learn history. I have always embraced this wider understanding of e-learning.

On the question of the relative ICT abilities of teachers and students, I agree that teachers are generally more clued up now. But it is always helped my teaching to assume that 5% of my class is more intelligent than me. I do the same with ICT. Even with my intensive exposure to ICT (I teach in a laptop school) there's always someone in the class who can do whatever I am doing better than I am doing it. You just have to learn to learn.

Sounds like a research thesis to me! 

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As the teacher who proposed and is supervising Zhenia's work, I'd very much like to thank everyone for their contributions to this thread so far.

I'd particularly like to thank John for starting this and Ben for (unprompted) mentioning Keith Jenkins and the post-modern critique! I sometimes get the impression from my students that they feel I've lost the plot entirely when I do my IB Theory of Knowledge (TOK) sessions on Hayden White et al. Zhenia is one of a number of excellent students I have been trying to push in this direction over the years. She might take my suggestions more seriously now!

To Nick, I started teaching in Wales in 1993 when we were first introducing the concept of a different national curriculum to that across the border! It really was fascinating. If I remember Mr Spartacus provided us with the very first textbooks to try and teach this new subject. And let's not forget, it was a very new subject that had to be created out of next to nothing. A comprehensive school history of Wales had not previously existed.

At the time I was fortunate enough to be sharing a house with the late-great Rob Phillips, (then PGCSE history tutor at Swansea) someone who always had a lot to say about history teaching and nationhood. Rob was as Welsh as you like, but he had done all of his teaching in England. I remember the new series of government funded 'official' texts coming out for KS3 in Wales. There was one in particular, written for Y8 (I think) by Turvey(?) which made Rob's blood boil. I came home from work and he started shaking the book in my face, 'have you seen this, have you seen this!' he shouted, 'absolute bloody disgrace'; (which I should add was one of his favourite expressions). In fact he thought the book very good, but there was one sentence in it which he could not forgive. In the introductory narrative to one of the chapters it described the relations between England and Wales. If I remember (help me out here Nick if you can), the author described the Welsh as traditionally 'hating' the English. So annoyed was he, he even wrote an article for the Western Mail! Not even a curry and a pint in the Mumbles could calm him down that night.

To Zhenia, the research funded by the Council of Europe (mentioned by Ben) is the same document I gave you at the start of the holiday.

We have now identified this problem. We had this email this morning:

Hello Andrew Walker,

It has come to our attention that invalid clicks have been generated on

the Google ads on your site(s). We have therefore disabled your Google

AdSense account. Please understand that this step was taken in an

effort to protect the interest of the AdWords advertisers.

It was clear that there had been a sophisticated plot to cut off my revenue stream. The same thing has now happened with Google AdSense and the International Education Forum. It is possible this is linked to another matter. See this thread:

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=4488

If the person responsible for this action is reading this thread I would like to send him a message. Andy and myself are not motivated my money and will fund the Forum out of our own pockets if necessary.

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What has happened seems to be a very common problem. http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&saf...+adsense+google

This website claims it is possible to get AdSense banned by clicking on the links twice! http://www.the-affiliate-directory.com/art...t-2-clicks.html

Some webmasters use Google Adsense to generate 100% of their website income and the account may hold many different websites. In that case, every website is disabled at one time. An automatic disqualification can be devastating, especially when Google has no obligation to explain its decision in detail.

Not only does the account become disabled, but also existing click-through earnings are refunded back to the advertisers.

Life gets tough, but is it that easy to get an account banned? Yes it is.

The terms of service every Google Adsense Webmaster accepts, describes the easy do's and don'ts.

Do use the Adsense approved formats only

Do keep your click-through data and income private.

Don't display Adsense on registration or thank you pages.

Don't use Adsense code and a competitor's content-targeted advertisement on the same page.

Don't encourage anyone else to click on ads.

For a complete list, read the Adsense policies and terms

https://www.google.com/adsense/policies

https://www.google.com/adsense/terms

The easiest method an account can be banned is by a Webmaster clicking on the site's own ads.

Just how many click-throughs are needed to get a site banned isn't exposed, but Google Adsense watches for multiple clicks from the same domain. One person was banned who clicked twice from the same domain within a 24-hour period. That doesn't mean that is Adsense policy, because Adsense appears to place suspect sites on watch status until the action is duplicated.

Spikes in click-through percentages are hefty red flags. Those are the changes worth becoming proactive over by emailing Google Adsense. A site that rises from a consistent 1% click-through rate to a 10% click-through rate on one day could become suspect. The actual percentage that creates the flag isn't made public for obvious reasons.

What's the safest way to protect an account?

Don't click on the site's own ads ever.

Deceptive practices work for a short time, but they always come back to hurt the originator.

Having encouraged members to click through, (I routinely do! ) you may have created problems. However in my view, the most likely explanation is that someone who knew that multiple-clicks disabled AdSense deliberately multiclicked.

Hi - I've been pondering the best way forward on the 'women's history' topic, and especially the oral/social history, rather than the political history. Perhaps if we can agree a kind of template for interviewing women about their experiences, that we could all use, so we are working in a similar way.

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I have been thinking further about this idea of template, perticularly from a practical and use of dv camera perspective. Came across this excellent advice sheet for doing oral history on the US History Channel site.

Preparing for the Interview

Background Reading: What have you found out about your interview

topic?

“Just the Facts”: Taking Notes

After doing some background reading, one of the best ways to begin

sorting through the information that you have just learned about

your focus topic is to fill in answers for the five “w’s:” who, what,

when, where and why. Start by writing your focus topic in the title

box at the top of the page. Then, write, in your own words, quick

notes that answer the five “w” questions listed down the side of the

page. Most likely, you will find a lot of information about your focus

topic in books, movies, and on the Internet. It is up to you to sift

through the information and choose those facts that will help you the

most to prepare for your interview. Remember that the goal of this

exercise is to help you come up with the most useful questions to ask

your interview subject.

Note-taking Example:

Title: Sit-in Movement of the 1960s

Who? Started by college students across the country, the sit-in

movement later was coordinated by SNCC (the Student Nonviolent

Coordinating Committee).

What? An act of civil disobedience by African Americans who sat

down at segregated lunch counters and refused to leave until they

had been given service.

When? The sit-in movement began in February, 1960.

Where? Started at a Woolworth’s store in Greensboro, North

Carolina, but quickly spread across the southern United States.

Why? To gain equal treatment for African Americans at lunch

counters and other establishments that refused to serve customers

on account of their race.

Writing Interview Questions

Memory Questions:

After you have decided on a focus topic and done some background

reading, you should carefully consider and write down the questions

that you plan to use in your interview, using your own worksheet or

the one provided with this manual. Your interview should begin with

several memory questions. First, memory questions should help relax

your subject and get them in a mood to reminisce. Second, these

questions will help you gather information about your subject’s

personal experiences.

Note that your topic and questions will be shaped by the subject(s)

you choose to interview. You will get the best answers if you ask your

interview subject to talk about his or her own experiences, so

encourage your interviewee to provide personal stories, sad and

funny memories that you will not find in the standard school books.

Your Job is to Record and Interpret History

· Write and ask good questions.

· Get good stories that are told in an interesting way.

· Examine and understand the different beliefs, interests, hopes and fears in follow up questions.

· Evaluate your evidence to make conclusions.

Writing Additional Questions

In order to learn as much as possible from the interview experience

you should write several questions that will encourage your subject

to expand and explain their feelings and ideas. The second stage of

questions should encourage your subject to dig deeper into the

stories to explain why things happened and how they relate to other

events.

Below are some basic questions to help you get started. Use your

own worksheet, or the one provided, to write your own complete

questions.

Explanation Questions

· What caused this event...?

· Why did this happen...?

· What happened next...?

· Can you describe the scene in one word...?

· Can you compare two events...?

· Explain the reason for...?

· What conclusion can you draw...?

· What is your point of view about...?

· Can you describe the scene...?

· Can you explain a photograph...?

Judgment Questions

The last group of questions should offer your subject a chance to

talk about the “big picture” by telling about what was good or bad,

important or less important. These questions should be asked last

because they allow the interview subject a chance to sum up and

make conclusions. Remember that this is your subject’s opportunity

to give his or her own opinion—you may or may not agree with the

conclusions.

Judgment Questions

· What was the happiest (funniest or saddest) memory?

· What was your biggest accomplishment?

· What actions would you change if you had a chance to re-live those

years again?

· What mistakes did people make during this period or event in history?

· What should people today remember about this time/event?

MEMORY + EXPLANATION + JUDGMENT =

SUCCESSFUL INTERVIEW

Even with your best efforts some people may need some extra

questions to encourage them to tell the full story.

Don’t be afraid to ask for details or explanations.

Back up Questions:

Why was this important?

How did the story begin or end?

What else do you want to tell me about this?

What important question did I forget to ask you?

Interview Tips

Proper Attire

You want your interview subjects to relax and tell their best

stories. Your clothing should not distract your subject from

the purpose of the interview. You should be neatly dressed in

comfortable clothes.

Practice

If you are not familiar with audio- or videotape recorders, you

should make a practice tape at home.

Set Up

If you are videotaping your interview, the camera will be set up on a

tripod. Put the camera as close to the interview subject as possible.

If you have a camera operator ask him or her to keep the camera as

still as possible. Use the zoom button only when a close-up seems to

help the audience understand the story being told. (Do not put the

camera more than ten feet from the subject unless you have a

special microphone that is attached to a jack.)

Identify the Tape

Whether you use an audio- or videotape, you want to be sure to

identify your project.

Speaking clearly, say, “My name is

__________________ and, I am interviewing

________________________ on the topic

of____________________. The time is_____a.m./p.m. and the

date is _____________________.”

Conducting the Interview

Let your interview subject know that this is an important project and

that you are very interested in his or her personal experiences.

Treat the interview as serious work. Ask each question from your

list and wait respectfully for an answer. (Don’t be afraid of silence!

Sometimes it may take your subject a moment or two to compose an

answer.) Look directly at the person who is giving the interview.

Nod and smile to show that you are listening and understand the

story. If you don’t understand, ask a follow up question.

Remember this probably will be your only chance to get these stories

on tape.

Interview Skill:

Active Listening

If you find that your interview subject needs to be assured that you

are listening and understand his or her story, try to paraphrase

(repeat in your own words) an important part of the interview. This

will let your storytellers know that you are connecting with them and

their stories.

Example:

Interview Subject: “My assignment during the sit-ins was not to

leave the lunch counter until we had been served. This meant that

we had to keep our seats and remain nonviolent, even when people

started yelling and throwing food at us.”

Your paraphrase: “You were determined to stay at the lunch counter

until you had achieved your goal.”

Checking the Tape

When you feel the interview is complete. Stop the recorder and

rewind the tape. Replay the tape to check to see that the recording

can be seen and/or heard.

Ask your subject if he or she wishes to erase or add any comments

before you leave. Once both of you are satisfied, ask your subject

to sign the following permission form. This is an important final step

of the interview (This will allow you to show the interview to others.)

Before you leave, smile and say, “Thank you!”

http://www.historychannel.com/classroom/or...tguidelines.pdf

Perhaps this has been mentioned before, but I found this flash movie, dystopian future of media the sort of thing I'd love to use in the classroolm if I had a chance. http://oak.psych.gatech.edu/~epic/

I thought this list from the British Film Intstitute an interesting starting point about suitable films to teach citizenship issues:

A is for Autism

UK

1992

Tim Webb

E

Antz

USA

1998

Eric Darnell and Tim Johnson

PG

Bend it Like Beckham

UK/Germany

2002

Gurindher Chadha

PG

Boyz N the Hood

USA

1991

John Singleton

15

Edward Scissorhands

USA

1990

Tim Burton

PG

Hoop Dreams

USA

1994

Steve James

15

Hush-a-bye Baby

UK

1990

Margot Harkin

15

In the Name of the Father

USA

1993

Jim Sheridan

15

La Haine

France

1995

Matthieu Kassowitz

15

My Beautiful Laundrette

UK

1985

Stephen Frears

15

Planet of the Apes

USA

1968

Franklin S Schaffner

PG

Ratcatcher

UK

1999

Lynne Ramsay

15

Thelma and Louise

USA

1991

Ridley Scott

15

The Truman Show

USA

1998

Peter Weir

PG

Twelve Angry Men

USA

1957

Sydney Lummet

U

When We Were Kings

USA

1996

Leon Gast

PG

http://www.bfi.org.uk/education/resources/...nded/index.html

What other films would you add?

The British Film Institute has an excellent website that includes these resources that advise on how film might be used in the teaching of citizenship:

A major theme in citizenship education is the role of the media in society. While most citizenship teaching tends to focus very much on the news and how the news is produced, films provide a rich source of material with which to deepen and extend students understanding of issue that are raised in the news. Furthermore, examining the way films represent the world to us can enhance young people's understanding of the role of the media in society more broadly. The section on Film and the curriculum outlines some of the citizenship themes you can explore with films. The ideas are presented within the framework of the National Curriculum for Citizenship for England, but could be easily adapted to other curricula.

http://www.bfi.org.uk/education/resources/...ship/index.html

I am quoting from:

http://europa.eu.int/comm/education/progra...menius2_en.html

"Project partnerships for European cooperation projects under Comenius 2 must include at least one eligible institution involved in the initial and/or in-service training of teachers or other categories of school education staff in each of at least three participating countries."

This is verry worrying indeed.

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Most of the institutions involved with e-help are involved in teacher training in one form or another. The application form requires this information to be made explicit. What makes e-Help a little unusual is that the coordinating institution is not involved in teacher training. At the coordinators meeting last February I did not meet one other school teacher!

I have just spoken to Les Albiston and the IST definately wish to be involved in this project. The problem we have is that September 2 is a very important training day for us and no representative from the IST will be able to join you until the evening at the earliest.

I intend to create short (5 minute) tasters of the presentation key points, which act as an encouragement to read more.  People generally illustrated their presentation with images, software and video, which it is quite useful to see them demonstrating or commenting on.  I hope to cut visuals from the presentation into the film in an attempt to recapture this.

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One of things I want to show in the June Toulouse meeting is how I hope to produce videos to go with the written presentations for the e-Help website.

Having worked on these for a while now, I am fairly convinced we can go beyond the agreed '5 minute' taster and use something (a little) more substantial. I don't want to show the whole presentation but perhaps the essence and the key points in about 10 minutes. This video of Terry's presentation illustrates very well what I have in mind in terms of cutting PowerPoint slides with video and stills.

Video broadband 384k

Because the original tape is such good quality (sound in particular is outstanding) the heavily compressed version is more than watchable. The film of Terry is 25mb, just over 2mb per minute. In the final version I will probably use Flash which will compress the video still further.

What do people think?

Though I do not dislike number 15 logos I do feel that it is too much “official” and “taken for granted”.

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I take Dalibor's point. I also think for a design point of view I think we'd be better off with something transparent, something that will drop easily onto a white background.

I also like the idea behind number 11 (the life-belt). Perhaps the stars of the EU on a blue life-belt???

I can see we'll spend longer on deciding the logo than the CMS/curriculum course/ content combined! Just as it should be

E-Help members and associates are invited to post a summary of their presentation here.

Thank you very much for this. Extremely useful.

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No problem. It's worth looking around on the Socrates website for the most recent relevant documents.

The two of us will have some time during the e-Help meeting to discuss your application. I'm not an expert, but what I do know took me a long time to acquire.

I went to a meeting for people about to start running Comenius courses a few months ago. It was pointed out that the concept of “lifelong learning” was going to be very important in approved Comenius projects in the future. Maybe we should consider ways we could incorporate this idea into our project.

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It is already important. When writing an application it is important to consider the general goals of the Socrates programme but also the annual transversal priorities. Section 8 of the application form is dedicated to this. For example when e-Help applied in March 2004 the relevant transversal priorites included:

Transversal priorities 2004

A

On 1 May 2004 the European Union is expected to have 10

new Member States. Negotiations with Bulgaria and Romania

continue. The European Commission has therefore confirmed

the enlargement of the Union as a general priority for 2004.

Socrates is well placed to develop and promote links between

the enlargement countries and existing EU members, as the

former already participate in the programme. Efforts within

the Socrates programme will be stepped up by applying a

policy of positive discrimination towards the candidate

countries in selecting and funding projects involving these

countries, subject to their being of the necessary quality.

D. The future challenges to education and training systems and

Lifelong learning

A joint ‘detailed work programme’ (8) of the European

Commission and the Council, which aims at implementing

the report on the ‘Concrete future Objectives of

education and training Systems’ (9) was adopted by the

Education Council in February 2002. A Council resolution

on lifelong learning which followed the Commission's 2001

Communication ‘Making a European Area of Lifelong Learning

a Reality’ (10) was adopted in May 2002 and set out a wide

range of follow-up actions. These policy initiatives are being

implemented by means of the ‘Integrated Approach’ focussing

on eight thematic activities:

— teacher and trainer education,

— basic skills, foreign language teaching, entrepreneurship,

— information and communication technology (ICT) in

education and training,

— increasing participation in mathematics and science,

— resources and investment,

— mobility and European cooperation,

— open learning environment, active citizenship, inclusion,

— making learning attractive, strengthening links with

working life and society.

Applications submitted under Socrates are expected to play an

important role in supporting the implementation of these

priority themes, as they are entirely consistent with the

programme's objectives.

E. Action Plan on Promoting Language Learning and Linguistic

Diversity

The European Commission's Action Plan ‘Promoting Language

Learning and Linguistic Diversity’ will be published in

mid-2003 and implemented from the end of 2003 onwards.

The Socrates programme is the Commission's principal

instrument for promoting language learning in all sectors of

education. The Action Plan will set out ways in which all

Socrates Actions can promote more language learning and

better language teaching in a context of linguistic diversity.

F. eLearning

Following various initiatives for the integration and use of

information and communication technologies (ICT) in the

field of education, the European Commission adopted the

eLearning Action Plan on 28 March 2001 (11) which defines

eLearning as ‘the use of new multimedia technologies and the

Internet to improve the quality of learning, by facilitating

access to resources and services as well as remote exchanges

and collaboration’. The eLearning Action Plan laid the foundations

for the eLearning programme proposal which was

adopted by the Commission on 19 December 2002 (12) and

which will focus on a limited number of priorities, such as

school twinning via internet or virtual campuses. Socrates

will continue to be an important player in implementing the

eLearning Action Plan, as the use of ICT in education is a

permanent horizontal priority for the programme as a whole.

Annual Action-specific priorities

The action-specific priorities for 2004 are set out below.

Applicants under these specific Actions are invited to

consider the priorities below in the development of their

proposals. Some of the horizontal priorities outlined above

may be mentioned again under the action-specific priorities

looking at them from an action-specific angle.

Comenius 2.1: European cooperation projects

Priority will be given to projects making a significant

contribution to innovation in the training of school

education staff, with particular emphasis on the role of the

teacher in the context of lifelong learning in the knowledge

society. The following is an indicative list of topics which such

projects might address:

— a framework for mobility activities of student teachers,

including the provision of practical training periods and the

recognition of these activities by the institutions concerned,

— preparing student teachers and teachers to use the new

information and communication technologies as a

pedagogical tool, as a means of supporting effective pupil

learning and cooperation and continuing professional

development by teachers; stimulating and maintaining the

better language teaching in a context of linguistic diversity.

Comenius 2.1: European cooperation projects

Priority will be given to projects making a significant

contribution to innovation in the training of school

education staff, with particular emphasis on the role of the

teacher in the context of lifelong learning in the knowledge

society. The following is an indicative list of topics which such

projects might address:

— a framework for mobility activities of student teachers,

including the provision of practical training periods and the

recognition of these activities by the institutions concerned,

— preparing student teachers and teachers to use the new

information and communication technologies as a

pedagogical tool, as a means of supporting effective pupil

learning and cooperation and continuing professional

development by teachers; stimulating and maintaining the

teacher's ability to learn,

— the role of the teacher as a ‘facilitator of the learning

process’, helping and guiding pupils to develop their

knowledge and a portfolio of skills often partly acquired

from outside the classroom (‘learning to learn’),

— preparing teaching staff to use specific methodologies for

the teaching of other subjects through the medium of a

foreign language and for the teaching of a foreign

language in pre-primary and primary education (especially

a less widely used and less taught foreign language),

— school leadership teams and the role of the head teacher,

including such aspects as the changing role of school in

society; the importance of evaluation and quality assurance

systems in school education; ensuring efficient use of

resources; strategies for creating a safe school environment

and for combating racism and xenophobia,

— raising interest for the study of mathematics, sciences and

technology,

— strengthening links with working life and research and

improving the transition from school to the world of work,

with special emphasis on vocational guidance and counselling,

— developing cooperation between a network of different

players who can give support to pupils both inside and

outside the school environment (educational staff in

schools, parents, pupil peers, career counsellors, guidance

personnel, youth workers, mediators, street educators,

social services, health services, police, business sector,

associations, sport and youth clubs etc.) including the development

of teamwork,

— developing methods for improving school attendance

and achievement levels with particular attention to the

needs of the children of migrants, Gypsies, Travellers and

occupational travellers.

When following different postings at this thread I do feel more and more insecure about my role inside E-HELP projects.

What am I supposed to do?

Can somebody explain to me connections between all these rather disparate topics?

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Don't worry Dalibor, just focus on women. Nothing else is required of you at the moment.

John has some interesting ideas, but he is just trying them out here. If you wish to participate in the discussions, please do. But nothing has been decided that wasn't decided at the last Toulouse meeting.

The first step is to select a topic which is covered on the curriculum of a number of European countries and then create some usable planned interactive lesson activities.

The IB is an obvious place to look first ... those in the group with experience of the IB could perhaps post up a possible list??

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Absolutely. This has always been behind my thinking for the list of topics we put into our original proposal. However, I also think what interests the journalists is the 'research' and communicative process that is enabled by this forum as much as the content of 'sexy' historical topics!

That said, I am sure their a number of historical topics on the IB syllabus which might be more appropriate than others. One of the most obvious and popular with examination centres is the Cold War. The other two very popular topics are the 'Rise and Rule of Single Party States' and '20th Century Warfare'. These are all topics studied at Standard Level (all IB historians) and studied all around the world (ie including the American market).

Using John's model, (as I see it) ideal topics would involve access to researchers who

are making use of recently declassified documentation (ideally available online). This is why Cold War and Soviet history are perhaps most obvious examples.

I, for example, could use some stuff on Castro to go with the JFK/Cuba content but I would have no use at IB for Watergate other than for individual students choosing to do their personal study (Internal Assessment or Extended Essay) on the subject. This is something I am about to suggest to my current crop of wannabe conspiracy theorists.

Hi - I've been pondering the best way forward on the 'women's history' topic, and especially the oral/social history, rather than the political history. Perhaps if we can agree a kind of template for interviewing women about their experiences, that we could all use, so we are working in a similar way.

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This is a very interesting possibility and have been thinking along similar lines. A student of mine recently returned to Russia to interview a number of people about their experiences of childhood in Stalin's Russia. One of the people she interviewed was an elderly lady in her 80s. I was able to give my student one of the E-HELP video cameras and she recorded four hours on tape. I think we might be able to do something similar.

If we could agree on a template, we could use our cameras (already purchased) to record the interviews. This has at least two interesting E-HELP possibilities:

1) We will generate useful multimedia resources which we can use (in an edited form) on our website for which we will own the copyright. These will be multinational and multilingual but importantly will have a common focus.

2) We will have produced a model of good practice in the application of ICT in history teaching (digital video, oral history and the internet) which could form the basis of one of the modules in the course. Teaching people how to use DV has always to have a 'why they should' dimension. This seems to be an excellent example to me.

We should continue to research and prepare the curriculum content (20th century Women) for the Toulouse meeting but it will be interesting to see how this material fits into Alf's proposed template. If we can agree on this for Toulouse, I'd like to think that people will be taking cameras away with them to do the interviews. We could use part of the Gothenburg to train up on using the software for editing the material that members shoot.

Came across this site this morning. http://www.open2.net/nationonfilm/index.html amongst other things it has a series of useful articles about how film can be used in history.

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.

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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 question is: considering the breadth of knowledge to be squeezed into our KS3 schemes of work, are we the teachers, selecting topics which may indicate bias and do our KS3 texts show any signs of subtle selectivity? :

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Six years ago I left the UK and set up a new History department from scratch. I had limitless resources and no national curriculum or inspectors to tell me what to do. And still I ended up with something that looks fairly similar to the UK National Curriculum.

The most important reason for this, I think, is the deadweight of tradition rather than biases, recognized or subtle. I was produced in an educational climate which I (largely) unconsciously reproduce and which imposes significant structural limitations on my freedon to teach how and what I like.

Also the 'capital' of good history teaching is to be found in the teacher's experiences as a learner and most importantly in the material resources and ideas produced by generations of previous (and current) history teachers. I ended up with a similar curriculum because I borrowed from the best that I found available.

At one time in the UK (and in most parts of the world still today), the point of history in the curriculum was to inculcate a shared National consciousness that would help distinguish us from the other. It is interesting to identify those bits of the curriculum that are there because they have always been there. Those bits that were important in the past because they helped the process of inculcation. They are difficult to spot because there is always the pragmatic responses that 'students need to understand the physical environment in which they live' or 'it is useful to study the nature of a civil war so we might as well study the English Civil War as much as any other'.

In the UK we separated skills from content in history some time ago. Consequently, when I was in the UK I often got to the end of lesson and thought to myself 'what was the (historical content) point of that lesson?' I was regularly stuck for an answer.

As a politics and philosophy graduate, with a broad interest in the social sciences I have often wondered about the primacy of history on the curriculum. If we were all building a curriculum for scratch, how would we justify history's inclusion at the expense of the other disciplines, without resorting to importance of the historical content of what we teach? For example, what ultimately does the 12 year old student 'understand' about the English Civil War that is so important that they could not have been taught more effectively through another subject or indeed another discipline?

You'll be surprised to hear that I don't teach the English Civil War to my (largely) British international students in the south of France. But had I discovered or developed an exciting skills based activity based on it, I probably still would. Similarly, I introduced philosophy into the curriculum at KS3 but this year I won't get around to teaching it because the resources I have for teaching history (that I am aware of) make for much more interesting lessons. Deadweight of tradition and teaching 'capital' win again.