Richard Jones-Nerzic

Thanks Andy. We're about to start teaching our aviation project in a few weeks this link is really useful, particularly because it contrasts with the Airbus position recently outlined at a Geneva environmental conference.

It has just been announced that the first test flight of the A380 is to take place on Wednesday. The weather forecast must be good! http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4481733.stm I'll see if I can get some photos/video. Although, I imagine there will be others doing the same...

It has just been announced that the first test flight is to take place on Wednesday. The weather forecast must be good! http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4481733.stm I'll see if I can get some photos/video. Although, I imagine there will be others doing the same...

I did something similar for staff at the IST just before the holiday. Didn't look as good as yours though!

I will be doing a financial/budget presentation at the Toulouse meeting. , showing where money has already gone (I've been busy) and making some proposals for future expenditure. I encourage everyone to bring their wish lists and RFP forms with them.

Ed's practical application has certainly given me further food for thought. The problem I have is genuinely knowing what is and isn't practical in a 'normal' classroom environment. Having worked with laptops for 6 years now, I find myself regularly over-estimating and under-estimating what is realistic in the traditional classroom. In my view the act of 'thinking about the film', as Ed puts it, is the most powerful part of the whole process. If I may quote myself from the seminar Ed refers to above, the most important reason why students should work with digital video is that by doing so they are learning to become critical users of the most influential medium in the world. As history teachers we like to justify our existence by claiming to provide our students with the tools to decode and debunk both the ‘source’ traces of the past and the interpretative knowledge claims of historians. But in general, school history, with its emphasis on imparting the (producer) skills of the professional historian, (why do we do this?) neglects to equip students with all the skills they require as consumers of history. I remember reading some serious educational research, which suggested that most people’s historical consciousness is generated by television and cinema and has little to do with the ‘taught’ history of the school curriculum. In brief, the ‘document’ work and close examination of the (dominantly) written sources which characterises history lessons throughout the world, does little to prepare students to be critical users of the medium that is most likely to shape their understanding of the past. I have long been convinced of the need to spend time critically analysing film with history students as we would with any other types of sources. Film, documentary or otherwise, is too often treated uncritically, as a stimulus source of content knowledge; often to lighten the load before teachers return to serious ‘academic’ study. By far the best way to get students to engage critically with film is to first put them behind a camera and then in front of a screen of video editing software. As a consequence of making films, students become sensitised to the various techniques employed by the filmmaker: camera angle and distance, lighting, focus, music, narrative technique, editing etc. Consequently, they begin to understand how they are manipulated; they begin to see through the magic.

This is excellent news. Thanks for all your hard work on this John.

Not nodding off to sleep but nodding in an agreement... I think. If we can achieve as much with a few stills and the text of the presentation then that's what we'll do. This part is a bit of an experiment. I intend to create short (5 minute) tasters of the presentation key points, which act as an encouragement to read more. But many of the presentations did work better live than on paper. Many of the speakers were quite animated, Walker and Faithorn, for example, interacting in teacher-student mode has to be seen to be believed. 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.

Everyone at the Toulouse meeting will have been very conscious of the video camera and close microphone that recorded (almost) every word of the conference. Having spent a little time looking at the tapes (ten of them), I am more than happy with the picture and sound quality. The worst quality tape was the last one of Andrew Field's remote seminar. It was the worst because I hand-held the camera, shot film into the light and unplugged the external microphone. Despite this, as you will see, the film is still usable. The question is, at what quality should I create the final film for web-streaming? The two choices I am considering are at approx. 350 kbps or 700 kbps. The smaller size creates a file of about 2mb per minute of film, the bigger one about double that. Ideally, for accessibility we should go for the smallest file size but is the quality of the smaller size good enough? Of course, I can make both (and DVD quality if we require it!), it is simply a question of time, server space and bandwidth. Video samples: Small Big What do you think?

The first time I came across the European Schoolnet was not because of the Virtual School History Department but through a teaching pack produced by Ruth Tudor, designed to help teach 20th century women's history. http://www.en.eun.org/eun.org2/eun/en/coe/...lang=en&ov=1732 I'd forgotten all about it until this week. It is downloadable in PDF (116 pages) and activity based. There are case studies on Russia and oral history. From the outline: The issue of 'women' occupies very different places in European society. In parts of Europe, women's studies are in their nascent stage. In others, the topic is mainstream in the media and the young are confronted with the mass of information that this entails. In some countries, radical forces of both the extreme right and left have claimed to serve the cause of 'women's rights'. Within European schools' curricula, the status and quality of women's history is variable. While some countries have made women's history a legal requirement within the school curriculum, others are beginning to introduce it. In all European countries there is a shortage of resources to support the teaching of women's history at school level. In view of its vital link to democratic society, one of the aims of this book is to make the study of women a topical issue in the classroom. Given the elusive and sometimes sensitive nature of the subject, the school is surely one of most credible places to examine it. It is also our intention that this teaching pack will contribute to young people's understanding of gender equality, including the social and individual forces that have and still do push against it. Without equality of opportunity between all of Europe's citizens, regardless of their sex, precious resources are lost and European democracy can only be partial. I wonder if we might be given rights to use some of the content of this? Does anyone know the authors Ruth Tudor, Elena Osokina and Phil Ingram?

Not so much of a long shot. I have a little bit with additional contextual material on this page: http://www.intst.net/humanities/igcsehist/...n/resources.htm

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0...5405994-6979837 The synopsis suggests this is right up our street: Has the worst of times for humanity - this century bloodied by wars and revolutions without precedent in history - been the best of times for women? How have the promises of freedom, parity with men, full participation in society, actually been met amid all the transformations and upheavals the 20th century has witnessed? This 5th volume in the series brings the history of women up to the present, placing it in the context of momentous events and profound social changes that have marked our time. I'd also like to support Alf's point about the need for broadening this topic out. Much of what we need is as likely to be in sociology and politics texts as in historical works. A country by country approach to how women got the vote is international history (and important to our study) but what I am thinking of is perhaps more transnational than international. As we know, political history tends to the national (and international), economic, social and cultural themes are less likely to be bound by national context. In the context of recent debate in England about making students learn landmark dates, I remembered Raphael Samuel's point about the Married Women's Property Act of the 1880s. Surely this ecomomic landmark was important as the passing of the Third Reform Act at around the same time?

Done

I have just emailed all members and asked them to send me completed forms. I'm not sure all the questions are suitable for associates, which is why I only distributed to members. I have made an electronic version of the evaluation form (attached) if we feel this could be used by associates as well. I suppose it is also worth stressing that we have a less structured (but more open ended) form of evaluation in the shape of this forum.

An obvious area for dissemination in the History Teacher's Forum. I have reposted a version of John's report here. I also pointed out that the British Council currently offers grants of up to £1500 for people to attend Comenius 2.2 courses. I am expecting to have a waiting list for the Toulouse course by the end of the week...

I will do the same when we have an agreed final version. I will contact Jean-Philippe and Daniel about possible French dissemination networks.

Would it be sensible to mention that all presentations were filmed and will be available in electronic form on the e-Help website later in the project... I have actually started work on them today.

To echo Andy's comments about the organisation, this excellent booklet was in fact Carole's doing. I don't have an electronic copy today but I can certainly get hold of it by tomorrow at the latest.

Just a very quick note on behalf of us all ...... that was great, thought-provoking stuff. Many thanks Andrew.

E-HELP meeting – Outline Agenda 17-20 February The following has been put together (where possible) on the basis of themes, flight times, nationalities and a suitable mix of members and associates. Where appropriate, each member will make their brief(er) presentation and introduce (and chair) the presentation by our guests. Thursday 17th February Morning - Arrivals 13h00-14h30 Lunch 14h30-16h00 Session 1 Richard Jones-Nerzic Dan Lyndon 16h30-18h00 Session 2 Anders MacGregor-Thunell Dave Martin Friday 18th February 09h30-11h00 Session 3 John Stringer 11h30-13h00 Session 4 Dalibor Svoboda Isabelle Voegeli 13h00-14h30 Lunch 14h30-16h00 Session 5 John Simkin Caterina Gasparini 16h30-18h00 Session 6 Nico Zijlstra Doug Belshaw Saturday 19th February 09h30-11h00 Session 7 Vicente López-Brea Fernández János Blasszauer 11h30-13h00 Session 8 Terry Haydn Jose Luis de la Tore 13h00-14h30 Lunch 14h30-16h00 Session 9 Alf Wilkinson Andy Walker 16h30-18h00 Session 10 Juan Carlos Ocaña Andrew Field (Remote) Sunday 20th February 09h30-12h00 Planning issues - Members only

Below an outline of John Stringer's presentation. John Stringer Head of Legal and Financial Investigation Team - Socrates Leonardo & Youth Technical Assistance Office Presentation Summary The Commission’s new Financial Regulations have made it even more important for project managers to have in place sound financial procedures and processes for the management of EU funds. In the future, there will be far more emphasis on the auditing and verification of costs than there has been in very recent years. Personally, I would like to see all projects succeed and not run into problems because of a failure to understand the rules. Hopefully, in this presentation, we can highlight the problem areas and avoid some of the more obvious pitfalls in the financial management of projects.

When are computers actually going to teach history? I probably use as much ICT in my teaching of history as any other teacher in Europe, yet very little of the Information Communication Technology I use is actually designed for the teaching of history. The ICT enhances my teaching and facilitates my students’ learning but it doesn’t do much history teaching for me. In 1992, as a student teacher, I used a novel computer simulation called ‘Attack on the Somme’. I sat and watched as my students learnt important historical lessons without me, and more effectively than would have been possible from books or films. My point is, I don’t think we’ve made a great deal of progress in using computers to actually teach history since the early 1990s. Using examples from the world of ‘edutainment’, I hope to stimulate some discussion about where we could be going next in the world of history teaching and ICT.

Whilst John O'Farrell's article is indeed funny, surely the funniest statement in this whole thread is this, by Tim Collins himself: When I set up the Humanities department at my school, I had fun teaching Geography for a couple of years. I was so shocked at how poor the pupils locational geography was that I instigated the 'Around the World quiz'. Every half-term students have to learn all the countries and capital cities of a given region of the world. Consequently, the knowledge of most of my students is probably better than mine. Every summer I think about doing something similar for History. Every summer I make a start on the list of 'key facts, personalities and dates'; every summer I end up throwing my (metaphorical) list into the Breton sea. Even though I am the only history teacher with a curriculum I wrote myself, I cannot decide on what to include and what to leave out. If I can't agree with myself, how can anyone expect a group of 'academics' to write a definitive list?

I'd be very interested in running a trial of this with my students.

My school's contribution came to an abrupt halt with the departure of Peter the geography teacher. However, we are planning to produce a series of lessons sometime after half-term. We have arranged a meeting with Guy Jalabert, professeur émérite de l’université du Mirail in Toulouse next Wednesday. He is the leading authority on the impact of Airbus on the region and we hope to get him in to talk to our students and to help us produce resources.