Doug Belshaw

If by democratic you mean the congregation can check what the preacher has been saying against the word of God, then yes. If you mean that its religion by consensus, then no! Two important points which need to be unpicked: 1. Christians believe that human reason is not 'all we've got to go on'. The Bible - the word of God - is what humans can use to be saved, measure up to an objective standard, and use as a guidebook for living. Can you define what 'human reason' actually means? I became a Christian half-way through my degree in Philosophy after finding that 'reason' means exactly whatever people want it to mean... 2. Well I've never persecuted any atheists! (unless you mean try to reason with them and see the folly of their position). I can empathise with agnostics who aren't sure whether there's a God, but I truly feel sorry for atheists who believe that they know there's not one. I'm sure if you believed in something strongly enough you'd want to tell everyone else about it... I agree entirely and am completely for the separation of church and state. Ritual can often get in the way of true belief. If you had never been to Paris, you could not verify for yourself that it was indeed the capital of France. You could be deceived by many people trying to hoodwink you. Even direct observation could actually fool you in many situations where you are directly trying to get at the 'truth'. So actually, the majority of people have second-hand beliefs which they count as facts. We are fortunate that (most of the time) our belief systems correspond to the world as we encounter it. Now 'Jesus Christ is the Son of God' is a fact that we can find out about through other people's experience, just as we do everyday for other facts. It doesn't have a separate status with the label of 'religious fact': that would simply be a moniker for 'lie'. Doug PS Perhaps you would find Kuhn's book interesting regarding theory-laden observations, etc. if you haven't already read it.

Two things: (i) At my church they have 'grill a preacher' after the service where you can in fact ask questions! (ii) You're presupposing that human reason can fathom the mysteries of the universe. Isn't that a bit like a snail (if it could talk) saying that our view of the world isn't valid because it does not correspond with its mental capacity? Doug

Dan, You're probably beyond most of these, but have a look at Macromedia's online tutorials for Dreamweaver here: http://www.macromedia.com/devnet/mx/dreamweaver/ Most of them are Flash-based and pretty good... Doug

I've had an interactive whiteboard in my room for the last couple of weeks. Before that I just had a projector. Those that know me know that I try to use as much ICT in my teaching as possible, but even I have yet to find what is actually the real benefit of having an interactive whiteboard as opposed to just a projector. Yes, you can get pupils dragging and dropping things around the screen - as I was doing today r.e. the power structure of England to illustrate a point about the Levellers. However, pupils could have come and done that on my laptop and it would have still shown up on the wall via the projector. If anyone has any really bright ideas of how to use an interactive whiteboard in a geniunely useful way, please let me know! Doug PS I know you can get 'spotlight' tools, etc. - I see these as novelty items, not of any real use for rigorous lessons...

I hope you've realised what you've said here: is it possible to believe in science and religion? On your view, presuming I've understood you correctly, if science is objective there should be no need to believe in it! As an historian, John, you're aware of the problems of interpretation. And as for 'Religious belief is blind to evidence' - really? There's a book I recommend you read of which you've probably heard: Who moved the stone? by Frank Morison. He was a journalist who researched the evidence for Christ's resurrection with a view to picking large holes in it. He ended up becoming a Christian. The postmodern position, as far as I see it, is that one's belief system does not matter in terms of content, only in terms of results (i.e. in action rather than thought). What happens if the postmodern position is wrong? Doug PS http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2000/006/3.52.html

...which is extremely frustrating when you're ready to do it now. By the time three years has come and gone lots of new technology is available and you're back at square one! Doug

And to think, my digital camera has 4,000,000 pixels and takes a fraction of a second... On a more serious note... Anders' presentation got me thinking about the archives. The only experience I've had of them is a couple in the North-East where the staff were unhelpful even when I was researching for my MA. They certainly wouldn't have been happy letting schoolchildren anywhere near their precious resources! I think the way forward as far as I'm concerned is to use resources of local interest that have already been made available online, or those which I can persuade people to let me use. For example, New York Public Library digitizing their materials and putting them online meant that my school now has access to the Tickhill Psalter which originated locally! Doug

Bringing together Caterina and Dan's presentations, I believe the future to be in 'semantic webs'. At the moment, most websites are little more than interactive books, with the author deciding which pages the 'reader' can go to from which other ones. A semantic web is different in that it does not depend on the author. Instead, links are automatically added to the content depending on the reader's interests and browser configuration. For example, even if not configured by the author, definitions of each word are a mouse click away. This would turn the Internet into a web of meaning rather than of knowledge. You can read more about semantic webs here or do a Google search. Doug

Is it worth having your own website? Yes and no. Yes - I can tell by my server logs that a lot of my pupils are accessing what I put on my website. It must be the shy and retiring ones because any time I ask for a show of hands as to who uses it I never get any... So it's great knowing that pupils who would never come and ask you for extra help or work can access something outside the classroom which I have control over. No - sometimes, as has been outlined by others, it can be more hassle than it's worth! I had several pupils say during an ICT lesson the other day that my website was s*** and why did I bother when it was boring and pointless? In addition, one obvious benefit that Nico and David have pointed out - leaving work when not physically present - only works if you have the support of the rest of your department/school. It also takes up a lot of time if you want to do it properly. So in conclusion, so long as you're not a perfectionist and realise the limitations likely to imposed by your school environment, yes it is worth setting up your own website. Remember that Rome wasn't built in a day - so long as you have a fairly logical structure it can be added to over time. As Justin has pointed out, content management systems (CMS) such as Moodle simplify things immensely. Other CMS can be previewed at opensourcecms.com. Doug

I felt a bit humbled during Alf's presentation. I tend to use ICT for the sake of it, whereas Alf was advocating making something good even better - i.e. using ICT as a means rather than an end. This is exactly as it should be and we shouldn't lose sight of that. Thanks Alf. Doug

Being an newly-qualified teacher myself I find this debate fascinating. When I'm tired - as I have been this half-term I teach in the way which I'm used to, have witnessed others doing, and the way in which I was myself taught. Starters and plenaries often go out the window, pupils have to do things because "I told you so", and there is a ceiling to learning going on in the classroom. I'm not saying I'm a great teacher, but when I'm on top of my game I'm much more sensitive to the needs of the pupils in my charge and there is a much more relaxed, non-threatening and collaborative atmosphere. As far as I'm concerned, so long as pupils are acting within an accepted framework, they should be given as much leeway as possible. Thinking along straight lines is something I've rebelled against my whole life. In my opinion, the average lesson should include less than 10% whole-class teacher input. The rest should be pupils getting on with learning Doug

To go back to the point about 'impact' resources, I understand Terry's point about building up one's own collection but in the modern digital world it really is a shame that copyright within an educational context hasn't caught up with the real world. There's so much out there that could transform an average lesson into a great one, yet they are unavailable to teachers due to draconian copyright legislation. I'm not condoning the copying of whole films, but publicly-available photographs and clips of video surely should be able to shared widely. This would mean a huge collection of the kind of 'impact' resources Terry advocates and lessons to remember for pupils! ______________________________________________________________________ On the subject of political literacy, three points: 1. I was brought up in a militant miners-strike affected area, as were many people. Those of my generation distrust those in the upper levels of authority to such an extent that they will either refrain from voting or vote for those who do them the least damage. 2. In the 60s and 70s politics was something which young people were involved in. Those people have now grown up and had families. The younger generation sees politics as something which older people do. 3. Modern celebrity culture has reduced politics to a battle of charisma (or lack of it) between the major players in each political party. Voters tacitly assume that they can decide how they should vote (if at all) by how the media portray a politician. But then I suppose it has fairly often been the case that the majority of the electorate is swayed by the charisma of those vying for power. Doug

Spot on Terry - people have different talents. I believe yourself and Alf are extremely good at showing the layperson what they can do with ICT in a non-threatening way. The job of those of us who are a bit more at the 'cutting-edge' (as you say) is to translate what is going on in the wider context to something more meaningful for the teacher in the classroom. I've had a great response from the simple guide I put up a while ago as to how to use a program called FairUse Wizard. I plan to write similar guides in future. Andrew Field regularly produces resources which put mine to shame - such as his multi-program-including website creation guide. In addition to these program-specific guides we need the online equivalent of Alf's presentation - showing how ICT can make a fairly interesting project into a riveting one for all involved. Perhaps this is what the E-HELP website should concentrate on? Doug

Perhaps the reason there's been no submissions so far is a lack of guidance! So you're looking for a banner - what kind of proportions? What kind of 'feel' is the site going to have? Futuristic? Traditional? Quirky? Fonts are important! It would also be handy to have some guidance r.e. colours, otherwise the submissions could clash badly... Later... I had a play about with Macromedia Fireworks and came up with 15 logos such as the ones below. You can view larger versions here. Please let me know what you think! Anyone else who fancies a play around may find the following sites useful: http://www.webwhirlers.com/colors/combining.asp http://www.openclipart.org/ Doug

This is some of the software which I use on a regular basis and would recommend. It is all free - I hate paying for software! FairUse Wizard - this great program allows you to compress whole films (or clips) from DVD to DivX or Xvid, which are compressed digital video formats. It used to be Freeware, but then went paid-for. A free version, along with a guide on how to use it, can be found on my website here. Flash Movie Extract Pilot - many teachers have data projectors in their room but lack an Internet connection. There are many fantastic Flash animations on the web (such as the ones in the BBC's Multimedia Zone) which couldn't be used without this program. Once you have viewed the Flash animation in Internet Explorer, loading up Flash Extract Pilot allows you to save the animation to your hard disk. Unfortunately, like FairUse Wizard, this program has now gone paid-for, but you can still download a free version from my website here. PDF Creator - there may be more advanced commercial offerings, but this free program certainly gets the job done! The program installs itself as a sort of 'virtual printer', meaning that you can create PDF documents within any program from which you can print! It is available at the following address http://sector7g.wurzel6.de/pdfcreator/index_en.htm Picasa - if you're like me, you'll have lots and lots of images which you've either scanned in downloaded, or traded with fellow teachers residing on your hard disk. Unless you've got a very efficient filing system, it's often difficult to locate these. With Google's Picasa software you can not only organize these files into coherent groups, but add tags to them and even edit them. An outstanding piece of free software! (http://www.picasa.com/) Swiff Point Player - once you have downloaded a Flash animation using Flash Extract Pilot, you may want to put it into a Powerpoint presentation. Doing this manually can be a bit tricky, so fortunately this small, free program does it for you! Once installed, the option to 'insert Flash movie' appears on the 'Insert' menu in Powerpoint. You can download the program here: http://www.globfx.com/products/swfpoint/ (Swiff Player, a separate download, is a free and superior Flash animation player) Teachers Report Assistant - an invaluable resource for quickly producing short interim reports commenting on pupil progress. The program is free and allows users to insert their own statement banks in an easy-to-use and clever format. Available from: http://www.rayslearning.com/report.htm Doug

Using DV is especially useful when you have pupils for whom written assessment is a struggle. Quickly video- or audio-recording what they have to say is extremely effective. Remember that just because you've got a Digital Video camera doesn't mean you always have to emulate Hollywood! Doug

Linux is an alternative operating system to Windows. Having experimented with it on various occasions since 1996 I would say that it is not 'better' or 'worse' than Windows, just different really... Anyone wishing to try it out could do worse than downloading an burning Knoppix which is what's known as a 'LiveCD distribution' of Linux. Instead of loading up Windows from your hard drive when you turn on your computer, Knoppix loads from the CD/DVD drive. Thus, you don't have to install anything and there's nothing which will harm your system. You can play about with it as much as you want! If people are interested in Open Source software but don't want to try Linux, good examples are put on the The Open CD, which can be downloaded and burned for free. Doug

Surely the key to everything is moderation? There's nothing wrong with Powerpoint, just how it is used. It's like worksheets: use them all the time and pupils switch off. Variety is the spice of life... Doug

Had to read this for my MA - to my mind there's a couple of good chapters (towards the end, I seem to remember). Doug

I visited Richard's school last week and met a couple of his pupils. One of them said that whilst initially pupils would mess about on other sites, it soon settled down. I think this is probably down to two factors. The first is novelty value: being able to access the Internet at any time is amazing at first, but as it becomes more 'everyday', pupils are more likely to remain on-task. The second is that pupils realize they are going to have to do the work sooner or later. They might as well do it in the lesson when they've got support. Given the above considerations I'd be strict, but not overly-so. Is the pupil looking at another website really that much different from the one gazing out of the window? Doug

Thanks Andy, I look forward to using these with my Year 10 reprobates! Doug

I was inspired by Nico's presentation and subsequent discussion with him. I do think he and others brought up an important point regarding the role of a website which belongs to the teacher rather than the school. I was startled by John's declaration that a teacher's LEA can claim all work done on your website was actually in pursuit of your occupation. This would mean that they have the intellectual copyright for your site! Given that websites (or their future replacements) will play an increasingly large part in the education of pupils, there needs to be clear guidance as to what is acceptable and what is not. I find it almost unbelievable that some institutions can consider such obvious examples of good practice a threat or something negative! Another thing which I liked was the interactive schemes of work on Nico's website. This means that not only do pupils know what they are doing in any given lesson, but where they are going and what to do if the teacher is not present. Doug

Are there any limitations like: (i) How it will fit in with the overall colour scheme (a very important factor in the success of a website) (ii) Transparent background? (iii) Size of image? Doug

My experience of the meeting was an extremely positive one - it was great to know there are so many like-minded people around! One suggestion I would make - and I don't know exactly how to phrase this without stifling creativity - would be that perhaps associates should have a bit more guidance as to what to present? That is, perhaps associates could send an (extremely brief) overview to Richard or one of the members, and they could give some direction? I banged on about Content Management Systems when a lot of you not only knew what they were, but had discussed some as well as more technical aspects of the E-HELP website... A tiny criticism, however, of what I consider to have been an extremely successful and enjoyable few days. Doug

I was impressed at the E-HELP conference by the way in which Nico had an interactive scheme of work on his website for both colleagues and pupils to access. I believe Richard has something similar at IST. If each department within a school had a website with such a thing it would make collaboration so much easier! If the resources to go with the schemes of work were provided as links from the schemes, then the wider community could draw upon them. This is something I will be looking into in the near future... Doug