Ed Waller

Actually I thought our performance angainst Newcastle was one of our recent best, despite the outcome. I have become accustomed to winning against the odds, and that match felt like losing against the odds. The Gooners' result tonight obviously bring tears to my eyes and the 'decider' for 4th place might well be the match in between their Villareal semi finals, which is no bad thing, as we would have a chance against the reserves. If it is the case that they go on to win it and deprive Spurs of a place in the Champions League, we'll at least have the satisfaction of beating them in the 'real' league.

You'll need someone who speaks Dutch... (which REALLY isn't me! And what follows is with apologies to those who do!!) It seems to be something to commemorate the end of the war between Thrid Riech and Netherlands. It talks of destiny, solidarity, and has a some marine imagery about floating and sailing united and linked in the future.

Not as straightforwardly a black and white choice, as outsiders may have thought then? Certainly Clinton is going to try to be seen to be both left and right of Rice and vice versa. Then they'll try to be more of everything than the other (Jewish, Irish, Catholic, Protestant, even Black). It doesn't matter what you say to get power, so long as you do, it seems. This is why (republican??) newspapers can see Clinton as 'too much'.

I work in what the government would call a good school (84% with 5 A*-C) and it's all girls. I can offer something anecdotal that suggests that girls do not respond uniformly to coursework. About 10% seem to work to the relevant deadline and write in accordance with expectations. The next 25% struggle but meet deadlines, a little below expectation. For the remaining 65% it's very hit and miss. It tends to be that they're held back by the sheer volume and some notion that the students have that the end of the spring term in year 11 will occur some time near their 36th birthday, and nowhere near their 16th.

The principle of having a coursework element is a good one (in a system where exams and and exam performance are seen as reasonable means to a reasonable end), and it should be maintained as an option. The apparently rising tendency to plagiarise etc is largely a result of the pressure on students and schools to perform, and the lack of time teachers have to monitor and guide in the modern education regime. Looking at it coldly, I would enjoy the additional time made available that would no longer be used for chasing the disorganised, marking 60 pieces of work per class and moderating across the subject. However I would miss the opportunity to study a wider range of materials and some of them in a more discursive manner.

Surely there's an economic argument for fielding locally produced players, rather than a nationalistic one - not that Chelski's Lampard and Cole could claim to be produced locally. Even those players nurtured by Championship or League 1 or 2 would be generally cheaper to buy. More a long-term rationale for having British players at British clubs. Globalisation, eh? Don't you just love it!!

An honour left to Tranmere on Merseyside, I guess? Especially the communists and Jews in the 1930sAnd Chelski appear to be about to become the best London team in California, if rumours are right..

About £1.46 a vote. Any labour voters want to donate £2.00 for a socialist alternative?

Good points made by John and Derek. It's only when the state steps into areas where there is the possibility to make money for the rich and/or large corporations that the Right throw their hands in the air in horror. I spent a long time examining the period of history John mentions for my PhD. Naturally as part of that I had to look at USA's version of Welfare (medicare & medicaid). The limits on who could benefit under these schemes mean that for about 80% of people there was no government organised (in their terms 'socialised') medicine. Theyexpect everyone else to use their income wisely a purchase medical insurance. This gives some people in the insurance industry a massive income (i.e it's not efficient because not all of this money is spent on health provision). Insurance (as anyone who's bought it will realise) is priced relative to actuarial risk - the more at risk you are thanks to location, age, gender, occupation the more you will have to pay. So the poor (worst locations worst income diet etc) and at risk are quoted high premiums they couldn't hope to afford. It follows that the best insured are the least likely to need treatment, and hence there is a focus on cosmetic treatements that is less the case in countries with socialised medicine. For the NHS in the UK, the Low cartoon doesn't tell half the story for dentists (in particular). The number of people fobbed off with spurious 'denial of service' ( ) tales is legion in the Mass-Observation archive and elsewhere. Conservatives (in government and the civil service) have undermined the NHS from inception. The Treasury became apoplectic when it saw the actual cost of the NHS in 1949/50. It made certain that the subsequent budgets were fixed and developed a system to ensure the targets were met. Simply put, it guessed a level of inflation which was higher than it was likely to be in reality. This high figure was built into the spending plans of hospitals (last year we spent £100, inflation will be 5% so we'll have to buy 6% fewer things). This was exacerbated by the actual increases in drugs and dressings prices in the 1940s and 1950s that shocked even the Treasury. Apparently there was only so much taxation the country could stand for this type of project. This did not, however, apply to the Korean War. It's also a surprise that BUPA, PPP and WPA all arose in the early years of the NHS, just as the insurance companies were (popularly!) sidelined. If the NHS were to be as Bevan had hoped, there would be no point in private medical insurance. How was it kept that way? I have a theory, which I'll save till someone wants to publish my PhD . For now, though, I'll point to a strange anomally. For the first decade or so, waiting lists changed little other than in the lengthening direction. This is despite the average stay in hospital falling dramatically with the increased use of penecillin and other treatments and the eradication of VD (STIs to younger viewers) as a hospitalising infection.

Probably as well you didn't have de Valera on the board. There's a nice summary of the Cromwell on the BBC 'Interpretations' dvd which might act well as a pre-plenary activity. John's footie story (not about W Ham's brilliance) is another useful one. It's great to bring in a copy of the Pompey local paper if there's been a televised game and discuss the issues in my Southampton girls' school. A friend of mine on PGCE placement once tried it with Socialist Worker and some right wing rag (prob D Mail, as there were plenty in the staff room). He went very quiet about it, so not sure how well it went.

Never heard of 'Lucky Seven'? Must be true, it even has its own wiki entry!

But they'd have to change their name to Spurs to pull off the lucky cup win... Of course if it were a European competition, they could change their name to Liverpool and achieve a similar result.

Good stuff, and very "Assessment for Learning". Take three house points. I sometimes wonder (in a nice way) whether content generator progs keeps students more occupied than their teachers!

I'd like to thanks Anders for his comments above, and add that I 'concede' the points made by David, although I don't we're competing in the way that "concede" might suggest. The thought of spending time in the "Administrator" interface has me running for the nearest padded cell. It is horribly true that VLEs tend to be limited in their potential, and guess that for some a "book in a box" is actually quite advanced thinking. Whilst this means they are relatively easy for the average person to use, for the keen ICT literate teacher (and I'm sure there's an opening for a 'glitterati' style word to be used to define) it will always seem second or even third best. Probably the attraction of a VLE, as Anders reminds us, is that you can add something to a functional learning aid in an incremental fashion, and to work in collaboration with ones colleagues. It's less true that a website can have a really small beginning (e.g. one topic or one task) and grow in time, there is (or appears to be anyway) a 'critical mass' to make it better than what already exists. In that way it can be seen as training tool that raises general skill levels. The E-Help clientele of three-five years' time will in all likelihood be people who have come to see its benefits from the mix of hopes, ambitions and frustrations that a VLE or two has generated.

It is likely that only those whose views echo the dominant ideology (to echo in my own turn Andy W's comment) believe there can be 'value free' history. This is primarily the result of their thinking NOT being at odds with the view of the world (and therefore of its history) that is received daily from a wide range of media. The idea of an "objective" history is as absurd as "objective" politics. We all have our own ways of seeing the world and parts of it. Because it is impossible for the individual to know the entirety of what is known, out knowledge is imperfect, and we make up the gaps, so to speak, with our world view, our ideology, our interpretation. History can be factually incorrect (WW2 didn't start in 1937, for example, and please don't begin a thrread that argues that one could argue for this year as a start date, however much fun such a debate might prove). Explanations (how we interpret the past) fall into a different kind of judgement from improbable to probable. In my own teaching, I seldom present 'the answer' to a question that involves interpretation. I do 'admit' to having a preferred answer on some topics, which I hope I explain sufficiently well. Howvever I do stress that this is my view, and point the students to other points of view and request that they make up their own mind. Last year for a particularly strong Yr 9 (13/14 y-olds) class, I offered them the chance to test one such theory/interpretation, and reminded them regularly that I wasn't too bothered if they disagreed or agreed, provided they supported their version with evidence. Naturally, some of them excelled at trying to disprove my thesis, or developing it further - honesty in this field can be liberating for all, and lead to some real Education (in both directions). To refer to Richard's comment and to agree with his implicit argument on the potential of an approach to result in dismissal, it might be better to be dismissed than to be obliged to support the dominant ideology.

I would quite agree, and hope that nobody thinks my posts were of that order! I googled and was trying to shed light (I was probably having an off day)(what do you mean by "another"?). Ripping people off like this is the worst kind of plagiarism - lazy and exploitative. It isn't a simulation I would use, more so knowing some of its history.

So these two events aren't linked, then? Not sure if this is the simulation Roy meant... Boardworks have produced a number of PPT and Flash combos. As these things go they are pretty good.

Seconded. However, I guess we've got to keep spending them or 'they' will think we've had enough ICT money, and after yesterday's vote.........

Would he by any chance be Polish?? No, I'm sure he's German. Herr Loss I often have this effect on cameras

I think David's post is overly pessimistic and negative. Yes there are commercially-driven VLEs. Probably most infamous of these is the MS Learning Gateway, which offers demonstrations and requests information on financial management solutions. However, there are some developed around teaching and learning environments, even if they began life as commercial entities. The admin of the system I currently use, although I would not particularly recommend the system, has been fairly straightforward, undertaken by admin staff and system management staff, and largely copied from our student database (running a VLE on your own would seem madness, I would agree). It has been up to individual teachers to upload teaching materials, including documents that fulfil similar functions to webquests, et al, thus avoiding many copyright issues. Increasingly it seems that (in England at least) that there will be less of an opt-in or opt-out approach to choice regarding VLEs in favour of a 'which one do you want?' approach. At a meeting today one of the local authority subject specialists suggested it will be a requirement by 2008. As with many of these ideas the people with the money to push their version (Bill?) will normally find people willing to accept that familiarity equals reputation and reliability among the relatively powerful but IT illiterate administrators and local government officials. They will then be in a position to charge phenomenal amounts (£10k pa) for the privilege of using their software. Whether this software will be as good as cheaper and free alternatives one can only speculate. For a significant proportion of newer teachers, a school VLE might force the creation of ICT learning modules. Conceivably this could lead to further interest in and (desire for the?) development of their own website among a wider group than in the current climate.

Can you get the best out of a VLE? Guided Research of the Roman Empire a) The School Context As the development of the internet began, it also began the marginalisation of the School Text Book. One can imagine a time in the future when schools are 'free' from the requirement to provide books, when every student has a laptop with internet access for all. Although the idea of "settling down with a good book" will probably not vanish, the advantages of the internet over the textbook are probably obvious: updated, flexibility, low cost. However, just as one wouldn't recommend leaving a class of 30 students to work through a textbook (and I might add "any more" here) one wouldn't leave a classroom full of students alone with the internet and expect that they will achieve the lesson objectives any time soon. Even for the committed student who wanted to learn and progress, the internet, purely because of the size from which it derives its usefulness, would find it difficult to hit the right sites. As an example, imagine you asked a Year 7 (11 and 12 year olds) to carry out a research project on the Roman Empire. They beetle off to Google and type in "Roman Empire" the outcome? 15.6 million hits. There's more chance of winning the UK lottery than getting the best six sites from the search. This is one of the reasons many teachers have developed their own websites with guides or links to the places that suit the needs of their students studying their curriculum. Many of these have become excellent resources not just for students at that teacher’s school, but for all teachers and students. While this remained true of a few teachers in some subject areas, it was simple enough to deal with. As the levels of ICT literacy among staff has grown, there has been an increase in the number of teacher websites, controlling, arguably, increasing amounts of their own destiny as they produced a transferable commodity. At the same time a many schools around Europe and beyond have sought to improve their 'branding' and have produced their own websites. While this may have begun life as a marketing tool, ensuring people were aware of what the school offered and thus increasing the demand for places, the school website has grown. Regularly pages that once formed part of the teacher's own pages were supplanted by the corporate package, and moreover the corporate package was edited and updated by non-teachers. This has the potential to 'cut across' the teachers websites, perhaps making them less effective, as content associated with the school has seen to 'belong' to the school, and the content has lost its intimate connection to the teaching staff. Equally the success of the few with websites and interactive work of their own is something management has seen and wanted to spread across the school, and VLEs are one means of 'encouraging' this spread of good practice. Thus the decline in the growth of teacher sites has mirrored the growth of the school sites. If there is one difficulty with the school website it is that they do not offer much in the way of didactic content. My own department website has what are referred to as exam tips for GCSE, ways to make the most out of questions set by the AQA examining board, but beyond this it doesn't help a great deal. What is needed is another solution. B ) The Student Context Students have become increasingly ICT literate, albeit that they might not recognise their achievements in the same terms. I-pods have replaced walkmans; video/audio phones are replacing text/audio phones; Satellite broadcasting has changed the nature of television. The nature of their engagement has significantly changed as a result, and the teaching of history (among other subjects) has changed with it, and generally for the better. The change in students has demanded a change in the approach of teachers who have had to create engagement rather than merely expecting or demanding it. Again, we are in need of a solution. c) The VLE solution. I should note early in this section that VLE is A solution rather than THE solution. First of all it offers something that the Headteacher will be able to agree to as it can be designed in line with the corporate image website. Similarly it is something that can and would be seen generally as under the control of the school, and confer ownership of any resources or material. Increasingly schools are looking towards VLEs to provide a learning experience which is both controlled and effective. VLE software is primarily a communication tool. It enables the school to pass information to the student and for the student to pass completed work etc back to the institution. It has an extensive if finite list of possible ways of executing such communication. This includes certain types of email, forums and task-specific assignments, which incorporates standard MS software types and usually one or more VLE-specific options. In these ways it is similar to the teacher website, and adds means of monitoring the frequency of student work on an assignment. The task-specific assignments also include guidance on what is required, and through the 'internal' email system offers the opportunity for teachers to answer any queries that might arise. The downside of VLEs is the same as any 'off the peg' solution: It comes as a package, although there are bolt-on extras to make it feel tailor-made. The natural corollary of this is that it limits the creativity of the teacher in producing material for the students. Any constraint is a constraint on thinking and execution. For the more advanced in ICT skills a VLE is likely to prove a disappointment. The other major disadvantage of a VLE is in some ways also its strength in that it is a school-wide solution. Despite the forward march of ICT skills, many teachers skill levels are such that they would find a VLE intimidating. Those who fight shy of MS Excel and even MS Word, or those who rely solely on presentation software may simply fail to use a new system that requires them to learn a number of different ways to present information and assignments. The future may be different, and the increasing use of drop-down menus might increase the take-up rate in any given school. Certainly VLE providers will be less keen to develop advanced software applications within their package if this is likely to meet resistance among the users it is designed to help. Equally there is an issue regarding students' ICT skills, however once they learn how to access the VLE, they tend to be happy to use it. Once a VLE has been chosen, as with any new initiative, time is a key factor in how helpful it can be. Setting up a number of activities for all your classes for every week is simply beyond many teachers' available time. The advantage that once done it's there forever is a fallacy inasmuch as one might always wish to review or 'tweak' whatever was attempted last year. So you can get the best from a VLE, but remember that its best may not be everything that you want and have aspects you won't use.

Sounds like an ideal situation for a blog of some kind?

At the risk of repeating the sentiments already expressed above, I felt it was well-organised and - speaking as a relative outsider - a success for E-Help. The members seemed to have a good understanding of where this meeting was in terms of the project's progress, and what was needed for the next meetings. Thanks too, Nico, for the photos which reminded me of how much I need to (i) get to the gym more and (ii) find some sunshine.

As my presentation is related to VLE's - benefits of and how to work round some shortcomings - I'll be very interested to have a look at moodle in a 'non-sterile' environment.

Cheers! Gotta love the graphic!