Nico Zijlstra

· Minority languages in Europe: a cultural politics of the 20th century

· Europe’s other half: women in 20th century

· And then there were 25: integration and expansion of nations in 20th century Europe

· Peace and Terror: a 20th century history of pressure groups

· Sporting Times: from pastime to primetime

· Globalisation: European work patterns and processes

We are not committed to any of these topics. They were chosen to score points in the application process and did not necessarily reflect previously expressed interests of the E-HELP group. However, we now have to decide on topics that will form the curriculum basis of the E-HELP project.

So, what topics should we be covering that have (i) contemporary relevance (ii) European added value (iii) and are currently lacking.

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I've already expressed my interest in Europe's other half: women in the 20th Century and I think Juan Carlos did too. Time to get started!

Nico Zijlstra said this.

In the Netherlands the History debate is turning away from the skills approach. A governmental commission has advised the Minister of Education to emphasise on chronology.

This timeline is divided into 10 parts and pupils should be aware of main aspects of that period. Unfortunately the commission has not pointed out what those main facts should be.

This is the most intrusive guidelines I would want a national body to give to history teachers. I actually think this is a great approach. Content should determine what is taught and when, and some vaguely defined targets for learning comprehension are given. In this system a student would not be expected to turn in a performance of returning the political timeline of the Netherlands from the sands of time through the House of Orange to the Present, but to demonstrate an understanding of the significanct aspects of each perion. A hopefully as far as I'm concerned, the commission would never define what the main facts should be and that would be a debate within the history profession and open to variation as the field continues to evolve.

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My first contribution was written against the background of the way we examine History in the Netherlands:

So far we examinie 2 clearly defined subjects in History. Every subject is accompanied by a 'guidebook' (stofomschrijving) Every year there are lengthy discussions between teachers whether certain questions or approaches in the exams were correct. The result of these discussions usually is that we interpret and assess the answers as widely as 'historically' possible.

If we have a system in which we can freely choose subjects and the way we examine pupils I totally agree with you, and wish that in The Netherlands the debate between historians will pick up.

The good thing about the website is the possibility -thanks to php nuke- to choose the language in the user interface. Perhaps this is something we should have on The Education Forum too. Unfortunately foreign students soon find out that the site is in English only and that may be a big hurdle.

The bad thing is, there is - apart from a basic forum - no content yet. The Education Forum has a similar feature in 'ask an expert'

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showforum=175

Natuurlijk komt het vakoverstijgende onderwijs de leerlingen ten goede. De maatschappij is toch ook niet ingedeeld in vakjes? Waarom zou een leerling kennis en vaardigheden van het ene vak opeens niet meer kunnen gebruiken bij het andere vak?

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Ik ben het met je eens. wel is een constatering dat Basisscholen terugkomen van vakoverstijgende programma's als Wereld Orientatie.

Binnen geschiedenis zie je in Nederland enerzijds de commissie De Rooy met de terugkeer naar chronologie en samenhang, anderzijds de bemoeienisen om -politiek gezien- een vak 'burgerschapsvorming', een combi gs-maatschappijleer in te voeren.

John Simkin wrote to me:

I am very much a skills man. I also favour simulations and individual research projects.

In the Netherlands the History debate is turning away from the skills approach. A governmental commission has advised the Minister of Education to emphasise on chronology. This timeline is divided into 10 parts and pupils should be aware of main aspects of that period. Unfortunately the commission has not pointed out what those main facts should be.

I'm like John a skills man, but I can only apply skills when pupils have some notion of the periods they're studying.

In this way I agree with Mike Tribe

Of course, the problem is that you can't "do analysis" if you don't possess any "facts" upon which to base your theories...

Komt vakoverstijgend onderwijs leerlingen ten goede, of verwart het leerlingen alleen maar en is het de dood in de pot?

Wat vindt U?

Verharmlost der Film Der Untergang die Person Hitlers, oder rückt der Film Hitler in eine richtihe historische perspektive?

Ihre Meinung zum Film und Thema ist gefragt!

No problems in Holland using IE6, WinXP Service Pack 2 and a hardware (router) firewall. Windows own firewall has been switched off

Dutch 'womens history' has some interesting links to American womens history. Aletta Jacobs and Carrie Chapman Catt were friends and together they visited belligerent countries during WW1.

Was the right to vote the issue during the 1st 'feminist wave' (1890-1919), the right of women to decide on their own body (the pill, abortion) equal rights in education and career was the aim of the 2nd feminist wave (1967-1980) in the Netherlands. Interesting enough to ask question which I'm willing to answer

Nico Zijlstra (male teacher, Heerlen, The Netherlands)

Sintermeertencollege where I teach will try to conduct as many interviews as possible this year with 'ordinary' people who've lived through WW2 in occupied Holland. My plan is to save the interviews on the schoolwebsite.

September 2004 marks the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Dutch province of Limburg. At the same time Operation Market Garden swept through the provinces of Brabant and came to a halt near Nijmegen (Nimwegen) and Arnhem.

The liberation of Heerlen is commemorated by the city archives of Heerlen with sound and video. (in Dutch only in Internet Explorer+flash). Market Garden background info can be found with the NOS, the Dutch national broadcasting company (in Dutch only, with animations and sound)

Some interesting linkscan be found on the same NOS-site (some in English)

Any questions on the Dutch involvement in WW2 will be answered as well as I can.

Teaching History over 20 years now, I've taken interest in Modern Dutch and European History. Although The Netherlands never took part in the fighting in WW1, Dutch sailors and fishermen lost their lives due to mines and 'unfriendly' fire. Holland declared itself officially 'neutral' in the conflict, but aviator and entrepreneur Anthony Fokker built planes for the German government. By granting the German Kaiser Wilhelm II asylum in November 1918 the Dutch government contributed to the end of the war.

I'll try to answer any questions in this forum on the Dutch involvment in WW1, using Dutch sources.

Die Österreicher haben immer weniger Kenntnis vom Zweiten Weltkrieg. Laut einer Imas Umfrage wissen zwar annähernd alle Österreicher, wer Adolf Hitler war. Mit Begriffen wie "KZ", "Judenverfolgung" und "Auschwitz" können hingegen ganze 30 Prozent der Befragten nichts mehr anfangen.

Haben wir hier ein Problem?

Working with computers since 1988 I'm interested in the technical side (hardware and applications, mainly MS but also Linux) as well as the use if ICT in the classroom. Together with the "Open Universiteit Nederland" and webdesigners of E-Linq I've created projects for using ICT in the classroom.

De berichten zijn alarmerend: op sommige scholen voor het Voortgezet Onderwijs hebben de leerlingen 17 weken vrij? De inspectie gaat uit van 12 weken vakantie.

Is het werkelijk zo erg gesteld, of passen nieuwe onderwijsstructuren niet meer in oude rekenmethoden van de inspectie?

Hoe is het op uw school? Ook zoveel vrij voor leerlingen, of juist niet?

Welke oplossingen worden bedacht om lesuitval te voorkomen?

Laat het ons weten? Ook zijn we benieuwd naar de reacties van de collega's in België!

Portugal's performance against the Netherlands, for example, was a joy to watch for most of us. (Sorry, Nico - but we, too, have known that pain.)

It was a good performance by the Portugal and the best team deservedly won. No national mourning here, although some hooligans in the Brabant town of Oss fought with the police. Getting into the semi-finals was the best the Dutch this time could achieve to be honest.

See what Otto Rehagel's Greek team will do tonight: a coup aganst the Czechs?

There is an excellent article by Gordon Strachan in today’s Guardian today about the tactics being employed in Euro 2004. It begins as follows:

Although Holland, Greece and Portugal have reached the semi-finals, I can't say they've inspired me. I've not enjoyed watching the Dutch, I'm enjoying the Greeks only for the sake of it being Greece, and Portugal have played one good game, which was against England. I don't think it's a coincidence that all those teams have got this far playing 4-3-3 systems.

That set-up might sound attacking and exciting but it's quite boring. It's great for making sure you won't be beaten but doesn't excite in terms of winning. Sides that play it don't tend to produce a lot of chances because they have only one striker in the box and it makes you hard to break down because 4-3-3 quickly becomes 4-5-1 when you're defending.

Gordon Strachan sounds totally frustrated Perhaps he should leave football and start reporting on chess!

Congratulations John, well done: you certainly deserve your S(uper) M(ember) T-shirt!

Nico

The Netherlands did some good changes in the game which established a better Dutch midfield and more pressure on the Swedes. Van Nistleroy got several big chances - but I guess it wasn't his day during the ordinary play time.

The game Sweden vs the Netherlands was different to the game we saw of the Dutch vs the Czech Republic: In the latter game it was possible to use the wings (Robben and Van der Meyde). The Swedes were clever enough to push both wings back and leave van Nistelrooy lonely in the front-line. So the problem with Van Nistelrooy I think, was a clever tactical decision of the Swedish coach.

The fact that the Dutch team has come so far in the tournament has surprised even many Dutch people. It wasn't the fear of taking penalties, but the fear of lack of cohesion within the group that could have ended the Dutch aspirations. But Dick Advocaat has the credits of turning this bunch of highly paid individuals into a TEAM.

The final: Czech Republic vs The Netherlands

Winner: the spectators!

Today a horror scenario for either Germany or the Dutch team will come true. With Spain and Italy out another great football nation will leave Euro 2004.

Dutch media blamed Dick Advocaat, the trainer of the Dutch team, for the 3-2 loss vs the Czech Republic.

As I understand Arjan Robben will appear tonight and Willem van Hanegem (a respected ex-player, now assistant to Dick Advocaat) said in a news briefing that if Advocaat was going to make another fatal mistake that he would 'knock him down'.

Frank de Boer is now in the team instead of J. Heitinga (red card). Winning from Letland however won't be easy, but even then the Dutch team depends on what Germany is doing with the Czechs.

Bookmakers give the Dutch team 38% chance. Not much, but 10.5 milion Dutch are expected to watch the game on the tele. The other 5 milion are probably disgusted with the 'oranje madness' sweeping the country!

I enjoyed a 'father-son' weekend with Thomas my 11 year old son. Together with 35 kids and their dads we watched the Holand vs Czech Republic game. You can imagine 60 people watching a big screen. 1-0, 2-0. Halftime 2-1

Then the second half: an excellent game but spectators didn't understand Bosvelt coming in as a sustitute for Arjen Robben (Chelsea 2004-2005) Arjen was one of the best on the pitch. The substituition turned out to be a mistake of Dick Advocaat, trainer of the Dutch team (former Glasgow Rangers).

A good game it was despite the 2-3 loss.

I never complain about the referee, but the referee in this game made some terrible mistakes. He should not be qualified to lead another EC game!

Italy vs Sweden was nice: but I couldn't see Dalibor in the yellow-blue crowd. I hope for Dalibor that the game vs Denmark is even better for him!

Nico (June 21st)

Perhaps my posting on the EURO 2004 seems a bit weird at first sight, but i a what frivolous way I tried to describe how people in the Netherlands behave during Euro 2004.

The Dutch team is called ORANJE (=orange), named after the House of Orange. People decorate their house, whole streets have been decorated with orange plastic, flags, anything orange really.

In between a lot of Dutch national flags, the RED, WHITE, ande BLUE. In shops and advertisements you'll see a lot of these nationalistic symbols and sociologists describe it als "pseudo nationalism"

With the game against Germany coming up, half of my students were dressed in orange and asked about their orange outfit they simply answered: because of the game vs Germany.

Sometimes I'm worried about the fact that in games Holland vs Germany people still think they want to take revenge for "the War", a feeling also shared by many Brits when the relationship with Germany is concerned. (John Cleese in Falwty Towels, sorry Towers)

If you look at the German approach there is much more realism in judging the position of the German team.

'The Wunder von Bern' link however makes clear that the German footballteam has played a far bigger role in building up post war Germany than the creation of the Bundes Republik Deutschland. German people therefore cherish their team without exaggerating nationalistic feelings as much as Dutch people seem to be doing at the moment.

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It's only a game gentlemen!

But if you look at political implications: some say that modern Germany was born in the Swiss town of Bern on July 4th 1954: Das Wunder von Bern where the German team beat Hungary!

I've just contacted Bart Vanhulle, webmaster in Brussels.

He was very quick to respond

He's gathering all problems and will look into them. I offered him my support in sorting out our technical problems.

I don't know what type of contract EUN has with the German cms-firm Contens, but I guess Contens has to cooperate and make this cms work for EUN.

If anyone finds problems in uploading/ editing etc, please put them in this forum!

At the moment Bart Vanhulle, Anne Gilleran and Chui Hsia know of the problems we've encountered this weekend.

The log-in problems klicking on [editors] and the Union Jack have been solved (24-05-2004 12:00am)

I imagine there are different permission levels - in my experience with similar products this is the most important aspect to get right from the start - who can do what and where? - you need a dialogue with the top brass to get what you want.

The EUN people distribute permissions: so far Anders Mac-Gregor is the only one in the History Department with permissions. (We share his codes for the moment )

Anders has got all permission levels within his profile in the VS HD, except for 'full' access. We've applied for permissions at the same level as Anders for all VS HD members. We have decided on the parts of the website in which we'll be active though.

Yesterday I prepared pages within the ' projects' section: Ötzi the Iceman, an activity for 10-12 year olds.

Also a start was made with my propaganda project.

Today I paste a hotpotatoes quiz into a page: not successful

But putting content in this site is one of the main points in my 'to do list'.

Special attention I'll pay to the technical side of this CMS:

I got a telephone number of Bart Vanhulle in Brussels, an EUN technician. I'll contact him and see how we can work together and build up contact with Contens, the German CMS-firm.