Guest Posted December 21, 2004 Share Posted December 21, 2004 Below are copied the latest statistics on how busy various sections of the forum have been recently. The numbers represent visits rather than posts. It is very clear from these figures that we need to think of ways to enliven many sections of the forum if we are to develop as a forum for teachers. There may well also be strong arguments for rationalising the structure we have at present. Members who have ideas on how this might be achieved are invited to post them here. JFK Assassination Debate 63190 JFK Online Seminars 10174 Biographical Details 3183 Forum Information, Development and Communication 2396 Political Debates 2395 E-HELP Members 1727 Debates in Education 1161 Forum Birthday Party 1118 E-HELP Associates 1039 Political Conspiracies 1030 ICT 1014 Modern Languages 744 History:Resources 715 Non-Academic Discussions 688 Vietnam War 608 E-Learning 482 English:Curriculum Issues 433 History Debates 349 Media:Curriculum Issues 346 Social Sciences: Changes in Society 339 English:Resources 319 Cold War 289 ICT:Help 283 History 263 JFK Books 262 ICT:Curriculum Issues 253 English 250 Special Educational Needs 183 Music:Resources 164 Media Studies 154 MFL:Curriculum Issues 153 Second World War 147 History:Curriculum Issues 146 Life and Death of JFK 142 Nazi Germany 137 Website Management 135 History Student Questions: Ask an Expert 128 Black History 126 Art:Help 124 Science 118 First World War 117 EFL 116 Government Initiatives 106 Svensktalande 104 Maths:Curriculum Issues 98 Social Sciences:Resources 96 Black History 92 PE:Curriculum Issues 88 Spanish Civil War 84 History Department 83 History of Russia 76 ICT:Resources 73 Schools History Project 73 American West 69 Cross Curricular Teaching Resources 69 History of Medicine 67 Media:Resources 67 Geography:Curriculum Issues 64 Cross Curricular Cooperation 59 Design and Technology 59 Nederlands 59 History:Help 58 Science:Curriculum Issues 56 Economics and Business Studies 50 Holocaust 46 Science:Resources 42 Politics: Resources 42 Nordic History 42 MFL:Resources 42 Economics: Curriculum Issues 39 English:Help 38 Physical Education 35 2nd World War Debates and Questions 30 Environmental Issues 30 Music:Curriculum Issues 27 Resources 26 Science:Help 23 History of India 21 Spring Europe 19 Government and Politics 18 Student Teacher Support 18 Deutsch 16 Information 15 Social Sciences:Curriculum Issues 11 Pastoral Care 6 Welcome to Cooperative Learning 6 ICT: Ask an Expert 6 Philosophy of History 5 Cross Curricular Cooperation 4 Geography:Resources 3 PE:Resources 2 Economics: Resources 2 Geography 1 Art:Resources 1 Social Sciences 1 Politics: Curriculum Issues 1 Resources 1 History 0 Total 99409 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Simkin Posted December 21, 2004 Share Posted December 21, 2004 These figures reveal the problem. Top 20 posters John Simkin (2,345) Andy Walker (759) Wim Dankbaar (690) JFK Graham Davies (544) ML and Education Tim Carroll (497) JFK and History Shanet Clark (409) JFK and History James Richards (363) JFK William Plumlee (298) JFK Jack White (287) JFK Derek McMillan (287) ICT, Politics and Education David Richardson (274) ICT, ML and Education Marco Koene (260) ICT Ron Ecker (256) JFK Richard Jones-Nerzic (240) History and Education Larry Hancock (232) JFK Larry Peters (220) JFK Tim Gratz (208) JFK Jean Walker (205) Education Dalibor Svoboda (179) History Nancy Eldreth (161) JFK Andy and myself post in most sections. However, most other members concentrate on one or two sections. Except for the JFK section, most other sections do not have a body of regular posters. You need around five or six per group for it to really take off. I have tried to get the JFK people to become involved in the history and politics sections. So far this has had only moderate success. I have also mass-mailed members about threads that I think have overall appeal (books, film, education, etc.). This has obtained short-term success but it has failed to persuade members to be regular posters in that area. I have tried to bring members together with the online party. I will do another of these mass mailings later today. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those in this list who have worked so hard to make the forum a success. We have a long way to go but we have had a promising first year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted December 21, 2004 Share Posted December 21, 2004 I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those in this list who have worked so hard to make the forum a success. We have a long way to go but we have had a promising first year. I second this! My aim in the New Year will be to enliven the curriculum areas. This I think is the greatest challenge but could bring the most rewards. Many organisations with significantly greater resources than us have tried to create fora for teachers across the curriculum areas and failed - the GTC, and the Technology Colleges Trust are two very noted examples who have failed to grab the interest of teachers. I would also like the acknowledge the extraordinary number of hours John puts into trying to make this forum work. We have had some success this year - JFK thrives, E-Help is taking off and their have been some very interesting debates involving a wide variety of posters. All of this is down to John's phenomenal work rate and persistence. I will be looking in the New Year for volunteers within subject areas who would be willing to a) lead a discussion related to their curriculum area and b ) upload and share some resources online with colleagues. I will mass mail people after christmas and hopefully I will be deluged with volunteers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 9, 2005 Share Posted May 9, 2005 Latest activity on the forum listed below Topic Views (8 February 2005 to 10 May 2005) JFK Assassination Debate 103183 Political Conspiracies 11154 E-HELP Seminars 7752 Watergate 3517 Biographical Details 3351 History Debates 2451 E-HELP Associates 2096 Political Debates 2047 E-HELP 1639 Debates in Education 1384 E-HELP Members 1086 JFK Online Seminars 1049 E-Learning 886 History:Resources 769 Non-Academic Discussions 761 Government Initiatives 721 Special Educational Needs 583 JFK Books 578 Debates 521 Black History 455 Dance and Drama 443 Svensktalande 425 Forum Information, Development and Communication 419 Media:Curriculum Issues 406 EFL 404 Design Technology:Resources 375 ATW Departments 367 English:Curriculum Issues 357 PE:Resources 346 Science 333 English 330 Ceská a Slovenská cást fóra. 319 History of Russia 312 Social Sciences: Changes in Society 308 Nederlands 288 ICT 287 Resources 276 Music:Curriculum Issues 258 ICT:Help 220 2nd World War Debates and Questions 214 Experiences of International Schools 213 Environmental Issues 210 Pastoral Care 204 Curriculum Issues 186 Economics: Curriculum Issues 178 Art:Curriculum Issues 148 Modern Languages 146 History of India 142 Information 139 History:Curriculum Issues 137 History:Help 126 History 121 Holocaust 114 MFL:Curriculum Issues 113 English:Help 107 Life and Death of JFK 100 MFL:Resources 99 ICT:Resources 95 Economics and Business Studies 87 Philosophy of History 84 Government and Politics 82 Politics: Resources 81 Social Sciences:Resources 72 English:Resources 62 Administration Issues 62 Watergate 55 Social Sciences:Curriculum Issues 44 ICT 39 Music:Help 33 Politics: Curriculum Issues 15 Sección en español 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Tribe Posted May 9, 2005 Share Posted May 9, 2005 Do you see any trends in the new set of figures? John got angry with me when I mentioned that it seemed to me that the forum was coming to be dominated by JFK and conspiracy theory messages, so I hesitate to mention it again. There have been times in the past couple of months when almost all the active topics have been related to some sort of conspiracy... I can understand that this is absorbingly interesting to a restricted sort of audience, but its purely educational application must be seen as somewhat limited. The effect of this is a bit off-putting. There are other forums which are not so dominated by a single topic, and perhaps many potential contributors prefer to spend their time there. I understand that there wouldn't be an Education Forum without John's efforts, that the JFK thing is one of his enthusiasms, and that he has every right to indulge this on his forum, but it would seem to me that there must be a downside if people check in to the forum for the first time and see 23 threads relating to various arcane aspects of the JFK conspiracy, 12 relating to a variety of other conspiracies, and 4 of a more generally "educational" nature. First impressions are important, and a new visitor could be forgiven for thinking they'd strayed into the website of a conspiracy theorists' convention... I also understand that you and John have no control over who chooses to contribute to the forum. If everyone who writes wants to write about JFK, then those will be the active threads. I know John works very hard to try to persuade people of contribute across the board, and he had some success with the Holocaust denial debate, the Vietnam debate, and various Christian things, but the balance is still off to one side, isn't it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 9, 2005 Share Posted May 9, 2005 Do you see any trends in the new set of figures?John got angry with me when I mentioned that it seemed to me that the forum was coming to be dominated by JFK and conspiracy theory messages, so I hesitate to mention it again. There have been times in the past couple of months when almost all the active topics have been related to some sort of conspiracy... I can understand that this is absorbingly interesting to a restricted sort of audience, but its purely educational application must be seen as somewhat limited. The effect of this is a bit off-putting. There are other forums which are not so dominated by a single topic, and perhaps many potential contributors prefer to spend their time there. I understand that there wouldn't be an Education Forum without John's efforts, that the JFK thing is one of his enthusiasms, and that he has every right to indulge this on his forum, but it would seem to me that there must be a downside if people check in to the forum for the first time and see 23 threads relating to various arcane aspects of the JFK conspiracy, 12 relating to a variety of other conspiracies, and 4 of a more generally "educational" nature. First impressions are important, and a new visitor could be forgiven for thinking they'd strayed into the website of a conspiracy theorists' convention... I also understand that you and John have no control over who chooses to contribute to the forum. If everyone who writes wants to write about JFK, then those will be the active threads. I know John works very hard to try to persuade people of contribute across the board, and he had some success with the Holocaust denial debate, the Vietnam debate, and various Christian things, but the balance is still off to one side, isn't it? Forums do develop with people's enthusiasms. Arguably this forum has far too broader aims to achieve the sort of success we would all like to see in all of its component parts. However, what has been achieved is the coming together of a very interesting and diverse set of posters - this I think is very much worth keeping hold of. I am therefore against any radical restructuring at this stage. The quality of discussion here is also far superior to that of the "bear pits" of the TES forum and others. This too is something we should carefully nurture. It is very difficult to get teachers to contribute regularly and sadly even harder to get many of them to share resources and ideas This does not mean however that we should give up! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Simkin Posted May 9, 2005 Share Posted May 9, 2005 I think the amount of page impressions for the E-HELP seminars is very encouraging. So also is the section on Watergate that was only established a week ago. http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showforum=217 The idea is to create teaching resources and forum debates on Watergate. I suggest we do something similar on European History. First we need to come up with a topic that creates passion in its contributors. It would also help if it is linked to the history of other big internet users such as America, Canada and Australia. One possibility is something controversial on the Second World War. Maybe an examination of the concept of a “war crime”. Any other ideas? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Simkin Posted May 10, 2005 Share Posted May 10, 2005 As part of the E-HELP project I have started an international discussion on war crimes in the 20th Century. http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=3813 Hopefully, people from a wide range of different countries will join in this debate. To start the ball rolling I have posted an article that appeared in today’s Guardian. Richard Drayton is senior lecturer in history at Cambridge University. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shanet Clark Posted May 15, 2005 Share Posted May 15, 2005 John and Andy; I want to thank the members, (I became a SUPER MEMBER today for my 1000th post). More importantly; nearly one hundred people have read my recent Social Sciences post on Dr. Raymond Dart, and twenty have read it in just the past day. This is firm evidence that the JFK assassination/government oversight group and the academic international group are coming together and forming a community. When I joined last year the academic posts were often unread, but the dynamic of the group synthesis has changed, and grown, thanks to both the academics and the JFK people ... Thank you all very much..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek McMillan Posted May 30, 2005 Share Posted May 30, 2005 (edited) I think it was inevitable that the JFK section would grow. It is a rather good one. I have sought to encourage NUT members to take an interest in the forum, for example by putting links on the West Sussex Teachers Association website http://wsta.org.uk and the http://socialistteachers.org.uk website. It might be a good idea to encourage members of other teachers' organisations as well (well except PAT obviously I think the "view new posts" could possibly group postings on the same subject if people are being put off by the number of JFK posts. This would make it easier to see new postings in an area which interests new visitors. OTOH that might be one of those things which seem easy to ask but are actually quite difficult in practice. Edited May 30, 2005 by Derek McMillan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J. Raymond Carroll Posted May 30, 2005 Share Posted May 30, 2005 I think the "view new posts" could possibly group postings on the same subject if people are being put off by the number of JFK posts. This would make it easier to see new postings in an area which interests new visitors. OTOH that might be one of those things which seem easy to ask but are actually quite difficult in practice. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I think members of the JFK forum would not feel the least bit slighted if our stuff was shunted off the front page. I suspect most of us go directly to the JFK page anyway. Re: Passionate History Topic: I don't know if this has come up on the History Forum yet, but the recent controversy sparked by President Bush's remarks about Yalta has led some commentators to ask whether Yalta was a sellout to Stalin. Would that topic get the juices flowing? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham Davies Posted May 31, 2005 Share Posted May 31, 2005 Derek writes: I think the "view new posts" could possibly group postings on the same subject if people are being put off by the number of JFK posts. This would make it easier to see new postings in an area which interests new visitors. The JFK section has turned into a "site within a site". While I can appreciate the interest that this topic has generated, it may also lead some visitors to perceive the Education Forum as being irrelevant to their subject area. I would like to see more postings on e-learning pedagogy, for example. The DfES in the UK is pouring vast amounts of money into e-learning (which, incidentally, is defined by the DfES as "using ICT" and does not necessarily imply distance learning), and I therefore believe that one of our major concerns should be how e-learning can really contribute to improved learning and teaching across the curriculum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caterina Gasparini Posted May 31, 2005 Share Posted May 31, 2005 Derek writes:I think the "view new posts" could possibly group postings on the same subject if people are being put off by the number of JFK posts. This would make it easier to see new postings in an area which interests new visitors. The JFK section has turned into a "site within a site". While I can appreciate the interest that this topic has generated, it may also lead some visitors to perceive the Education Forum as being irrelevant to their subject area. I would like to see more postings on e-learning pedagogy, for example. The DfES in the UK is pouring vast amounts of money into e-learning (which, incidentally, is defined by the DfES as "using ICT" and does not necessarily imply distance learning), and I therefore believe that one of our major concerns should be how e-learning can really contribute to improved learning and teaching across the curriculum. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I find it positively amazing to see that the JFK debate can attract so many people and have so many postings. I have never had enough time to read more than a few of them, nor do I feel particularly involved in the debate, but the fact that so many people are interested in the topic could represent a history case study itself. While I agree that new visitors may find this a little strange, it is also an indicator of what (many) members' interests seem to be at present. I also agree with Graham that there should be more postings in other subject areas as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Moorhouse Posted June 4, 2005 Share Posted June 4, 2005 I think it was inevitable that the JFK section would grow. It is a rather good one.I think the "view new posts" could possibly group postings on the same subject if people are being put off by the number of JFK posts. This would make it easier to see new postings in an area which interests new visitors. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Agreed, the JFK debate was an ineviatable 'big' area on this forum. If someone isn't interested they can of course use their user settings to block even seeing the contentes of that sub forum, or the posts of any particular poster they don't wish to read. Assuming that Andy and John have got the most recent version of the sotfware, all of that is entirely feasible. Simple enough for an individual user to block another user, group, forum, sub forum or thread from appearing on his / her updates list. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Simkin Posted June 5, 2005 Share Posted June 5, 2005 Re: Passionate History Topic: I don't know if this has come up on the History Forum yet, but the recent controversy sparked by President Bush's remarks about Yalta has led some commentators to ask whether Yalta was a sellout to Stalin. Would that topic get the juices flowing? I would very much like to have a dynamic section on the Cold War. We in fact a large number of members from both sides of the Iron Curtain who could contribute a great deal to debates on this topic (in fact far more than the number of JFK posters). These people also hold very different views on the subject ranging from extreme right-wing Cold War warriors to left-wing libertarians. We even have a few people willing to defend the communist governments of Eastern Europe. Like Graham I would also like to see a lot more postings about e-learning. The E-HELP seminars on ICT and history have been fairly successful. I am very keen to do something similar for the rest of the curriculum. Maybe on topics that are not subject specific. Anyone willing to volunteer to start threads/seminars on e-learning? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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