A wiki for history Teachers

[Ed Podesta]

I've been travelling round Europe (OK, I went to Holland) talking about wikis and blogs, and I've done quite a bit of pupil blogging now, so I thought I'd put my money where my mouth is about wikis.

You see I've been spouting about how wikis for small groups or communities of learners have much more potential for teaching and learning about history than large wikis such as wikipedia.

Right, so I'm tentatively announcing "wiki.onedamnthing.org.uk" which is a wiki for history teachers. So far it's for one history teacher only - me! It'd be great though if a couple of others wanted to join in and contribute.

There's a blog , powered by Doug Belshaw's excellent edupress where members could announce things they've added, or changes they've made. No forums, as that's done elsewhere much better than I could, and no file downloads, as this too is done elsewhere to greater effect.

The more observant of you visiting the wiki will have noted that I’ve opted to put up some ads. I thought it would be nice to pay my book bills by selling books to people interested in the same kinds of things as me. I hope that I’ve not offeneded anyone.

Come along and sign up! If you email me at anythingatonedamnthing.org.uk I'll give you an account for the wiki and the blog.

see you there.

Ed.

[Guest]

Come along and sign up! If you email me at anythingatonedamnthing.org.uk I'll give you an account for the wiki and the blog.

see you there.

Ed.

pm me the relevant details and you will see me there

[John Simkin]

At the top of the page you say:

"History is one damn thing after another". Henry Ford (Industrial Innovator and philistine, or did he have a really bad teacher?)

Yes he did have bad history teachers. We all know his quotation that "history is bunk". However, this can only be understood when you take into account the rest of the quotation:

"As a young man, I was very interested in how people lived in earlier times; how they got from place to place, lighted their homes, cooked their meals and so on. So I went to the history books. Well, I could find out all about kings and presidents; but I could learn nothing of their everyday lives. So I decided that history is bunk."

[Ed Podesta]

At the top of the page you say:

"History is one damn thing after another". Henry Ford (Industrial Innovator and philistine, or did he have a really bad teacher?)

Yes he did have bad history teachers. We all know his quotation that "history is bunk". However, this can only be understood when you take into account the rest of the quotation:

"As a young man, I was very interested in how people lived in earlier times; how they got from place to place, lighted their homes, cooked their meals and so on. So I went to the history books. Well, I could find out all about kings and presidents; but I could learn nothing of their everyday lives. So I decided that history is bunk."

Cheers John! What you need is a wiki log in, then you could change what I've written to reflect what you know, showing the strength of the wiki.

Can I PM you one?

Ed.

[John Simkin]

Can I PM you one?

Sure.

[Dan Lyndon]

can you pm me one too?

[Ed Podesta]

can you pm me one too?

with great pleasure!

Ed.

[Ed Podesta]

A quick update on recent changes at One Damn Thing.

There's already quite a few activities, a couple of articles under the "research" category, Dave Stacey is working on some really interesting stuff about reviewing and drafting a KS3 curriculum, and today I've posted the first proper curriculum entry, a mini scheme of work about transport in industrial revolution Britain.

Take a look, and let me know if you think this is useful.

ta

Ed.