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Tag Archive for ‘History’ at dougbelshaw.com

Tag Archive for 'History'

Holiday in North Yorkshire

Published
by
Doug Belshaw
on 5 May 2008
in Everything Else
.

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Hannah, Ben and I took the opportunity of my finishing school early on Friday (due to a staff training day) and the Bank Holiday to go away! :D

We stayed on a farm and, being a History teacher, I dragged Hannah and Ben round Rievaulx Abbey, Wharram Percy and Stamford Bridge. Here’s some of the photos I took:


Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

The walk from Helmsley to Rievaulx Abbey was advertised as 1.5 miles in each direction. Having since measured it on Google Earth, I can assure you it’s at least 3 miles each way! With a 2-stone baby on your back and up-and-down hills, that’s not easy-going. Hence the bottle of beer for the journey back courtesy of the English Heritage shop… ;-)

The photos are in a geotagged set at Flickr here.

I’ve started using Twitter with my pupils…

Published
by
Doug Belshaw
on 9 April 2008
in Education
. 7 Comments

Twitter birdMy Year 11 (15-16 year old) History groups - the ones who blog, can use a wiki (until Wikispaces became unavailable/unusable through the school network), use Google Apps for Education and on occasion submit YouTube videos instead of essays are now Twittering.

It’s about time: I’ve been talking about doing this for over a year now, and even suggested 3 different ways Twitter could be used in the classroom. So, over at my new (Google Sites-powered) Y11 History revision wiki I’ve shown my pupils (in great detail) how to go about signing up for their own Twitter accounts.

Usually, Twitter’s a fairly open-ended thing, with each user as a node on a (potentially) huge network. ‘The network’ is actually a series of larger and smaller sub-networks which are linked together by ‘bridge’ users. A little like a large wireless network, in fact. :-p

Twitter network (image credit)

But that’s not how I wanted to use Twitter with my students. Not yet, anyway. I had intended to use the promising-looking Edmodo but, after discussions with Jeff O’Hara discovered it wouldn’t be ready until after my Year 11s go on study leave. I need a closed network, at least at first. At the moment - and during this trial period whilst they’re revising for examinations - I want something like the situation exemplified by this image that I included in that blog post last year:

Twitter - Scenario 1

So far, each group has spent one lesson in the ICT suite making sure their @mrbelshaw.co.uk Google Apps for Education accounts work, getting acquainted with the new revision wiki and signing up for Twitter. The test posts from myself to their mobile devices go ahead this week and we shall hopefully iron out any problems next week.

Issues so far:

  • I wanted to have a separate Twitter account for each group. However, as I can only link my mobile phone to one Twitter account this was not a good solution. I’ve therefore been forced to have one account that will be used with both groups.
  • Putting +44 in front of their mobile numbers and missing off the zero caused some problems, even amongst the more able and digitally-literrate pupils who read all my instructions!
  • Network connection issues and Javascript error messages due to school-based problems.

Hopefully this will tie in with a Becta/Historical Association-funded project of which I’m an associate member. More on that and how my pupils get on with Twitter next week! :-D

Timelines.tv points the way to the future of learning History

Published
by
Doug Belshaw
on 27 March 2008
in Education
. 6 Comments

Timelines.tvIn an average week I probably receive 2-3 emails asking me to review websites, products or software. One random person this week even asked if they could guest blog solely so they could advance their career! Most of these go straight in GMail’s trash folder, but one I received earlier this week was different.

I received an email from Andrew Chater, Bafta award-winning producer of seminal documentaries and History-related programmes. He’s recently launched timelines.tv, which, he believes:

…is a new and exciting on-line history resource provided free for the user…. It offers a wealth of quality TV documentary, arranged on interactive historical timelines that put you in control of your journey through the past. The content covers all aspects of British history from 1066 to the present day, arranged on three parallel timelines: social, political and national/imperial.

I have to say that I’m rather impressed by it. Not only does it help visitors gain a handle on chronology, but introduces themes to enable them to get a grip on how concepts such as ‘leadership’ have changed through time.

Perhaps the best way to use this resource is in a 1:1 laptop situation. In fact, it would be ideal with each learner having an Asus eee each! (are you getting sick of me talking about these little marvels yet?) ;)

The size of the digital video is probably (just) big enough for viewing on an Interactive Whiteboard/projector, but I think the bitesize nature of them means that setting the watching of them for homework along with an activity is a real possibility.

I’m really looking forward to more sites like this springing up. Very well done, Andrew - and kudos for making it free to all! :D