Teaching
History Online
Number
20: 1st December, 2001
Introduction
1.
History
World
2.
Textile
Industry
3.
People's
Century
4.
British
Empire
5.
Cotton
Times
6.
The
History Net
7.
Collective
Memories of the Cuban Missile Crisis
8.
Mikhail
Gorbachev Internet Archive
9.
History
as a Link
Introduction
Spartacus Educational
publishes Teaching
History Online
every week. The newsletter includes news, reviews of websites and
articles on using ICT in the history classroom. Members of the mailing
list are invited to submit information for inclusion in future editions
of Teaching
History Online. In this way we hope to create
a community of people involved in using the Internet to teach history.
Currently there are 16,750 subscribers to the newsletter.
John Simkin
spartacus@pavilion.co.uk
HistoryWorld
is a highly interactive site in which users can move back and forth
through time along interconnecting pathways. In 'What When Where'
they can discover contemporary events selected by time, place and
theme. Tours offer a two-speed navigational system from Big Bang to
the present. Illustrated Timelines (thirty of them relating to curriculum
subjects) provide ready-made surveys of the appropriate material.
Users of the sophisticated HistoryWorld database can also select images
and events to mix their own timelines. At any moment a single click
will bring up a narrative account of a selected event. There is also
Whizz Quiz, an addictive history quiz against the clock. And in HistoryClub
people can publish their own articles online. There are few educational
sites where pupils can become so actively involved in so many different
ways.
Textile
Industry: An encyclopedia of the Textile Industry in Britain between
1700 and 1900. The website includes information on the different aspects
of the domestic system as well as the woolen, cotton, silk and linen
industries. The website also features entries on twelve important
textile inventions and biographies of inventors (16) and entrepreneurs
(28). There is also a series of lessons available that simulates the
debate that took placed in the 19th century on the morality and the
economic value of child labour in textile factories.
People's
Century: This website is a companion to People's Century, a 26-episode
television series broadcast on the BBC and PBS. The site contains
material of interest to a general audience, with special content for
teachers and students. The website includes a timeline, which shows
the relative time span of each episode and highlights significant
world events related to the topic. There is also a teacher's guide,
which provides discussion questions to help students in viewing the
programs, as well as classroom activity that focuses on a selected
programme segment.
British
Empire: At its peak, the British Empire was the largest formal
empire that the world had ever known. As such, its power and influence
stretched all over the globe; shaping it in all manner of ways. The
site is dedicated to annualizing the history of the British Empire:
The triumphs, the humiliations, the good that it brought and the bad
that it inflicted. For better or worse the British Empire had a massive
impact on the history of the world. It is for this reason that the
site tries to bring to life the peoples, cultures, adventures and
domination that made the Empire such a powerful institution. It is
neither an apology for, nor a nostalgic reminiscince of the institution
that so dominated the world for over a century. Rather, it analyses
and describes the vast institution that so influenced the shape of
the world that we see today. The site includes timelines, maps and
photos of colonies, descriptions of battles and campaigns, images
of Imperial art and explanations of scientific development.
Cotton
Times: A broad-based site covering the Industrial Revolution from
several angles - the inventors and the entrepreneurs, the radicals,
reformers and health pioneers, and most importantly, the workers.
All the major developments are covered, but the accent is on the leading
role played by the Lancashire cotton industry in driving the revolution
forward.
The
History Net: Web 100 claims that the History Net is the highest
ranking history website on the Internet. The site's sections include
World History, American History, Civil War, Personality Profiles,
Great Battles, World War Two, Eyewitness Accounts, Great Battles of
the Ages, Arms, Armies and Intrigue, Historic Travel, Aviation &
Technology and Homes & Heritage. Other features include a Daily
Quiz, Today in History and Picture of the Day.
Collective
Memories of the Cuban Missile Crisis.
The Cuban Missile Crisis was one of the most important conflicts of
the cold war period. This was the first time that the two superpowers
had come so close to starting a nuclear war. This website run by Brown
University is a collection of individual accounts of the crisis. It
is also possible to add your own story to the collection.
Mikhail
Gorbachev Internet Archive: In 1990 Mikhail Gorbachev won the
Nobel Peace Prize. In recognition of this achievement the Norwegian
Nobel Institute has created the Gorbachev Internet Archive. The website
includes links to a variety of biographies of Gorbachev. It also features
speeches, articles, photographs and even a joke about Gorbachev submitted
by Boris Yeltsin.
History
as a Link: According to Joe David, the war against terrorism cannot
be achieved without a full grasp of history. Joe David, a former classroom
teacher and author of four books on education, believes it is time
teachers start "telling it like it is," by filling in the
missing parts to history so that students can really experience history
in action. Joe David argues that it is only when students are armed
with a broad historical overview, that they have the essential information
needed to understand the present and grasp the possibilities for the
future.
Please email John Simkin at spartacus@pavilion.co.uk
if you have information you want included in next month's edition
of Teaching
History Online.
