Teaching History Online
Number 2: December, 2000
Using the Internet in the
History Classroom
Andrew
Field
Neale-Wade Community College.
Many schools
now offer the opportunity to take a class into an Internet connected
classroom for a lesson. Those history teachers lucky enough to be
in such schools have a wide range of ready prepared activities awaiting
them. In this article I will offer my thoughts and ideas as to the
use of the Internet in secondary school history teaching.
The benefits
of the Internet to the history teacher can be seen as twofold. On
one level it can help plan, devise and resource lessons. However,
prudent use of suitable sites and activities allows the Internet to
be used to actually teach lessons. It is vital to assert that the
Internet or indeed ICT in history is in no way a replacement for more
traditional teaching methods. It is a further tool available to the
history teacher,
yet
the interactive element of Internet activities mean they are able
to have an extremely positive impact the learning potential of pupils.
It is this interactivity which is the key.
The site
I have created, School History
has been designed to assist history teachers to grasp both benefits
of the Internet mentioned above. It provides categorized links to
Internet sites related to specific National
Curriculum topic areas. For example, in the Year
7 section, selecting Norman Conquest presents the user with a list
of 13 appropriate sites. It also provides downloadable worksheets
in Adobe .pdf format.
Whilst these
aspects are clearly extremely useful for planning, my site also offers
online quizzes and lessons together with links to similar activities
on the Internet. These are activities on different topics ranging
from Thomas
Becket to the First World War. I have also developed hangman games
that test terminology, online wordsearches that familiarise pupils
with vocabulary, online multiple choice quizzes that provide interactive
assessment, drop down gap filling exercises and even 'who wants to
be a millionaire' quizzes.
All these
activities serve to develop pupils' historical skills at the same
time as allowing them to have a little fun. The interactive element
means they can adapt information on screen and affect the outcome
themselves. I
have
extended some quizzes into online lessons. These are more lengthy
interactive activities, accompanied by detailed lesson plans and objectives.
One allows a pupil to become Henry II and make decisions related to
Thomas
Becket. It allows the user to become immediately aware both of
the concepts of cause and consequence together with the notion that
the 'murder' was a culmination of events over a number of years.
Further examples
are lessons on the Making of the Union Jack and the Causes of the
First World War. I am only one of several teachers developing such
activities. Mr D. Moorhouse, the creator of Schools
History has a decision-making activity on D-Day together with
many varied online tasks. Mr Russel Tarr, creator of WGS
History and Politics has developed activities on Henry VII, religious
beliefs and the League of Nations together with further online quizzes
and research tasks. These can all easily be found from his home page.
Both these teacher-produced sites have many different and useful elements,
I would wholeheartedly recommend history teachers explore them thoroughly.
Without doubt
it is the interactive and 'un-constrained' elements that make these
and other Internet related activities, in my opinion, so successful
and educationally beneficial. This is surely the key to the success
of the
fantastic
Spartacus Educational
sites. Here, as I am sure most history teachers are aware, pupils
use hyperlinked information to research about many different topics.
I recommend
many professional or corporate sites. Some sites have a great deal
of text so are more useful for home or own time research, but the
opportunity is endless. If not used during lesson time pupils can
be
directed
to visit the sites from home (if they have access) or in their own
time at school. For example a history club could allow pupils without
home access to make use of the Internet.
The BBC
History site is an ever growing resource with some excellent material
that can be used directly. The History
Channel provides some really useful GCSE interactive quizzes that
test knowledge of different topics.
Some of the
best sites adopt Macromedia Shockwave
and Flash to produce brilliant activities. There are many examples,
including the two previously mentioned sites, but care needs to be
taken not to bypass the basic historical benefits of one task in favour
of the 'bangs and whistles' of another. One site that does not lose
sight of the National Curriculum targets is the tremendous Learning
Curve. This offers some really well presented, interesting yet
also beneficial online activities on different National Curriculum
topics. Being the educational site of the Public Record Office it
has some splendid online material. The online investigation of the
causes of World War One makes excellent use of Flash and works extremely
well with pupils, encouraging source analysis and research skills.
There are further examples on the site.
In summary,
the Internet has a great deal to offer the history teacher. Many are
weary or worried about online lessons because of the extra work involved.
Yet beyond booking the room and spending some time familiarising yourself
with your chosen activities, the extra work is minimal. I have attempted
in this article to put forward some ideas and suggestions. School
History contains links to and hosts many more such online
activities. The interactive nature of the Internet means pupils are
able to develop and improve their historical skills and knowledge
whilst completing tasks. They put pupils at the centre as they make
the choices and decisions, and their actions affect the outcome. This,
in my experience, makes their learning much more effective and ultimately
much more beneficial.
MrField@SchoolHistory.co.uk
copyright A.J. Field 2000
