Teaching History Online
Number 4: March, 2001
Contents
Introduction
The
Laptop Revolution
The
Russian Revolution
Victorian
Britain
English
Civil War Simulation
History
Review
Cecil
Slack's
War
History
on the Net
Rise
of Hitler
Slavery
in the United States
History
Today
Letters
from Subscribers
Introduction
Spartacus
Educational will be publishing Teaching
History Online every month.
The newsletter will include 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 create
a community of people involved in using the internet to teach history.
John Simkin
spartacus@pavilion.co.uk
The
Laptop Revolution
The The
International School of Toulouse is a exciting new project sponsored
by BAE SYSTEMS (formerly British Aerospace). This purpose-built school
opened in September 1999, and accommodates children from 4 - 18 years
of age. The school is growing rapidly and has 300 pupils on its roll.
It serves the international community in Toulouse, as well as local
students. Richard
Jones-Nerzic, Head of Humanities at the school, has written a
fascinating article on what is like to teach history in Europe's first
laptop computer school The
Laptop Revolution.
The
Russian Revolution
Spartacus
Educational has launched its new website
on the Russian
Revolution. There are sections
on: Events and Issues,
1860-1914 (20); Revolutionary Philosophers (8); Russian Revolutionaries,
1860-1910 (32); Russian Political and Military Figures: 1860-1920
(34); Events and Issues in Russia, 1914-20 (12); Russian Revolutionaries:
1914-20 (28); Political Groups and Organizations (10) and Foreign
Witnesses of the Revolution (16). There are also online
lessons and a historical
simulation on the events between July, 1914 and November, 1917.
All the students are given a character
that was living in Russia at the time. The characters are then placed
in four discussion groups: Group A (supporters of Nicholas II and
the autocracy); Group B (liberals and moderate socialists); Group
C (Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries) and Group D (Bolsheviks).
Using their online biographies and resource materials, the students
make a series of decisions based on the problems that faced Russia
during this period.
Victorian
Britain
Most of the government funded
educational websites have so far been very disappointing. This is
not true of the very impressive Public Record Office's Learning
Curve. A recent addition to the website is Victorian
Britain that has been designed
specifically for pupils at KS3 and 4. Written by teachers for teachers,
this exhibition looks at different aspects of life in Victorian Britain.
Using an extensive range of varied sources including documents, photographs,
video and sound recordings, this exhibition encourages students to
answer the question, 'Was Victorian Britain Fine of Foul?'
English
Civil War Simulation
The
keyword for site for Russel Tarr's website is "interactivity".
Decision making games, topic investigations,
self-marking tests and revision exercises dominate the site, which
is regularly updated with new material for his students and colleagues
at Wolverhampton Grammar. He has taken particular effort to ensure
that all of the activities not only tie in with the most popular topics
of study, but are also easily accessible to the appropriate age range
and do not require a high level of ICT skills on the part of the teacher.
One of the most recent and successful additions to the site is the
English
Civil War Simulation, in which students take on the role
of King Charles and have to make a number of key decisions in an attempt
to steer their country away from Civil War. At the end of the game
they are given a score on their performance, and then consolidate
their learning by producing a newsletter (in Microsoft Publisher)
all about their "reign".
History
Review
History
Review is a magazine for history students. Published three
times a year (in September, December and March), History
Review covers all the most popular topics
that appear in AS and A-level History, and in first-year college courses.
Coverage begins with the Tudors and Stuarts, and continues into the
Cold War. Written by teachers and historians, experienced at communicating
with students, and who help bring clarity to the key issues and debates
of British and European history from 1450 to the present. The current
edition includes Russel Tar's article, How
can History Teachers use the Internet in their Classrooms?.
The History
Review website also includes
a selection of its articles online. Subscription
details can be obtained from: m.beschorner@historytoday.com.
Cecil
Slack's
War
Andrew Moore has producing an
outstanding website on the letters and diaries of Cecil
Slack, a soldier who took part in the First
World War. As well as Slack's own writings the website also contains
photographs of the man and his family. There is also a wealth of ideas
on how you can use the material to teach History and English to students
aged 9 to 14.
History
on the Net
Heather
Wheeler is training to become a history teacher at Sussex University
and has just finished her first placement in Filsham Valley Secondary
School, St Leonards. She has also building her own website History
on the Net. A recent addition to the website is a detailed look
at the English Civil War. An excellent example of what an enthusiastic
young teacher can achieve on the web.
Rise
of Hitler
Rise
of Hitler is Andrew Field's latest addition to his excellent School
History website. The material allows students to investigate the
rise of Hitler, examine his character and consider why he gained so
much support in Germany. There are also source analysis questions
on Hitler and Nazi Germany. Further content is added frequently and
any comments, suggestions and ideas are warmly welcomed. MrField@schoolhistory.co.uk
Slavery
in the United States
Slavery
in the United States
is the latest of the Spartacus
Educational Encyclopaedias.
Each entry contains a narrative, illustrations and primary sources.
The text within each entry is hypertexted to other relevant pages
in the encyclopedia. In this way it is possible to research individual
people and events in great detail. The sources are also hypertexted
so the student is able
to find out about the writer, artist, newspaper, organization, etc.,
that produced the material.
The Slave System:
African Slave Trade, Slave Ships, Plantation System, Tobacco Plantations,
Rice Plantations, Cotton Plantations, Sugar Plantations, Slave Ownership,
Overseers, Slave Breeding, Slave Markets, Mulattoes and Runaways.
Slave Life:
House Slaves, Field Slaves, Marriage, Childhood, Family Life, Slave
Music, Food, Housing, Education, Religion, Punishment and Whipping.
Slave Narratives:
Charles Ball, Henry Bibb, Henry Box Brown, William Wells Brown, Martha
Browne, Annie Burton, Henry Clay Bruce, Joseph Cinque, Lewis Clarke,
Offobah Cugoano, Frederick Douglass, Olaudah Equiano, Francis Fredric,
Moses Grandy, Walter Hawkins, Josiah Henson, Harriet Jacobs, Thomas
Johnson, Elizabeth Keckley, Solomon Northup, James Pennington, Moses
Roper, Austin Steward, Jacob Stroyer, Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman,
Nat Turner, Bethany Veney, Phillis Wheatley and Zamba Zembola.
Anti-Slavery Movement:
John Quincy Adams, Richard Allen, Susan Anthony, Henry Ward Beecher,
James Birney, Amelia Bloomer, Olympia Brown, Martin Van Buren, Mary
Ann Cary, Maria Weston Chapman, Salmon P. Chase, Lydia Maria Child,
Levi Coffin, Samuel Eli Cornish, Prudence Crandall, Henry W. Davis,
William H. Day, Martin R. Delany, James Forten, Henry Highland Garnet,
Thomas Garrett, William Lloyd Garrison, Joshua Giddings, Horace Greeley,
Angelina Grimke, Sarah Grimke, Frances Harper, Samuel G. Howe, John
Jones, Charles Langston, John Mercer Langston, Abraham Lincoln, Mary
Livermore, Elijah Lovejoy, Benjamin Lundy Lucretia Mott, Robert Dale
Owen, Wendell Phillips, Robert Purvis, Charles Remond, Josephine Ruffin,
David Ruggles, William Seward, Gerrit Smith, Edwin Stanton, Elizabeth
Cady Stanton, Lucy Stone, Thaddeus Stevens, William Still, Harriet
Beecher Stowe, Charles Sumner, Arthur Tappan, Lewis Tappan, Fanny
Garrison Villard, Benjamin Wade, Theodore Weld, Ida Wells-Barnett,
Walt Whitman, John G. Whittier and Fanny Wright.
Events and Issues:
Nat Turner Rebellion, Fugitive Slave Law, Harper's Ferry, Canada and
Slavery, Anti-Slavery Newspapers, Emancipation Proclamation, 13th
Amendment, Reconstruction Plans, Wade-Davis Act, Reconstruction Acts,
Amistad Mutiny, Kansas-Nebraska Act, Underground Railroad, Radical
Republicans, The Civil War, Liberia, 14th Amendment, Black Codes,
Ku Klux Klan and the Freemen's Bureau.
Political Organisations:
Anti-Slavery Society, Free-Soil Party, Liberty Party and the Republican
Party.
History
Today
History
Today is published monthly (£3.40) and the current edition
includes articles on George IV, Stonehenge, Louis XIV, David Low and
Adolf Hitler. Subscription details can be obtained from: subscribe@historytoday.com.
The History Today website
is an excellent resource for students and teachers and includes thousands
of articles that have been published in the magazine over the last
21 years. There is also a quick reference history encyclopedia and
timeline of world history.
Letters
from Subscribers
Here in the U.S.A., we
are teaching about abolitionist background to the U.S. Civil War.
This includes citing British clergymen, and common law and precedents,
against slavery, and freeing slaves. Had the U.S. remained a colony
under Great Britain, our slaves likely would have been freed without
the Civil
War, 1861-1865, that led to a million or so casualties, our most
violent war.
Our websites follow graduate college
level documents-class style, i.e., provide a quick overview and the
full text of original abolitionist legal history and religious history
writings. Examples: Joel
Tiffany's anti-slavery book, Lysander
Spooner's anti-slavery book, Rev.
William Goodell's anti-slavery history, Rev.
George Cheever's anti-slavery sermons. We have only recently begun
this type history education on the Internet,
so some sites are still under construction; these are only examples;
and more are hoped for. The value
of this type history is that it shows the abolitionist view that slavery
was never legal here in the U.S. - a point of view that has now mostly
been forgotten, as this aspect of U.S. history has been overlooked,
to focus too much on the drama of the War itself.
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.
