Teaching History Online
Number 97: 3rd August, 2003
1. Encouraging History Teachers To Use ICT
4. Coverups
9. The Visionary Life of Joseph Paxton
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 29,400 subscribers to the newsletter.
John Simkin
Encouraging History Teachers To Use ICT: A survey carried out in 1999 discovered that the main reason teachers used computers in their teaching was because they felt they ought to. History, the same as every national curriculum subject, has clear requirements to use ICT. It seems that history teachers thus feel a burden to make use of ICT. In this seminar Andrew Field suggests how history teachers can be encouraged to make use of ICT in their lessons. The fundamental approach is not backed up by the notion"because they have to", but rather the infinitely preferable "because of the benefits".
An Echo in My Heart: This website provides the correspondence between a well educated, articulate couple, Frederick Stanley Albright and Evelyn (Kelly) Albright, who wrote regularly to each other between 1913 and 1917. The correspondence spans the time of their early courtship, engagement and marriage and their separation when Fred Albright went overseas in World War I. Between them, the couple wrote over 550 letters. The correspondence contains absorbing, first hand accounts of life in Canada, before and during World War I, Army training in England and of life behind the lines and on the battlefields of France. Fred Albright was killed at Passchendaele in October, 1917.
Urban Legends: Myths are important symbols of cultural unity, and perhaps no myths are more important in the modern era than the historical myths that establish our national heritage and tell us where we came from as well as who we are. This website provides a collection of these urban myths and includes: (1) Italian dictator Benito Mussolini made the trains run on time. (2) The United States standard railroad gauge derives from the original specification for an Imperial Roman war chariot. (3) A death curse threatens U.S. Presidents elected in years evenly divisible by twenty. (4) A number of amazing coincidences can be found between the assassinations of Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy.
Coverups: This website looks at the great conspiracy theories developed over the last 200 years. Coverups and conspiracies covered include: JFK's Assassination, Adolf Hitler's Death, Big Foot, the Death of Marilyn Monroe, Abraham Lincoln's Assassination, Roswell New Mexico, Death of Princess Diana, Death of Jimmy Hoffa, Waco Texas, Area 51, Bermuda Triangle, TWA 800 and the Lochness Monster.
Medieval England: This website contains information on the following topics: a timeline on medieval kings and queens; William the Conqueror; 1066; the Battle of Hastings; scenes from the battlefield; the Bayeaux Tapestry; castles; motte and bailey castles; stone keep castles; concentric castles; castle features; defending a castle; the end of castles; glossary of castle terms; medieval manor houses; feudalism; feudal services; medieval farming; the farming year; the lifestyle of the medieval peasant; medieval names; medieval surnames; food and drink in Medieval England; the Domesday Book; Sussex and the Domesday Book; medieval churches; Norman church architecture; Gothic church architecture; Thomas Becket; building a medieval cathedral; medieval masons; Magna Carta; King John; health and medicine in Medieval England; the Black Death; ‘Cures’ for the Black Death; the Peasants Revolt of 1381; officials in a medieval village; medieval towns; medieval guilds; medieval law and order; medieval Christmas; the Hundred Years War; the longbow; timeline of the Crusades; the First Crusade; Richard I, Saladin and the Third Crusade and The Children’s Crusade.
Best of History Web Sites is an award-winning portal created for students, history educators, and general history enthusiasts. Best of History Web Sites contains annotated links to over 900 history-related web sites that have been reviewed for quality, accuracy, and usefulness. Site content is well organized into thirteen categories, including: Prehistory, Ancient/Biblical, Medieval, U.S. History, Early Modern European, 20th Century, World War II, Art History, General Resources, Maps, Lesson Plans/Activities, Multimedia, and Research. Best of History Web Sites features annotated links to hundreds of history lesson plans, teacher guides, activities, games, quizzes, and more throughout its pages. There is also a special section on Teaching with Technology that features articles, tips, and links to current research and practice in classroom technology. Best of History Web Sites is the creation of Thomas Daccord, a history teacher and instructional technology consultant who has taught in North America and Europe.
Someone in Time: Every month a new mystery guest will arrive on this Discovery Channel website. Your mission is to uncover the identity of the mystery guest by clues (text, visual, or audio). Every other day new clues will be added. You can also ask the mystery guest a question. These questions and answers are archived and can be read by the person playing the game. The solution to the mystery is revealed on the 15th day of the game.
Ancient Sites Directory: The countryside of the UK is endowed with an incredible wealth of prehistoric structures. Some are famous, others obscure and difficult to find. Many are under threat from vandalism, land development and pollution. The objective of this website is to heighten awareness of the prehistoric past that surrounds us and in doing so help to protect this precious gift of our ancestors. The author has personally visited all of the prehistoric sites featured on these pages, photographed them and recorded his thoughts. Directions and grid references are given for each featured site enabling the reader to find them and reach their own conclusions.
Book Section
The Visionary Life of Joseph Paxton: In the nineteenth century, which witnessed a revolution in horticulture, urban planning and architecture, Joseph Paxton, a man with no formal education, strode like a colossus. Head gardener at Chatsworth by the age of twenty-three, and encouraged by the sixth Duke of Devonshire whose patronage soon flourished into the defining friendship of his life, Paxton set about transforming this Derbyshire estate into the greatest garden in England. Drawing on thousands of Paxton's personal letters, Kate Colquhoun's remarkable biography is a compelling story of a man who typifies the Victorian ideal of self-improvement and a touching portrait of one of that era's great heroes. (Kate Colquhoun, HarperCollins, ISBN 0 00 714353 2, £18.99)
