Project Meeting: Rome 22-26 October 2002

The first meeting of the project brought together individuals from schools and colleges across Europe to discuss the aims and methodologies of the project. The following report covers the issues covered at the meeting:

23 October 9.30 am
Workshop at Ipsia C. Cattaneo
(site of Corso Vittorio Emanuele, 217 - very close to the historical centre of Rome)

Points of discussion:

• Introduction to the school, the Headmaster, the teachers involved and the students
• The European projects of the school
• Reflection on each country's needs in History curricula
• The topics we can develop together in the first year.

All the points of discussion were deeply examined and in particular, the different curricula, contents and modes of delivery in the countries involved in the project. We might include each country' s history programs in the schools where we teach to understand the different situations better.

English was used as the lingua franca, but occasional use of other languages was made; Italian in most cases, since the majority of the partners could understand it. We examined and compared the history programs of the different curricula and schools we belong to, trying to identify common paths. The headmaster's speech made us focus on the students' needs in order to measure our action.

After considerable discussion, we identified three general themes:

• people and power (totalitarianism and democracy)
• people in movement (from countryside to towns, from countries to other countries - EU, non-EU)
• people at work (the labour process and its changes)

The main problem was how to compromise between two different points of view:

to identify a common methodology and approach (which was impossible given the many teaching systems involved)

to keep complete freedom in methodology and approach (which would leave little need for the project)

After a long discussion, we finally agreed on a common framework which allowed flexibility (see Donny's report).

24 October 9.30 am
Workshop at Ipsia Cattaneo
(site of Via Pisano)

• Introduction to the teachers and the students
• Presentation and results of the students' history works during the last school year
• Use of I.T. in the project
• Website of the project
• Projecting and planning common systems of testing and evaluation
• Division of the task

We started trying to identify a topic (within one of the three general themes) which might be common to the different curricula and give us the possibility of confronting methodologies and materials. We finally agreed on the development of universal suffrage focusing especially on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries (a larger perspective would be impossible because we all operate differently).

Then we planned the steps before the next meeting in Bucharest:

• Donny will email his matrix by the end of November
• By the end of December each school will produce a short piece on the development of universal suffrage in the country to present to the students
• The different pieces will be presented to the students of the partners
• The partners will decide common tests and evaluation systems

Use of I.T. in the project

All students involved in the project will have their personal email in order to exchange information (at the beginning personal information, photos, etc). Some students might work in email groups on the same topic.

The second step will be to buy some web space (with the fixed amount of money from the project) and to implement a website to:

• chat in a forum
• put didactic material on-line (divided into topics starting with universal suffrage)
• work by video-conference (we might even try a short lesson)

We should decide if we need 2 forums (for the teachers and for the students)

People in charge of this work: Jose Antonio Juarez, Robert Cananzi, Michele Minenna, Daniel Henriksson, helped by Emilio Bianchi. By the end of November we might have the web space. How much web space and emails do we need?

Costs:dominion with 50MB and 50 emails = 278,89 €
dominion with 100MB and 100 emails = 413,17 €

Questionnaire (suggested by Claudio Federico)

25 October 9.30 am
Ipsia Cattaneo
(site of Corso Vittorio)

• Financial aspects of the project
• Check of the mobility programme
• Renewal of the project
• Possible dates and programme of next meeting in Romania
• Possibilities of a Comenius History Network

All the points were discussed. The next meeting is set for 8-13 April in Bucharest. The programme will be defined by the Romanian responsible for the project on her visit to Rome in December 2002 and emailed to the partners. The pre-project Comenius Network has been presented with little variations to the original one.