Wednesday 22 October
Cristina Fuga was elected
as the new coordinator.
Then the various partners reported on achievements and problems
that each experienced over last year.
 Romania
- The profile of project was raised by last year's visit. They
spend one afternoon a week on the project, but have had problems
with access to computers. There is only one computer lab and one
machine with internet connection. They are about to finalise a contract
which gives broadband internet access throughout the school.
Spain - Here there was very successful work using the universal
suffrage material, both the chronology and the factors element.
The class was able to use these for an effective comparative study
of the rise of universal suffrage and produced a very interesting
chart showing the different rates of development. There was also
a discussion paper that was produced as a result of this. It contained
some very sophisticated analysis.
Italy - There are now two schools involved in the project
- Cattaneo and the Art School. In the Art School there is little
access or use of Information Technology and not many students take
languages in spite of the legal requirement. They were hoping to
introduce English and Spanish language teaching as well as Information
Technology. This will help them get involved in the project, but
the project and language options will be voluntary. They were hoping
to use the project as a means of getting the students interested
in learning languages.
Scotland - There have been some good successes this year
with the project. First of all, for the first time, it has been
possible to link up studying history with using Information Technology.
Groups of students have been working on the internet and researching
various topics. These are now stored in the website and were demonstrated
to the partners. In addition the different modes of delivery and
motivation suggested by the project have led to the arranging of
a trip to Paris for history students. The results of this will be
fed into the project after it has taken place in February.
Portugal - The Portuguese partners have been using the universal
suffrage material with their students and this was found to be a
useful and interesting means of providing an international comparison
of development.
Thursday 23 October
The session concentrated on proposals for activities in the coming
year.
Various were put forward:
Immigration/Emigration
There was a suggestion that this theme be developed by looking
at culture, in particular the songs and music of immigrant and emigrant
communities. Italy, for example, could draw on many different materials
dealing with immigration in the nineteenth century. This would allow
us to work with immigrant students and their interests. However,
it was pointed out that there could be difficulties with this because
commercialisation has been so widespread that the real culture of
the different groups has been overlaid by a common 'pop' culture.
So a 'real culture' might be difficult to get at.
European constitution
There was a great debate in Italy on the nature of the European
constitution and in Romania a new constitution is about to be voted
on. So it was thought that this might be a useful thing to look
at in a historical and comparative context. Our students are going
to be first time voters and so these issues should be important
to them.
It was felt by several participants that the subject of constitutions
would not be stimulating for our students and therefore difficult
to involve them with. There was also the difficulty that the UK
does not have a constitution.
Online discussion forum
There was an extensive discussion about how to involve all the
partner students actively in relating to the forum and to each other.
Various ideas about the themes that could be explored were discussed.
One suggestion was that the forum debate should be centred on economics
because this is something that students find to be of immediate
relevance to them given their socio-economic position. Another suggestion
was that we put forward a number of very general questions which
different groups of students studying perhaps different areas of
history could still provide an input to.
A number of discussion questions were put forward for consideration
over the next two days. It was decided that the online discussion
could not practically take place before February 2004. One person
was delegated to look at the preparatory steps needed for this to
happen while others were asked to propose a final list of questions
and a timetable for the online discussion.
Videoconferencing
This was not extensively discussed due to lack of time, but the
aim of this is to show students that there are other people in other
countries working on the same topics.
Friday 24 October
The first topic for discussion was the online forum.
 Proposals
for preparing the forum during November to February were put forward.
The suggestion was that students provide a personal summary of interests,
a photograph and so on. To achieve this email accounts would need
to be set up for all project students and a test email would be
sent to see if the system was working. They would then post material
on the forum and seek a suitable partner to communicate with in
the later online discussion. It was suggested that the forum itself
be used to test the system through students registering with the
forum.
Some people thought that this might not be appropriate for their
students as they would not want to divulge personal information
in this way and they would not think it appropriate for a project
of this type.
After extensive debate it was agreed that this preparatory work,
while worthwhile, would not be practical for all the partners. While
it would be open to particular schools to adopt this approach and
to contact other schools with a similar approach, it would not be
possible for the project to adopt this idea as a whole. Therefore,
the online forum would begin in February leaving individual schools
to prepare for this in the way they find most suitable.
The timetable and questions for the forum in February were agreed
after discussion. Answers to the questions would be posted in the
local language (if preferred) and some form of online translation
facilities would be used to aid comprehension. It was also agreed
that there would be a Comeniad prize awarded to the best contribution
in each country. (See The History Forum
for details).
One of the aims of the online forum would be to provide a directly
measurable outcome. The number of contacts would be verifiable from
the website.
Immigration/Emigration
There was considerable discussion on this item. The main issue
was whether the focus be on content or on interaction between students
in the different countries working on the issue. One view was that
there was no point in producing lengthy teaching materials which
would sit on a website without being used. It would be important
that students read and comment on any materials and this meant that
the materials had to be brief and accessible.
It was also thought that it would be useful for students to participate
in preparing materials on immigration/emigration. However, at this
point practical difficulties related to the different languages
were raised. It was suggested that online translation services could
be used to help with this and these could be provided through the
Stevenson website. This would not be a complete solution because
these translation services were limited in what they could do. As
a way around this it was proposed that students prepare very short
and very simple submissions on the issue.
It was also suggested that as there were practical difficulties
with administering a very interactive discussion of immigration/emigration
individual partners could be left free to approach this issue in
the way they thought appropriate.
One means of coordinating the activity of the partners without
imposing too strict a method of work was for all to look at the
topic under the following headings:
- Who (who immigrated/emigrated) ?
- When (a chronology of population flows in the different
countries) ?
- How (by what means of transport, under what conditions)
?
- Why (were people driven by economic, political, social
and cultural factors) ?
- Consequence (cultural, economic, political, social) ?
In the end there was not a clear agreement on how to proceed with
this topic, though all were keen that something should be done around
it.
ACTIONS
- Claudio and Donny to work on report of the Seville meeting (by
mid-November 2003)
- Template for immigration/emigration to be sent out by Donny
(10 November 2004)
- Translation of the questions for the forum to be sent to Harry
to go on the forum (by 1 December 2003)
- Involve students in the online discussion forum (February 2004)
- Evidence of work on immigration/emigration (by May meeting)
NEXT MEETINGS
 Future
meetings and dates were decided upon:
- Edinburgh, 4 May - 9 May 2004
- Cortegaça, 19 October - 24 October 2004
- Final meeting would be in Rome, date to be decided
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