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The minutes from this preparatory meeting was more "filling in " the application...

2. Background information on partner institutions

University of East Anglia (Terry Hadyn) The School of Education , University of East Anglia , is one of the leading institutions for the training of teachers in the UK , receiving outstanding Ofsted grades for the quality of training, and preparing approximately 400 graduates per year for the teaching profession. It has also consistently scored highly in terms of its research rating in the Research Assessment Exercise surveys over the past two decades. The Centre for Applied Research in Education (CARE) has a world wide reputation in the field of education action research and has wide experience of working on international education projects.

Terry Haydn is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Education who has an established track record in research and publication in the use of ICT in history teaching. He is co-editor of the standard UK text on the use of ICT in secondary history, History ICT and Learning in the secondary school (Routledge Falmer, 2003), and has worked on several research projects on the use of ICT in school history. He is on the editorial board of History computer Review, a U.S. based international journal on the use of ICT in history teaching, which has given him a broad awareness of recent developments and leading exponents of the use of ICT in history.

Spartacus Educational (John Simkin)
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/

Spartacus Educational was founded by John Simkin in 1986. The company was initially established as a textbook and software publisher. In September, 1997, Spartacus Educational became the first educational publisher in Britain to establish a website that was willing to provide teachers and students with free educational materials.
According to a survey carried out by the Fischer Trust, Spartacus Educational is one of the top three websites used by history teachers and students in Britain (the other two are BBC History and the Public Record Office’s Learning Curve). The Spartacus Educational website currently gets six million page impressions a month.
Spartacus Educational also publishes two free weekly newsletters, Education on the Internet (42,00 subscribers) and Teaching History Online (32,400 subscribers). This newsletters provide online news, reviews of websites and articles on ICT.
As well as running the Spartacus Educational website John Simkin has also produced material for the Guardian, Daily Telegraph, the Virtual School and the Spring Europe Project and done other online work for Becta (British Educational Communications and Technology Agency) and the Historical Association.

Historical Association (Alf Wilkinson)
http:// www.history.org.uk/

The Association was founded in 1906 and brings together and representing people who share an interest in, and love for, history. Alf Wilkinson has been a history teacher for many years, and at a previous school was ICT co-ordinator too. He has spent three years organising and running ICT training for history teachers under the government NOF scheme, and we successfully helped nearly 1,000 history teachers to move on their use of ICT in teaching and learning history. Alf Wilkinson’s work with the Historical Association, as Professional Development Manager, means he is responsible for over 3000 secondary history teachers. He has written online materials for History Online recently I organised a very successful national History and ICT Conference on behalf of the HA.

Dartford Technology College (Andy Walker)
http://www.dtc.kent.sch.uk/
http://www.learningonline.me.uk/

Dartford Technology College is an ICT specialist college. Andy Walker is webmaster of the college’s extranet facility. Andy Walker is also the author of Learning Online, which offers free online courses, lessons and activities in History, Sociology, Vocational health studies, Physical education and ICT. He also has experience of tutoring and mentoring students using web logs and forums. He has experience of delivering Inset on ICT, the Internet and History locally and nationally and am a subject mentor on the Graduate Teacher Training scheme. The Dartford Technology College is an accredited Teacher training Centre.
Andy Walker has experience of writing online materials for History for Sam Learning And is on the History authoring team for Robert Powell Publications interactive CD ROMs “Raising achievement in History”. Last year he was commissioned by the Learning Skills development agency to author an advanced level distance learning resource for A1 Sociology. He is also working as a co author for CGP’s proposed revision guide for A1 Sociology

IES Parque de Lisboa (Juan Carlos Ocaña)
http://www.historiasiglo20.org

Juan Carlos Ocaña is History and Geography Head of Department in IES Parque de Lisboa in Alcorcón-Madrid ( Spain ). He has I given different teachers’ training courses on Using the Internet in Teaching History and has been tutor in other teachers’ training courses on Research on Social Sciences classroom and European Programmes at Educational Institutions. He has also participated in different European Projects in which using ICT has been an important aspect of their final outcomes:
Juan Carlos Ocaña is a member of the Editorial Team of History Department in the Virtual School – European Schoolnet. He was a member of Spring Day in Europe teachers group during the academic year 2002-2003 (European Convention – European Commission – European Schoolnet). He was the Coordinator teacher in Comenius Educational European Project 'Men and women in current European society' Programme Socrates-Comenius Action 1- 1998-2001, and is currently Coordinator teacher in School Project Comenius 'Personalities, Events and Problems in European History' (2001-2003)
I run a web site Historiasiglo20.org – El sitio web de la historia del siglo XX (20 th Century History web site) http://www.historiasiglo20.org which is one of the most visited Spanish-speaking history web sites. My on line lesson “History of the EU and European Citizenship” was a finalist in eSchola E-Learning My Europe Awards 2001.

Fredrika Bremergymnasium (Dalibor Svoboda)
http://www.fredrika.se/
http://vs.eun.org/eun.org2/eun/en/vs-history/entry_page.cfm?id_area=21

Dalibor Svoboda works as a teacher of History, Civics and International relations at Fredrika Bremergymnasiet, (http://www.fredrika.se/) an upper secondary school (16 - 19 age group) situated in a suburb of Stockholm. Dalibor Svoboda was born in Czechoslovakia but moved to Sweden in 1968. Since 1995 he has worked with information technology and pedagogical issues at his school and at Knowleadge and Kompetence Foundation and/or at National Agency for Education. Dalibor Svoboda has participated in several projects: Netdays 1999-2001, eSchola 2001.
Dalibor Svoboda is also Head of History department at the European Virtual School . He also initiated the "Peace in Europe " project which aimed to let "students from different places in Europe work with time periods which followed after devastating wars and also with Peace Treaties which contributed to shape today's Europe ". He also involved in "Learning Bridge".

Teacher Centre Unit in Alcorcón (Javier Méndez Pérez)

Javier Méndez Pérez has been a philosophy and English as a second language teacher for many years. He has worked for the Teacher Centre Unit in Alcorcón, Madrid for three years. He has experience is running in-service teacher training courses in the area of humanities in general (history, philosophy, economy, etc) and in 2 nd language (mainly English an French). He also runs workshops, seminars and teachers research groups. Javier Méndez Pérez is also in charge of disseminating information concerning teaching materials in different professional magazines. Javier Méndez Pérez also participated in the Ayto. Madrid-Board of Education of the city New York exchange program (1996) and was Coordinating teacher in the innovating project for the Spanish Ministry of Education “Developing teaching application on the Internet” (1997-1998). He was also a member of the leading team for the European project “CEALEM” drafted by the local government of Madrid in the European year of languages 2001

Sintermeertencollege (Nico Zijlstra)

Sintermeerten College (1250 pupils) is providing secondary education from the age of 12 up to 18. Sintermeerten College is one of the few schools in the province of Limburg that offer stage facilities for teacher trainees of Fontys teacher-training centre. In 1994 Sintermeerten College was awarded 'Computer school' of the year. Teaching at Sintermeerten College involves the use of computers of which 100 are available to all pupils.

At the moment Sintermeerten College is interested in creating a cross-curricular e-learning environment. As an 'European Plus' school Sintermeerten College is involved in several European programmes, with close contacts to Aachen and Berlin (D), Canvey Island (GB), Landrecies (F), Ghent (B), Stockolm (S).
Nico Zijlstra teaches history at Sintermeerten College and is a member of European Virtual School History Department.

International School of Toulouse (Richard Jones-Nerzic) http://www.intst.net/humanities/information/index.htm

In terms of technology, the International School of Toulouse is at the ‘cutting edge’ of educational ICT provision. The IST was established in 1999 as Europe’s first fully ‘laptop school’; a learning environment in which all students ‘own’ a portable computer and every class room in the school is fully networked with internet access, multimedia projector and a full range of peripheral support tools: printers, scanners, digital cameras etc.

Richard Jones-Nervic has been a history teacher for 10 years and since 1999 has been Head of Humanities at the International of School of Toulouse, France. He is also webmaster of the school’s Humanities site. Since 2001, Richard Jones-Nervic has been a member of the European Virtual School History Department. In this time he has written a number of articles about the impact of laptop computers in the history classroom, using online forums in history and teaching with a hypertext curriculum. He has also co-ordinated online European history projects and organised two conferences of the Virtual School in Toulouse.

Hvitfeldtska Gymnasiet (Anders MacGregor-Thunell)

Hvitfeldtska Gymnasiet was founded in 1647 by the Swedish Queen Christina. The school has changed names several times and in 1940 the name of Hvitfeldtska was given to the school in memory of Margareta Hvitfeldt. In 1664 she donated her entire fortune to make it possible for boys without means to go to school. Since 1939 students have been able to study both humanities and sciences at the school. The International Baccalaureate program was started in 1989. Since 1990 the school has been a member of the international organisation ECIS (European Council of International schools).

Anders MacGregor-Thunell started teaching career in the middle of the 1970’s. After graduating with a “Master of Arts in History and Social Sciences Education” he continued with several post-graduate courses in History including historical theory and methods for post-graduates as well as in-depth courses on different historical topics. He published his first post-graduate works in history eighteen years ago. He has continued to publish material, attending conferences and for the past few years ago I also work with elearning. During the last years he has built up the History Department site on our school’s intranet.

He is currently a full-time teacher of History at Hvitfeldtska Gymnasiet, an Upper Secondary School with 1800 students, in the centre of the city of Gothenburg, Sweden. Most of the time he teaches IB ( International Baccalaureate) History, both Standard and Higher Level. He also teaches History within the ordinary Swedish system. Since 1998 I’ve been the Head of the History Department at Hvitfeldtska Gymnasiet. This responsibility involves contact and co-operation with other departments as well as with the Senior Management. It also involves contact with the University of Gothenburg Teacher Training Education, since the school is one of the designated High Schools for teacher trainees.

3. Role of the Participants

To prepare teachers to use Internet as a pedagogical tool in teaching European History
To prepare history teachers to use adequate methodologies to teach history through the medium of a foreign language.
To foster an European, multinational point of view in teaching history by collaborative projects carried out by using Internet.
To create contents on historical subjects which have a strong emphasis on linking the past to the present, such as globalisation, terrorism, European Union integration.
To gather a directory of “good practise” on teaching history on Internet (web sites, newsletters, forums… ) in several languages (classified by age, subject…)
To set up a History teachers’ forum administered in several European languages and that could be used as a virtual meeting point for teachers from different European countries
To elaborate some evaluation criteria to assess history web sites
To prepare European teachers to use the adequate methodologies and skills to teach history on the Internet
To Set up an educational web site to be used in the classroom

4. Objectives of the visit.

Development of general guidelines of the project
Discussions concerning contribution of each institution
Agreeing the financial administration of the project
Evaluation of the project outcomes and processes
Deciding on strategies for dissemination and promotion

5. Main outcomes of the visit.

6. Proposed joint activities to be undertaken, together with projected timescale

September – November 2004

Collecting material, experiences of good practice of Internet use in the history classroom.
Creation of multilingual transnational Teachers’ forum
Looking for and examining leading edge practitioners in the area of teaching history using Internet
Examining the second language potential of the Internet in the history classroom

Meeting in Toulouse , France (October 2004)

Moderation and evaluation of Teachers’ forum. Allocation of administrative roles
Dissemination of good practice and experiences of Internet use in the history classroom.
Evaluating existing websites and setting up evaluation criteria for using the internet in the history classroom.
Negotiated delegation of responsibility for European themes

November 2004 – April 2005

Individual research of allocated European themes for use with the Internet in the History classroom.
Collecting good practises in the use of Internet in the classroom
Research in language methodology for use in teaching history texts
Moderation and administration of Teachers´ forum.

Meeting at Goteborg, Sweden (April 2005)

Methodology for using websites in the classroom
Methodology for using history websites in a non-native language context

May – November 2005

Individual research of allocated European themes for use with the Internet in the History classroom. Research on teaching history through second language
Moderation and administration of Teachers´ forum.

Heerlen, Netherlands (October 2005)

Developing the online course
Drafting modules for course (e.g. Internet literacy, forum use, teaching history through second language etc.)
Dissemination stage 1: newsletter, international networking, forum

November, 2005 – March, 2006

Individual research of allocated European themes for use with the Internet in the History classroom.
Moderation and administration of Teachers´ forum.
Reviewing and trialling modules
Collecting material, experiences, assimilation of good practice

Toulouse, France (March, 2006)

Evaluation of project performing
Putting in common the materials, experiences, assimilation of good practices
Selection of modules
Updating project website

April- September, 2006

Content of Modules, seminars, workshops and lectures
Selection of history texts according to levels of foreign language skills to be used in teaching history in non-native context
Individual research of allocated European themes for use with the Internet in the History classroom.
Reviewing and trialling modules
Moderation and administration of Teachers´ forum

Stockholm, Sweden (October, 2006)

Dissemination stage 2: newsletter, international networking, forum
Course structure: modules, seminars, workshops and lectures

November 2006- April 2007

Testing modules, seminars, workshops and lectures to respond teachers’ needs.
Exchange of information and experiences of individual research of allocated European themes for use with the internet in the History classroom
Moderation and administration of Teachers´ forum.

Norwich, England (March 2007)

Coordinating module strands
Drafting timetables, finalising course programme, logistical issues. Trialing workshops, seminars, lectures with student teachers
Final Self-Evaluation of the whole project

7. Impact of the visit on your own organization

The main impact of the meeting in Madrid was the development of our initial ideas about the plan to prepare a course that will help teachers to use Internet as a pedagogical tool in teaching European History. From this meeting we have decided a plan of action and delegated responsibilities.

8. Level of support received so far (eg from the National Agency, local authorities, etc.)

So far I have received no financial support for this Comenius Project. However, I found the staff that I spoke to at the British Council extremely helpful.