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Toulouse
Meeting: 18th-21st March 2004
Thursday 18th March
14.00 Les Albiston gave the visitors a tour of the International School
of Toulouse. He outlined the ethos and purpose of the school and how it
is supported through the building design and curriculum. The tour
provided an insight into how ICT is used in all curriculum areas to aid
learning.
14.30 Individual subject meetings about the Aviation Project:
(History/Special Needs, Design & Technology, Science). Nick Falk
reported back that David Faure and himself had discussed how the VS
Biology could contribute material to the Science framework already in
place.
15.30 Bamber Gascoigne gave a presentation of his HistoryWorld website.
Bamber has been writing this material since 1994. It went online in 2001
and the following year won the New Statesman New Media Award for
education. The site contains more than 30 detailed interactive
curriculum timelines.
http://www.historyworld.net/
Bamber told us that Charles Clarke is an enthusiastic supporter of
HistoryWorld. Bamber has been appointed to the DfES advisory History
Group (convened by Gordon Marsden MP, chaired by Charles Clarke). Bamber
is currently in discussion with Ceris Bergen at BECTA about the
development of this website for use in the classroom.
The whole group were extremely impressed by the quality and depth of
information on the website. It was also felt that it needed an input
from experienced teachers in order to make it more usable in the
classroom. It was decided that a small team should be formed to produce
a guide on how the material could be used in the history classroom. John
Simkin, Andy Walker and Anne Jakins all agreed to develop some ideas on
how this could be done. It was suggested that we should develop a pilot
project to show the educational potential of this tremendous resource.
It was agreed that we should concentrate on the timeline for the 19th
century. The main focus would be on producing differentiated activities
that could be used at both Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 3. Nick Falk was
keen to use the resource to explore the development of scientific
concepts in this period and to investigate the impact of these
developments on our present understanding. Activities could be produced
to support the science curriculum at KS3,4,5. John Simkin agreed to
explore the different possibilities of providing the funding for this
pilot project.
16.30 Members of the Aviation Project (Andy Davies, Richard
Jones-Nerzic, John Simkin, Anne Jakins, David Faure, Nick Falk, Andy
Walker, Adeline Braud and Peter Flynn) discussed the teaching materials
that they have produced so far.
Friday 19th March
09.30 Discussions on the Aviation Project.
11.00 Visit to Airbus. Andy Davies, Richard Jones-Nerzic, John Simkin,
Anne Jakins, Nick Falk, Andy Walker, Bamber Gascoigne and Les Albiston
were given a guided tour of the Airbus Mock-Up Centre (A380, A340 and
A319CJ). This led to detailed discussions about the way that the Virtual
School and Airbus could work together to produce educational materials
for the Aviation Project (see details of Sunday’s meeting).
15.00 Discussions on the Aviation Project.
17.00 Richard Jones-Nerzic interviewed Bamber Gascoigne on Digital Video
for the VS History website: ICT Pioneers and Innovative Practitioners
Project.
Saturday 20th March
All day visit to Oradour-sur-Glane to obtain information for a history
department Virtual School project on the Second World War.
Discussions about the development of the International Education Forum.
Several members voiced concern about the unwillingness of senior members
of the VS to get involved. However, the administrators were pleased that
the forum had been very successful at persuading large numbers of people
to join (523) from a wide variety of different countries (28). It was
also decided to create a student version of the forum for collaborative
projects.
Sunday 21st March
9.30 It was agreed that the visit to Airbus was an inspirational
experience. It was decided to develop a large cross-curricular project
on the A380. The following reasons were given for this decision:
(1) The A380 is one the most important technological development of the
early 21st century.
(2) Airbus is a successful example of European Cooperation.
(3) The A380 has the potential to play a leading role in developing and
maintaining European unity.
(4) Over the next ten years the A380 will play a major role in the
economic development of Europe.
It was decided that over the next year the A380 work would become the
main feature of the Aviation Project.
Andy Davies (Design & Technology), John Simkin (History) and Nick
Falk (Science) promised to produce material as part of their Virtual
School contract. Andy Walker (Sociology) and Anne Jakins (Special Needs)
also offered to produce materials for the project. I will explore ways
of how their work can be funded.
Richard Jones-Nerzic agreed to coordinate the VS work with that of the
staff of the International School of Toulouse.
Andy Davies intends to put forward a project proposal. This will include
producing materials to deliver A Level/IB.
Nick Falk pointed out that the A380 project and had the potential to be
a rich resource for development of science educational material.
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