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30 January 2009
Schools set to benefit from historical wiki
Teachers and pupils are set to benefit from a new wiki which has been launched as an extension to the innovative and popular Old Bailey Proceedings Online website (www.oldbaileyonline.org). The new wiki, sponsored by the Economic History Society, allows users to contribute information and corrections relating to the trials documented on the website.
One of its most important features is the section of teaching resources pages, which will allow educational professionals to contribute to and modify the information provided to create new teaching materials for the use of their students and the wider educational community.
The website, a collaborative project between the Universities of Sheffield, Hertfordshire and The Open University, provides a fully searchable edition of the largest body of texts detailing the lives of non-elite people ever published. Containing details of 197,645 criminal trials held at London's central criminal court, the updated and expanded website, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and The Big Lottery Fund, includes all the criminal trials at the Old Bailey from 1674 to 1913, from just after the Great Fire to just before the Great War.
The Old Bailey Proceedings Online has been highly successful since its launch, attracting some fifteen million visits since 2003, with the teaching resources pages among those frequently consulted. It is hoped that the new wiki, a supplement to the website, will grow and evolve over time as teachers submit new content that is specifically relevant to their students and their studies.
The website is not simply a historical learning resource, but one that can be used to learn about ICT, literacy, numeracy and citizenship, particularly in Key Stages 2-4 and those pupils studying the "Crime & Punishment Through Time" track of the Schools History Project GCSE.
Usage of the wiki is monitored and only those registered can contribute. Modifications to the teaching resources pages can only be made by members of the 'teacher group,' which requires a simple additional registration procedure to ensure only qualified educational professionals can make changes.
Professor Robert Shoemaker, of the University's Department of History and co-director of the project, commented: "The Old Bailey Online provides a fantastic resource for students to learn in an interactive environment. The teaching resources available on the wiki provide a great introduction to the site for both teachers and students, but it is vital that these pages have input from teachers in order to reflect the ways that they teach and the needs of their students. The added contribution from teachers to the site will be invaluable."
Visit the wiki now
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