One of the big problems faced by teachers in the past was lack of access to computer rooms for students to be able to utilise ICT. Almost all of the lessons in computer rooms would be timetabled for ICT lessons. The few remaining periods would be viciously fought over by different subject teachers. Even if a teacher had a computer in their classroom it was difficult to use this with an entire class. More recently it has been made much easier for teachers to use a single computer within a classroom because of the installation of data projectors. Data projectors will project whatever is on a computer screen onto a large white surface (e.g. a whiteboard) so that everyone in the class can see it. This means that a class and their teacher can look at the internet together, study photos or other historical documents, look at samples of work from other students, see how

software works etc. There are endless opportunities for sharing and combining text and images together. The ability to use colour and interactivity means that there is greater reinforcement of material being studied.

Here are three examples of how the data projector has been used within lessons.

• A History teacher wants Year 8 students to complete a task where they show how a priest might have felt in Elizabethan times. She realises that some of the concepts are quite difficult for some students in the group so she takes an example of work from the previous year, scans it into the computer, and shows it to the class using the data projector. She is able to show to the class exactly what information will need to be included in the piece of work to achieve a high grade. Later she puts the work onto the website so that students can also refer to it at home if they need to. More Information.
• A GCSE group are just about to look at some political cartoons which are relevant to their studies. Some of them include complex ideas. Their History teacher asks the students to work in pairs to annotate a cartoon to show its meaning. Some of the students have more difficult cartoons than others. Afterwards the teacher goes through the different cartoons with the class, using the data projector. The class contribute their ideas. Everyone has something to contribute. The whole class are able to quickly understand the meaning of all 3 of the cartoons used and to explore their ideas in greater depth than they would have in their pair, or by trying to talk about the cartoon without a shared image.
• A number of students in a GCSE group seem unsure how to revise. They realise that reading over their work isn't particularly effective, but they don't seem to have developed alternative strategies. Their teacher logs onto www.HistorySupport.net and demonstrates revision activities such as completing spider diagrams, highlighting notes before printing them out, using multiple choice quizzes, using web links to expand available resources etc.

Both History classrooms have been equipped with data projectors and both are used regularly.

Technology has advanced quickly so that it is now feasible for amateurs to use digital cameras and camcorders on a regular basis. Most students are very familiar with using this type of technology on a personal basis (e.g. using digital cameras with their mobile phones). The History Department has invested in a Sony CD Mavica for taking exceedingly high quality pictures, as well as using Gifted and Talented Money to purchase a larger number of Canon Powershot A400s. The photos are of slightly less high quality but the cameras are easy to download from, very user friendly, and a reasonable size. Both the Sony and the Canon cameras will take short video clips (easily downloadable to a PC) but the History Department also has access to a Camcorder when appropriate. As far as possible students are encouraged to use the technology themselves, and many of the photos used on this website have been taken by students. Photos and video clips have been used to:

• Make a record of trips and visits to help students to complete tasks afterwards. Thus the photos of Arbeia available on this website are designed to help students to answer the question 'How useful is a visit to Arbeia to find out about life in Roman times?' Photos are linked to a site map to help students to find the information they require. Arbeia
• Allow teachers and students to create presentations e.g. contrasting old pictures of Saltburn with recent photos to show how the town has changed. In a recent presentation to Saltburn Forward students were able to demonstrate their ideas about how the area at the top of the cliff lifts could be developed by producing a powerpoint presentation using their own photographs. Cliff Lift Project
• Create wall displays to enhance the learning environment for students and to give the public some idea of their work. Photographs were used at the 'Romans Revisited' Event at Kirkleatham Museum, for example, to show what Arbeia was like and to give an idea of the work which the students had completed. Kirkleatham Exhibition - Photos mounted in Background.
• Enhance the presentation of the website and give a better idea of the work of the Department. Photos taken by students have been used to illustrate most sections of the website. Look at the section on the Curriculum Day in March 2005 or the Specialist Status Launch Day, 2007 to see just two examples.
• Make a record of work to keep in the Department. It is impossible to keep many pieces of work because of lack of storage space. However, it is useful to be able to demonstrate examples of such work to students in future years. Students can be photographed with their work, or their work photographed and a record is thus kept. Look at the photos of Gateway Models for an example.
• Allow students to revisit ideas. For example, they can watch a video replay of part of a play they have performed about the death of Becket, or a presentation they have done to the class. They can reflect on how well they have done, or about how accurate an interpretation they have given and why.
• Allow students to take 'instant' photos to print out for visitors to an event.
• Cameras and videos have been used extensively by History Club students for their work on projects such as the 'Our Saltburn' documentary.

Year 8. Cliff Lift Project.

The photograph shows a student writing on the interactive whiteboard possible answers for a multiple choice quiz about the History of Saltburn. The questions had already been agreed and typed in. The answers will be saved to the file on the computer (possibly having used text recognition software to convert it into typing).

Year 11. Comparing Two Sources on Hitler Youth

The screenshot on the right illustrates how pens used on the interactive whiteboard can be used to annotate sources in order to draw out the similarities and differences between two sources. Annotations can be rubbed out using the board rubber, and there is also a highlighter facility to emphasise different aspects of a text. Students can be invited to complete the annotations or a teacher can do it. One of the main advantages is that completed work can be saved and referred to again at a later stage.

Year 7. Starter Recapping Medieval Religion

Following a starter activity where students were asked to discuss in pairs the answer to each multiple choice question which they felt was most accurate, students were called out to highlight on the interactive whiteboard the answer which they had decided was correct and explain their reasoning.

Year 7. Further Task on Medieval Religion

This screenshot gives an example of how the interactive whiteboard can be used to demonstrate to students how a task should be completed. Students can be called to the front of the class to write example answers or this can be done by the teacher.

Year 8. Cliff Lift Project.

Here the interactive whiteboard has been used to collect ideas under different categories. A mosaic completed by the group has been scanned in to provide a stimulus for ideas. Find out more about the Cliff Lift Project

Year 8. Plenary on Ku Klux Klan

Following a lesson in which students researched different information about the Ku Klux Klan, a plenary on the interactive whiteboard was used to bring together the key information from the lesson. Students were able to record this on their own (identical) version of the worksheet and save it for future reference.

Year 7. Perspectives on the Peasants Revolt

Students looked at two versions of events at Smithfield and used the highlighter function of the interactive whiteboard to highlight words which showed the author's opinions of what happened. Afterwards, they could think about why the event had been portrayed in such different ways.

Year 11. Extra History Session

This activity took advantage of the fact that items on the board can be moved around. Students wrote their ideas about whether Churchill would give a reliable view of the Munich Crisis in the white rectangle. Afterwards the white rectangle could be removed to reveal a model answer. Student ideas could then be compared with the model answer.

Year 7. Roman Empire

In this activity students were given different cut out sections of a map showing where goods were sent to Rome from. Students then moved the goods from the outside of the board (see larger picture) to where they came from in the Empire (see inset). Meanwhile the rest of the class completed their own map showing goods sent from different parts of the Empire.

Year 7 Roman Republic

This exercise was used as a plenary following a lesson which considered the Roman system of government. Students were invited to vote on what each character would think of the Roman Republic and then a student was selected to move the character to the correct place. On this screenshot only the slave has been moved to the correct position. This exercise was good for generating debate between students who had differing opinions about how each character would feel.

Year 10. Cuban Missile Crisis Test Paper

This shows how the interactive whiteboard can be used to go over a test with students.

Year 10. Vietnam War Timeline

In preparation for a piece of coursework about how America became increasingly involved in Vietnam a timeline was prepared (and printed out for students). It was then annotated using information contributed from a Question and Answer session and new information. When new information was introduced reference was made to other slides giving additional pictures or information (see the slides to the right of the screen shot which show additional pages in the presentation).

Year 9. Development of Transport 1750 - 1900

This game was created as extension work by two Gifted and Talented students who had completed classwork tasks at home as additional homework. Information about the development of transport was worked into the game as things which led to the players going backwards or forwards. After the game was completed the class was able to play it - the pictures were the movable counters used by the different groups.

Year 10. Mindmap on the U-2 Crisis

To create this mindmap it was necessary to create a folder of relevant Clip-Art before the lesson. During the lesson the pictures were dragged onto the screen to illustrate the different points on the mindmap (as it was drawn up). This helped to illustrate to students that mindmaps are not just for the artistically gifted, and memory can be helped by using pictures of objects such as footprints to represent the number of feet the spyplane was flying at! The mindmap could also be printed out for students who missed the lesson.

Year 8. Triangular Trade

The screenshot on the right shows a starter used with Year 8. The map was created in advance, along with the ClipArt objects. Students then came out and drew the arrows to indicate where the ships sailed, and moved the ClipArt to the relevant places.

So what do students have to say about the interactive whiteboard? Here are some comments by GCSE History students when asked whether the interactive whiteboard had been helpful in History (Summer, 2005):

• Yes because it was funny and helped me remember
• Yes it has helped a lot because we get to work as a group and express other feelings + ideas with the group as a whole.
• Yes, it offers a good way to study topics and answer exam questions. It also gives the option of getting students involved in the writing of questions etc. It also sometimes creates a sense of interest and excitement.
• Conveys info. in a different way which may mean info. is taken in better...
• YES - It's so cool! Everyone thinks its amazing how it works so people pay attention.
• Yes! It's a lot of fun!
• Yes, I had much fun drawing pictures and using it in extra History.
• Yes, it made the work more interesting.

The History Department makes extensive use of the internet to allow student research but in addition has developed 2 websites dedicated to improving the experience of students. There is internet access in both History classrooms.

The History Section of the School Website covers general information about the History Department and specifically is of relevance for Years 7, 8 and 9. It was dramatically reviewed and updated in April, 2007. New information is being added all the time.

Year 7, 8 and 9. Kar2ouche

Kar2ouche is like a giant Clip Art package where students can select different backgrounds, characters and props and manipulate them in different ways. They can output their work as storyboards or as animations. They can attach sound to their work and then use a Data Projector to show the rest of the class. The screen shot shows Pippa's work on part of a storyboard based on Romulus and Remus. The History Department has invested in Kar2ouche Romans, Normans, Victorian and World War I.

Year 7. Caesar III

Caesar III is a software program which allows students to build and manage their own Roman town using modern games technology. The high quality graphics are appealing and many students have purchased the game as a result of using it in History lessons! The game has been used to allow students to find out about life in a Roman town compared to life in an English town, but also to consider how good an interpretation the game gives of life in a Roman town.

Year 7. Stronghold.

Stronghold is a similar type of strategy game to Caesar III. It allows students to build, attack, or defend castles. In a recent lesson students took part in a circus of activities about attacking and defending a castle. One of the activities involved looking at Stronghold, others at looking at different types of evidence. Afterwards students were encouraged to consider which types of evidence would be most reliable / useful for a historian and why.

Year 7. Medieval Interactive History

This software package gives a number of different games and quizzes which are excellent to play on the interactive whiteboard to introduce or recap a topic. A number of these games have been used as starters or plenaries for Year 7 lessons.

Year 7 - 11. Powerpoint Games

A number of games have been designed using Powerpoint. These include: Who wants to be a Millionaire, The Weakest Link and Hollywood Squares (a version of noughts and crosses). These make fun team games and have proved particularly successful in extra-History sessions for revising dates! The screenshot shown comes from Huntcliff Squares (a renamed Hollywood Squares) and is from a set of revision questions based on the Cuban Missile Crisis.