So what has this to do with an archive?

Well, it was one of the very earliest online digital learning and teaching websites in the UK (1994).

It is in the archives and was called ‘Tonyversity’!!!

The Ins and Outs of finding and retrieving landmark documents within different national archives and how to engage school-age children with them in a workshop format.

‘Knowledge is power‘ we are told…. but can you find the information that gives you the knowledge and makes you powerful…..?

Instructions.

In this block we will be concerned with TWO archives: one American / one British which are identified hereunder with key documents or events records.

Each of you is expected to CHOOSE ONE ARCHIVE SITE and to find and analyse and evaluate   ONE of the two associated archive contents. NB. In 2023, there are 25 of you. Ideally that means a roughly equal number of you studying each of the designated archive contents suggesting six or seven people for each one. Please endeavour to arrange this (but if you can’t, I’ll live with it!):

• NARA (American National Archive) and its archive contents:-
  • Brown v the Board of Education of Topeka
  • FDR’s Day of Infamy Speech
• [British] National Archive [Formerly known as the Public Records Office) and two of its notable archive contents:-
  • William Shakespeare’s Will
  • The Domesday Book

NB. By ‘analyse‘ and ‘evaluate‘, I mean address the following in the context of the key documents cited:

1. what is this document/record? (date, form, nature, origin etc)
2. what is it about?
3. what is its significance (then AND now… and for the future)?
4. How might one make this relevant to people today?
5. If one were to find this document – does the archive provide further links or information to enable you to study the matter in further depth?  Just how good, in your opinion, is this provision (justify your answer)?
6. How easy is the site to operate / how easy it it to find such resources?
7. Is there any cost attached to access?
8. How well does the story ‘communicate’ for a foreign student with English as a second language (or does it only really ‘work’ for UK or US nationals who already know the story)
9. Is contextualisation and interpretation / explanation offered in order to aid understanding
10. To what extent do these archives reveal an ‘Anglo’ cultural approach to archiving: archives access, presentation, interpretation and contextualisation?
11. How do French archives treat ‘similar’ archive records?  Might there be a difference between the French approach and the Anglo approach as in 8 & 9 above?  If so, why?  Are there things that each system might usefully learn from the other?
12.  Any other observations you might wish to make….

Once you have considered the above, then you are ready to brainstorm up the content and structure of your workshop….

Output required:

Having individually chosen an archive record set and researched it in terms of the questions above, the final output required for the block will be as follows:

1. You will identify the 5 or 6 other members of the cohort who have also selected the same archive record (i.e. Brown OR FDR…. Shakespeare OR Domesday Book – NOT BOTH.
2. You will share your findings such that you can draw together an in-depth and complete analysis, evaluation nd understanding of the chosen archive set.
3. THEN:  you are to undertake a team brainstorm in order to identify the most innovative, interactive and interesting ways to transmit this learning in the form of a ‘Workshop‘. [Nota Bene: this is most emphatically NOT to be a typical ‘presentation‘.]   You will then prepare and subsequently deliver this workshop. You should imagine a very specific context:  a group of 13 to 15 or 16 to 18 year old students (not the easiest of groups to interest – you’ll have to work hard  to get their attention, keep it and make it memorable!!) who have come to your Archive Centre to learn about your archive set.  Your job is to interest them in the archive set and why you feel passionately about its importance (which they should too!)!  You use the particular archive to exemplify this.

WORKSHOP TIME LIMITS: We have TWO sessions of TWO hours in which to run the workshops.  We have FOUR archive sets / workshops to be delivered.  I think you need to work on the basis of no more than 30 minutes for your team’s workshop (most teams who aim for 20 mins usually overrun to 30 mins – often because interactions, games and challenges with the audience almost always take much longer than one might think!!), leaving your audience some time for further questions, for me to give you observations as to how well your workshop went and your use of English and, of course, for the next team time to set up to start at the stroke of the second hour!  I will ‘guillotine‘ any overrun, so you will have to make sure you have rehearsed to time!!!   30 minutes’ is thus your outside limit!

BE AWARE:  Workshops are more than presentations.  You may well want to involve your audience (difficult, I know, but involvement leads to engagement which, in turn leads to learning…. especially if you could relate things to your audience … ‘Now imagine if you were FDR … what would your first reaction be after the bombing of Pearl Harbour…?  Would you have the luxury of sitting down in your rocking chair for a relaxing afternoon over a smoke and a whisky to put a declaration of war together’?!?!? – Make them THINK!), just be aware that audience engagement takes far more time than you might imagine…. YOU know what you are doing and what you want them/us to do … but we/they don’t… it takes explanation and encouragement…  So have a care and be aware of time passing on the day!!

Assessment.

Although I am, of course, assessing your use of English, you must recognise that I have been very specific about instructions concerning your research and the prescribed format of the output (which is designed to replicate exactly the type of situation in which you may well find yourself professionally) and at Master’s level we expect you to deliver the task prescribed or you may suffer in terms of marks (yes, even if your English is OK!).

Process.

• Introducing the block (13/12/22) … this is just to ‘signpost‘ where we are starting in S2: I am NOT asking you to work during your holidays!  We may be lucky this week and get on to what I cover immediately below.
• Block Week 1.   (17/01/23)   + Begin individual and team research by reading this, understanding the instructions and looking at all archive sets. Select your archive set preference.  Share your preference with others and endeavour to produce workshop teams. Commence analysis and evaluation according to the criteria above.   Work at home on advancing this work. So that you all understand the archive and its significance.
• Block Week 2. (24/01/23) Coming together in your teams with your shared understanding to brainstorm creative and challenging ideas and concepts and an overall structure for the workshop.  Menu of actions agreed.
• Block Week 3. (31/01/23) Developing and refining workshop structure, content, support materials. Roles designated. Formative feedback from me.  Work on completion of this in own time during the week.
• Block week 4. (07/2/23) First two teams deliver their workshops and receive questions and instant feedback on their work and quality of English.
• Block Week 5. (14/02/23) two teams deliver their workshops and receive instant feedback. on their work and quality of English employed.   Plenary session to draw it all  together.  Reflection upon Learning Outcomes.
• February HOLIDAYS!!!

TJ