Fenland on Friday talk

Anglo-Saxon pendant*

The Fenland on Friday's talk Little Thetford: Two square miles of history at the Ely library went well, or at least seemed to. We got the timing almost perfect — 83 slides in 50 minutes. Apparently my nerves did not show through although I was certainly feeling nervous. The room was at capacity — fifty.

There were interesting questions raised at the end. Mike Petty put forward the theory that Hereward the Wake may have fought the Normans along our Bronze Age causeway. I was able to show I had no evidence for this theory as all the artifacts found in that area are Bronze Age in origin. I had not covered Hereward during the talk as to me he is more of a legend than fact. I was able to discuss him as I had edited the Wikipedia article on him. I have also edited Wikipedia's entry on Gesta Herewardi — mainly a hatchet job as I recall, removing hearsay and unattributed text from it.

I was asked about the Little Thetford catchwater drain which I had not included in the presentation. I was however able to explain that I thought it was completed in around 1867. I have since determined it was cut "... about the year 1838 ...  costing £2,500 ..." (MacKay 1908 p. 352). I described the route as entering from Grunty Fen from the south-west then around the south and east of the village until passing north outside the village boundary to enter the River Great Ouse by gravity at the Braham Dock drain. The Little Thetford parish web site interactive map shows the route more graphically than I can describe it.

Dugdales 1662 pre-drainage map of
the Great Level. Top is south

Look at Grunty Fen, erm I mean Red Fen, now and consider what the Reverend Bentham (1778 p. 8) had to say "It is probable that no improvements can or ever will be made of this waste, unless the proprietors shall agree among themselves to inclose and divide it; ...". Grunty Fen was enclosed between 1857–1861 under the second annual Inclosure Act 1857 20 & 21 Victoria c. 20.


 

• For pre-mid 17th century draining in general see Dugdale, W. (1662) The history of imbanking and drayning of divers fenns and marshes: both in forein parts, and in this kingdom; and of the improvements thereby. Extracted from records, manuscripts, and other authentick testimonies, by William Dugdale Esquire, Norroy King of Arms. Alice Warren. About 500 printed copies of this work were destroyed in the Great Fire of London and not republished until 1772 by Charles Nalson Cole. Dugdale's work was succeeded by Samuel Wells's two-volume History of the Drainage of the Great Level of the Fens (1828±30).
• For Grunty Fen pre-draining see Bentham, J. (1778) Considerations and Reflections on the Present State of the Fens, &c. J Teulon.
• For enclosure and draining in Grunty Fen see MacKay, T., Ed., (1908) The reminiscences of Albert Pell: sometime M.P. for South Leicestershire. J Murray. pp. 350–355

See also Little Thetford: Two square miles of history.

*Found in a ploughed field near the site of the Roman road Akeman Street one mile west of Little Thetford. Described by Lethbridge, T.C. 1953. Jewelled Saxon pendant from the Isle of Ely. Proceedings of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society 46, 1-3.

Outline lesson plans

Reflecting*

This is work-in-progress and will change over time. As part of the PTLLS course, we have to prepare and teach a 30 minute lesson to our peers. I have committed to teaching one of the following topics according to the voting, see top right of this page. I set out below my present thoughts on the aims and the outcomes of each of the topics.

Introducing Wikipedia editing

• Aim – To Introduce new editors to Wikipedia
• Outcomes
  Students will register on Wikipedia
  Introduction to students own talk page
  Edit own talk page
  A brief introduction to Wikipedia help, including the topic notice-boards and be given the opportunity to ask a question on a topic of their interest
  Some Wikipedia rules will be covered such as reliable sourcing. Some students may feel confident enough to edit an article but there will not be time in this lesson to see if such edits stick as others, usually more established Wikipedians, may remove such edits
• Multiple computers will be used so each student has a chance to edit at least their own talk page

Little Thetford local history

• Aim – to introduce students to local history research
• Outcomes
  More of a presentation than a lesson. Intend to cover brief local history of Little Thetford
  Use of research tools
  How to locate and summarise sources
  How to reject unattributable hearsay
• Powerpoint presentation and discussion

A blog and how to create one

• Aim – to introduce students to blogging
• Outcomes
  Understand what a blog is compared to a website
  Use blogger as one of many tools to create a blog
  Understand some of the pre-planning that may be useful
  Introduction to templates
  How to load an image
  Create a blog
• Multiple computers will be used so each student has a chance to create a blog

Landing on rwy 23 at Cambridge

Successful take-off and landing

• Aim – to provide the student with an introduction to flying
• Outcomes
  Using MS Flight simulator, each student will take-off from Cambridge then land
  Understand take-off and landing speeds using the airspeed indicator
  Importance of gentle control movement
  Importance of wings level
  Importance of visual cues: horizon (take-off) and runway aspect (landing)
  Instructor will control power, flaps and correct attitude as necessary
  
• Five minute introductory powerpoint presentation demonstrating the techniques
• Special notes: The lesson will be constrained as we will be using only one simulator. Each student will have a successful take-off and landing with some help from the instructor; no one will crash! For this reason, numbers will be limited to a maximum of four. Students not flying will be encouraged to take notes

* Photo © 2006 John McCullough

Little Thetford on the map!

*Little Thetford looking south-west

Along with Bob Young, I will be giving a talk at the Library, 6 The Cloisters, Ely, Cambridgeshire, CB7 4ZH on Friday 11 February between 10:30 and noon on the subject Little Thetford: Two square miles of history. Tickets are available at the door for 2.50 GBP. Geologist Bob will introduce the talk which I will present.

The Little Thetford Wikipedia article was published on the Wikipedia front page today. Some of you may know I edit Wikipedia articles under the pseudonym Senra. Little Thetford started out as a stub article on 30 May 2010; very little content as shown here. Using the village website as a starting off point, I began researching the two square mile Cambridgeshire village and was hooked. I learned rapidly that, although it is easy for anyone to edit Wikipedia pages, the content you produce must be substantiated from reliable sources, otherwise it gets quickly removed by another editor. Following a couple of months in a steep learning curve, I submitted the article through the Wikipedia peer-review process eventually gaining featured article status on 27 July 2010. The article was finally published on the front page today. The English Wikipedia has around 3 million articles of which 3,000 reach featured status. My other articles are listed here.

Every Wikipedia article has a status ranging from stub through Good Article to Featured Article. Wikipedia does not publish the status of every article. To see such status, create a free Wikipedia account. The Wikipedia community value anonymity highly so you do not need to use your real name or a regular email address; a free hotmail address for example is fine. Once registered, you can see an articles status just below the title line. As an example, Wikipedia's article on Blooms' taxonomy is a start-class article which simply means it has not been submitted through the Wikipedia peer-review process.

Yes I know this has nothing to do with the PTLLS course, but if I cannot be proud for one day, when can I be?

*Photo © 2010 John Parish

Which micro-teach topic should I plan for?

*Please vote in my poll

As part of the PTLLS course, we have to prepare a 30 minute lesson and deliver the lesson to a group of our class. I think most of us are worrying about this part of the course. I certainly am. Please help me decide what topic to teach by voting for your own favourite in the poll at the top of this blog. The topics I have considered so far are

• Introducing Wikipedia editing. A short introduction drawn from my own experience
• Little Thetford - local history. Two square miles of Cambridgeshire history from an Ice-Age through to the modern day
• A blog and how to create one. Feedback from the week 3 lesson after Lewis mentioned this blog in class suggests that other people may be interested in this
• Successful take-off and landing in a light aeroplane flying from Cambridge. Test your skills with a qualified pilot on this realistic simulation of the real thing
• Something else? Review my own background in this blog entry or just challenge me then make your suggestion by adding your comment below

This may sound arrogant, but I guarantee I will micro-teach the topic which receives the most votes.

* Photo © 2009 Theresa Thompson on Flickr