Ideas Book

Date:

22/05/00

Time:

23:09:52

Remote User:

Comments

I'd be keen to use a whole range of thinking strategies in the Web Quests we develop. For example Forced Analogy, Reversal Technique, PMI etc. On the website to be developed could be a brief explanation of each strategy used. Jane

Date:

23/05/00

Time:

9:10:51

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Comments

Federation meant different independent states combining together under the one umbrella. The crazy thing is there are still quite a few anomalies eg the width of railway lines in Qld and NSW / G1-7 in Qld - K-6 in NSW???

Maybe a good activity would be for kids to discover other "silly, funny, weird" things that are a carry over of pre-Federation thinking.

Then they could look at more serious issues like the varying road rules, different Education requirements / fireworks legislation / health organisation.

How have these effected the development of Australian society.

The real world feedback could be suggesting to the appropriate government authority about possible changes to current government structures, to simplify things across Australia

Bruce

Date:

23/05/00

Time:

9:12:35

Remote User:

Comments

I would also be interested in the thinking strategies with a Federation flavour. Coming up with some clear approaches / strategies for teachers to begin their studies of Federation

Bruce

Date:

25/05/00

Time:

20:47:40

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Comments

Very interesting to hear comments re kids providing questions. If this is the case, shouldn't we (the webquest team) be doing some advance work with students re the topic, and maybe generating some questions from them before we go too far with this. I would like to see teachers at our schools involve other teachers in introducing the topic and compiling a list of questions which students have generated. From these lists, as professionals, we should be able to enfold questions in an interesting and challenging learning experience. We have set outselves up to fail if we behold to the belief that motivation and learning is driven by relevance and ownership, and go ahead and design webquests without involving students! Time for some advance research (by us) with our students providing the answers! Cheryl Kerr, Beenleigh State School

Date:

26/05/00

Time:

14:07:15

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Comments

I agree Cheryl. Larry has brought up a very relevant and timely reminder. The students need to be involved in choosing what questions are important. We could do this in a variety of ways. Using our own students to design some questions (as examples), using web forms, giving instruction to teachers on how to get students to ask good questions. What about an ASP page - interactive stuff that children can complete. That way other students can see a range of questions and choose or make their own. Any other ideas? Jane

Date:

1/06/00

Time:

21:06:20

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Comments

I was impressed with the great questions the kids came up with, Cheryl. One way that I thought these could be used was to include a component in each web quest where students were asked to generate their own questions. These could possibly be divided into questions of different types which required a range of levels of thinking. As a guide or example we could then present them with some questions asked by other Australian kids.

e.g. Here are a few questions from other kids. What questions would you ask an expert on Australian Federation? Larry

Date:

2/06/00

Time:

17:50:07

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Comments

Great idea Larry! This could even be part of the 'Real World Feedback' section of our webquest, where students actually get to question an expert (we'll find one somewhere). Cheryl Kerr

Date:

4/06/00

Time:

12:47:36

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Comments

I was wondering if the monkey on this website is a metaphor for federation?

Date:

4/06/00

Time:

12:54:40

Remote User:

Comments

I think we should be looking at doing a few vignetes on people involved in the federation movement. One that instantly comes to my mind is Anderson Dawson, Meber for Charters Towers in the 1890s and Premier of Queensland in 1899, went on to become a Senator in 1901. His attitudes and views on Federation reflected many within the state at the time. However, there were also people like "Yes?No" Reid. george Reid in New South wales couldn't make up his mind. As well, anti-Federalists such as "Fighting Charlie" McDonald. I think students like little potted biographies of personalities wthat were involved in the federation movement and how they disagreed with each other. (Glenn Davies)

Date:

4/06/00

Time:

12:58:25

Remote User:

Comments

I think we should be looking at doing a few vignetes on people involved in the federation movement. One that instantly comes to my mind is Anderson Dawson, Meber for Charters Towers in the 1890s and Premier of Queensland in 1899, went on to become a Senator in 1901. His attitudes and views on Federation reflected many within the state at the time. However, there were also people like "Yes?No" Reid. george Reid in New South wales couldn't make up his mind. As well, anti-Federalists such as "Fighting Charlie" McDonald. I think students like little potted biographies of personalities wthat were involved in the federation movement and how they disagreed with each other. (Glenn Davies)

Date:

4/06/00

Time:

13:03:35

Remote User:

Comments

I think we should be looking at going a few vignetes on people involved in the federation movement. One that instantly comes to mind is Anderson Dawson, member for Charters Towers in the 1890s and Premier of Queensland (briefly) in 1899, wnet on to become Senator in 1901. His attitudes and veiws on Federation reflected mnay within the colonies. However, there were also people like "Yes/No" Reid. George Reid in New South wales couldn't make up his mind. As well, anti-Federalists such as "Fighting Charlie" McDonald. I think students like little potted bioraphies of personalities that were involved in the federation movement and how they disageed with each other (Glenn Davies)

Date:

8/06/00

Time:

21:01:03

Remote User:

Comments

There are two types of questions generated with any topic . The first is based on no knowledge of a subject designed to find out what it is about. The second is based on finding out more. The concept of federation is a difficult one for most to get their heads around. Ask in most classes what is federation and you will be met with the usual avoidance strategies to not letting on that you don't know the answer. The point is, to get the best ( read student generated ) questions, an understanding of the concept is required first. That is why Larry's idea of kids questions worked so well; the spent time on the getting to know the topic came first. This taste of knowledge feeds the need for more, usually. To make this work I feel that good teaching and experiences to introduce the topic will increase the chances of better outcome . Neil Waters

Date:

8/06/00

Time:

23:01:24

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Comments

There are always more questions than there are answers. That's the way of the world. It's not necessary to know much about a topic to be able to start asking questions. It's enough to have a topic and a context and to know that your questions won't be dismissed out of hand or belittled. It also important to know that your questions are invited and will be listened to. In other words it's knowing that your ideas are valued. If this is the scenario, kids or anyone will ask have no problem thinking of questions to ask or asking them. In all probablility, they'll ask more questions than there'll be time to find answers to. As well, the questions generated may well prove to be far more challenging and/or probing than any that many teachers would be likely to consider posing. In my experience it would be a mistake to underestimate kids' ability to ask questions when they have little information to go on. (Larry Taylor)

Date:

9/06/00

Time:

16:13:21

Remote User:

Comments

There is a lot of work can be done with the voting patterns from the Federation referendums. Excel activities, making graphs, extrapolating, identifying pro/anti Federation colonies and so on (Glenn Davies)

Date:

9/06/00

Time:

16:17:06

Remote User:

Comments

The Federation movement had a lonmg history itself, back to the 1850s with John Dunmaor Lang and the self-goverbning debates of the 1850s (and even the anti-transporattion debates of the 1840s). John West was quite active in the 1850s in getting up the idea of Federation. However, the movement was quite tenusous throughout the 1860s and 1870s. I think we also need to focus on the 1893 People's Convention in Cowra that saved the whole movement. Without the active involvement (citizenship?) of these folks Federation would have been dead in the water. (Glenn Davies)

Date:

9/06/00

Time:

16:22:52

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Comments

I think we need to explore what the global scene was at the time leading up to Federation. Australia was involved in an expression of Empire with the Boer War, Oscar Wilde was writing in London, and President McKinley had just been shot in the US by an anarchist. A global perspective at the moment of Federation would be useful for students.

Date:

9/06/00

Time:

16:44:54

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Comments

The whole issue of racism and the White Australia Policy as a reflection of Australian society at Federation. (Glenn Davies)

Date:

13/06/00

Time:

18:41:54

Remote User:

Comments

I'm thinking of a question: 'Federation: Release or Restriction?' --------------------- Students take on the role of a reporter who must interview a representative range of aussies just after federation for a newspaper article to be titled 'Federation: Release or Restriction?'. Profiles are given of these people (indigenous Australian, women, people from various states and races, etc.) [Imagine how much fun the artists could have with this one!] The question asked of respondents must be: 'How do you think federation will affect you during your lifetime?' Some personalities think it's good for them/Australia/their state, others feel anxious and/or have strong anti-feelings (profiles give a contrast). The student writes a newspaper article describing the range of opinions and then must answer the question within the article (which hopefully has no definitive answer). This gives us scope to address many issues surround this time in history and an opportunity to develop transformative thinking. Thinking maybe upper primary school here. Cheryl

Date:

27/07/01

Time:

10:06:41

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Comments

aussie life was like what in 1901?

Date:

15/10/01

Time:

21:34:28

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Comments

Date:

18/03/02

Time:

20:21:47

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Comments

you should put in australian cartoons

Date:

27/08/02

Time:

18:19:48

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Comments

when did peter become premier o queensland?

Date:

16/02/03

Time:

21:19:03

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i think youre gay ... that 2 absurd?

Date:

20/06/03

Time:

2:15:55

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Comments

Date:

28/10/03

Time:

16:06:53

Remote User:

Comments

as a student, i find that creating a web quest on federation quite daunting. can someone recommend a few really good ones to evaluate? sarah, CSU, Bathurst.

Date:

27/03/04

Time:

14:10:11

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Comments

the needs for federation

Date:

3/06/04

Time:

17:11:28

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Comments

yeh

Date:

21/08/04

Time:

23:06:36

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Comments

There is no doubt Australia did not become a Nation at Federation .That is purely a modern ' spin ' on history . A Nation is a 'Polity ' that is not subject to any other polity . ie it is Sovereign . Australia was described in the Australian Constitution Act ( UK )as a 'self governing COLONY '. Quick and Garan described the Australian Parliament as a 'colonial Parliament '. The British Government could still pass laws that were valid and enforceable in Australia . All Australian Laws had to be submitted to the Westminster Parliament for ratification VIA the COLONIAL Office ! If Australia was a Nation in 1901 - why did its people still sing the British National Anthem ? Why were its people British subjects ? Why was its National flag the Union Jack ? Why did the Australian Government pass a law in 1949 that defined all 'Australians ' as British Nationals ? Why were 'Australians ' required to designate their Nationality as British on census forms until 1974 . What happened to 'Dominion Status' ? Have all theses things been 'forgotten '? in order to rewrite history . Sure Australia evolved autonomy - but always as a remote part of the British Nation ! The Nationality of all Australians was changed in an instant when the Australia Acts came into effect at 5am on the 3rd March 1986 . At that moment Australia became a Sovereign , Independant and Federal Nation . JON LEE