Never mind the technology, where’s the learning?

Bill Lamin, a Maths and ICT teacher in Cornwall decided back in July 2006 to use his grandfathers’ World War One diary to create a blog. The uniqueness of his blog comes with the way in which he has decided to present the entries. Bill explains:

The intention of this blog is to publish the letters exactly 90 years after Harry wrote them. His first letter from the training camp was written on February 7th 1917. It will be published on the blog on February 7th 2007.

Each letter will appear on the correct date from then on. There are gaps where no letters are available for several weeks. I have no explanations. Maybe they were lost. I have no idea.

If you wish to find out Harry’s fate then you’ll have to access the blog as the new letters arrive.

Not only a useful resource for History teachers and their students everywhere, it has proved a big hit in the blogosphere and created a significant amount of media interest recently.

Its appeal lies not only in the detail, but also how Bill is using the technology to re-create the ‘mystery’ of a story in pseudo-real time. Bill has refused to say how the story ends and readers have to wait while Harry’s story is played out in the posts. Modern readers have become engrossed in the story and empathise as if they were friends of Harry’s, recording their concerns and fears as comments in the blog.

See the region news story on the BBC here. and read the blog here.

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