A new worksheet for IGCSE to accompany the new decision making game.

A completely updated version of the popular Medieval Realms Castles Game, in which students design their own castle and by so doing learn all about the key features of castle design. New additions to this game include factual questions as the story proceeds, so that the students are given two scores at the end: one for the quality of their design, and one for the quality of their factual knowledge. Another new facility allows students to submit their scores to their teacher via email: these will be collated and sent as one email rather than as separate messages for ease of transfer into a markbook.

A new Fling the Teacher Quiz with 30 randomised questions for GCSE History.

A brand new simulation – A self-marking assessment testing both factual knowledge and sourcework skills. Students can play the game for as long as they wish, then at the end they are presented with two scores in the form of a certificate, both of which can be handed to the teacher to put into the markbook!

If you use Delicious for social bookmarking, and Twitter for microblogging, it is frequently the case that you wish to send a link to both services. It is rather tedious to have to do both tasks separately: fortunately it is also unnecessary.

To send a link to your Delicious and Twitter accounts simultaneously:

1. Bookmark a site in Delicious using the tag “twitter-this” (along with any other tags you may wish to use).

2. Take the RSS feed for this new tag. This will be in the format:
http://feeds.delicious.com/v2/rss/yourusername/twitter_this

3. Go to http://www.twitterfeed.com and open up an account. You can then give Twitterfeed the RSS feed for your tag, and it will make sure that any new additions to that Delicious tag also get sent to your Twitter account.

That’s it! From now on, when you tag a site in Delicious using the “twitter-this” tag, you will simultaneously ensure that a Tweet gets sent out to all your followers!

Russel Tarr (my Twitter name: @russeltarr; my delicious account: www.delicious.com/russeltarr)

This second worksheet encourages students to start thinking about “usefulness” as a sourcework concept by comparing the strengths and weaknesses of this source to that of the Bayeux Tapestry and (if they have studied it) the Luttrell Psalter.