Videoconference one: strawplaiting
In the 19th Century Luton’s growth was fuelled by the straw hat industry. The use of children in the manufacture of the strawplait that was used to make the hats offers a local dimension to the study of working conditions in the period. In these clips Eleanor Markland and Vicky Shearman explain how they approached developing the session and the teachers explain the work they did with their classes before the conference.
Session development
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In this clip Eleanor Markland talks about how she adapted the videoconference session for Key Stage 3 students, incorporating the use of objects and structuring the activity.
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Vicky Shearman talks about the preparation she did for her role as plait mistress, how she adapted to the medium of videoconferencing and about how important it is to prepare the students to ask the right sort of questions. |
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Teachers Terry and Parveen explain the work they do with the students before the videoconference. |
The Conference itself: a breakdown of the sessions, activity by activity
Part 1 Sequencing activity
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The session started with an object based activity, where the pupils had to sort objects used in the production of straw hats into the order in which they were used. |
Part 2 Plait mistress role play interview
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The students were given the role of commissioners collecting evidence as part of the 1860 Employment Commission Report on the employment of children, the background to which they had covered previously. They were interviewing the character of Mrs Fensome, a Plait School Mistress from Bedfordshire. This clip gives you a flavour of this section of the session and some responses from the teacher and pupils involved. |
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Students Matthew and Sarah talk about their experience of the role play. |
These clips suggest that the students enjoyed the role play and it was credible. The expectation we had that the medium of videoconference would assist this age group with their willingness to suspend their disbelief does seem to be born out in these comments. Their comments suggest that they have really engaged and learning is evident in their responses.
Part 3 Commissioner activity
This activity followed on from the interview and gave a purpose to their questioning. Using the evidence they had gathered from the answers Mrs Fensome gave and their prior knowledge they had to select, as a class, three recommendations from a list of ten selected from the employment acts of the 19th and early 20th centuries. These were then presented back to Eleanor, who explained if and how their choices differed from those made by the Government at the time.
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Matthew and Sarah talk about their response to the commissioner role play |
Part 4 Straw Plaiting Activity
The straw plaiting activity was one the school was very keen to include. Although it is something Museum staff often do with groups this was the first time it had been tried via video link.
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Sarah and Tasha thought the straw plaiting session was one of the best parts of the videoconference. |
Conclusions
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We filmed the very first of the ten sessions we delivered. In this clip Eleanor Markland and the teachers involved talk about their feelings after the session, their perceptions of the value of the session and how they plan to follow it up. |
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The clip of the pupil interviews demonstrates one of the unexpected outcomes of the conference; that the pupils found delivery less intimidating than a visit ot the museum. Many of them commented that they felt more able to join in because of the distance the videoconference provided. It is reasonable to assume that this feeling of safety also contributed to their willingness to suspend their disbelief. |
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