h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Well, in an effort to avoid making site plans and the like I had a brief meander to the procrastination society - Will definitely think about joining over the next few days.

I've also been checking out the peer review section; there's a great entry and criticism thread there on the history of western medicine (/h2g2/guide/F48874?thread=128505). I'm excited to see the guide being used to showcase stuff learned through school - and interested in whether peer review would work this well if all reviewers were GCSE students doing simillar courses - or whether inputs from recognised authorities (ie teachers) would be needed. Anyone have any thoughts?

Hi Ellie

It look as if you are as much a nightowl as I am
I think we have rubbed shoulders briefly in the Procrastinators bar!
Anyway... have you found http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/thepost The Post yet?

A lot of our contributors/ columnists are either still in school or about to start university! I think that they could be a great inspiration to many people who want to write but are not sure how to go about it.

A lot of the items found in The Post are not suitable for inclusion in the official guide because they are written from the first person perspective, or cover subjects not really suitable.

One of my 17 year olds wrote an article about AS's only three weeks ago, which encouraged a lot of replies from others in the same boat.

Anyway... this is not meant as an advertisement, more as a suggestion to your appeal on your 'space'

I hope you enjoy your time on h2g2 and maybe catch you procrastinating soon!

shazz

Thanks Shazz - that's really useful. Will definitely take a good look

Hi Ellie Welcome.
I don't know how much time you have to look around here, but why not try to write an entry so that you can see how it feels to have your work go through peer review. While it is brilliant most of the time very occasionally the criticism on the peer review goes from being constructive to uneccesarily harsh, and occasionally an entry is praised more than it deserves

Personally I think that you could run Peer Review with GCSE students but you should have some teachers monitoring it, kind of in the way that the towers 'sin bin' conversations in the wrong format for peer review or where the entry isn't suitable for inclusion in the edited guide (there was one on shoplifting, for example)... also teachers could step in and help students where questions get raised that go in depth into a topic... ...possibly further into further depth than the student can be expected to be able to answer.

Hope you're enjoying the guide

Joanna

Cheers Joanna!
Had been thinking of writing an entry - will see if I can put some time in for it. Been looking through the peer review section, and it certainly seems quite daunting in places. It also looks, for the most part, to be a very constructive process. The sin-bin concept I think could work nicely - we could suggest to the students that they need a bit more help from teachers and maybe send them to a seperate area for that. Cheers very much for your help... and please, let me know if you have any more thoughts - I'm finding it so useful being here and getting people's input (and, ahem, it's fun too )
Thanks again, Ellie

I forgot to mention that entries which the authors need help with go to the writing workshop http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/Writing-Workshop where people can help them out... ...also where group entries can be written.

Hi again Ellie

I see you found the prof

Would you like me to ask my other 'boys' to drop by your page and introduce themselves, if they haven't already that is?

BTW, I was an instrumental (wind and piano) teacher for 20 years before moving here to Holland, so would be interested if you were planning on any kind of section on your website to do with music performance.

shazz

Hi again Shazz

Yep - that would be sweet. My computer's playing up today - which makes it a nightmare answering all these messages that lovely people keep leaving . Had a look round the post, it's brilliant. Congrats to all of you. I had no idea there was quite so much here.

Music - we certainly want a section where people can make music (with software rather than instruments though) and share the results - once we get a bit further down the line I'll definitely grab you for advice, thanks.

Ellie

Hi again Ellie

Just found the link for the article about the As exams written from a 6th-formers perspective:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A584336

I must get around to updating the back issues lists!

shazz

cheers, that's great