Roman Rulers – 7HIST

Ok plebs, listen up! Click on the link below, fill in your name and Home Group. Answer the multiple choice questions and click send. Why? Coz this is fun and insane.

Crazy Roman Emperor Quiz

Hi Plebs,

The key aspects you’ve been asked to think about in this unit have all related to power. Having power over something or somebody can also be linked with leadership. You’ve been looking at how the Roman rulers got their power, how they used it and how they held onto it. Now comes the interesting part. Emperor Karabatsos wants your opinion of what power is.

• How would you personally define what power is?
• What does power consist of (that is what do you think are the key ingredients of power)?
• How different is power today as compared with the rulers of Ancient Rome?
• If you were Emperor of Rome, how would you use power effectively to rule the Empire?
• How do you think leaders use power?
• Are there different types of power? If so, what do you think they are?
• Are there different types of leaders? If so, list and explain what you think they are.

It’s a lot to think about, but we would love to hear your opinion. Remember there’s no right or wrong answer, only what you personally think. Don’t answer this straight away. It’s probably easier to get  more information first. You may want to brainstorm this with others first and then write a reply on this post.

Plebs–noun (used with a plural verb)

1. (in ancient Rome) the common people, as contrasted with the patricians and later with the senatorial nobility or the equestrian order.

2. short for Plebeian, the common people; the populace.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/plebs

Attention Year 7 History Students

First things first. I am the Emperor of this unit of work. What we say goes. This is why you are the plebs. We are going to be doing a lot of work this semester so get ready to start collaborating. By collaborating, we not only mean talking to your designated partners in this task, but anyone else who you think may be able to help. This means you can talk to other teachers, friends, parents etc.  Talk to them about the work, talk to them about what people have written. When you start talking, everything will start to make more sense.

Check out the links on the right of the screen. Read the ‘About’ and ‘Introduction’ sections. You will be allocated a Roman ruler to research. In their own little way, I guess you could say these rulers were all a bit crazy. Some were more crazy than others. But then again, who wants to be normal? That would be totally boring.

So say I, Mr. Karabatsos. Anno Domini MMXII.

Get discussing! Citizens of Year 7 History, you are invited to share your thoughts about the Roman rulers.

Click on the comment button at the bottom of this post and have your say. Identify yourself with your first name ONLY and your home group initials (that way we can all keep track of who is saying what and reply to the right people.) Make your comments thoughtful and keep it polite please.

• Look at some of the previous posts for ideas, but try and come up with your own original comments. Try and discuss the characteristics and personality types that would benefit a person in a position of leadership. In other words, what qualities would you look for in a leader.

Yours in the name of Caesar

Consul Karabatsos  – SPQR (Senatus Populusque Romanus – the Senate and People of Rome)

The comments from these two provoked some interesting discussion in class today. Michael Grant argues that it was not the absolute power alone that caused problems for the rulers. Overwork and fear played a huge part as did old age and ill health. In our discussions we could see that the burden was great for our rulers and yes they had plenty to fear. Some people made excellent comments about lack of experience and the fear that even absolute rulers have that they will lose the support of the people. Still, Grant says that we should hold these rulers in awe for what they achieved. We began to think about the disadvantages of absolute rule and why we still preferred democracy. Do you have any comments to make on this topic?

Gore Vidal makes the point that the way to understand the behaviour of the rulers is to consider the central role the absolute power they held played. He says that cruelty is an essential part of human nature and seems to assert that all absolute rulers will resort to cruel sadistic behaviours. We thought about this argument and most in the class agreed that cruelty is a part of human nature. We thought that other factors apart from the absolute power they held would contribute to this behaviour. Any there further thoughts on this from the members of the class? Are there any comments to be made about the nature of power?

We had a discussion about the value of absolute rule. Things might get  done but surely in the complex world of today we need multiple perspectives so that we can respond quickly when things change. Any more thoughts on this?

You might also like to comment on what makes a good leader and you might like to think now aqbout your number one from the group we studied.

I posted this as a comment on a very old post. I have been advised that this is a better way for us to organise our conversations so I have reposted my comment below.

“I am wondering if you need maturity to be a good leader. Both Caligula and Nero were very young when they became rulers and after a short while they began to abuse that power. Another point the two had in common was that they had not been trained to be rulers. They did come from a very powerful family of rulers but both were quite neglected as children. Any thoughts on this?”

If you want to repost your comments here you can do a copy and paste or just pick up where we left off there. Comments have been shut off on the old post so all new comments will have to be posted here (sort of forcing you a bit).

XTimeline seemed to have some “traffic” issues when a whole class visited there last week. There were also problems with accepting requests to join the class group to post timelines. The group settings have been adjusted so you don’t need confirmation to join. Just visit the group page again and sign up.
If there are any other problems with posting and sharing timelines using XTimeline please post in the comments with a detailed description of the “issue” so we can help.
Note: Comments such as “I hate this!” or “I can’t do it!” are not mature and will be deleted by the Emperor.

Well, it was about 50 minutes to be precise.
The Roman Rulers website was presented at one of the HTAV conference workshops today as an example of how web tools can used to collaborate and facilitate deep learning. Many thanks to those who attended, we enjoyed sharing some of our journey and hope you find the site and information useful. Check out the ‘For Teachers’ page for the presentation slides (pdf document) and other (hopefully) helpful stuff. If you would like something specific shoot off an email.
If you attended the workshop you can provide feedback or continue the conversation by adding a comment below.

Well it was pointed out that tinymaps isn’t quite what the doctor ordered for the map task. It’s really handy for marking in places of interest, boundaries, travel routes etc but that’s not what you’ve been asked to do.
So let this be a lesson to you Citizens! Read the task first.
The chart info is still good though.

Last time we threw you a few crumbs about timelines and how you could use some online tools to get the job done. But Task A also requires a map and a chart! Is there anything that can help with those?
Abso-Roman-lutely!

The map

tinymap to the rescue is my tool of preference. It works off Google Maps and has a very simple user interface. You can switch between map, satellite and hybrid view and zoom and pan as usual with an extra palette on the left hand side to add waypoints and points of interest. A small amount of text can be added to each marker for explanation. If you put down multiple waypoints tinymap joins them up to track a path and calculates the distance covered. Best thing is you can save the map and share either by emailing the hyperlink or embedding the code into your site (or wiki!) An example is shown below.

And the chart?

For your charting needs you can use local applications like Inspiration or the charting tools in Microsoft Office. But it’s tough to share the load if you’re working in a group.
Enter Bubbl.us
Bubbl.us allows you to create online charts with multiple links, lots of text inside and pretty colours to boot. You will need to create an account but you can then add friends, share your maps and collaborate. As promised there is an embed code (works perfectly in wikispaces!) to show off your chart. Here’s one we prepared earlier…

I hope this provides you with some useful tools to get your tasks done. You could draw the stuff up “old school” with pen/pencil and paper. Job done, move on. But the sharing (caring) and easy editing and posting to web pages is pretty sweet IMHO.
Hope you like…