Annotation
The course is aimed at cultivating the students’ awareness of British cultural diversity and historical background, while simultaneously boosting their competence and confidence at giving a short audiovisual presentation on a topic of their choice, using software such as Powerpoint, Prezi, Impres, Apple Keynote etc.). Students can choose the presentation topic via Moodle. Bulk of the classwork therefore consists of student presentation, a bias which is compensated by many interactive exercises in Moodle (Scorm), including the final quiz. The number of available topics is adjusted to the number of students who signed up for the course, so that the presentations are evenly distributed. The topics for the first 2 sessions are decidedly “low-brow” and user friendly, to make up for the short period of time for preparing the presentation. Teaching units:
1. Introductory lecture – presentation guidelines (Moodle) Preliminary choice of presentation topics (online) Consulting the topics with the teacher (online) – Adobe Connect
2. British popular culture British music – a close-up on a specific music genre or a brief cameo of a noteworthy British musician British film – a close-up on a specific genre (comedy, thriller, cartoon, etc.)
3. British educational system Major differences between Czech and British educational system
4. Psychohistory and multiple-perspective assessment Thomas More vs Henry VIII Queen Elizabeth I vs Mary Stuart
5. Historical personalities – pros and cons James Cook Winston Churchill or Margaret Thatcher
6. The benefits and limitations of scientific rationalism Isaac Newton Charles Darwin Thomas Robert Malthus (utilitarianism -> social Darwinism)
7. History of human progress Josiah Wedgewood and the birth of modern marketing Top five British inventors
8. Complex historical events – causal interrelations The birth of the English Parliament English Reformation and its aftermath English Civil War
9. History from below – part I Industrial revolution the Luddite movement and the convict colonies Abolition of slavery in Britain and its Caribbean holdings
10. History from below – part II British suffragette movement Rise and demise of British colonialism
11. Language corner The historical genealogy of English lexis British regional dialects and accents (presentation with embedded audio files)
12. Brexit revisited: direct and representational democracy Brexit: pros and cons