Fire in the Classroom

Why I’m excited about the new National Curriculum

Over the weekend I caught up with a librarian from an independent school who is in the process of re-structuring the school’s entire P-12 curriculum to align with the National Curriculum. Ugh. So much work! At Campfire, we too, are wading through the new Curriculum framework, the terminology, and the ideas behind it all. We also feel the weight of this immense project being implemented around Australia. But there’s one thing that has me excited. The official promotion from ACARA says that the National Curriculum is solely online and directly aligned with digital learning resources.

So what does that mean?

In a word: MATCHING.

As a teacher, it means I can look up any specific area of study and find matching digital resources that are freely available online for Australian schools.

For example, consider Year 9 English in the Language strand.

Once I work out what the tag icons symbolise, I can see that this sub-strand called Language for interaction looks for

General Capabilities in Literacy, Intercultural understanding, Personal and social capability, and Information and communication technology capability

and has

Cross-curriculum priorities in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures, and Asia and Australia´s engagement with Asia.

Here’s the really good bit: by selecting on the code above these tags (here it is ACELA1551), we can find out the resources available online…

Scootle is the online home of the digital resources freely available for Australian schools. Select View related resources to start exploring.

At Campfire we’re most interested in video (short films under 11mins), but you can browse a full range of digital resources, including learning objects like games, images and audio among other types. Then there’s just one extra login step after this to actually download the resource. This is it. It’s YOUR library, tailor-made for the National Curriculum.

Free.

That’s exciting for you as teachers, as you start to plan your resource needs for next year in English, Maths, History and Science.

It’s also exciting for us at Campfire as we pinpoint short films to help fill out this treasure-trove of educational assets.

There’s much yet to be done, but we’re working with different networks and agencies in this space to find resources that do more than simply impart knowledge. Quality short FILMS can engage students deeply, beyond just the intellect, making them the ideal resource in the cross-curriculum priority areas and in many of the general capability areas too.

So why am I excited about the new National Curriculum?

Because it’s the only one in the world supported by a comprehensive digital resource matching service. As an Australian-based organisation, Campfire is naturally starting with a focus on the home country, so we support any initiative like this that matches quality short film content to young people in schools.

Maybe I just have a bit of extra patriotic skip in my step because of our Aussie team doing us proud at the 2012 Olympics, not sure. Whatever it is…

I’m excited :-)))