With the introduction of the new curriculum, many new resources have been produced to aid teachers in the delivery of their lessons. Many of these new resources can be found online but the question we are all faced with is: how can we as teachers tell which of these resources are valuable and which are impractical?
Subject: Technologies
Strand: Digital Technologies
Year level: 6
Links to other areas:
- Language
- Literacy
- Health
- Science
Cross curricula and General Capabilities:
- Critical and creative thinking
- Personal and social capability
- Literacy
- Information and communication technology (ICT) Capability
(Australiancurriculum.edu.au, 2014)
Overview:
This activity looks at students’ ability to attain the skills and knowledge to perform ten Sign words for the class. This activity looks at a students ability to use the technology to find the relevant information and how they can attain the reliability of the information.
I have reviewed two resource sites for teachers to use. Both of which I have found helpful in my planning for teaching technologies.
The Aussie Educator Design and Technology Page
The first valuable resource is The Aussie Educator Design and Technology page (Aussieeducator.org.au, 2014). This webpage breaks down the curriculum into a handful of subheadings that can assist teachers in the use and navigation of the website. The website is a portal to many others. Many of the adjoining webpages are interactive, informational pages that may be useful.
This website also looks at the ethical practices as well as the responsibilities associated with the use of technologies. This practice is often forgotten by teachers or not explicitly taught. The following content descriptors explicitly state that students need to gain an understanding of ethical practices.
“Work with others to plan the creation and communication of ideas and information safely, applying agreed ethical and social protocols (Australiancurriculum.edu.au, 2014).”
“Manage the creation and communication of ideas and information including online collaborative projects, applying agreed ethical, social and technical protocols (Australiancurriculum.edu.au, 2014).”
These content descriptors can be found in years 3 to 6. Both content descriptors are concerned with ethical protocols. This webpage also looks at the impact of technology and the history of design.
An individual (student) site
The second site available for teachers is An Individual (student) Site; this site looks at consolidating a number of important sites for teachers into one spot. This site has direct links to the Australian Curriculum (Australiancurriculum.edu.au, 2014) and ACCARA (Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority) (acara.edu.au, 2014).
This site can be useful for teachers as it provides access to most of the major webpages needed by teachers in an easily accessible place.
References
Acara.edu.au,. (2014). Home | ACARA. Retrieved from http://www.acara.edu.au/default.asp
Aussieeducator.org.au,. (2014). Design & Technology – Aussie Educator. Retrieved from http://www.aussieeducator.org.au/curriculum/technology/designtech.html#tbt
Australiancurriculum.edu.au,. (2014). The Australian Curriculum v7.0. Retrieved from http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/
Australiancurriculum.edu.au,. (2014). The Australian Curriculum v7.0 Digital Technologies Foundation to Year 10 Curriculum by rows. Retrieved from http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/technologies/digital-technologies/Curriculum/F-10?y=F-2&y=3-4&y=5-6&y=7-8&y=9-10&s=DIKU&s=DIPPS&c=7&layout=1
Australiancurriculum.edu.au,. (2014). The Australian Curriculum v7.0 General capabilities – General capabilities in the Australian Curriculum. Retrieved 11 August 2014, from http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/GeneralCapabilities/Overview/general-capabilities-in-the-australian-curriculum
Digital Technologies,. (2012). Australian Curriculum. Retrieved from http://studenteportfolio.wordpress.com/140-2/
