A Suite of Exemplary Telecommunications Curriculum Projects

Project coordinator:
Australian Council for Computers in Education (ACCE - Main contact) on behalf of National Key Learning Associations

Consortium
The Australian Council for Computers in Education (ACCE), the Australian Curriculum Studies Association (ACSA) and the eight National Key Learning Area professional associations have been collaborating in a number of projects designed to help associations take a leadership role in developing online content. The eight key learning area professional associations are:

Technology Education Federation of Australia (TEFA )

Australian Association of Mathematics Teachers (AAMT)

Australian Literacy Foundation (ALF)

Australian Federation of Societies for Studies of Society and Environment (AFSSSE)

Australian Federation of Modern Language Teachers’ Associations (AFMLTA)

Australian Science Teachers Association (ASTA)

Australian Council for Health, Physical Education and Recreation (ACHPER)

National Affiliation of Arts Educators (NAAE)

This collection of national associations has been known as Natcom (NATional COMmunity of associations).

Credentials of Consortium
These associations have successfully collaborated in three DETYA funded projects, known as Natcom 1, Natcom 2 and Natcom 3, demonstrating that collaboration between these Key Learning Area associations creates a cooperative environment where associations develop and implement ideas that benefit teachers and their students in all systems and states.

These professional associations have demonstrated how they embed information and communications technology thinking into the ethos of the communities with whom they work and that this enables association activities to directly influence the lives of individual teachers at grass-roots level and thus influence educational activity across systems, and within systems.

Working with associations which do not replicate the hierarchical systemic structures through governments, provides DETYA with opportunity to explore how new national directions and trends can be fostered. Associations have the leading educators who are likely to take risks, experiment and set the directions for new curriculum ideas. The knowledge gained in such initiatives can then be used to alter mainstream educational change.

These associations individually and collaboratively, have demonstrated project management experience in a range of DETYA-funded and other projects and thus have a proven track record in management of innovative projects.

Introduction
Since 1997 Natcom associations have been involved in two DETYA-funded projects (Natcom 1 and Natcom 2), which have identified the potential of Internet connectivity for educational professional associations to build online communities for Australian teachers and to conduct their association business. A 1999 project, Natcom3, is identifying models for online curriculum activity in Australia. This project, due for completion in October 1999 will document for the first time, sophisticated Australian models which explain how to maximise the educational value of telecommunications-based curriculum activities.

The Natcom 3 Project will clearly demonstrate that the design of an online project can help teachers adopt new teaching styles, gain skills in new paradigms of learning and understand the new forces on our society and culture as the community accepts connectivity as a key issue in the next century. The Natcom 3 project will also demonstrate clearly that professional development agendas can be addressed through the design of a telecommunications curriculum project. The project models ensure there is support for teachers who are learning how to participate in them. These multi-faceted designs are comprehensive and represent new ways to facilitate learning for teachers and their students.

The telecommunications curriculum projects in this proposal are the next generation of online content. They will contain professional information for teachers about teaching, learning styles, curriculum approaches and classroom management issues. They will also contain teacher-developed content through shared expertise, resource collections and records of what teachers do. They contain activities for teachers and students to do and will help teachers access the new definitions of online content which are about using leading-edge technologies, remote devices and tools and remote communities of expertise. The projects will foster online community and develop learning communities for students. They will be listed in EdNA online, but more significantly will have multiple hooks for teachers into the projects through EdNA because of the tools of the EdNA collection of services. The online content from projects will permeate the views of EdNA that teachers see because there will be multiple references and cross links through the materials and activities from EdNA.

The projects described here have a strong project design. The models defined in Natcom 3, have been used by Natcom associations to develop a suite of exemplary telecommunications curriculum projects, each of which draws on more than one model for online activity. These project designs are centred on a set of strong rationales, which have been developed collaboratively as project models unfolded. This proposal seeks funding to implement these projects.

The collaboration between the National Key Learning Area associations over three years has resulted in an expert community of curriculum leaders, who have developed significant knowledge and experience in helping teachers use telecommunications for professional and curriculum purposes. The Natcom collaborative process has ensured that the suite of telecommunications curriculum projects designed from the Natcom 3 models, provide exemplary practices for professional development experiences and curriculum activities. These projects will ensure Australian teachers have an improved understanding of the link between learning technology and the future of education in an Information Economy age. The projects also demonstrate the importance of collaboration and actionable online content as essential components of the Information Economy.

Summary of the proposal
The stakeholders propose to implement and manage a suite of eight telecommunications curriculum projects and a national professional development project which will improve the quality of online experiences for Australian students, create Australian actionable online content and provide contextualised relevant professional development for using learning technology processes in schools.

Each project is a significant undertaking by the national associations representing the key learning areas. Each project is concerned with developing quality activities in sophisticated online environments for novice and experienced computer-using teachers. Teachers will be encouraged to take responsibility for continuing development of exemplary online practice and for contributing to the innovative atmosphere in a connected professional community. Each project has the potential to push boundaries and try innovative approaches as the online communities gain momentum.

The process of designing the proposed telecommunications curriculum projects was informed by the Natcom 3 project. To build the project designs, the associations drew upon the identified models and constructed a suite of activities addressing chosen themes and clear curriculum goals. Although each project is conceptually linked to a particular curriculum project model, it also includes elements of other models and thus highlights the cross-curricula links that online environments foster. Because of the interrelationships between project designs, associations have agreed to collaborate in the development of actionable online content and implementation strategies within projects.

KLA projects
These projects represent a new generation of designs for online activity which shapes exemplary curriculum approaches in an information age. In summary the projects are:

Complementing each KLA project
Each professional association will work collaboratively with expertise from ALF to conduct a Literacy Walk of their project. This will highlight literacy opportunities, provide sharp focus on processes for teachers to help children develop literacy skills and help organise the online content which surrounds each curriculum project. Similarly many projects will take advantage of a Numeracy Companion process, nurtured by AAMT, which helps teachers identify numeracy activities and how to use a numeracy orientation within curriculum processes.

A core focus for each association while managing their project, is to develop online content for teachers which scaffolds the experiences for less experienced teachers and which collate the resources and knowledge about using telecommunications projects for curriculum and professional development purposes. Professional communities of teachers will be developed around each project to take advantage of the professional wisdom being created as teachers participate in these projects with their classes.

An Australian Teachers Thinktank
A professional development project, Australian Teachers Thinktank, will provide teachers with access to the most forward-thinking experts who are shaping the Australian context for a global information economy. Teachers will undertake online conversations in various media with high profile expert thinkers and collaboratively develop an online professional journal. These conversations will inform curriculum writers and developers of how educational goals need to be reshaped in the context of connected consumer and producer communities, new information service industries and different cultural structures.

Coordination project
A coordination project, The Natcom Hub, is proposed to continue the development of Natcom expertise, achieve economies of scale with respect to the development of online tools to support projects and to ensure that the projects develop at a level of sophistication which would not occur if projects mangers work alone struggling with similar problems. The Natcom Hub will provide a professional community for associations, so they continue to develop their leadership position and profile. Coordination will include hosting a planning and professional development workshop for Natcom associations plus hosting a Dissemination Seminar to share knowledge of telecommunications curriculum project management and project design with selected stakeholders interested in managing projects.

Eight developed and trialled telecommunications projects for teachers to join with their classes. These projects will involve a range of curriculum activities and be duplicable, say each semester or year to meet educational needs.

A national professional development project. This Teacher's ThinkTank will help curriculum leaders understand the new pressures on schools to build new ways of learning, as Australian Information Economy future matures. From this knowledge, teachers will be encouraged to build the next generation of online activities for Australian students.

A coordination project to continue development of Natcom expertise. As associations gain practical experiences and increasing knowledge of the significance of telecommunications project design to participation rates, this project will ensure knowledge is shared and developed through collaboration. Further economies of scale can occur through collaboration in development of tools, online content and activities.

Case studies of 8 telecommunications curriculum projects. As projects are implemented, a case study will be conducted to provide the Australian Educational Community with knowledge of managing telecommunications curriculum projects in teacher's communities. A case study will highlight the robustness of designs, learning outcomes achieved, project management strategies, professional development activities and the effectiveness of telecommunications curriculum projects to help teacher gain learning technology competencies.

Actionable online content in each KLA association web and communities. Each project will generate teachers materials about learning strategies and teaching methods, as well as other professional development materials to enable teachers to learn online about using telecommunications. The projects will also collate curriculum materials and encourage collections of student materials, assessment and unit plans.

Professional development activities within each project in a variety of models will have been developed, documented and trialled. In particular, online professional development activities and self-paced professional development information will be developed for continued use.

Literacy and numeracy walks across projects will help teachers identify activities to engage students in improving literacy and numeracy skills. These walks will provide teachers with a model to apply to other online experiences.

Tested use of EdNA services as they become available. Each project will draw attention to the services and facilities of EdNA as they become available and are developed.

A Workshop for Natcom participants to plan implementation of their project and set communication and information sharing procedures in place

A Dissemination Seminar to share knowledge of telecommunications curriculum project management and project design with selected stakeholders interested in managing projects.

Strengths of this proposal
Natcom associations plan to implement their curriculum project designs and contribute to knowledge about designs that suit Australian schools. These projects are designed to help teachers elevate the standard of online activity happening in schools and to provide a role model for systems and other stakeholders who design collaborative online projects for schools. Natcom associations believe teachers are the key to developing the next generation of online activities.

These projects in this proposal address the need

for professional development about extending learning technology ideas into use of telecommunications and online networks of learners

to model good examples of classroom and professional practice for teachers not yet convinced of the rationales for using the Internet

to nurture the educational leaders and risk takers who will help lead communities of teachers and develop the new ideas which benefit everyone

to help non computer-using teachers become involved

to develop content about teaching in connected Australian classrooms for Australian curriculum agendas

to develop projects where teachers actively contribute and develop life-long learning participatory attitudes to professional communities

to shift practice away from simple "look it up" activities in schools and "email pals" activities

to help shape the services systems allow state schools to access

The consortium associations developed the project models which have shaped this suite of projects and have a commitment to the design principles which will make them successful. The associations believe that these curriculum project designs will change how students learn, change how teachers teach and create a community of teachers able to invent the next generation of projects. The associations have a first-hand understanding that addressing teachers' needs is paramount to improving educational activities for all Australian students. Further, the consortium associations have expertise in the curriculum content and processes which are intrinsic to the design and implementation of these projects. Their unique position in the professional and educational community means they are able to draw on their collective expertise, shape educational rationales and take risks with new ideas while being supported by the teachers who are part of the projects.

Budget
The design, implementation and case study of projects and professional development programs requires the services of full time project officers.

Timeline

• First month Project development and administration within and across associations
• Second Month Natcom Organisations workshop
• Six-Eight months Developing and implementing the project, professional development program for teachers
• One month Evaluation and development of reports
• One month Preparation and conduct of Dissemination workshop