NSW Public Schools - Critical Elements of Curriculum Design (1)

A useful extract from: Curriculum Support for teaching in English 7-12. Volume 14, No.4, 2009

This overview is an extract from a segment in this publication relating to programming for Gifted and Talented students. It is in fact the template for effective programming for all students.

Curriculum design
"The design process should first specify what students are to achieve. The BOS syllabuses determine the scope and sequence of learning, and before a unit of work begins, teachers should decide how they will know whether students have achieved the outcomes. The syllabus outcomes are the minimum that students are expected to achieve, and can be modified or extended to meet the learning needs of gifted and talented students. If the outcomes are modified, the teaching and learning activities and assessment must also
be modified.

The second element of curriculum design is the NSW Quality Teaching (QT) model, which is a generalised model of pedagogy based on teacher effectiveness research (NSW Department of Education and Training, 2003). The dimensions of the QT model, Intellectual quality, Significance and Quality learning environment, need to be interpreted in the light of the needs and characteristics of gifted and talented students.

The third element of curriculum design is the use of curriculum models such as those of Bloom (1956), Maker (1982) and Williams (1993), which provide ideas for the modification of curriculum content, instruction, students’ products and learning environments to develop engaging and challenging activities. "

Teaching and Learning in a Digital World (3)

This post includes thoughts on teaching practice, digital literacy and online safety.  You may want to catch up with the previous post in this series of loosely related topics.  I also have a series of posts with a focus on online safety.

How to evaluate the best toolkit for your class by Dean Groom.

UK teacher union supporting teachers when they have problems with social networking websites.

K-12 web 2.0 debate. Learning to communicate.

Curriculum teaches digital literacy and citizenship by Larry Magid.  This may be a repeat link and it worth reading.

Privacy chiefs keep watch over Facebook. 


Digital learning and teaching is a topic that is attracting a lot of attention and creative thinking.

More UK Learning Resources - Worth an Explore

In my previous post, I introduced a number of excellent UK websites with numerous useful learning resources.  You may want to explore these first. UK Learning Resources - So Many Gems
I have since done a little more exploring and found some more must-visit websites.

Birmingham Grid for Learning

Devon subject and specialist areas

Riding LEA- lots to explore here

Hertfordshire Grid for Learning

Thinking about thinking

The London Grid for Learning

Luton - teaching resources

Kent ICT subjects

Middlesbrougth Learners resources

South Gloucestershire learning

Welsh Grid for Learning


Enjoy ...

Writing Well Online in the NSW, Department of Education and Trainng

The Department has reminded all users about effective communication guidelines for online publications.  There are several files for download.

Well worth a read.

Online communications guidelines

Teaching and Learning in a Digital World (2)

This post is a bit of a mish-mash of links on topics that I feel are linked to this braod issue.

Effective teaching and learning - quick start guides provide an introduction to a range of practices.

Report from the learning and the brain conference

Teachers are learners too - an interesting blog post.

Transforming Learning ... No, Really an interesting post by Will Richardson.

Adobe Creative Commons resources released after the recent Adobe Leaders Conference.

Paul Wilson prezi for a School Development Day provides inspiration for teachers to update their practice.

Our children telling us how they want to learn. Links to the recent Kaiser Foundation Report.

An initiative from Calgary, Canada: High schools aim to have every pupil using a laptop

Classroom set-up tool another interactive from Scholastic.

"Wolfram|Alpha is a free online computational knowledge engine that generates answers to questions in real time by doing computations on its own vast internal knowledge base."
Check out the educators page.

The issue of who leads with school libraries

Teaching only to where the teacher feels comfortable.

Social networking in schools - benefits v risks

Check the hype - there's no such thing as "cyber"


I have put this post together over time.  Please let me know of any dead links.

"Hands-On" Learning with Laptops and "i"devices (4)

Generation i will grow on touchscreens and the Gartner Report that is the source of this article.

Iowa 1:1 Institute, Van Meter initiatives.

Not a lot of new initiatives reported lately, I'll open the post and add to it as they appear.

#ACEC2010 - Gary Stager - Views on Australian Education

DERNSW - Gary Stager's view

... and yet more, a post by Martin Levins on Gary Stager's views.

Reflections from Jenny Luca.

Others have since posted about the value of the conference with no reference to Gary Stager.

and I say ... does anyone really care!

Go public education ... the Digital Education Revolution is happening now in a public school near you.