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Reading Australia has been developed by the Copyright Agency and aims to make significant Australian literary works more readily available for teaching in schools and universities. These works are supplemented with online teacher resources and essays by popular authors about the enduring relevance of the works. There is a list of titles (download as a PDF). These titles have been selected by the Australian Society of Authors' (ASA) Council. They were asked to select works they thought students and others should encounter, to give a view of Australia's rich cultural identity: works that would tell Australia's history and also how we are currently developing as a nation. The ASA Council are adamant that this list should be merely the beginning, and it should be built upon with other works that have already been published, as well as the great new works that continue to be published in Australia. There is a wide range of teacher resources available (PDF) for Primary and Secondary school teachers and all of these teacher resources include classroom activities, assessments and links to the Australian Curriculum. In addition, many of the Secondary resources include an introductory essay on the text written by high profile writers. The Primary level resources have been commissioned by the Primary English Teaching Association of Australia and the Australian Literacy Educators' Association, and the resources for Secondary level have been jointly commissioned by the Australian Association for the Teaching of English and the English Teachers Association NSW."

Reading Australia has been developed by the Copyright Agency and aims to make significant Australian literary works more readily available for teaching in schools and universities. These works are supplemented with online teacher resources and essays by popular authors about the enduring relevance of the works. There is a list of titles (download as a PDF). These titles have been selected by the Australian Society of Authors' (ASA) Council. They were asked to select works they thought students and others should encounter, to give a view of Australia's rich cultural identity: works that would tell Australia's history and also how we are currently developing as a nation. The ASA Council are adamant that this list should be merely the beginning, and it should be built upon with other works that have already been published, as well as the great new works that continue to be published in Australia. There is a wide range of teacher resources available (PDF) for Primary and Secondary school teachers and all of these teacher resources include classroom activities, assessments and links to the Australian Curriculum. In addition, many of the Secondary resources include an introductory essay on the text written by high profile writers. The Primary level resources have been commissioned by the Primary English Teaching Association of Australia and the Australian Literacy Educators' Association, and the resources for Secondary level have been jointly commissioned by the Australian Association for the Teaching of English and the English Teachers Association NSW."

Screen Australia's Digital Resource Finder is a quick, convenient and easy-to-use search engine for teachers and educators. It features FREE FOR EDUCATION downloadable video clips from Screen Australia's remarkable archive-one of the nation's largest and most historically significant collections. Clips are matched with print-friendly two-page resource sheets that include background information and engaging student research and classroom activities written by leading teachers. Screen Australia's Digital Resource Finder makes it easy to search via curriculum, topic or keyword. Watch or download video clips featuring Australian life from the distant past to the present day. The video clips are carefully selected to cover topics including Australians at Work and War, Immigration, Indigenous Australia and Native Title, Asia-Pacific region, Australian politics, The Arts, Broadcast Media from radio to the Internet, Sustainability and Values and Citizenship. There are more than 600 resources to select from, with more added weekly.

Screen Australia's Digital Resource Finder is a quick, convenient and easy-to-use search engine for teachers and educators. It features FREE FOR EDUCATION downloadable video clips from Screen Australia's remarkable archive-one of the nation's largest and most historically significant collections. Clips are matched with print-friendly two-page resource sheets that include background information and engaging student research and classroom activities written by leading teachers. No registration or log in is required, however we would appreciate your feedback. Screen Australia's Digital Resource Finder makes it easy to search via curriculum, topic or keyword. Watch or download video clips featuring Australian life from the distant past to the present day. The video clips are carefully selected to cover topics including Australians at Work and War, Immigration, Indigenous Australia and Native Title, Asia-Pacific region, Australian politics, The Arts, Broadcast Media from radio to the Internet, Sustainability and Values and Citizenship. There are more than 600 resources to select from, with more added weekly.

The intersections of curriculum development: music, ICT and Australian music education

The role that education plays in issues of social equity and justice cannot be undervalued. It is acknowledged by the United Nations as a human right, 'Everyone has the right to education' (United Nations, 1948) and as outlined in the Melbourne Declaration on the Educational Goals for Young Australians 'As a nation Australia values the central role of education in building a democratic, equitable and just society- a society that is prosperous, cohesive and culturally diverse, and that values Australia's Indigenous cultures as a key part of the nation's history, present and future.' (Barr et al, 2008). Such lofty assertions of the importance of education as a right and national value should be sufficient to ensure that all Australians have access to an education of the highest standard with equitable outcomes for all, the reality is that this is not the case.

The Australian Curriculum sets out the core knowledge, understanding, skills and general capabilities important for all Australian students. The Australian Curriculum describes the learning entitlement of students as a foundation for their future learning, growth and active participation in the Australian community.

I am wanting to take a slightly different approach to this weeks post. The past week has seen the latest round of PISA results and the media has had a field day. Headlines have routinely attacked students, educators and education systems in equal measure. The Canberra Times reported that "Australian school scores plummet on world stage", the Sydney Morning Herald led with "Alarm bells': Australian students record worst result in global tests" and The Weekend Australian went with "PISA global educational rankings: Schools fail on maths, science". 

"Asian students are attracted by what US colleges offer; an outstanding education, safe residential communities, an extraordinary network of influential alumni and a degree from a university with a global brand. It's the total package, and it's seen as a higher quality education than that offered by Australian universities. Or indeed anywhere else."

If you're an Australian teacher then you should definitely have this page in your Bookmarks/Favorites. As they say: "Through its Copyright Advisory Group, the Australian Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs (MCEETYA) has published a Creative Commons information pack online, a bundle of eight documents that distills the basics of CC licensing and the philosophy behind it. This pack is a great resource for educators and students, and we encourage you to use it in your schools by adapting it however you like. The info pack includes concise and concrete answers to simple questions, like: What is Creative Commons? How to Find Creative Commons Licensed Material How to Attribute Creative Commons Licensed Material and more. Find all documents at their Smartcopying website, "The Official Guide to Copyright Issues for Australian Schools and TAFE." All of them are licensed CC BY, the most effective and open license for open educational resources."

"Educating the Net Generation Implications for learning and teaching in Australian Universities Despite the considerable recent attention devoted to the 'Net Generation', few Australian studies have documented the characteristics of this group and little evidence has been provided to support claims made about the Net Generation and its implications for higher education in Australia. "

8 case studies are available for consideration that have been carried out at various Australian Universities. May relate to secondary education.

The Australian Curriculum consultation site allows you to read, review and provide feedback on draft curriculum materials as they become available for public consultation. Feedback can be provided through the consultation portal, by completing online questionnaires and by submitting additional comments via email. The feedback is used to revise and improve the draft materials so that the best possible quality Australian Curriculum documents are developed and published.

"The Australian Council for Computers in Education and ECAWA, the Educational Computing Association of Western Australia invite you to join us in Perth for ACEC 2012. This major event on the regional education calendar will be held from Tuesday October 2nd to Friday October 5th 2012 and will feature prominent Australian and international speakers."

In the future but worth bookmarking your interest and details now on this place-holder webpage.

The aim of this conference is to start educators talking, thinking and responding to the 'creating multimodal texts' objective in the Australian Curriculum for English. Multimodality permeates learning in the 21st century. The question remains about how equipped are we, as educators, to support students to create and respond to the diversity of multimodal texts that bombard them every day.

Looking at the New Directions for school leadership and the teaching profession discussion paper, the only evidence presented to support the assertion that Victoria's education outcomes are not improving is the report "Challenges in Australian Education: results from PISA 2009: the PISA 2009 assessment of students' reading, mathematical and scientific literacy" Specifically the New Directions paper focuses on reading literacy, where in 2009, 14,251 students were given a two-hour pen and paper comprehension test. To get an idea of what types of competencies the reading test is assessing we can look at the sample test , with questions range from comprehension about a letter in a newspaper, the ability to interpret a receipt, comprehension around a short story, an informational text, and interpreting a table. While it doesn't seem unreasonable to want our students to be able to accurately perform these kind of tasks, these tests are not a true or accurate representation of the skills and competencies our students need in today's technology driven world.

"The ACCE is the national professional body for those involved in the use of information and communications technology in education. This includes educators who teach computing / information technology subjects as well as all educators who strive to improve student learning outcomes through the powerful use of ICT."

A national professional body for ICT and eLearning in Education.

"ITSL, in collaboration with the Centre of Program Evaluation at the University of Melbourne are conducting a three-year process and impact evaluation of the implementation of the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers. The purpose of the Evaluation is to assess the usefulness, effectiveness and impact of the Standards on improving teacher quality. Over 6,002 respondents including teachers, school leaders, pre-service teachers and teacher educators participated in the 2013 National Survey. Initial analysis from the survey highlights the key findings below."

"ITSL, in collaboration with the Centre of Program Evaluation at the University of Melbourne are conducting a three-year process and impact evaluation of the implementation of the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers. The purpose of the Evaluation is to assess the usefulness, effectiveness and impact of the Standards on improving teacher quality. Over 6,002 respondents including teachers, school leaders, pre-service teachers and teacher educators participated in the 2013 National Survey. Initial analysis from the survey highlights the key findings below."

Video version of a report produced by Education.au's Strategic ICT Advisory Service on using technology to enable collaborative learning. An education.au project funded by the Australian Government's Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations.

I had the pleasure recently of listening to Michael Fullan thanks to ACEL (Australian Council for Educational Leaders). Like many thought leaders who are looking closely at the current state of education, Michael builds a strong case for radical change in education.

ACE was founded to provide an independent voice for educators and advance the education profession. Now, half a century later and in an increasingly complex educational environment, it is even more important that the voices of those who educate our nation are heard and that they have a forum in which to inform themselves; discuss and debate issues; and seek to find shared solutions to current educational questions.

The "Smart Copying Website" is currently under development by the Copyright Advisory Group (CAG), a committee of the Schools Resourcing Taskforce (SRT) of the Australian Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs (MCEETYA). The completed site, scheduled to be available in late 2008, will provide a comprehensive guide to copyright issues affecting Australian Schools.

The 'SIF AU' project is introducing the Systems Interoperability Framework (SIF) into Australia. It represents a joint effort and commitment by all Australian school systems to develop an Australian implementation. The SIF Association AU will deliver a practical solution to allow vendor products to work together at the school and school system level and make it easier for schools, teachers and education authorities to access the data that they need.