International Journal of Understanding, 2008

Part of this project was submitted to be considered as a proposal of the changes in the National Curriculum in Australia.

Educational Software – Challenge for the Curriculum and Educational Institutions

Zbigniew Les and Magdalena Les

Instytut Badań nad Rozumieniem im. św. Jadwigi Królowej

Currently there is a debate on development and implementation of the National Curriculum in Australia. However, it seems that there is no attention given to the new possibilities that emerge in the context of rapidly growing market of educational software (ES). The term educational software is not well defined and there is no Government Body for monitoring incorporation of these relatively new products into currently used curricula and, as a result, into the educational process.

Educational software becomes a real challenge for schools and other educational institutions. Although there have been attempts to incorporate educational software at schools, there is no assessment of the scale of this process and consequences of the application of educational software in schools. Incorporation of the educational software into the National Curriculum is a very complex problem. There is a need to elaborate the method of evaluation of educational software, method of teaching using educational software, changes of the teaching material as well as elaboration of the way in which the Government will monitor incorporation of educational software. The Government’s financial support for schools and institutions which develop educational software is equally important. My experience in introduction of the new methods of teaching/learning (T/L) using educational software, the development of educational software (e.g. System of Integrated Packages) and its role in changing of the curriculum and the teaching material (Mathematica package) make it possible to see the complexity of the problems that need to be solved in the context of incorporating educational software into the National Curriculum and teaching/learning processes. High quality educational software that has ability to use visualization and animation can radically change the way of teaching/learning in such areas as history, geography, biology and even such abstract domains as physics or mathematics. There will be a big change in the material that is proposed for learning. For example, in mathematics some concepts such as integrals or differential equations will could be introduced at the primary level with application of the software such as Mathematica. Some engineering problems that are now taught at the university level will be taught at the secondary level based on CAD-like educational software. In parallel with these changes there will be change in testing and assessment. The testing and assessment will influence the designing, production and evaluation of the educational software and will have influence on the effectiveness of T/L material proposed by the National Curriculum. Research in understanding and thinking carried out in the Queen Jadwiga Research Institute of Understanding will supply the new effective learning methods.

Strategic priorities of the VCAA include, among others, providing a high quality curriculum and assessment for all students in Victoria that promotes student’s life long learning. Currently VCAA is also engaged in the development of National Curriculum and, as a result of that, a P-12 curriculum renewal strategy is being developed.

Victorian schools are leading the way when it comes to Information and Communication Technology (ICT). School across Victoria are already integrating ICT into their curriculum in ways that allow them to increase student computer literacy, share knowledge and information creatively, and in some cases overcome barriers like isolation and disability. However, it seems that not enough attention is given to introduction and evaluation of the educational software (ES), it’s incorporation in the curriculum and the most effective application during teaching/learning process.

It is proposed that this project is the VCAA top priority because it will allow for significant contribution of VCAA into improvement of the National Curriculum. In today’s technology-rich environment, the development of National Curriculum should strongly focus on integrating of educational software into the National Curriculum. It should be stressed here that it is proposed not to try to “fit into the National Curriculum” whatever educational software is available but rather to plan the National Curriculum and its change and improvement taking into account what contribution of educational software could make to such a curriculum. That means, educational software should be developed (if not yet available) in order to complement, enhance and improve the National Curriculum, and as a result, to make more effective teaching/learning environment rather than merely trying to use whatever software is available.

However, to do it properly, first standards for evaluation of ES should be developed and next, the process of integrating educational software should be planned, detailed and introduced. The process of integrating educational software into a curriculum and teaching and learning is challenging one and still in the embryonic stage (see e.g. VIC www?).

Research in the area of ICT is manly focused on ICT education and there is no “component” specified that would focus specifically on evaluation of educational software and its incorporation in the curriculum and teaching/learning processes. This supports the urgency of developing a project (VCAA unit) that would fulfill that gap in research on the educational software.

This indicates that it should be a top priority for VCAA to set up a unit that would be responsible for evaluation of educational software, recommendation of educational software to schools and developing standards for evaluation and incorporation in curriculum as well as in teaching/learning process. At the same time, the National Curriculum should be designed is such a way that would allow incorporation of educational software, making maximum use of the power of educational software. This would allow significant changes in the National Curriculum (and not merely updating existing curricula).

Based on this short evaluation of the existing attempts to cope with this complex problem it is proposed to establish VCAA unit under leadership of Magdalena Les. This unit would be responsible for elaboration of the general strategy and solving specific problems connected with full understanding of the processes connected with incorporation of educational software into the National Curriculum. Taking into account the development of the National Curriculum, it should be recognized by VCAA as a top priority developing a project aiming at the evaluation of available educational software, and integration of education software into the National Curriculum and, as a result, into teaching and learning.