Rethinking curriculum: Achieving Qualitatively Different Outcomes Using Information Technologies

Education has been slow to capitalize on the significant potential benefits to learning of the increased use of information technologies because teachers have, by and large, used them to automate existing classroom practices. A recent innovative Australian project sought to scale up the use of e-learning by giving students and teachers more equity in the development of projects. Students determined the questions that were of interest to them, and were then supported by teachers in designing an e-learning environment to support learning about those questions, in researching the questions, and then providing content for the final e-learning project using a range of information technologies. This approach to e-learning development has been successfully scaled-up to other topic areas within the participating schools.