An idea for a WikiEducator project

In Australia, a new National Curriculum is being developed across all subject areas.

The syllabus documents for Science are due to be published at the end of 2010.

www.acara.edu.au/default.asp

Timelines for Science curriculum:

The junior syllabus is to be implemented fully by 2013.
Some schools will trial the new syllabus in 2011.
The timeline for implementation of the senior courses is not yet determined.

ScienceShareWiki

or

BiologyShareWiki

My initial thoughts are to create an online Biology Network. Probably even better would be a Science page, that then has links through to each of the other subjects. I suppose I would need to recruit other interested teachers to oversee the other individual subject areas, such as Chemistry and Physics.

This would serve the purpose of compiling a pool of resources for new curriculum areas.
It would mean that these resources could be freely available to schools worldwide, particularly those that might have financial constraints to accessing other materials.

The last time there was a new Biology syllabus, I attended local Network meetings, sharing ideas with colleagues in other Sydney schools.

This was fantastic and I gained a lot of new ideas and knowledge. However, it was difficult for many people to attend, even though they would have liked to - family or work commitments and distance from the venue limited attendance to just a few people.

A WikiEducator online Network would mean that many more teachers could collaborate. In particular, I think that it would be of interest to teachers in remote, rural areas of Australia who may not be able to attend the professional development on offer.