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Contributing items to the Curriculum Exchange
Why contribute?
When ideas, practices and resources are shared on the Curriculum Exchange there are a number of benefits for contributing teachers. These benefits include:
- assurance they are contributing to a prestigious and quality-assured information collection that is used statewide
- development of a reputation for being innovative and gaining a significant profile in the educational community
- the intrinsic reward of sharing with colleagues
- a professionally edited and presented contribution
- an understanding gained of the issues and implications of online publishing
- enhancement of an individual's resumé for personal advancement purposes
- a certificate acknowledging the contribution
- the ability to cite relevant contributions in applications for teacher and student initiatives that are components of Education Queensland strategies
- the ability to fulfil requirements for participation in Education Queensland projects, e.g. those from Smart Classrooms and Curriculum Branch.
What to contribute?
- Curriculum unit
A quality classroom unit of work based on current syllabus documents.
- Curriculum activity
A detailed description of one activity from a curriculum unit of work based on current syllabus documents.
- Image
Images including digital photographs, drawings and clip art. Photographs may include but not be limited to, Queensland images (examples would include landmarks, landscapes, plants, animals, icons) and images related to Queensland syllabus (e.g. Food and textile studies, Science concepts and field studies, Modern and Ancient History, Tourism studies).
- Interview
A detailed set of answers to provided questions that collect information and opinions to illustrate a curriculum application.
- Tutorial
The sequenced presentation of new concepts and skills where understanding or performance is checked.
- Professional development activity
A detailed explanation of the process involved in the professional development of a segment of the educational community.
- Project summary
Documents the steps involved from a project's beginning to end.
- ICT Pedagogical Licence portfolio item
Documents and provides reflection on a learning experience that a teacher has planned and implemented. The portfolio item addresses some or all of the indicators for the ICT Pedagogical Licence level of the Smart Classrooms Professional Development Framework.
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How to contribute?
Download a submission form/s below to complete offline. Email the materials, or save on a disk and mail, to the Curriculum Exchange (details below) or to the relevant project coordinator.
The level of detail included in the template needs to be sufficient for a teacher to adapt or implement a similar activity in their school.
 Microsoft® Word documents - new window
Prior to forwarding your contribution, complete the checklist for contributors to ensure you have carried out all necessary actions.
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Considerations when contributing
A major consideration when submitting materials for publication is the importance of adhering to copyright legislation with respect to the use of copyright material, image, sound or other recording, and name. Several of the following points refer to this.
Consent
Collecting appropriate consent forms is essential if contributions are to be published in the Curriculum Exchange. The project consent form (new window 206 KB ) is the form to be completed with respect to CX contributions. It must be completed for each individual and faxed, mailed or scanned and emailed to the Curriculum Exchange or to the relevant project coordinator. The Department's Educational Policy and Procedures Register sets out information with regard to consent to use copyright material, image, recording or name.
Copyright
Proper management of copyright and intellectual property rights (see IFM-PR-007: Intellectual Property and Smartcopying a comprehensive guide to copyright issues affecting Australian schools) is important when publishing online. Contributors can help make this process easy and ensure their work is accepted by observing some simple practices.
- Use content that is licensed for educational use in Queensland schools.
This includes all items on the Curriculum Exchange excluding external websites, original content created by Departmental employees in the course of their work, and material licensed under the National Education Access Licence for Schools (NEALS). (See the National copyright guidelines in IFM-PR-007: Intellectual Property.) Items marked with an instant licence, such as Free for Education (FfE) or Creative Commons (CC), can also be used.
- Clearly identify work that is not original.
Any non-original work (third party intellectual property) must be noted on the Referencing table for resources used in this work. (See an example of a completed form.) The form must then be forward to the Curriculum Exchange or the relevant project coordinator. Unless the items are crucial to the integrity of your contribution, consider omitting this third party intellectual property.
- Avoid using clip art from commercial software projects.
Clip art should be avoided or omitted as it is often impossible to tell who owns the items especially when it is part of a commercial suite such as Microsoft Office™. A licence to use clip art in your school doesn't mean it extends to publication on an external website, such as the Curriculum Exchange.
Style
Education Queensland has style guidelines (new window 456 KB ) for publishing materials that can inform the development of potential contribution. Practices worth emphasising relevant to online environments follow.
- Use appropriate language.
Use language appropriate to an online environment, spelling out acronyms, avoiding jargon and presenting the edited material clearly.
- Use clear formatting.
Use consistent and clear formatting. Avoid page borders and footers and headers.
A further Education Queensland website focusing on risk management reinforces other issues to be aware of when publishing on the Internet.
Technical considerations
There are several limitations to the publication of materials in electronic formats on the Education Queensland network. When developing resources prior to submitting them for publication on the Curriculum Exchange, teachers need to be aware of the following practices.
- Present materials in compatible formats.
Curriculum Exchange compatible software includes the Microsoft Office suite and Acrobat Reader. Avoid submitting materials as pdf files as they are difficult to edit. If it is unavoidable that other software is used, indicate the type and version used.
- Limit the size of electronic materials.
The preferred file size is 500KB as this enables efficient downloading. At times, larger files will be unavoidable and these will also be accepted. If the file size is too large to email, save on a disk and post the materials to the Curriculum Exchange or the relevant project coordinator.
Digital photographs included in materials are often very large files. If possible, these should be resized within photo editing software prior to inserting in the submitted resource. (If uncertain of the process, approach colleagues for help or search for relevant tutorials on the Internet. A Learning Place tutorial exists that illustrates resizing an image in Microsoft Paint.)
- Digital photographs
Digital photographs contributed for the Image bank collection do not need to be resized.
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Note: Material, before online publication, goes through a thorough publishing process to meet predetermined standards including editing, copyright, accessibility and curriculum application.
Contact details
Curriculum Exchange
Coorparoo Education Precinct
347 Old Cleveland Road Coorparoo
PO Box 1238 Coorparoo DC Queensland 4151
Email: Curriculum.Exchange@deta.qld.gov.au
Phone: (07) 3421 6474
Fax: (07) 3421 6633
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