Justification

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The Australian Indigenous tools and weapons research module is designed to foster student creativity and engagement with Australian history through the use of design-based learning. Researching, designing and 3D printing (using Tinkercad) of Indigenous tools/weapons facilitates learning as it promotes a conceptual understanding of the course material and the module. It allows students to apply creative thinking by designing their version of a tool/weapon based on the theory they have researched.

This module focuses on traditional and cultural tools and weapons of Indigenous Australians prior to the British settlement it has been designed to cover the ‘First Contacts’ unit in the Stage 2 (Years 3 and 4) syllabus (NESA, 2012) The syllabus outcome that is used for the creation of this module is HT2-5, which outlines that students are able to “apply skills of historical inquiry and communication” (NESA, 2012). Through their guided inquiry, students gain a deeper understanding and appreciation for the history of Australia and not just what is recorded in early British literature thereby giving a different perspective of Australian history from the eyes of Indigenous Australians.

The lessons are designed to engage the students in class and to promote and foster thorough historical inquiry into their lesson activity. Furthermore, this module is designed to maintain student engagement through the use of technology and designing the lessons around design-based learning which is the creation of a lesson or module where the teacher is using technology or other emerging teaching strategies and designing around that concept (Kalantzis & Cope, 2010). Lesson One revolves around the syllabus learning outcome of historical inquiry. This involves the students researching background information on different tools and weapons that were used by Indigenous Australians. The research is to be completed via a downloadable document that is available in the first lesson of the module and is to be re-uploaded to the link provided once it has been completed.

Lesson Two provides the students with the opportunity to convert their inquiry and knowledge gained into a design of a tool and weapon by exploring the use of 3D design and printing via the online platform Tinkercad. Tinkercad is an online program that allows young students to gain an understanding of how Computer Aided Design (CAD) works. For this to work, however, the teacher must have a sound understanding on how Tinkercad works so that they are able to assist students in designing their indigenous weapon (Koehler & Mishra 2005). The use of Tinkercad is for students to hone their creativity and technological ability skills in creating an indigenous artefact on a 3D planeBy implementing Tinkercad into this lesson it changes the way students feel about learning and transforms learning in schools (Yelland, Cope, & Kalantzis, 2008).

Lesson Three gives the students the opportunity to further experiment with other forms of technology that allows them to present what they have learnt to the class. By using a variety of different platforms, students are able to creatively express the information that they have learnt over the past two lessons. By allowing students to be able to use technology in the class room it refers to Yelland, Cope & Kalanzis (2008) whom illustrate the importance of using technology in the classroom to show different learning and teaching techniques that encourage creativity.

References

Kalantzis, M., Cope, B. (2010). The Teacher as Designer: Pedagogy in the new media age. E-Learning and Digital Media, 7(3), 200-222

Koehler, M. J., Mishra, P. (2005). Teachers learning technology by design. Journal of Computing in Teacher Education, 21(3), 94-102.

Neville, M. (2010). Meaning making using new media: Learning by design case studies. E-Learning and Digital Media, 7(3), 237-247

NESA (2012). NSW Syllabus for the Australian Curriculum. History K-10 Syllabus.

Yelland, N., Cope, B., Kalantzis, M. (2008). Learning by Design: creating pedagogical frameworks for knowledge building in the twenty-first century. Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 36(3), 197–213