 |
Curriki – An Open & Global Content Management System |
"As I plan my lessons, I think about what it would be like if I was a student in my classroom. I want my lessons to be as interesting and engaging as possible. Curriki is my starting point in the lesson creation process." |
 |
 |
David Carpenter Casablanca American School, Morocco High School IB world History & American History Teacher Blogs: Lessons Learned, U Tech Tips (contributor) Podcast: Shifting our Schools (SOS)
|
1) How did you originally hear about Curriki? I first heard about Curriki while listening to a podcast interview with Scott McNeally (Founder, Sun Microsystems & original creator of Curriki). The open source and community nature of site was what originally got me excited, especially the fact that Curriki is built around the concept of a wiki.
2) How do you use Curriki? I primarily use the site to find history resources for my American Studies class and to some degree my IB classes. To keep on top of new content additions to the site, I subscribe to the Curriki RSS feed. I also subscribe to the Curriki blog to learn about Curriki updates and to hear how Curriki is being used around the world. The blog helps me to see the big picture and impact of Curriki.
3) Why do you use Curriki? I am an instructional designer at heart. I believe that good teaching is about the design of the lessons and units followed up helping the students be active learners working with various information sources, having choices in learning pursuits and in the ways they demonstrate their understanding. I use Curriki’s curricula building tools to design inquiry-based collaborative instructional content. I often build upon and adapt the existing Curriki history resources to suit the needs of my students. Many of the history units I find on Curriki are designed exceptionally well and great for helping students construct their own understanding of history.
4) What is your favorite resource on Curriki? I like many of the resources on Curriki. Some top history resources include:
- AP US History: The Second World War
- American Government
- America at the End of the Civil War
- "A Broken World:" A Student-Created Wiki History Textbook, World War I to World War II
5) Have you contributed resources to Curriki? Yes. I submitted a Middle Ages WebQuest during the summer. Although I have taught for over 20 years, this is my first year teaching within the IB system. Therefore, after this school year is over I want to contribute IB World History content to Curriki. I also plan to use Curriki to connect with other IB History teachers around the world. The IB diploma is very content-based. I am a constructivist teacher and want my students to not only learn content, but to learn how to synthesize and use information in creative ways. This is not easy with the IB timeline. My ultimate goal is to be a teacher 2.0—trying to build a constructivist collaborative classroom, to help students apply information, make connections between between historical events and big concepts, and connect with other students across the globe. Curriki is a very useful tool for this process.
6) What do you see as the immediate impact of Curriki within your school? Since this is my first year at he Casablanca American School, I am using Curriki primarily to find and build full units for my classroom. Next year, when I take on a more instructional technologist role, I plan to use the Curriki group tools to help build a virtual learning community for the teachers at our school.
7) What do you see as the long-term impact of Curriki within schools? Curriki is becoming a real replacement for proprietary and expensive content management systems. Because the platform is so robust, and the fact that it comes with so much great open source instructional content, Curriki is a huge cost and time-saving asset for school staff. Many of the proprietary systems simply don’t come with the amount of content that Curriki provides for free. Curriki is also a useful accountability tool for schools and districts. Why should teachers put their instructional content behind proprietary and closed virtual walls? By putting their curricula online free and open source for educators, students and parents to access, there will be a lot more accountability within the education system.
8) Is there anything else you would like to share with the Curriki community? As I plan my lessons, I think about what it would be like if I was a student in my classroom. I want my lessons to be as interesting and engaging as possible. Curriki is my starting point in the lesson creation process.
- Download this story to share it with others.
- Join Curriki today!
- Read other Curriki Stories:
Return to Curriki Stories Home
