The Story of Australia: Complete 16 Volume Set

Description

Complete set of 16 Volumes with an unlimited site licence for Digital Download – $499

Available for Digital Download
Formatted for Windows or Mac

School Price
$40 with an unlimited site licence

(An unlimited site licence allows installation on a server network and/or any number of computers within the school, including personal computers of enrolled students, and allows students to retain, and/or burn to disk, a working copy of their project for their personal record.)

The Story of Australia – History Projects is centred around a 16 volume series of audio visual narratives that give a broad overview of early Australian history, from the arrival of the ancient Aboriginal People, to the visits of the early Dutch navigators, the discovery and colonisation of the great southland by the British and the federation of those colonies into the nation of Australia. We learn of the early years of the new nation and its involvement in the First World War, followed by the effects of the Great Depression on Australia and Australia’s participation in the Second World War.

The National History Curriculum recommends the use of ‘story’ as a key strategy for developing young people’s historical thinking. Research shows that learners grapple with the past in much the same way as historians, making sense of it by analysing, ordering and linking events in storied form, and that in many situations students learn best by ‘doing’, providing they are first provided with meaningful and appropriate learning content.

The Story of Australia – History Projects allow students to experience the story in Australia’s fascinating history, and encourages them to become involved as participants in the study of Australian history, by ‘doing’ and ‘making’ history using historical methods and procedures in a manner that resembles the historian’s craft.

The History Projects introduce students to the process of learning about and understanding the stories and situations which were a part of everyday life experiences in years past, and asks them to reflect on how these stories mesh together to form the Australia we know today.

By becoming a part of the narrative and immersing themselves in the process of inquiry they can create a powerful learning journey for themselves.

The narratives provide a broad overview of Australian history in chronological order, from the arrival and settlement of the ancient Aboriginal People, to the end of the Second World War. Each story is illustrated with around 75 to 100 artwork images that depict what is being stated in the narrative.

The stories are dramatically told in child appropriate language that can be readily understood by middle and upper primary age students. The narratives allow students to experience the story in Australia’s fascinating history, and develops their curiosity, imagination and historical understanding.

The history projects challenge learners to create their own versions of the Story of Australia narratives by replacing all, or any, of the drawings in the original programs with images that they have either drawn or painted themselves, or those that they have searched for and chosen as replacements that best illustrate that section of the story. The process of selecting and inserting the images into the programs introduces students to the use of historical methods and procedures, focusing on the interpretation of evidence and the use of narratives to construct accounts of the past. The selection and management of images makes students part of the story telling process and helps support the process of being an active participant in historical research.

The search for and selection of the images helps in developing student’s research skills and exercises their critical thinking, and helps them learn how to reason historically with content and to understand that historical accounts and illustrations of the past may differ or conflict because people select and use evidence in different ways for different purposes.

The lessons and associated activities develop student ICT capabilities. They allow them to use a range of communication forms as well as to work closely with digital technology to complete the project tasks. Through this process of engagement, students are able to grapple with the key questions, master historical research skills and build a solid foundation of historical knowledge.

The replacement of the original images with those of their own choosing is a very easy process. Students can obtain the images from a number of sources, such as the school library and the internet, from which they can download images directly into the program, or they can create their own drawings or paintings that depict their personal interpretations of what is being stated in the narrative and insert them into the project.

When images are loaded into the program, their names will appear in the Image List in the Import menu of the program. When an image is selected, a thumbnail of the image appears in the viewer window, and when the Import button is clicked, the program imports the image and automatically re sizes it to fit the viewing window. The imported images are saved when the program is quit and the new images will be used when the program is reopened and played.

Each image of the History Projects has an accompanying “Notes and Assessment” page, which assists learners to develop patterns of historical reasoning by encouraging them to ask questions, foster debate, use evidence to support a position and, understanding that historical and literary dimensions of students’ learning are complementary, to communicate that position effectively.

Each narrative contains an Assessment Page where teachers can communicate with the students while they are working on a project or lesson and offer guidance and constructive criticisms if required, and where they can provide an assessment of the student’s work on completion. Each assessment session is automatically dated and saved and can be exported as a text file or printed for archival purposes.

The History Projects have easy to follow tutorials that guide you through the simple process of setting up and working on a new project.  A new project is started by simply copying it from the CD-ROM and pasting it onto your computer, or onto a flash drive that is connected to your computer.  The copied programs contain all the functions that are required for the student’s operation and the teacher’s assessment of a project.