SplashED

Last week I spent a day at a workshop learning about the ABC Splash website and online resources. I am of the opinion that anything produced by the ABC is likely to be of good quality and, while I had heard of Splash before and checked out the website, I had never taken the time to really peruse the resources properly. It is an impressive collection, with content mapped to the Australian curriculum and the site is easy to search. In addition to a growing collection of ABC video resources, there is a collection of appropriate educational games, and I like the digibooks, which are like a channel of collated resources.

The film clips are all about five minutes long. They are good quality clips, cut with the concentration span of the YouTube generation in mind, from the ABC archives. I have curated some of the clips that I will be using in my teaching this year:

Australians at War

The Meaning of ANZAC Day: This clip explains why some people think that Anzac Day (rather than Australia Day) should be Australia’s national day and shows the differences between what ANZAC Day means to older people and younger people. It is a good way to start students thinking about how and why Australians commemorate war.

Equipment, More Equipment: In this clip from a wartime Movietone newsreel, former PM Billy Hughes implores Australians to contribute to the manufacture of military equipment during World War Two.

Rights and Freedoms

Australia’s 1967 Referendum: In this clip, Faith Bandler talks about how the eyes of the world were on Australia’s 1967 referendum result. It is a clip I have used from YouTube previously, however this version is better quality.

Two Years After the 1966 Wave Hill Walk-Off: This clip explains how the Wave Hill walk-off was more than just a wage dispute.

Native Title: This clip shows how the High Court decision ‘tore the country apart’.

Popular Culture

ABC National TV Service Opening Night 1956: This clip is from the opening moments of the first ABC television broadcast in 1956. Many people viewed this first broadcast through shop windows.

Australian Teen Culture – Birth of Skateboarding: The growth of suburbia in the 1950s, 60s and 70s facilitated the growth of Australia’s skating culture. This clip from 1976 shows Australian teenagers skating and reflects how skateboarding represented its own culture and attitude.

Vinyl – The Australian Record Industry 1963: In this clip from 1963 you experience the age of vinyl records, which created a teenage mass market and revolutionised Australian popular culture.

The Stomp – A 1960s Dance Craze: The arrival of rock ‘n’ roll in the late 1950s was accompanied by a wave of youth rebellion, and a ‘generation gap’ between teenagers and their parents. This clip from a 1963 Weekend Magazine program shows how the Stomp became a craze.

Surf Culture Hits Australia in the 1960s: In the 1960s the surfboard gave rise to a new youth subculture. This clip from 1964 explores the cultural changes, such as a new vocabulary and new hairstyles, that came with the rise of the ‘surfie’.

Popular Culture Post-War Digibook: A neat collation of several popular culture resources in one handy bundle.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *