a history of curriculum services canada

achieve this goal rested directly upon the successful development of a database. Criteria for
both the catalogue and the resource materials to be listed therein had already been drafted.
Dubbed Phase 1, this initial catalogue would focus exclusively on the Transition Years. The
catalogue would include "… any curriculum resource material that has been created by a
consortium that has received Transition Assistance Funding from the Ministry of Education
and Training … subject to the criteria established by the OCC."
To help ensure that the best database was chosen or developed to support the catalogue and
future website, extensive research was done into existing educational databases from places as
far flung as California and England. Numerous ideas derived from this research would
eventually be incorporated into the OCC database and website facilities. During the summer,
meetings took place with Réseau Interaction Network, Inc. in Ottawa. This company had
designed the Electronic Village for the OTF’s "Creating a Culture of Change" project and
provided insight into building databases and mounting them on an electronic network.
Before breaking for the summer months, the Work Group reviewed a Draft Implementation
Plan that would form part of the business plan submitted to the Ministry with their request for
the second half of the project's funding. This plan included several far-reaching items of
interest, for example
- under the heading “Catalogue”:
• the translation of all versions of the OCC catalogue into French
• development of a registry of curriculum resource materials that are currently in
development
• broadening of catalogue records to include full text or samples of documents
• expansion of the OCC catalogue to include educational materials created by the broader
public/private sector, e.g., CBPC, commercial software producers, Ministry of Labour,
Ministry of Health, etc.
- under “Distribution and Marketing”:
• distribution of the OCC catalogue to a broader base (e.g., the public, other provinces)
• marketing of OCC services through newsletters, electronic conference, media contacts,
etc.
- under “Partnerships”:
• Curriculum resource materials produced by teachers and groups or individuals outside
the education sector will be vetted according to the OCC criteria using the "train the
trainer" model. This process will include members of the outside community and will
be organized by region.
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