World Cup 2010

The forthcoming Football (Soccer) World Cup scheduled for June-July 2010 in South Africa is a truly significant event. For the first time ever, the World Cup will be held in an “Economically Less Developed Country” (ELDC) some may say even a “third world” country. Typically a summer event, the tournament will be held during the southern hemisphere’s winter months. This will provide an extra element of challenge to an already highly competitive sporting event, with a further significant twist being the fact that some of the stadia are located at altitude.

The scope for an educationally valid inquiry is massive. We have chosen, however, to focus on the issues surrounding SA 2010 and to compare these with those countries waiting to hear next December if they have been successful in their bid to secure the 2018 World Cup. One of these countries is, of course, Australia.

As this date draws nearer and as the media interest in the game intensifies following the final submissions to FIFA in May, through to the tournament itself, it is to be expected that school children in South Australia (where grass root support is well established with regard to soccer) will be enthused by following the fortunes of their national squad.

It will also bring into focus the possibilities of their own country staging such a huge global event and lead to discussions on the issues, costs and benefits. Add to this the local factor of South Australia’s capital city, Adelaide, not having a stadium that would meet FIFA’s stringent specifications – which would ultimately see the city miss out on the associated economic benefits as co-hosts - it provides the context for examining the World Cup and the World Game at this time. 

Our Integrated Learning Plan is divided into four distinct sections which you can navigate to by clicking on the headings at the top of this (home) page or alternatively to view all documents associated with the plan, please proceed to the contents page (highlighted below).  Please note, all documents are stored as Google Docs (pdf format) with read only access.  Therefore, if you do have any questions or comments, please feel free to leave them on any of our wiki pages.    

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EDET 3302 Learning with Computers course at Flinders University.