Education Technology Solutions, Issue #71

FOR PRINCIPALS | EDUCATORS | NETWORK ADMINISTRATORS

Issue 71

Viva La Revolution!

Using Tests to Break Education Paradigms

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CONTENTS

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038

Cover Story

Starting An Education Revolution: The Role Of Innovation For decades, educators have been alert, waiting for the game changer. While schools and classrooms have been touched by technology’s influence – networking and computer labs, software applications, the Internet, gaming, social networking – are these innovations or merely changes? Where is the educational equivalent to Google Maps, the iPhone, Wikipedia or Facebook? Tom March looks at the value of tests and the role they might play in creating more innovative approaches to education.

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Feature

Using Games In The Classroom To Increase Engagement Once considered an unwanted and unnecessary distraction, games are fast becoming an essential part of engagement aimed at increasing student learning.

Katherine Hawes looks at some strategies you can use to more effectively capture the power of games in your classroom.

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Feature

Dustless Chalk To 3D Printing: eLearning In The Classroom This two-part article looks at software and hardware that is likely to impact on eLearning in Australian schools in the near future. The aim is to give schools the opportunity to discuss what is likely to be coming and therefore not make reactive decisions when spending on eLearning.

008 EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS

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EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS 09

CONTENTS 026

Interactive Learning

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Mal Lee looks at the need for a chief digital officer in schools to assist in the successful governance of the school digital ecosystem.

034

Plugged In

Chris Robertson looks at some great strategies for teachers to use in the classroom to help improve the situation for students with learning difficulties, including dyslexia.

048

Office Space

Chris Betcher looks at what is possibly one of the most commonly used phrases in education and explores why it is also one of the most dangerous and destructive.

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Next Step

Dr Shelley Kinash provides some great tips on writing research grant proposals to help fund education technology research.

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Let’s Talk Software

Karen Bonanno looks at the challenges around digital commerce, legalities and copyright awareness, and online wellbeing.

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Professional Development

Brian Host explores change leadership in schools looking to move to a more digital focus.

064 Genius Hour in Your Classroom What if your students could learn about anything they wanted to? What are they interested in? What are they passionate about? What do they want to tell the world? How are they going to change the world? Jason Hosking explains the three basic fundamentals of genius hour.

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Letter from the Editor

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5 Minutes with an ICT Leader

Stacey Ashley explores the value of coaching in the classroom and how it complements teaching.

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Leading a Digital School

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Cyber Chat

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Teaching Tools

Get Connected

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Your Say

How can online study help students get ahead in the real world?

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Calendar of Events

078 Inspiring Students And Teachers With STEM: Resources For Your Classroom

082

Tech Stuff

Annabel Astbury looks at some great new resources that you can use to help inspire Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths in your school.

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086 Spotlight 086 Profile 088

Product Showcases

096 Noticeboards

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EDITOR’S LETTER EDITOR’S LETTER www.educationtechnologysolutions.com.au EDITORIAL Editor John Bigelow Email: john@interactivemediasolutions.com.au Assistant Editor Scott Patterson Email: spatterson@interactivemediasolutions.com.au Subeditors Helen Sist, Ged McMahon CONTRIBUTORS Stacey Ashley, Annabel Astbury, Chris Betcher, Andrew Coote, Karen Bonanno, Matt Burns, Kevin Daly, Michael Daly, Jamie Dorrington, Katherine Hawes, Brian Host, Shelley Kinash, Mal Lee, Tom March, Sheena O’Hare, Chris Robertson, Brett Salakas, Blake Seufert, Carrol Skyring ADVERTISING Phone: 0435 418 139 Email: spatterson@interactivemediasolutions.com.au Scott Patterson DESIGN AND PRODUCTION Phone: 1300 300 552 Email: graphics@interactivemediasolutions.com.au Graphic Designer Jamieson Gross MARKETING AND SUBSCRIPTIONS Phone: 1300 300 552 Email: admin@interactivemediasolutions.com.au $57 AUD per annum inside Australia ACCOUNTS Phone: 1300 300 552 Email: accounts@interactivemediasolutions.com.au PUBLISHER

ABN 56 606 919463 Level 1, 34 Joseph St, Blackburn, Victoria 3130 Phone: 1300 300 552 Fax: 03 8609 1973 Email: enquiries@interactivemediasolutions.com.au Website: www.educationtechnologysolutions.com.au Disclaimer: The publisher takes due care in the preparation of this magazine and takes all reasonable precautions and makes all reasonable effort to ensure the accuracy of material contained in this publication, but is not liable for any mistake, misprint or omission. The publisher does not assume any responsibility or liability for any loss or damage which may result from any inaccuracy or omission in this publication, or from the use of information contained herein. The publisher makes no warranty, express or implied with respect to any of the material contained herein.

The contents of this magazine may not be reproduced in ANY form in whole OR in part without WRITTEN permission from the publisher.

Reproduction includes copying, photocopying, translation or reduced to any electronic medium or machine-readable form.

Written Correspondence To: Level 1, 34 Joseph St, Blackburn, Victoria 3130 Phone: 1300 300 552 Fax: 03 8609 1973 Email: enquiries@interactivemediasolutions.com.au Supported by

012 EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS

Every time I attend an event, whether it be EduTECH, FutureSchools, IWBNet, Flipcon or any of the other numerous education conferences that take place each year, I am always astounded by the depth and breadth of the knowledge of the people presenting.

There are so many talented, forwardthinking, visionary people in the education space in Australia that one cannot help but be both proud and humbled at the same time. In fact, finding talented people with something interesting to say in education does not seem to be half the challenge it once was. This is possibly due to the growth of social media, information sharing networks and, obviously, the Internet in general. The challenge now seems to be aggregating and curating all of this amazing information into a few easyto-use, easy-to-access sources so that the entire education community can benefit from the vision and insights of these people.

Therefore, I would like to extend an open invitation to anyone in education to share their thoughts, research and ideas on the implementation, use and integration of technology in the K–12 space. I am in little doubt that there are a multitude of people reading this letter right now who have, in the past, thought that they might like to share their experiences on a project recently undertaken in the classroom, a recently conducted study, the results of a oneto-one technology program, or a new way of using resources such as robots, interactive displays, maker spaces – you name it. I would encourage you to come forward. The fact that you may have not written for a publication before is no reason not to give it a go. It is not as hard as you might think and we

will help you present your ideas in the best possible manner. In fact, many of the articles you read in Education Technology Solutions (ETS) are written by people who have never written for a publication before.

Knowledge needs to be shared. It wants to be shared. I am sure there might also be people reading this who have written for ETS in the past but, for one reason or another, have been too busy to give it another shot. Again, I would encourage you to do so. I could not count the number of times I have run into readers and past contributors at events who state, “I have been meaning to write an article on (what ever you are thinking about).”

We receive correspondence daily from readers thankful for the efforts of the people who contribute to our publication. I was recently speaking with a teacher from Brisbane who had been thinking about trying something new in her classroom with drones, but it was only when she read the article

by Brett Salakas back in Issue #68 that she finally decided to take the plunge and has been enjoying the program immensely, along with her students.

We can learn something from everyone. Why not make 2016 the year that you contribute to the growth and development of education technology in Australia. I look forward to hearing from you. Just email me at john@interactivemediasolutions.com.au – I promise I will get back to you, even if it takes a little while.

Regards,

JOHN BIGELOW Editor-in-Chief

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Creating Spaces For Blended Learning – Saint Stephen’s College’s Journey | By Jamie Dorrington |

Flexible learning spaces are a key component in the quest for success with blended learning. These spaces need to be well thought out and well designed, and they need to be built at the same time that the technical and training aspects are being implemented. This is possibly a few years before they are ‘needed’.

Otherwise, the risk is that they are developed in an ad hoc fashion, almost as an afterthought. However, they are far too important to leave to the last minute.

Saint Stephen’s College (SSC) embarked on a journey towards blended learning three years ago.

In fact, we embarked on the journey a few years before that, but we had to call the caravan back as we had picked the wrong camel for the trip! Thankfully, the re-launch and adoption of Brightspace as our learning management system (LMS) coincided with a reconceptualisation of our learning spaces around four themes: digital technology, enhanced collaboration, student-centred learning and a team approach.

We simultaneously adopted a new organisational architecture to complement the architecture of our learning spaces.

We now have a number of learning spaces (as opposed to teaching

spaces) that are purpose built to focus the attention of the education team on the learner. Each of these spaces provides access to high-quality digital resources and infrastructure as well as furniture that is comfortable, vibrant and laptop friendly. Our iCentre (Library extension), Language Centre, Arts and Applied Technology Precinct, Team Projects space and Sciencein-Action Centre are all designed to promote greater collaboration.

Even our new Administration Centre incorporates space for Academic Advisers to meet students, soundproof rooms for members of the education team to develop digital resources and spaces for the people who manage student performance data. We have also successfully remodelled two classrooms and an adjacent computer annex to create a collaborative space for Year 7 and 8 students. We have plans for a new Senior Student Centre that will give students access to digital technology, other students and appropriate members of the education team, rather than a space for teachers to stand and deliver content.

I often adapt a famous line from Field of Dreams: “If you build it, they will MAY NOT come, but if you do not, they certainly will not!” I am sure that inappropriate facilities would have provided a legitimate excuse for some

014 EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS

members of our team to impede the progress of the caravan. Access to digital resources, infrastructure and contemporary learning spaces are no longer an issue at SSC. Of course, there are other issues we are grappling with (such as time and the challenge of reconceiving the role of the teacher), and these are far more complex matters than developing physical structures.

Each school’s ability to develop appropriate learning spaces is limited by only two factors – the imagination of the leadership team and finances. You can think your way around the financial issue because a lot can be done with relatively little money and, to be blunt, if you do not have the imagination, you are not aware you have a problem.

Ten years ago, SSC had very poor facilities. We now have a reputation for having amongst the best learning facilities in the country. I am proud of what we have achieved together, but I am even more proud of the people who use these facilities to educate and to learn. ETS

Jamie Dorrington is the Headmaster at Saint Stephen’s College, a coeducational, Preparatory to Year 12 independent school at the Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia.

Unless otherwise expressly stated, the information appearing in this section represents the opinions of the relevant writer and does not represent the views or opinions of Interactive Media Solutions or the other advertisers or contributors to this publication.

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LEADING A DIGITAL SCHOOL

That Time I Tried To Read The School Newsletter | By Blake Seufert |

After

One afternoon a few years ago, while working as McKinnon Secondary College’s Systems Manager, I tried to read the school’s newsletter.

It looked like most school newsletters and it was difficult to read. It was very dry, not friendly on a mobile phone and a large file that took far too long to download. The layout and visual appeal of the newsletter had not been updated since fluoro spandex and big hair were popular. Like many schools, it was just the dated newsletter that used to be printed to send home with the students, simply saved as a PDF. It was not compelling and parents were not reading it.

Creating the Newsletter The way most schools build newsletters is crazy. It is rushed out; belted out, even.

When I investigated further, I realised why. The newsletter creator is being put in an impossible situation.

Firstly, the newsletter has to go out in a regular cycle (each fortnight in McKinnon’s case). The person creating the newsletter has to relentlessly chase articles from staff who are not really interested in writing an article for the dusty old newsletter. (Besides, writing is hard!). Because parents are not excited to read the newsletter, staff do not prioritise writing articles, much less take any photos.

Does anyone Read it?

Articles are sent from After spending all this time, Word docs, emails and the stats show that most all this other random places that, parents just do not read it. time, the when pasted into Microsoft Ever get those calls about stats show Publisher, display as a not knowing about an event that most random mess that need that was on, even though it to be resized, restyled and was “in the newsletter!”? – I parents matched into the rest of feel your pain. It should not just do not the newsletter. On top of be a surprise though. The read it. this, often the articles are newsletter is often tired and too long and the newsletter rushed out. Near enough is creator has to go back and forth with good enough. After the pain and angst the teacher who submitted the article of putting it all together, the person who because it has too many words to fit the built the newsletter does not want to specific A4 sheet template that is used. think about it until next fortnight when The whole process becomes a game this Groundhog Day nightmare happens of Tetris instead of presenting beautiful, over again. relevant content parents love to read.

The irony of this whole situation is that Once the newsletter is finally finished, schools are very content rich. McKinnon the work is not over yet… oh no! The (like every school) has fantastic news PDF has to be wrestled into a size that and events to share that are happening will not be rejected from people’s email all the time. There is plenty of reason boxes. Unsubscribe requests have to to want to celebrate and promote the be managed and an email list to send great things the school is doing. What to parents from the school’s email box is needed is a better way to build and needs to be maintained. The website has create newsletters that are beautiful, to be updated via some clunky portal, insightful and created with enough care along with the social media accounts that parents are excited for the next one. and any school apps or parent portals.

In the next issue, the top eight things Once it is all shared out and being read, to avoid in school newsletters will be the mistakes start to roll in. It is then back discussed. ETS to update the original file and repeat the whole sharing process. It is messy, Blake Seufert is the Systems Manager at manual and time consuming.

McKinnon Secondary College and the co-founder of Naavi and iNewsletter.

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spending

Unless otherwise expressly stated, the information appearing in this section represents the opinions of the relevant writer and does not represent the views or opinions of Interactive Media Solutions or the other advertisers or contributors to this publication.

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C Y

CYBER CHAT

Professional Capital And Its Potential Power | By Brett Salakas |

Professional development and professional learning come in many forms for the modern teacher. In recent years, the term teacher capacity has been widely used. However, with the revolution of technology and the development of contemporary pedagogy which can enhance professional learning, a new concept called professional capital is beginning to emerge.

The concept of professional capital has been championed by Michael Fullan and Andy Hargreaves. Their book, Professional Capital: Transforming Teaching In Every School, explains the concept in great depth.

Fullan and Hargreaves speak of two approaches when developing teaching capital. It can be hard to explain because capital is not something that is normally associated with teaching. Investment bankers, on the other hand, know a lot about capital growth. A banker knows that if investors want to get a return, they need to make an initial investment.

The question for educators is, what do teachers invest to grow their capital?

One way to look at teaching capital growth is to think of it as a business model. Here, business people look for short-term profits. In this model, teachers are asked to trial techniques that produce changes almost instantly in student data. It is a quick-results concept that goes against the grain of many things that teachers do in education. This business model looks for ways to quickly transform traditional

practices in order to efficiently obtain short-term goals and desired data. This view is short-sighted and will not deliver the sustainable long-term change that is desired.

The other style is a professional capital approach. This is a far more long-term strategy. Over time, professional capital policies and practices build up the expertise of teachers individually and collectively to make a difference in the learning and achievements of all students.

Professional Capital at Work Carrie Leana, of the University of Pittsburgh, highlights the relationship between human and social capital. In a study that was centred on schools in New York City, she examined three things. She looked at human capital, the qualities of individuals and teaching qualifications/competencies. The study found that schools with strong social and human capital do better statistically.

It seems that being in a school and working with others who are effective teachers rubs off on colleagues and helps engage them. In some sense, the social capital is almost contagious and the spirit of quality teaching infects the staff.

Expert Teachers In their work, Fullan and Hargreaves identify four types of teachers. Teachers in the mid-career range, which qualifies as anywhere from four to 20 years of teaching experience, is one area they look at. Studies have shown that

018 EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS

these teachers, on average, are quite committed and very capable. They are also teachers who, on average, have clocked up about 10,000 hours of teaching practice. That number (10,000) is quite important. There are a number of researchers who claim that it takes 10,000 hours to become a master of any profession.

This theory has been tested a number of times. It has been cleverly challenged on a website called The Dan Plan. Dan was a 30-year-old photographer who decided to spend 10,000 hours learning to become a golfer. The research in learning says that to become a master of any profession, it takes 10,000 hours.

Dan took that challenge literally, and is on his way to becoming a professional golfer after starting as a non-golfer. His mission is to literally be able to qualify on the professional golfing circuit after 10,000 hours of practice. It seems to be working. He plays in a number of major tournaments and has about 4,000 hours left to go in his training.

The link here is that if the wish is for teachers to be ‘masters’ of the teaching profession, then the investment that they are required to meet needs to be about 10,000 hours of professional practice.

Where to From Here?

So the challenge is on. The technology exists to enable professional development in all forms and in a professionally tailored manner to suit an individual teacher’s needs. What is needed is to make professional capital the number ONE investment strategy! ETS

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YOUR SAY

The Flipped Classroom – A Paradigm Shift | By Matt Burns |

A change is here. It is not coming. It is here. It has arrived. And like the wind, teachers can feel it on their skin, and in some classrooms. The way teachers have taught for the last 100 years is undergoing a significant transformation.

This article is about a paradigm shift.

Readers have almost certainly heard about the flipped classroom.

It is a concept that has been in the educational sphere for at least five years now. At its most basic definition, the flipped classroom is this: the lessons are viewed at home and the homework is done in school. Hence, the standard classwork/homework pattern is ‘flipped’ or inverted. There are more sophisticated and better definitions than this, but that is for another article.

What effect does this homework/ classwork shift have on the traditional paradigm of teaching? How does creating video lectures for students open up a classroom to be more engaging in homework-style activities? What sort of effect does this have on the classroom?

The answer is, a significant effect.

In the flipped classroom, a paradigm that has remained unchanged for around 2,000 years is transformed in an instant. No longer is the teacher out the front, dispensing his or her wisdom and intelligence, in quantifiable packets, at prearranged times, at a set pace and at a certain point in the unit. No longer do students have to be there, in the classroom, at that place, at that time, to receive teacher-dispensed packets

of wisdom and content. The age of teaching from the front of the room, like drawing on rock with charcoal, or writing on blackboard with chalk, or scribing on an interactive whiteboard, is over. The teacher is no longer the ‘sage on the stage’. Rather, the teacher is the ‘guide by the side’. This is not a catchy phrase – it is a literal description.

The teaching content is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, when the student is ready. It is available at any place and on any device. It is available at the student’s preferred pace, and can be watched and re-watched as many times as is necessary. The content can also be fast-forwarded if the student deems it necessary. Student agency over student learning has been increased. Students are no longer passive recipients of the teachers’ intelligence or wisdom. Rather, they are active hunters for information they require in order to master or pass elements of the assessment.

For teachers who like to lecture from the front and have students hanging on their every word, it may be time to pursue a career in politics, because in schools, the soapbox has been smashed by the digital revolution and educators must move with the times.

An uncomfortable truth is this: if a teacher can be replaced by a YouTube video, perhaps he or she should be.

Everyone may have noticed fewer cashiers in supermarkets lately. They have been replaced by the rising use

020 EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS

of ‘self-service’ shopping machines.

The same sort of thing is happening in education right now. Developing technology is driving a paradigm shift.

Obviously, some lessons require person-to-person interaction; discussions for example, or debates. A video cannot provide much in the way of empathy, or a sympathetic ear to a distraught student. But any lesson that is content driven can be recorded, uploaded and available permanently for students at their convenience.

Educators must change, or else a change will be foisted upon them. It is not realistic to say that teachers will not be teachers anymore. Only a trained and present teacher can effectively maximise, mediate and moderate online instruction. At this point, only teachers can guide students to different resources, or simply help their students who are stuck on a particular problem – though ‘adaptive learning’ may speak to this area in the future.

Educators must change. If they do not change, or grow, they will literally become redundant. The wind is blowing.

It is time to set the sails. ETS

Matt Burns is a Primary Teacher, HSIE Coordinator, Flipped Classroom Coordinator at Inaburra School, a Christian, co-educational, K-12, independent school in Sydney’s Sutherland Shire.

Unless otherwise expressly stated, the information appearing in this section represents the opinions of the relevant writer and does not represent the views or opinions of Interactive Media Solutions or the other advertisers or contributors to this publication.

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EVENTS CALENDAR

Connected Education Summit

EduTECH 2016

19–20 April 2016 Melbourne Convention Centre, Melbourne

30–31 May 2016 Brisbane Convention Centre, Brisbane

and

Exhibition

The 2nd annual Connected Education Summit is organised by the same team that organises EduTECH (Brisbane) and the National FutureSchools Expo (Sydney). This one-day summit is one of 10 parallel conferences taking place at the giant CONNECT EXPO. The Connected Education Summit is a strategic-level, business-meetspolicy conference that brings together leaders from four key areas (education + industry/business + government + tech sector) to discuss the role each needs to play to ensure that today’s students are ready for tomorrow’s increasingly globally competitive digital world.

Who attends?

• school system leaders and policy makers • state and federal education department leaders and policy makers • tertiary education leaders • heads of faculty, education (School of Education/Teacher Training College) • training, learning and development, and skills development managers from within business and government • ICT, broadband and telecom infrastructure providers • business and industry leaders • education technology providers

Discussion topics include: • skills required in the next 10 years to ensure Australia remains competitive in the digital economy • how industry, education and government can collaborate to build the skill set needed in the next decade • how to increase interest in STEM subjects • how to increase female interest in STEM subjects • how technology is disrupting current education (and business) models • how Gen Alpha will interact with their world digitally • internationalising education: building global competence • personalising learning in a global world: interconnectivity, engagement, crowdsourcing • next generation broadband: enabling greater participation in the global education community • business opportunities for technology companies.

Visit www.connectexpo.com.au/ connectededucation.html for more information.

022 EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS

EduTECH is Australasia’s largest annual education technology conference and exhibition. In 2016, EduTECH will host eight conferences, eight masterclasses, 8,000+ attendees, an official event dinner for 800 guests, 250+ exhibitors and free seminars for exhibition visitors.

EduTECH is the only event that brings together the entire education and training sector (primary, secondary, tertiary and workplace learning) plus libraries, government, suppliers and world-renowned speakers all under one roof.

As a delegate, you can choose from one of eight conferences designed for your role, ensuring you get the most out of your professional development investment. Furthermore, EduTECH works with industry to subsidise registration costs to make the conference an affordable and accessible investment in your learning.

• Access the very best speakers from Australia and around the world.

• Share ideas, successes and challenges.

• Discuss, debate and take away implementable outcomes.

• This is a second-to-none networking opportunity.

Register with “ETS10” for 10% off any EduTECH Congress before 8 April 2016

INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS & EXPO Congress & Expo 30 & 31 May 2016

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EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS 023

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Tailor-make your own experience and choose from eight large congresses, with multiple streams, plus focused breakout sessions, masterclasses and interactive exhibition seminars and displays (not to mention hours of networking functions).

See what is on offer and save time by meeting with suppliers in one

the entire school experience? Educators have been talking about this for a long time. Digital technology is now making all of this possible. It maximises our ability to undertake innovative learning approaches, which in turn accelerate the change in schooling and enhance the quality of the change. Attend the conference if you are curious about how digital technology can help you ‘rethink

place, at one time.

your school’.

Visit www.edutech.net.au for more information.

Day 2: Shift To Deeper Learning Digital technology can take students deep into their learning. It can deliver rich core content in innovative ways that allow students to learn and then apply what they learn. It creates opportunities for authentic, active learning experiences, connecting the curriculum with real-life experiences.

Good teachers have always encouraged their students to learn this way, but the right digital technology assists them to do it better. Attend the conference to see compelling evidence of how digital technology can take your students’ learning deeper.

Leading a Digital School Conference 2016 25–27 August 2016 Crown Conference Centre, Melbourne The 2016 Leading a Digital School Conference features three big days, three mega themes, tightly focused professional development for K–12 school leaders, leadership teams and teachers, and a powerful networking program. Reflect with colleagues on how digital technology can be leveraged to advance three critical issues in schooling.

This year’s themes include: Day 1: Rethinking Schooling How do we reinvent the traditional classroom and how do we rearrange

Day 3: Develop Students Who Create Schools are facing a powerful trend to encourage students to be creators – and not so much – consumers.

The Maker movement is inspiring educators to encourage creativity,

024 EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS

learning by making and creating, innovation, and even ‘tinkering’ in students.

Makerspaces abound!

Digital technology has borne digital fabrication, gamification, 3D printing, robotics, coding and programming – all of which assist students to acquire skills that are immediately applicable in the real world. Attend the conference to reflect on the importance of creativity in learning and to focus on students as creators, not consumers.

For each mega theme, explore major considerations for successful implementation as you engage with expert keynote speakers, school case studies, workshops, cutting-edge technology and powerful networking.

Get excited and be inspired as you explore how digital technology provides us with a golden opportunity to rethink schooling; shift to deeper learning, and develop students who create!

Visit www.iwb.net.au for more information.

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EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS 025

interactivelearning

The Chief Digital Officer And Governance of the School Digital Ecosystem

026 EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS

| By Mal Lee | All of the schools studied that have normalised the whole-school use of digital technology and which are developing increasingly higher order, digitally based school ecosystems have all had an astute principal to lead the way and the services of what is, in essence, a chief digital officer (CDO).

The same is to be found in the transformation of the digital masters of the business world (Westerman et al, 2014). In all, the organisation’s digital transformation has been skilfully shaped by a CEO working closely with a chief digital officer charged with converting the leader’s digital vision into a working reality.

Indeed, a 2014 McKinsey Consulting study observed, “Leadership is the most decisive factor for a digital program’s success or failure. Increasing C-level involvement is a positive sign, and the creation of a CDO role seems to be a leading indicator for increasing the speed of advancement (McKinsey, 2014).”

It is little wonder that businesses are clamouring to secure the services of CDOs capable of supporting the CEO in orchestrating the desired ongoing digital transformation.

Few associated with schools have yet to grasp the same imperative exists for all schools. If schools are to undergo the desired digital evolution and shape a more productive, digitally based school ecosystem, they too will need that role to be played.

In the pathfinder schools, the CDO role has been played by all manner of positions – by deputy principals, e-Learning coordinators, technology coordinators, CIOs and, in several instances, by several staff working closely together. The actual title does not matter. What is critical is having a senior staff member who shares the principal’s digital vision and macro understanding of the workings of the school, with a strong awareness of digital, and who is able to work collaboratively with an empowered staff in providing the apposite tightly integrated digital platform.

It requires an appreciation of the school’s shaping educational vision, the kind of digitally based ecosystem and school culture that will best realise that vision and the facility to provide the school community the digital ecosystem.

It most assuredly does not require an ‘ICT expert’ who unilaterally decides what technology all in the school will use.

Critically, it needs a visionary educator who is able to collaborate with digitally empowered staff, students and parents to ensure that all are provided with the opportunity to fly with digital technology; and can simultaneously govern the school’s use of digital technology and ensure multiple systems and offerings are appropriately integrated and refreshed.

Behind the working website discussed in a previous article in Education Technology Solutions is an extensive, ever-evolving, tightly integrated digital ecosystem that provides the platform upon which the school operates and grows, and which needs to be thoughtfully designed, shaped, maintained and refined. Without it, the digital school cannot operate, let alone grow.

Shaping that digital ecosystem entails a skilful balancing act, accommodating the seeming paradox of fostering a school-wide culture of change, where teachers are empowered to take risks and where there will inevitably be uncertainty, mess and at times seeming chaos, while simultaneously shaping an integrated, highly efficient and effective digital ecosystem able to continually deliver the desired schooling.

The Chief Digital Officer The concept of the CDO, even within the business world, is a relatively recent one, but it is already viewed globally as being critical to the digital transformation of organisations (www. digitalevolutionofschooling.net; Solis et al, 2014; McKinsey, 2014).

Westerman, McAfee and Bonnet (2014), in their seminal study of the corporate digital masters, concluded, “The CDO’s job is to turn cacophony into a symphony.

What is critical is having a senior staff member who shares the principal’s digital vision and macro understanding of the workings of the school, with a strong awareness of digital, and who is able to work collaboratively with an empowered staff in providing the apposite tightly integrated digital platform.

He or she creates a unifying digital vision, energises the company around digital possibilities, coordinates digital activities, and sometimes provides critical tools or resources.”

Chan Suh, a CDO writing in Wired, observed, “Almost by definition, the CDO must be a bit of a free thinker, willing to experiment, fail and move on.

They embrace data-based experimentation, adapt quickly and make iterative decisions… CDOs need to be able to move nimbly in all parts of the corporation, in terms of both departments and functions: digital integration impacts employees, customers and the whole portfolio of products. That means they need to speak multiple business languages and simplify what can seem like insanely complicated technology.

But, above all, the job requires being persuasive, adaptable and visionary (http://www.wired.com/2014/01/2014year-chief-digital-officer/).”

The CDO is a very well recompensed, high-level executive position with ultimate responsibility for every facet of the organisation’s digital ecosystem. While the demands within the school will not be as great as in a multinational organisation, the nature and standing of the role to be played remains basically the same.

EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS 027

interactivelearning

Relationship with the Principal, the CEO In all the aforementioned literature and within the pathfinder schools studied, there is a vital close working relationship between the head of the organisation and the CDO. It stands to reason. The CDO, or whatever title they actually carry, has the responsibility for implementing the CEO’s digital vision for the organisation.

Whether it is a school or business, both people need to work closely as they shape the organisation’s ongoing digital transformation and take the organisation into unchartered waters.

Governance of the School’s Digital Ecosystem As schools move to a digital operational base and develop mature, higher order, more integrated ecosystems, it becomes increasingly important for each to appropriately ‘govern’ and to shape the growth of the school’s digital ecosystem.

This shaping, maintaining and strengthening of an ecology that fosters ongoing school evolution and enhancement, and that allows the school to operate on the ‘edge of chaos’ as Pascale and his colleagues (2000) call it, is evermore important. It is very much an individual school responsibility, not that of external ICT experts who have no understanding of each school’s unique culture. Each school needs to determine its own mode of digital governance.

The strong impression – and it is only that – is that many of the pathfinders, contending as they are with rapid and accelerating organisational transformation, making increasing use of the students’ technologies and a plethora of cloud-based services, are fast approaching the point, in terms of productivity, of having to corral some of the digital services employed in the school and to seriously question if a laissez faire model of technology use is apt. This is particularly apparent in larger secondary schools where, on the one hand, the school is seeking to integrate its workings, while at the same time encouraging teachers to make best use of the emerging digital technology.

The Technology Committee Traditionally in schools, business and the

wider public sector, the technology or ICT committee was charged with that ‘governance’, but all too often operated as a stand-alone group implementing its own agenda.

What is now clear (Westerman et al, 2014) is that if schools want digital transformation, they should not give the job to a committee. According to Westerman, “Committees can make decisions, but they cannot drive change.

Leaders do that.” Schools should seriously question the need for a technology committee.

Interestingly, committees were not used in any of the successful pathfinder schools. In all, the digital transformation was orchestrated by the principal and the CDO, and the work was undertaken by the CDO, staff and others within the school’s community.

Finding a School CDO Finding a staff member or even several staff to play the role of the school CDO is likely to be difficult. The kind of skill set described above is rare, even in the corporate world. One is looking in schools at experienced educators with a macro vision for schooling, with the desire to lead, to take risks and to embrace ongoing organisational evolution, with very strong digital acumen and with the people skills needed to take empowered professionals along on the evolutionary journey.

The pathfinder schools have, in some respects, been fortunate to have such personnel, but most of these schools have ‘grown’ or recruited these people over time, consciously continually enhancing their skill set.

It should not come as a surprise that many of the school CDOs are deputy or assistant principals who demonstrate many of the attributes needed to be the principal of a digital school. As far as the author is aware, none have been trained for the role by either their education authority or a tertiary education, but that said, there are pathfinder education authorities globally which are now assisting in the development of such personnel.

In 2016, most schools will likely have to grow their own CDO, or recruit and then

028 EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS

grow the potential CDO. As indicated, it is a role that can be performed by a likeminded, driven pair of staff able to work closely. Indeed, such a pair could possibly include a non-educator provided that she/he had strong digital expertise and was able to address the organisation’s shaping vision.

Conclusion It could be argued that the current situation in the pathfinder schools, where the CDO role is normalised and untitled, is the desired one. The key is that the role is performed successfully and naturally shapes the desired evolution and strengthens the school’s digital ecosystem.

In so saying, it might well be opportune in certain school situations, like in business, to use the appointment of a CDO to proclaim the school’s intention to use digital technologies to transform its operations. That is a call each school needs to make.

What, however, is that much clearer is that a school, in moving to a digital operational base and becoming increasingly reliant on a more sophisticated, powerful, integrated and productive digital ecosystem, will need apt processes to govern its operation and growth; processes that are appreciably a more sophisticated and effective way than the traditional ICT committee.

While the digital transformation business literature (www. digitalevolutionofschooling.net) and the articles on CDOs will assist, schools do have a very different shaping purpose to corporations and need their own solution.

Schools will need to address how the CDO role will be performed and identify an apt mode of governing the growth of the school’s digital ecosystem. ETS

Mal Lee is a former director of schools, secondary college principal, technology company director, and now, author and educational consultant. He has written extensively on the impact of technology and the evolution of schooling.

For a full list of the bibliography contact: admin@interactivemediasolutions.com.au

EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS 029

feature 030 EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS

Using Games In The Classroom To Increase Engagement | By Katherine Hawes | The UK press recently reported that, thanks to smartphones “we have ‘evolved’ to an attention span shorter than goldfish” and that people’s attention span has now decreased from 12 seconds in the year 2000 to just eight seconds in 2016. It is not surprising that smartphones are getting bad press, but can they be used to actually enhance learning in and out of the classroom?

According to the Nielsen research centre, Australians spend 35 percent of the time devoted to their mobile devices playing games and using gaming apps. Therefore, it seems a good idea to leverage this focus on games to increase overall classroom engagement, lengthen the attention span of students and improve overall learning performance.

The following outlines some ideas to use games in the classroom.

It is just Fun Apart from gaming making the learning experience more fun, the competition that gamework involves helps to keep students’ brains alert and focused. Young adults particularly enjoy games and they receive specific and immediate feedback if they make a mistake. This enables them to know exactly where they went wrong, a feedback method which is lacking in most traditional educational methods.

Level Up the Game Levels are the base of video, computer and smartphone games. Players usually start with a tutorial level and they move forward to more complex scenarios as they ‘level up’. Levels allow students to compete with each other in a healthy way while acquiring knowledge. They can also benchmark

themselves against their past performance.

Levels are fun, so why not introduce levels instead of modules? Level Up My Life is a software app that lets players track their achievements in real life with a game plan.

It can be easily applied to any classroom experience and has character and questcreating capabilities.

Badges Badges are a classic method for recognising and rewarding accomplishments. They apply very well to long-term classroom gaming experiences. Most students already know how a badge system works – different activities earn a player ‘experience’ in different areas and a certain amount of points or achievement earns the player a ‘badge’ in that same area. The educational social media site Edmodo includes premade badges, as well as the availability for teachers to create or upload their own.

In-game Economy This theme is very popular in hit games and often enables players to find money hidden around, pick pocket or loot other players.

Players are often awarded points for being good citizens. One teacher improved engagement in her class by introducing a badge system that rewarded students for tutoring each other. Each student had badges to give away to others when they helped him or her with assignments and homework. The student that helped the most collected the most points, of course.

This worked in two ways – students needed to know the material and explain it well, which reinforced learning. The other added benefit was the atmosphere of collaboration rather than competition. Another aspect is

EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS 031

feature Modifying the gaming and learning experience is a way to help students ‘own’ the learning process, to make it their own. that students were empowered to decide who deserved more points, rather than the teacher having all the classroom power.

Modify the Experience One of the main themes for engaging the new generation of Millennials and Gen Z is the personalisation of experiences. The biggest sin for the new generations is to be like everyone else. Modifying the gaming and learning experience is a way to help students ‘own’ the learning process, to make it their own. For example, offering students video, text and audio and allowing them to choose which method to use to go through a lecture is one way to do it.

Hidden Objects These are commonly called ‘Easter eggs’ in the gaming industry. In video games, for example, there can be hidden treasures that are not crucial for levelling up, but give a much-needed boost. How can these hidden objects be used in academic education?

One example is to offer a grade increase for those that find hidden quotes in learning

materials. Students that collect all quotes get bonus points on their grade. Hiding them well in the text means that students have read the whole material carefully. And it is more engaging than just giving extra tasks for credits.

Games in the Classroom Young adults are engaged in the games they play because they learn as they go, by doing. There is not an instruction manual for HALO or Candy Crash; gamers learn by playing. If the same concept is applied to the classroom, students will be more engaged and acquire skills and competencies without even noticing.

Business Plan Game One very successful example, incorporated in the introduction year of the Hanzehogeschool Groningen in The Netherlands is the Business Plan Game. In it, students that have not yet had a single class on business take roles and play ‘startup’.

They learn as they make mistakes and are given relevant information in the form of

textbooks and lectures to improve their virtual startup’s performance as they go.

Recent research has shown that the use of games in the classroom is becoming mainstream. And the reason is simple – the more teachers use games in the classroom, the more they see improvements in students’ engagement. The effect is especially noticeable with students who otherwise perform poorly. However, there is a minority of teachers not yet utilising the power of games because they are unsure of how to integrate them in the classroom. Hopefully this article has given those teachers a few ideas on using games to increase engagement. The discovery and preparation of games is a time and energy-consuming task, but the effort is worth it.

So, what do you play in your classroom?

And what are you going to do to engage your students tomorrow? Jeopardy anyone? ETS Katherine Hawes is the founder of Aquarius Education. As well as running her own legal practice, Katherine combines her passion of law and education by lecturing at several universities across Australia.

She is a popular speaker and also offers a range of legal training courses and workshops through Aquarius Education.

Visit www.aquariuseducation.com for more information.

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Dyslexia: Genuine Classroom Strategies

034 EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS

| By Chris Robertson | My 15-year-old son, Scott, was diagnosed with dyslexia at six years of age. Unfortunately, both of the schools he attended knew nothing about dyslexia. Nothing. We heard what many parents of dyslexics hear repeatedly, “Give him time, he will catch on in his own time.” In the dyslexia community, this passive attitude is called ‘wait to fail’. It destroys lives.

We were forced to explore alternatives ourselves. We were funnelled through tutors and programs, coloured paper and lenses, fail-safe diets, paediatricians, ophthalmologists, behavioural optometrists, more non-evidence based dyslexia ‘solutions’ and MRI scans. The list is bewildering and the costs have been astronomical. No standards or structure were available to help us filter out non-evidence based interventions.

By the beginning of 2012, Scott (aged 11) had been retained a year and probably should have been held back another (academically). He could not read, he was not learning, he was being teased and bullied, his confidence was in tatters, he had to leave school daily for external evidence-based tutoring, adding to his peers noticing a difference. Teachers did not know what to do with him. He was taken out of the things he loved (drama, dance, art) for time extensions and testing. To add insult to injury, the principal suddenly declared external instruction would no longer be allowed during school hours (without adopting any evidencebased strategies to compensate). All the while, the school and community had no genuine awareness of the humiliation our son was experiencing on a daily basis.

We researched and steadily, and accurately, came to the conclusion there were no genuinely sustainable education options for our son’s case in Australia. In 2012, we quit our jobs and moved to Austin, Texas, so Scott could attend a school calibrated for students with dyslexia. There, he was guaranteed to be surrounded by trained experts in global best practice.

Our son has flourished since. His reading has improved. He has discovered a love for learning thanks to the unhesitating use of evidence-based classroom strategies and technologies. He has restored the energy and optimism he displayed before his humiliating Australian primary school experience. We now get enthusiastic emails and photos of 100 percent marks in maths and science (his growing passions).

His school and the community deliver empowerment, vitality and growing influence. The school’s reputation for employing bestpractice, evidence-based pedagogies has garnered national credibility. In 2015, Texas Representative Lamar Smith attended the school’s annual fundraiser. Lamar Smith is the Chair of the US House of Representatives Committee on Science, Space and Technology.

He sponsored the Research Excellence and Advancements for Dyslexia Act, recently passed by both houses of congress and just now, as I edit this, signed by President Obama! This has the potential to help globally.

We, personally, are indebted to the global community of scientists who have methodically identified best-practice literacy pedagogies for dyslexic students and the educators at his school

who are dedicated to applying and advocating for them.

It begs the question, WTF Australia?

Dyslexia in Australia Dyslexia is, in my practical experience, an utterly useless word in Australia. It is made useless by the collective refusal to standardise and adhere to a scientific, evidenced-based definition that describes the very real learning challenges faced by approximately 10 percent of Australians.

For example, in February 2015 and again in March 2015, this publisher, Education Technology Solutions, contributed further to the perversion of the word dyslexia by publishing ‘10 Achievable Strategies to Tackle Dyslexia in Your Classroom’ and ‘School and 10 Achievable Strategies To Tackle Dyslexia’, both by Michael Guy Clark. The articles promote strategies for students with dyslexia that are not science, not evidence-based and not recommended by the world’s most educated, principled and ethical literacy experts.

In Australia, there are some fantastic experts to guide parents and educators, including researchers who have advanced world knowledge in the fields of cognition and literacy, and educators who tirelessly dedicate themselves to the adoption of bestpractice literacy pedagogies in a quest to maximise the number of literate Australians.

These include: • The Macquarie University Department of Cognitive Science • Learning Difficulties Australia (LDA) • The Specific Learning Difficulties Association (SPELD) – state organisations federated under AUSPELD • Australia Dyslexia Association, the official partner of the International Dyslexia Association • Dyslexia Support Australia Facebook Group.

Evidently, Australia is struggling to prioritise these experts as the primary sources of knowledge, strategies, tools and technologies.

Instead, parents and educators remain poorly informed and trained, and continue to allow the term dyslexia and dyslexia interventions to be perverted by imitators.

Here are a few practical points to note: • There is no mandatory dyslexia training in the required curriculum for university graduates in education. Educators are not grounded in the facts and fundamentals.

• Whilst dyslexia is covered under the Disability Standards for Education (https://www.education.gov.au/disability-standardseducation), there is no specific legal definition and schools have no mandatory intervention standard for students with dyslexia.

• The 2005 Report of the National Inquiry into the Teaching of Literacy was ignored (http://www.curriculum.edu.au/leader/ report_of_the_national_inquiry_into_the_teaching_o,12633. html?issueID=9803).

• Best-practice, evidence-based literacy pedagogies are currently not being employed. Australia’s community of experts made recommendations 10 years ago that would have improved EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS 035

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(and still will improve) literacy outcomes for all Australians, including students with dyslexia.

• Australia is a free society and tolerates alternative philosophies. But in the field of medical practice, rigorous standards of practice are enforced that promote genuine evidence and efficacy above mere research and/or anecdote.

Unfortunately, the community has refused to adopt and enforce similar standards of practice for interventions in the dyslexia community. Students, parents, teachers and even some doctors struggle to discern the difference between evidence-based interventions and the imitators.

Classroom Strategies Given the less than ideal state of affairs, here are some classroom strategies to get teachers back on an evidencebased footing and genuinely improve the situation for students with learning difficulties, including dyslexia.

Strategy 1: Complete Best-Practice Professional Development Training and Apply It To best serve students, teachers must have ready access to knowledge about dyslexia that is evidence-based and best-practice.

The good news is, there is dyslexia training available to teachers that is recognised as best-practice amongst experts, fulfils professional development requirements and, in many cases, is free. Sign up for this online course: Understanding Dyslexia and Significant Difficulties in Reading.

If, for any reason, schools do not have access to this particular training course, here are some other low-cost resources a school should consider investing in: • Understanding Learning Difficulties, A Practical Guide from AUSPELD (http:// auspeld.org.au/resources/) • Outside The Square Video Series (http:// www.outsidesquare.net) Strategy 2: Accommodate and Fulfil Duty of Care Schools have a duty of care to all students and must “provide an education and the tools required to participate in the education system”.

Legislation also continues to tighten. For example, on

Best-practice, evidence-based literacy pedagogies are currently not being employed.

22 December 2015, Victorian Ministerial Order 870 was signed which explicitly binds “children with a disability” to a principle of inclusion. (The government also knows it has insufficient data on students with disabilities, so each school should ensure it is actively participating in the mandated Nationally Consistent Collection of Data).

Children with learning disabilities are frequently at risk of unnecessary humiliation in traditional classroom situations. Furthermore, children who are well behind their peers in literacy skills cannot be expected to ‘read to learn’.

Some students who struggle to read are, nevertheless, bright learners. Teachers need to decouple the old adage ‘learn to read, read to learn’.

Susan Barton suggests classroom strategies to deal with these two challenges in this excerpt from the freely available video Embracing Dyslexia (https://www. youtube.com/watch?v=lrIWrBxZpdg). This video is an example of how teachers can deliver valuable educational content in formats other than the written word.

Strategy 3: Do not Introduce Imitations We personally wasted a lot of time and money on interventions that were not evidence-based. The imitations we tried cost our son years we will never get back.

They were all no better than guesses and, by wasting our time on them, we made our situation worse.

“Children with reading problems can overcome their difficulties only if they are identified early and provided with systematic, explicit, and intensive instruction in phonemic awareness, phonics, reading fluency, vocabulary and reading comprehension strategies. Early identification, coupled with comprehensive early reading interventions, can reduce the percentage of children reading below basic level in fourth grade from the current national average of 38% to less than 6%” (Dr. Reid Lyon, 2001).

036 EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS

If teachers have students with dyslexia in their classroom, it is likely their parents are being funnelled through imitators just like we were. Sadly, some schools are working with imitators. Here is a report that identifies some imitators: Behavioural Interventions to Remediate Learning Disorders: A Technical Report (https://www.ldaustralia.org/client/ documents/NZ%20brain%20changing%20 interventions%20report%20e.g.%20 Arrowsmith.pdf). Please avoid them.

Strategy 4: Do not bring Headline Controversy into the Classroom “Dyslexia may not exist, warn academics” (The Telegraph).

This headline is a shocker and there have been many like it. In this case, the media misrepresented Professor Julian Elliot, who is challenging best-practice based on his own genuine scientific enquiry. Professor Elliot is attempting to advance knowledge of learning difficulties.

Reading the full article reveals what is genuinely going on, “…While the researchers do not question the existence of the real, sometimes complex, problems some people have with reading, they are critical of the term ‘dyslexia’ because it is too imprecise.”

The global scientific community has not yet come to this conclusion and they may not. Here is a more nuanced introduction from Sir Jim Rose (http:// www.interventionsforliteracy.org.uk/home/ research/rose-review/).

I do hope parents and teachers can all dedicate themselves to learning from and deferring to the best and brightest. ETS Chris Robertson is Head of Product Development at CompliSpace Pty Ltd, a leading provider of governance solutions.

Chris has worked as an Aerospace Engineer on NASA’s Space Shuttle program and in financial markets, working in programming and quantitative analysis, derivatives trading and risk management and e-trading platform development.

Chris’s youngest son lives in Austin, Texas and attends a private school dedicated to evidence-based education for students with dyslexia. Chris can be contacted on Twitter ‪@brooksbrokid‬

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EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS 037

coverstory 038 EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS

Starting An Education Revolution: The Role of Innovation

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| By Tom March | Innovation is an interesting concept, perhaps a little like other big ideas such as ‘excellence’ and ‘beauty’ where each person enjoys a slightly different flavour, but all know it when they see it. If people had to define it in the abstract, they would never reach a suitable agreement. People agree that innovations are new ideas, approaches, products or processes; they often help society do, see or think in new ways. Against the backdrop of current norms, innovations standout as ‘different’.

But difference is not all that is required to make something truly innovative.

Here is an example. When interactive maps came to the Internet through sites like MapQuest, people could see that getting directions from point A to point B by clicking spots on a web-based map was new and useful. But when the power of Google Maps (with street view, realtime congestion and alternate routes, user-reviewed venues along the way, and so on) arrived in people’s pockets on the same device that ‘plays their records’, ‘flips through their photo albums’ and shares the highlights of their lives with friends around the world, well, that is innovation!

This teaches a few things. Real innovation changes people’s lives. Innovation is often perceived in the present-tense – it is appreciated with a sense of awe – but BIG innovations are perceived in retrospect.

Looking back, people see how much things have changed; that ‘the old way’ just does not do it anymore. So there is also a ‘no going back’ aspect to innovation.

Innovation in Education What does all this have to do with education? For decades, educators have been alert, waiting for the game changer.

While schools and classrooms have been touched by technology’s influence – networking and computer labs, software applications, the Internet, gaming, social networking – are these innovations or merely changes? Where is the educational equivalent to Google Maps, the iPhone, Wikipedia or Facebook?

Such life-touching and altering technologies have created a high hurdle for those interested in education. While educators have championed many potential innovations that hit the ‘new’ mark, nothing has fundamentally altered schools or classrooms since the technology revolution really ramped up with the World Wide Web. Many things are different, but school-based learning has not been reinvented. Educators still operate within the old model, an innovation that did change things forever.

The Real Innovation in Education Education is not immune to fundamental change. If the definition of true innovation is based on the criterion of new processes, products or perspectives that have changed the status quo, educators might be surprised by the last real innovation that has altered education. Just as Henry Ford’s assembly line transformed life in the 20th century, so too did the mass production innovation to schooling: the application of an ‘interchangeable parts’ and ‘delivery’ model that resulted in a codified curriculum. As change forced the one-room schoolhouse to grow exponentially, innovation brought core learning areas (subjects and disciplines), year levels, textbooks and standards.

Together, these fuelled an educational explosion that completely passes the no going back criteria of real innovation. With the codified curriculum, teachers could specialise their knowledge and skills and take positions in a human representation of interchangeable parts to deliver manageable knowledge and skills to the awaiting masses. And this innovation did revolutionise schooling, where graduation rates soared from less than 25 percent to over 75 percent, essentially flipping the matriculation numbers from high schools.

When Good Innovations Go Bad Like the automobile revolution, the schooling revolution gave society what it needed to grow – and then some.

040 EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS

Education’s 20th century innovation has worked to school billions of people around the world, but it has also resulted in education’s equivalents to rushhour, road-rage and carbon dioxide.

The flat-lined results in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) measures and stagnated graduation rates, along with the apparent mismatch between what secondary schools provide and what the job market and universities want, are markers for the unintended consequences of innovative scaling of learning. While education achieved the original goals of basic literacy, numeracy and enculturation, unfortunate by-products evidenced in students might be apathy, uniformity, passivity and disaffection. This is not to discount that each and every day, schools and teachers make a positive difference to some students. But in today’s era of personalisation, any one-size-fitsall approach will inevitably miss the mark each and every day for a percentage of students.

What is the Fix? To start with, begin by recognising that no silver-bullet technology will save education. No iPad program, bring your own device (BYOD) initiative, or Apps for Education integration will truly innovate unless it transforms the last great innovation: the codified curriculum. This does not mean that the curriculum and its components are the enemy – just as dirt roads were not the enemy of the automobile, but the means that, after improvements, actually enabled the automobile revolution. So the imperative shifts from an abstract ‘innovate education’ to an achievable challenge: How must the last great educational innovation change to better support the new devices applied to it?

Any change that does not significantly alter the current model is merely ‘trend’ or ‘churn’, not innovation. Worthy targets for change of the status quo include shifts

EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS 041

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from: • teaching to learning • calendars to accomplishment • uniform consistency to individual excellence • teacher-directed to student-shaped.

These might be self-evident, but a few words of elaboration could be warranted.

Educators must see their jobs not as teachers, but as optimisers of student learning. It is not what teachers do that counts, but what learners demonstrate as a result of what teachers do. Then the pacing of learning should not be determined by the date, but by students’ accomplishment of what is needed to progress to the next level. Thus a continuum of competencies is a better framework for student progression than a calendar-based scope and sequence.

Also, whereas a mass production model is measured against uniform consistency, when an individualised lens is applied to learning, should not all students achieve their own highest levels of excellence?

Finally, if the above points define and frame learning, it makes sense that the people who shape the experience should be the students within whom the cognition and learning occur, not an external director.

Start a Revolution?

This all sounds like a lot to do and maybe overwhelming if thinking about where to start. However, there is a simple starting point to address the big changes just identified; one that will connect, naturally, to all inevitable next steps, that will modify the codified curriculum model, just as wooden planks laid on boggy roads got the Model T traffic moving and launched a revolution.

Pulling ‘The Big Lever’ What is the single, revolutionary, worldaltering innovation that can lead education from mass-produced schooling to personally meaningful learning? Tests.

Yes, tests; rich and authentic data on significant student learning. Of course, the trick is in what is measured. A revealing

Innovations are new ideas, approaches, products or processes; they often help society do, see or think in new ways. case study relates to The Melbourne Declaration, the vision document upon which the codified Australian Curriculum is based. In examining its goals for Successful Learners, there is lots of potential for innovation. Look carefully at the descriptors in the side box and focus on how many of these worthy goals can actually be taught, meaning they represent knowledge or skills that can be acquired or developed as opposed to characteristics, traits, approaches or choices. When this challenge has been

Successful learners: • develop their capacity to learn and play an active role in their own learning • have the essential skills in literacy and numeracy and are creative and productive users of technology, especially ICT, as a foundation for success in all learning areas • are able to think deeply and logically, and obtain and evaluate evidence in a disciplined way as the result of studying fundamental disciplines • are creative, innovative and resourceful, and are able to solve problems in ways that draw upon a range of learning areas and disciplines • are able to plan activities independently, collaborate, work in teams and communicate ideas • are able to make sense of their world and think about how things have become the way they are • are on a pathway towards continued success in further education, training or employment, and acquire the skills to make informed learning and employment decisions throughout their lives • are motivated to reach their full potential.

042 EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS

posed in the past, educators invariably identify only essential skills in literacy and numeracy. Clearly, these can be taught and done so with great effectiveness.

What percentage of the total list of goals do they represent? Very small, indeed.

This brings up a couple of critical points.

First, how can these goals be achieved if educators cannot ‘teach their way to them’? This is the kind of design challenge that prompts innovation! In other words, if teachers cannot ‘teach’ students to be motivated to reach their potential then they should explore and assess many of the evidence-based strategies that already exist, and invent any more that are needed. Second, by choosing to test for only literacy and numeracy (for example, NAPLAN), education ineffectively abandons all the other goals. Thus, although education begins with a powerful vision, it is undermined by reinforcing the old paradigm that targets basic skills rather than uses this as an inspiration to change or improve the outdated model.

The next instalment of this series will highlight a variety of evidence-based, intuitively valid and energising examples of how education replaces the quest for better basic skills test scores with amazing alternatives. Let the revolution begin (with true innovation). ETS

Tom

March

is

currently

Director

of

Innovation K12 with Hobsons and is on the Advisory Board for Education Nation. Tom can be contacted via email: tom.march@hobsons.com

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feature 044 EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS

Dustless Chalk To 3D Printing: eLearning In The Classroom – One Perspective Part One

| By Michael Daly and Kevin Daly | This two-part article looks at software and hardware that is likely to impact on eLearning in Australian schools in the near future.

The aim is to give schools the opportunity to discuss what is likely to be coming and, therefore, not make reactive decisions when spending on eLearning.

Introduction When software costs, hardware costs, technician time, repairs and upgrades are all taken into account, it is not surprising that many schools are unclear on how much they are actually spending on eLearning. Often, school leaders are surprised to find it can be as high as 15–20 percent of the entire school global budget. It is also difficult to show that this significant expenditure is improving student outcomes commensurate with the size of the spend. An Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) report in 2015 found, “Among the seven countries with the highest level of internet use in school, three experienced ‘significant declines’ in reading performance – Australia, New Zealand and Sweden...”

However, commonsense informs that technology can enhance student outcomes and that educators must prepare students for a world of accelerating technological change.

There are many factors that create tension between the desired outcomes in eLearning and the actuality. Most schools now have a dedicated eLearning person and have quickly moved from computer labs to one-on-one models. The costs of these changes have been absorbed by schools or cost shifted to parents. While schools would like to have cutting-edge technology, the newer the technology the more expensive the entry point. This aspect, coupled with technology rapidly dating, makes it very hard for schools to ‘future proof’ their eLearning investments.

Anyone who has managed an eLearning budget or eLearning plan will know that by time they have discussed it and written it, it is usually out of date. Schools tend to make reactive, expensive decisions when spending on eLearning.

In many schools, the implementation of iPads and tablets often resulted in an initial drop in performance data. This is most likely due to the poor quality of discussion about curriculum, pedagogy and teacher skills in the context of a technology innovation. The device can become an impediment to learning because, while students appear fully engaged, the quality of that engagement can be shallow and superficial. Informed, expert guidance resting on sound pedagogical principles is required. This means that skill development for staff should be the school’s first priority.

What follows is a simple guide of possible trends that schools may wish to consider.

Software Trends eBooks, Learning Management Systems and Adaptive Technology Many schools have quickly moved to electronic roll marking and from there into Learning Management Systems (LMS) that include learning tasks, reporting and assessment. At the same time, publishers have provided texts as eBooks. It is likely that there will be convergence between these two things; that is, the LMS will also be populated with the eBooks, creating a single sign-on for students and staff. Some publishers have already headed down this path. eBooks themselves represent an interesting challenge for schools, as early iterations were really just digitised text but, as they become more interactive, they show the potential to actively improve learning outcomes. Not too far in the future, an eBook may interactively tailor itself to an individual student’s learning needs and style. If the child is very tactile, there are lots of interactives. If the child is visual, more pictures and video are shown. Additionally, a pre-test before a topic takes each student down an individual learning path suited to his or her needs. This approach of the software guiding the learning is called adaptive technology and it will become increasingly powerful.

EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS 045

feature Coding as a Language Study Most schools have a language program, but by Year 11 many students disengage from languages altogether. Technology now enables text to be fairly accurately translated from one language to another and there are also software and apps that do the same for speech. One school of thought has been to include coding as a language. It is felt that it provides much of what teachers are looking for when they teach Indonesian or French, but is more pertinent to the needs of today’s students and has a more problem-solving emphasis rather than rote learning. This is a relatively cost-free initiative that could improve eLearning outcomes by enriching the curriculum and students’ choices.

The Flipped Classroom There will always be a place for text and numbers in schools but, increasingly, teachers have an audience that engages heavily with video. If students have a query, quite often the first place they search is YouTube. Time in schools is often stretched and has many competing priorities; the flipped classroom helps solve this problem and places more responsibility on the student.

Students look at videos of new materials or review classes their teachers taught by video. This means students can watch and re-watch if necessary. The teacher also has a bank of reusable lessons that can be reviewed, honed and refined.

As this approach frees up valuable lesson time, more time can be given to individual needs. The fact that students are taking more responsibility to learn content and have greater access to the teacher in the lesson should certainly improve learning outcomes. Again, this is a cost-effective approach that should add quality to a school’s pedagogy and curriculum.

While schools would like to have cuttingedge technology, the newer the technology the more expensive the entry point. This aspect, coupled with technology rapidly dating, makes it very hard for schools to ‘future proof’ their eLearning investments.

games such as Minecraft or Sim City that teachers would love to be able to emulate in mainstream classrooms.

Students are highly motivated to problem solve in order to move up a level in these types of environments. In schools, many teachers have tried to harness this level of engagement to improve learning outcomes.

In part, because games and gaming are very much a part of students’ day-today lives, digital badges or rewards are also becoming more apparent in schools.

There has been a strong movement in the US by some schools to reward successful behaviours in the same way games do.

Out of this has come the concept of digital badges. These are cheap and work particularly well in primary schools.

Gaming as Learning Gaming has certainly become a trend in education across the last few years.

There are many parents and some teachers who see this as anathema to learning. However, there is a level of engagement and concentration with 046 EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS

Augmented Reality, 3D and Interactive Software Today’s students tend to be highly visual and tactile, in part due to their early and constant use of screen technology.

Research across the neurosciences and education points to the fact they are learning and thinking differently from previous generations.

With this in mind, 3D software and augmented reality software are highly engaging for students. The idea, for example, that students can collaboratively pull apart a model of a volcano and create a short film of it on an interactive flat screen panel to show the class creates some interesting classroom scenarios. There are costs to these types of software solutions, but increasingly they will become the norm.

Part two of this article in the next issue of Education Technology Solutions will continue the discussion by considering hardware trends and their potential impact on eLearning. ETS Michael Daly and Kevin Daly are brothers who have spent most of their careers in schools both as teachers and school leaders.

Michael is a Director at Clarendon Consultancies. He looks critically at technology and what impact it can have on learning outcomes and has interests in neuroscience and education, diffuse schooling, establishing classroom presence for early career teachers and innovative pedagogy. Michael can be contacted via email: clarendon@gmx.com Kevin runs his own eLearning consultancy and is currently working for SMART technologies across Australia and New Zealand. He can be contacted via email kevin@elearning-futures.com.au

Informed, expert guidance resting on sound pedagogical principles is required.

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The Most Dangerous Phrase In The World

By Chris Betcher

EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS 049

officespace | By Chris Betcher | If anyone has been around education for a while, there is a phrase they may hear occasionally if they listen for it. It has few words, but the impact of those words can be enormous. People who utter this phrase often mean well, but it rarely leads to much that is positive. It can kill a potentially good idea, ruin a worthwhile initiative, or demoralise others who want to make a difference. It may just be the most dangerous phrase in the world. The phrase is: ‘That is the way we have always done it’.

A teacher may have been on the receiving end of these words. It might not be said with these exact words, and it sometimes comes in many variations: ‘We tried that years ago and it did not work’, or ‘We would never be able to do it because the others will not go along with it’, or ‘That might be okay for other schools but it would never work here’, or even the time tested ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’. However it is phrased, the message is essentially the same, ‘We like the way things are and we do not want to change them’.

The irony is that while all these phrases are used to resist change, the world constantly changes. Change is just a natural thing.

Educators want their students to learn, which is just another way of saying they want their students to change; to be better tomorrow than they were today. Educators want their students to know more at the end of each term than they knew at the beginning, to be more mature, have more wisdom and make better decisions. All of that is based on the idea that they need to change. Educators call it growth.

Yet far too often in schools there are systems and processes that stubbornly resist change.

There is outdated curriculum, often locked in time by static syllabi and ageing textbooks.

There are processes being repeated each year, often without ever stopping to consider whether there may be a better way. Schools sometimes stick with ‘proven’ tools and technologies without looking around to see if there may be better alternatives. There is also the occasional teacher who does not

realise that his or her 30 years of teaching experience has in fact been one year of teaching experience, repeated 30 times.

‘That is the way we have always done it’ is the reason students see the same old worksheets, the same old assessment tasks and the same old resources used year after year. It is also often the reason that schools are structured in ways that contradict everything that is known about how students learn most effectively. Educators want to make decisions in the best interests of their students, but they do not because those decisions often contradict the way they have always done things. Despite the fact that the outside world changes constantly, it is still far too easy to find classrooms that do not. This does a grave disservice to the students that pass through them.

The author recently overheard two sisters talking. The younger of the pair had the same teacher that her elder sister had five years before. Despite the five years that had passed, the older student was listening to her younger sibling talk about the work she was doing in class and remarking, “Oh yes, I remember doing that assignment when I had that same teacher.” Unless that assignment was perfect and timeless, repeating it year after year without considering alternatives makes is seem like that teacher is simply on autopilot.

As this new school year begins, teachers need to stop and think about what they are doing. Are they reaching into their files and digging out the same teaching program they used last year? The same activities and worksheets they gave their students last year? The same letters to parents that were sent home last year?

Teachers who have been in a school for more than a few years should think about how much has changed in the world around them. Even just five short years ago, most teachers were not storing work in the cloud, or working collaboratively with others on shared documents, or learning by being digitally connected through various social

050 EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS

streams.

Technology provides great examples of these rapid changes, but it is hardly the only area of change.

(Although it could probably be argued that technology is the main driver that is forcing change in so many other areas). It seems that change really is the only constant.

So why do some teachers embrace change and get excited about the possibilities of doing things in new and different ways, while others cling doggedly to doing things in ways that they have always done them? Why do some people immediately dismiss new or innovative ideas because they are not the way they have always done it?

Before exploring that question, it is important to also recognise that just because something is different does not necessarily mean it is better. Some of the things that are repeated year after year may be done that way because they actually are the best way to do them. It can be exhausting to constantly reinvent wheel. Not everything needs to be thrown out and started again, but everything should be looked at with fresh eyes and continually questioned, “Is there a better way to do this?”

Carol Dweck’s work on the ideas of growth mindset versus fixed mindset is a good place to start. Without restating all of her research, essentially Dweck found that people see their world differently depending on whether they embrace a growth mindset or a fixed mindset. That is, whether they believe they are capable of growing and changing, or not. Those with fixed mindsets tend to believe the abilities they were born with, or that they have right now, are the abilities they will always have. Those with growth mindsets

believe that they are capable of growing, so they see change as an opportunity for learning and trying new things.

Ironically, having a fixed mindset is not fixed; once people realise that they are limiting themselves with this kind of thinking, they can catch themselves doing it and consciously decide to respond differently.

Responding differently is hard. It is not always easy for people to see past the way they have always done it and reimagine how things might be done differently because many have not been conditioned to think this way. But teachers can start by consciously and deliberately asking themselves one very simple question – why?

• Why are the desks in my classroom arranged like that?

• Why do my students do that same geography assignment every year?

• Why do we always study that same novel?

Thinking bigger, consider some of the many aspects of school that are taken for granted, such as: • Why is our school day structured the way it is?

• Why are our lessons 50 minutes long?

• Why does the school day start at 8:30am and finish at 3:00pm?

• Why do we group students according to the age they were born?

As teachers begin to ask why, they should take note of their answers. If they find themselves answering with ‘because that is the way we have always done it’ then they should dig a little deeper. Why has it always been done it like that? Is it because it is the best way? Maybe it was the best way at one time, but is it still the best way now? Could

Educators want their students to learn, which is just another way of saying they want their students to change; to be better tomorrow than they were today... Yet far too often in schools there are systems and processes that stubbornly resist change. there be a better way? Many of the things teachers do, they do without even thinking about anymore. They get so used to the way things work that they forget to question them.

One easy (and fun) thing teachers can do is simply to visit other schools. Just walking into a different environment and looking around can be enlightening. When walking into someone else’s classroom, teachers cannot help but notice how things are done differently. They find themselves noticing little things and saying, “That is interesting. I wonder why they do it like that?” They will see ideas that they had not thought of; ways of doing things they had not considered. And when they return to their own classrooms, they will see it just a little bit differently. Looking outside the world they experience every day helps teachers have fresh eyes.

Consider this: Kodak, the once great film and camera company, is these days little more than a footnote in the history of photography. The reason? Their entire world view was rooted in the idea of film cameras and film processing. When digital photography came along, they dismissed it as a fad because it was ‘not the way we have always done it’. They failed to respond to the changes around them and that failure hit them hard. History is full of similar examples where entire industries – often large, seemingly entrenched empires – have been decimated because of their failure to respond to change. The Swiss watch industry refused to adopt the quartz movement because it was not the way they had always made watches. It took them years to recover.

The record industry initially rejected digital downloads because that was not the way they had always distributed music. They eventually relented, but it put them years

behind where they could have been had they chosen to lead that change. The list goes on.

There is no denying that today’s world is one of enormous change, where a single technology can make ‘the way we have always done it’ obsolete very quickly.

Educators need to be leaders in the ability to change and adapt and learn. The students they teach today will be the next generation of innovators, entrepreneurs and worldchangers, and will be the ones who must address the big, wicked problems that need to be solved in the future. If educators want the education they offer to today’s students to be the key to making the world a better place, then they need to develop mindful, creative, critical thinkers who constantly ask why.

Society will never get the future it wants if people keep saying, “That is the way we have always done it”. ETS

Chris Betcher is Director of Professional Development (ANZ) for EdTechTeam. He has been a teacher for 30 years, has taught in Australia and Canada, and presents at educational conferences around the world.

He is a Google Certified Innovator, Google Certified Trainer, Adobe Education Leader, and was awarded ICT Educator of the Year

by ICTENSW and ACCE. EdTechTeam is a global network of educational technologists, committed to improving the world’s education systems using the best learning principles and technologies. To find out more, or enquire about having EdTechTeam work with your school to provide quality professional development, visit www.edtechteam.com

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Funding Education Technology Research: Tips For Writing Research Grant Proposals | By Shelley Kinash |

Sometimes, money is required to investigate the questions educators would like answered about education technology.

Funding may also be required to achieve opportune impact.

At times, financial resources are required for both data collection and dissemination. For example, educators might wonder whether virtual reality derives equivalent educational impact for children and adults. They may require travel funding to observe and talk to learners in multiple contexts. They might discover that adults require personal hands-on evidence of the possibilities of virtual reality and, therefore, require funding to put on master classes.

The solution is to apply for research and grant funding.

However, research grant funding is highly competitive. The success rates of applications for Australian Government Office for Learning and Teaching Innovation and Development Grants, for example, range from nine to 15 percent. This article provides tips for writing proposals to increase the likelihood that grant proposals for education technology research are successful.

Three tips are listed and described for each of before, during and after the grant proposal. The tips regarding before the proposal concern the thinking and preparation that need to take place prior to writing the actual proposal document.

The next three tips concern success strategies to enact during proposal writing. The final three tips concern what happens when the first two sets of strategies have proven successful and the grant has been secured. These strategies are when the work truly begins. Carefully conducting the research will assure optimal impact.

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Nextstep The strategies presented here are not an exhaustive list. They are necessary, but not fully sufficient. Further experience and research about research, including through conversations with other successful grant recipients, will yield additional strategies.

Before Map the idea to the funding opportunity.

Educators may be reading this article because they have an idea for education technology research they would like to conduct and they need money for the project activities.

Sometimes, however, grant opportunities and research ideas turn out to be round holes and square pegs. The first question to ask is whether the idea and the grant opportunity fit together. They are seldom an exact fit. Usually, the researcher is required to shift and modify an idea somewhat until it works with the funderâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s expectations. Being stubborn about the particularities of the original concept will likely mean that the grant proposal is rejected. However, it is important that the researcher does not compromise to the extent that the proposed research does not have the original intended aims nor achieve the desired impact. In this case, the resulting proposal will likely ring as insincere and not be funded in any case. It will also be challenging to sustain the energy for the research if, for example, the researcher wanted to research blended learning and he was forced to research pure online learning.

Clearly identify what is non-negotiable and what can reasonably be adapted.

1

has already been established. It is a waste of time to reinvent the wheel, but there is always work that can be done on improving the metaphoric treads.

For example, it is well-established that there is no significant difference between the grades of students who attend live lectures versus watching online recorded lectures. However, there is research work to be done on how to equalise the impact of online (versus face-to-face) interactive classes such as tutorials and seminars. Literature reviews that assemble the results of previous empirical work on the chosen research topic make valid contributions to heightening understanding.

Literature review also provides evidence to the assessor panel that the applicant has read, thought about, applied and thereby values the research projects they have previously funded. It is likely that the reviewed studies will clearly articulate further questions and gaps, thus creating a clear pathway for the research.

3

Clearly articulate questions, aims, intended outcomes and likely impact.

The questions are what the researcher wonders about or what they want to know. The questions should be guided by what has already been established in the research area or domain. They should also be clearly articulated such that they can be answered by research.

During Highlight key themes in the call and mirror them in the proposal.

Carefully read the call for proposals multiple times, including with a highlighter in hand. Highlight key terms that are used multiple times in the call. What are the key themes, explicit and implicit beliefs, assumptions and interpretations? Ensure that identified headings are all used word for word and in the order presented. Abide by

1

The first question to ask is whether the idea and the grant opportunity fit together. They are seldom an exact fit.

2

Hunt and gather what has already been done.

This is a vital step in the research process that cannot be missed. Many researchers have thought that their idea was novel and groundbreaking only to discover (sometimes through feedback from an assessor panel) that the question has already been pursued and the results published. Researchers have an obligation to build upon what

the research. For example, a good practice guide, a journal paper, two conference publications and five case studies are a sample list of research outcomes from a large-scale research project. Impact is what the researcher can reasonably expect to transpire from his research project. Think about who will be impacted (for example, their students, students at other schools/ universities, teachers at their and other schools/universities) and over what timeframes (for example, upon project completion, six months after, one year after). Keep in mind that in most cases, significant impact occurs well after the funding period has concluded and the final research report has been submitted. Propose how the project team will disseminate the findings and sustain impact. Assessor panels look for clearly articulated questions, aims, intended outcomes and forecasted impact when short-listing proposals.

Aims are what the researcher intends to achieve through their research. Are they seeking to contribute new knowledge, or to apply what has previously been established in a different context, or is the goal to educate others as to implementation? Intended outcomes are deliverables or tangible results from

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the word limits for each section. Use the highlighted key words in the body of the proposal.

2

Design achievable project activities with a realistic matched budget.

Remember that the proposal also

3

Literature review also provides evidence to the assessor panel that the applicant has read, thought about, applied and thereby values the research projects they have previously funded.

serves as a contract with the funder. If the proposal is funded, the researcher will need to deliver on what has been proposed. The researcher should ensure that the project activities are doable within the timeframe and that the proposed budget is sufficient to address their needs. It is suggested that actual costs (such as researching flight and accommodation costs) are entered into a spreadsheet and then aggregated, providing the totals and budget rationale to the requested detail levels. There are particular considerations to watch for when conducting education technology research. For example, most funding bodies do not allow the purchase of hardware or software. Produced software and applications often need to be open-source and freely available, rather than commercial for-profit.

3

Proofread and edit multiple times and have the proposal peer reviewed.

It is highly recommended that the proposal be read by multiple people, numerous times, and be produced over as long a time period as possible.

Read with a purpose. Review numerous times for grammar and spelling.

Ensure that the in-text and endtext references align and that the designated referencing style has been perfectly applied. Critical friends who have had success with the particular funding body make excellent peer reviewers. They can read for resonance with the spirit of the call and context

of the funder. It is also useful to have a person from outside the discipline and beyond the immediate context read the proposal. Can a layman readily understand what has been written and does the proposal seem compelling to this reader?

After

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Track and report the outcomes and impact.

It is important to continue to track and write reports about the outcomes and impact even after the funding term has ended and the final report is submitted.

Turn analytics on for websites and other social media. Keep an electronic file of feedback and administer formal evaluation surveys when conducting workshops based on the research. Such data will serve as excellent evidence of the overall impact when applying for subsequent research grants.

2

Build relationships, networks and collegiality.

Find ways to represent the research, key findings and implications to others in ways that are approachable and compelling.

Have conversations with others about the research and recognise alignment with their research.

Continue to follow the research about the specific topic and track the overall impact. New colleagues may develop into future research partners. Even if a researcher does not plan to conduct further research, developing networks and disseminating findings will nurture impact.

Identify questions for further research.

Many researchers tend towards a disease called scope creep. They become so enthusiastic about their project activities that they can expand out of control. They start to include more research participants than they intended and from wider contexts.

Sometimes research projects grow to the point that they are untenable and cannot be completed within the allocated time. An antidote to scope creep is for a researcher to post the proposed aims and outcomes on their desktop and read them regularly.

Whenever the researcher is tempted to exceed them, articulate a question for further research. Why is it that they want to interview more people or in different contexts than proposed? What is it that they want to know? Writing down and sharing these questions will help a researcher shape further research that they may choose to undertake and/or guide the scope of otherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s proposals.

Conclusion Nine tips have now been assembled in the educatorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s research grant-writing tool belt, including tips and suggestions to apply before, during and after writing a proposal for a competitive grant to research education technology. The funding application advice boils down to three Ps of proposals â&#x20AC;&#x201C; preparation, persistence and perseverance. A little perspective (particularly humour) never hurts either. ETS

Dr Shelley Kinash is the Director of Learning and Teaching at Bond University. She can be contacted via email at skinash@bond.edu.au

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let’stalksoftware

, e c r e m m o C l a t Digi d n A s e i t i l a g e L

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, s s e n e r a w A t Copyrigh g n i e b l l e W e And Onlin | By Karen Bonanno | It is so much easier today to post, comment, download, purchase and more in an online world. However, there are pitfalls and users often forget to consider their actions and the legal implications in an electronic environment.

As automation, globalisation and collaboration (Foundation of Young Australians, 2015) influence the type of environment in which young people will work, there is a need to prepare them for life outside the school. These digital workers will need to be alert to their responsibilities when working in an online world.

Financial Literacy Young people are active players in the digital economy; 90 percent access online entertainment. A small percentage of them conduct banking and financial transactions online, but will experience a significant increase once they leave school (Raco, 2014). In their lifetime, they will engage in either outsourcing their creative talent or having multiple jobs. The concept of micro-job/micro-pay will be a very real experience for them.

With changing work environments and being able to have ready access to financial information, individuals are taking more responsibility for their financial decisions. Financial literacy is crucial to help ensure students understand the basics of financial, credit and debt management.

An objective of the school community is to help students make the right decisions and know how to take precautions when transacting online. Being aware of the advantages and disadvantages of buying and selling online, and conducting financial transactions digitally, is an important skill for young people.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has established a teaching section on its MoneySmart website to help teachers develop consumer and financial literacy capabilities in young Australians (https://www.moneysmart.gov.au/teaching/ teaching-resources). The teaching resources address primary and secondary schools and are matched to the Australian Curriculum.

StartSmart is an initiative of the Commonwealth Bank Foundation and is designed to help primary students develop money management skills and behaviours. Secondary students are introduced to more advanced concepts such as SmartEarning, SmartSaving, SmartSpending, SmartInvesting and SmartEnterprise (www.onemillionkids.com.au/making-it-happen/startsmart.html).

The makingcents site (http://www.makingcents.com.au/) also addresses the money management topic and provides resources for parents and primary school teachers. The content, resources and strategies have been matched to each state/territory curricula.

Digital Legalities and Copyright Awareness The issues of copyright and intellectual property rights are very real and any misuse, advertently or inadvertently, has serious consequences.

Take the Dallas Buyers Club lawsuit for example, where over 4,700 IP addresses where identified to have downloaded illicit copies of the movie and the owners of the illicit copies potentially faced receiving a letter of settlement from Voltage Pictures.

With tweens being active gamers and also being the biggest users of online entertainment, it is important for young people to develop awareness of the legal implications of their online actions and deeds.

If they damage other people’s work, identity or property online, then they could end up with criminal charges against their name. Misuse can permanently ruin their reputation.

These are just some of the offences that can cause long-term grief: • stealing or causing damage • hacking into other’s information • downloading illegal music and movies • plagiarism • creating worms, viruses or Trojan Horses • sending spam • sexting and child pornography.

Copyright and intellectual property These two topics are just as relevant today and have become even more complex with the inclusion of the digital environment. Teaching of these topics should not be left to librarians and teacher librarians, the traditional custodians of preserving information. As students are not only consumers but also creators of information, they need to understand and respect these legal parameters. They need to take the time to become familiar with the copyright restrictions that apply to the popular digital spaces and websites they access.

Copyright is an exclusive and legal right given to the original owner of a creative work for a fixed number of years which allows the owner to print, publish, perform, film and record literary, artistic or musical material. Intellectual property refers to creations of the mind. For example, it could be an invention, design, symbol, brand name and logo used in commerce.

An objective of the school community is to make students more aware of legal issues and responsibilities. When online, they need to know they can be held accountable for the way they use technologies.

An extremely useful site for digital legal responsibilities and copyright is the Common Sense Education K-12 Digital Citizenship EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS 057

let’stalksoftware

Curriculum (www.commonsensemedia. org/educators/curriculum). The lesson plans for all year levels help students to gain a better understanding of what copyright and intellectual property rights is about. They are provided with detailed explanations and examples of these elements in practice.

In addition, they begin to see that respect for people’s work is a two-way street, as they too are creators. Sensitive topics are introduced in the high school years to allow students to gain a deeper understanding of the legal and ethical considerations, and the impacts of the decisions they make.

Other useful websites include Smartcopying (http://www.smartcopying. edu.au/), which is an official guide to copyright issues for Australian schools.

It hosts copyright guidelines, fact and information sheets and notices that can be made available to students or displayed in relevant places, and educational resources such as PowerPoint presentations, surveys and courses. The Office of the Children’s eSafety Commissioner website (https:// esafety.gov.au/education-resources) hosts classroom resources that are relevant to primary and secondary classrooms. It also includes parent resources and school policies.

Online Wellbeing This topic addresses both the physical and psychological wellbeing of an individual in a digital world. One aspect that schools need to address, as well as educate the student on, is workplace health and safety issues around being online for long periods of time. These are some of the issues that can arise: • ergonomics • poor posture • carpal tunnel syndrome • muscle strains (neck, upper back, shoulders) • eye strain and irritation • watery or red, swollen eyes • double vision • decrease in ability to focus • headaches.

Another aspect that may be more challenging to address is technology addiction, which is when a person has a compulsive need to use digital devices, such as their phone, computer or video game. They are obsessed with the need to constantly be online. Warning signs of

addictive behaviour can be: • compulsive need to be online or have access to devices • forgetting to eat or sleep while gaming • loss of interest in activities other than gaming • spending hours in front of the computer without taking breaks • inability to leave a game in order to attend to daily tasks • poor performance at school or work due to gaming • increased communication and friendships with other gamers • irritability, depression or lethargy when not engaged in gaming or technology • wearing an adult diaper while gaming to prevent interrupted play. (Tyler, 2014) Other psychological aspects can manifest in engaging in undesirable or illegal behaviour and practice, such as exposure to violent and sexually violent online games, as well as sites promoting suicide, self-harm, eating disorders and drug/alcohol abuse.

An objective for the school community is to illustrate how students use technology and how much time they spend online.

They need to be made more aware of the issues related to technology use and how this can physically affect them. They have a long work life ahead and need to know how to work within an environment that may require them to be online for lengthy periods of time. In addition, by being aware of the dangers that accompany overuse of digital technologies, they can develop sensitivity as to what to look out for.

Take the time to visit the Common Sense Education K-12 Digital Citizenship Curriculum (2015) to review the lesson plans

on online wellbeing. A big emphasis on this site is about developing a strong self-image, good personal habits, responsible online identity, and a realistic view of the ups and downs of a digital life.

Curriculum Connections As students engage in learning activities that support the development of digital citizenship skills, it is possible to link these activities to the Australian Curriculum. The following matrix identifies some descriptors in digital technologies and general capabilities that connect with the topics presented in this article.

Teachers may not believe it is their responsibility to teach students about financial literacy, digital legalities and online wellbeing. However, to develop confident, intelligent and responsible digital citizens and prepare them for the future workforce, it is important to integrate these elements into the classroom and/or digital citizenship program of the school. ETS

Karen Bonanno lives online as an educator.

She is involved in planning and hosting webinars that cover primary and secondary education, with specific focus on innovative teaching and learning strategies, and resourcing as it applies to curriculum design and delivery. Teachers can attain their hours of professional learning in a virtual, stressfree environment. Visit eduwebinar.com.au for more information.

For a full list of references, email: admin@interactivemediasolutions.com.au

Curriculum/General Capabilities

Content Descriptors

Digital Technologies

Digital Systems, for example, year 5-6: investigate the main components of common digital systems, their basic functions and interactions, and how such digital systems may connect together to form networks to transmit data

ICT

Recognise intellectual property; apply digital information security practices; apply personal security protocols; identify the impacts of ICT in society; select and use hardware and software; understand ICT systems; manage digital data

Critical and Creative Thinking

Pose questions; identify and clarify information and ideas; seek solutions and put ideas into action; transfer knowledge into new contexts

Ethical Understanding

Recognise ethical concepts; explore ethical concepts in context; reason and make ethical decisions; consider consequences; reflect on ethical action; examine values; explore rights and responsibilities; consider points of view

Personal and Social

Become confident, resilient and adaptable; appreciate diverse perspectives; contribute to society; understand relationships; develop leadership skills

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Digital Leadership: Retraining The Aircraft Pilots Whilst The Plane Is In The Air!

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professionaldevelopment

| By Brian Host and Andrew Coote | A wise person once said to me, “Drop the program and look at the end goal, where do we want to see our students? What type of learners do we want them to become?

What type of world will they be walking into as adults?” Even though these questions are big, they helped to frame a discussion on digital leadership with my digital leader and Head of Junior School Andrew Coote.

Digital leadership needs to be deliberate and intentional, and linked to a vision or a strategy; it cannot be random and haphazard. However, this does not mean that a particular program will be the cure to all ills. Digital leadership empowers the use of ICT to support the creation of individualised learning for each student. The learning is the focus and technology is the tool. To this end, pedagogy can be identified as the starting point for building any quality form of digital leadership. It is the belt on which tools are hung. Technology should be a tool that is used to magnify or amplify the learning and to examine and analyse teaching.

As a leader, understanding how to sell vision is crucial, since teachers will often adopt ideas and new ways of doing things if they can see how it will benefit the educational outcomes of students and streamline their workload. Educators are empowered to choose the technology or resource that is best for the lesson and the learners, allowing the focus on the learner and not on the teacher.

When the authors implemented a bring your own device (BYOD) program at their school, a lot of thought went into the potential implications from both the teaching and learning perspectives. A decision was made to make the program voluntary, taking the pressure off teachers and students to have a device and being immediately able to use it efficiently and effectively. In doing so, there was larger ‘opt in’ because users could choose to get involved when they were ready. For some, that was day one and for others it took a few months, but by the end of the first year

more than 95 percent of the teachers and students were using their devices in multiple lessons on a daily basis. Over time, a culture grew that encouraged greater use of this technology to enhance the overall educational outcomes for students.

Examples of some of these include the use of online collaborative tools such as Google Apps for Education (GAFE) or Office 365, which opened up ways for students to present understandings through video creation or screencasting, or for teachers to move towards a more adaptive style of teaching using flipped resources. Having teachers see how learning improves and is manageable using a range of devices and technologies (document cameras, 3D printers, Lego technics) has given more weight to this cultural shift within the school.

In leading the change, it is essential to look at the value of change educationally.

In the past, many schools spent $40,000 fitting out a room full of computers, which may have looked good, but in reality many classes would have only seen them once a week. In the contemporary context, schools should look at the devices students bring within a BYOD program and question if they are contributing educational value, but from a parent’s perspective. In creating a culture that understands that teachers and students are all growing, the answer is “yes” as the devices students are bringing hold a vast portfolio of evidence of their learning.

It could then be suggested that increased educational return on devices, whether

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school-owned or BYOD, relates directly to the educational budgets allocated and the time devoted to professional development.

Professional learning essentially requires teachers to connect with the technology and embed it into the teaching and learning cycle. By utilising tools such as the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) framework and the Substitution Augmentation Modification Redefinition (SAMR) model, teachers develop programs of new learning that would not have been able to be achieved without the integrated technology and related applications. Michael Fullan states that there are links between new pedagogical changes, deep learning outcomes and the role of technology.

When practitioners look at the links between content, pedagogy and knowledge with the technology, they arrive at a nexus that brings insight together with new practices.

Therefore, it becomes much less about the device and much more about the learning that is happening within the classroom.

The authors’ school utilises flipped learning, adaptive learning and Positive Behaviour for Learning (PBL); they are great in that they focus on inquiry-based learning and collectively increase student engagement, but in and of themselves they are not an answer to the needs of students.

There is not a one-size-fits-all solution for students, nor one strategy that meets every students’ needs, and this is the same with approaches to technology integration.

A leadership team can set the bigger strategy and tone for digital leadership in the school, but teachers must be on board. Selling the idea and the direction in a non-threatening manner is paramount.

A leadership team can set the bigger strategy and tone for digital leadership in the school, but teachers must be on board.

Selling the idea and the direction in a nonthreatening manner is paramount. Where teachers are invited to explore and to get used to how technology might enhance and amplify teaching and learning in the classroom, success is more likely. Identifying and appointing teachers who will be the early adopters (pioneers) and who have a willingness to experiment as leaders, iterators, coaches or coordinators can be one of the single greatest advantages schools can have. That coach does not undertake the integration of technology for other teachers, but models and paces the process in a way that makes sense to their colleagues. In this fashion, the coach is the one who asks them to do it, but is also the one supporting both the successes and the mishaps. Teachers knowing that they can try and have the support to try again when it does not work find themselves taking on, as Carol Dweck frames it, a growth mindset.

In establishing a culture of experimentation, the digital leader is empowering an approach that seeks to find how the learning experience of students is changed through embracing the technologies that are such an integral part of their non-school lives. A culture of experimentation focuses on the questions, “Is it making a difference at the grassroots?

If it is not making a difference, why are we doing it?”

Having the coach embedded in their culture and seeing them on a daily basis allows others to fire a quick question when something is not working or they want to try something new. Informal before or after school or RFF coaching sessions also become commonplace, where coaches engage with teachers to support them to apply the skill they are working on. In the back of the coach’s mind is always the strategic direction laid down by school leadership and part of their role is to

Digital leadership needs to be deliberate and intentional, and linked to a vision or a strategy; it cannot be random and haphazard.

demonstrate how the skill the teacher is developing aligns with this.

When teachers begin to be more independent with technology, it then becomes the coach’s role to ask the question, “How do you see what you are doing with technology aligning with the key focus we have over the next two to three years?” George Couros proposes division is something to be avoided and dissipation of energy down sidetracks does not move schools towards adding value or improving student outcomes. Eric Sheningher points out that it is key for digital leaders to empower the conversation and stand behind it. By paying attention to where teachers are at, listening to them and having open lines of communication so that they can state what they need when they need it, school leaders are providing the best kind of digital leadership.

As digital leaders begin to equip teachers as individuals, they model what they expect for their students’ learning, individuals progressing at various rates and at a different pace. They also demonstrate respect by inviting teachers to grow technologically at a pace that is right for them. In similar ways for early adopters, this level of respect empowers opportunities that have a broader audience such as writing, running workshops at other schools

and conference presentations, sharing the successes and failures and how they were overcome. This spreads the knowledge base and allows new ideas to be brought back.

At the authors’ school, they are endeavouring to sharpen the focus to ‘anytime, anywhere learning’ and to do that in a way that is meaningful. The next step they are working towards is developing a constant feedback loop to parents using real-time digital portfolios so that there is a transparency in the teaching and learning process. This enhances how parents can collaborate and partner with the school. The final step of their focus is working towards a ‘school in the cloud’ where they can engage with other experts and classes, and share their expertise in an online context, and where students can contribute and collaborate with classes both nationally and internationally.

Digital leaders are essentially retraining their peers in teaching within a Key Learning Area from the way it has been done to both understanding and teaching the semiotics of multimodal texts ‘on the go’.

Fundamentally, they are retraining the aircraft pilots whilst the plane is in the air! ETS Brian Host is a passionate learner, classroom teacher and ICT learning coach. He is excited about the possibilities digital technologies offer both teachers and learners in making learning more meaningful, differentiated and individualised. He is currently studying his Masters of Educational Leadership.

Brian’s twitter handle is @hostbrian Andrew Coote is the current Head of Junior School at Inaburra School, Sydney, and has empowered leaders at schools in both Australia and in Asia. Andrew sits as the Academic Chair of IPSHA NSW and is in the final stages of completing his Doctor of Education with a focus on How Children Learn to Read Using Digital Devices. He can be followed on twitter @cooteandrew1

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Genius Hour in Your Classroom

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feature | By Jason Hosking |

What if you could learn about anything you wanted to? What are you interested in? What are you passionate about?

What do you want to tell the world? How are you going to change the world?

There are only three guidelines: 1. Research something.

2. Create something.

3. Share it.

Welcome to Genius Hour!

This is how educators around the globe have introduced Genius Hour to their classes. Suspense in the classroom has proven to create significant student buy in. So, what exactly is the concept of Genius Hour and what can it help develop in the learning life of a student?

While reading and planning for the coming year, I came across a number of American education blogs that were discussing Genius Hour. The idea that all students have ‘genius’ and they could share this with the world resonated powerfully. There are always individual students who are offered such opportunities. However, working towards an automated system and on a class scale was an exciting concept.

Research into the concept led to Chris Kesler’s blog, Genius Hour (www. geniushour.com). It included the most comprehensive and direct assistance to the questions of, “What is Genius Hour?” and “How can I implement it with my students?”

The concept of Genius Hour originated from Google’s practice of the 20% Time Project. Within their business model, Google built in an employee-led project and ideas time. In 2011, Katherine von Jan (www.huffingtonpost.com) spoke about this: “Google’s ‘20% Time’, inspired

by Sergey Brin’s and Larry Page’s Montessori School experience (www. ted.com/talks), is a philosophy and policy that every Google employee

spends 20 percent of their time (the equivalent of a full work day each week) working on ideas and projects that interest that employee. They are encouraged to explore anything other than their normal day-to-day job. As a result, 50 percent of all Google’s products by 2009 originated from the 20 percent free time, including Gmail.

Real break-through happens when we are free from others’ expectations and driven by individual passion.”

It was immediately apparent how this concept, very similar to the ‘passion project’ concept of many earlier educators, could take off in the right learning environment. The educational benefits and real-life applications were very clear. Genius Hour could provide a platform for students to develop their soft skills, or 21st century skills, that educators know they will need for their future.

Genius Hour is the education version of the 20% Time Project from Google.

Students are challenged to investigate and explore something in which they are interested. Teachers facilitate, through monitoring, to ensure that students are on task and are ready to teach skills as students realise the need for the specific skill. “Deadlines are limited and creativity is encouraged (Kesler, 2013).” Once completed, students share their created task with their chosen audience.

Regardless of age, the skills that can be developed in students include: • questioning • research and reporting • persistence • resilience • collaboration • creativity • global awareness.

The benefits to teachers include: • It is immediately a differentiated teaching program that caters for all

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learners and learning styles.

• It engages students.

• It results in an engaged learning community, with experts within schools and from outside.

• Students are keen to learn skills, not process.

Introducing the Learning Community to Genius Hour The benefit of Genius Hour is that it can work in any setting. Implementation is possible within a single classroom, in a stage, or into a whole school. As busy educators, time is a key factor in the implementation process for any new initiative. It is about time spent well.

To begin the journey, it is important for teachers to do their own reading around the possibilities of Genius Hour.

This will get them passionate about the possibilities in their setting. Secondly, they need to timetable 45 minutes to one hour into their busy schedule.

Thirdly, teachers need to consider how they wish to monitor and manage the project. Finally, consideration needs to be given as to how Genius Hour will be launched in their chosen setting.

Teachers should focus their time on the biggest areas of impact. Time should be used to design the tracking process of the projects. A Google Doc and Google Classroom can become the hub of Genius Hour time. The Google Doc provides one place where all the research questions are shared.

Any member of the learning community can go in and see what another person is working on. This allows the class to support each other. Students may have knowledge or skill linked to others’ research. Some students may even have connections with industry.

These virtual spaces also allow for ‘experts in the room’. Teachers, parents, heads of school and the principal can be connected, enabling them to not only see what is happening in the

EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS 067

feature classroom but to also participate in the learning. They can ask questions or be asked questions to broaden the research base and real-life experience.

This is when the impact of the students’ work can become evident, and the audience can be an active factor in their learning.

Justifying the one hour of time from a crowded timetable is a daunting concept. However, Genius Hour can be justified through many learning areas.

The English curriculum is met as students learn and develop their research skills.

There will be informal and, in many cases, formal texts produced. It requires responses to reading, thinking critically and creatively, and the create phase requires self expression. Each of the students’ questions could be linked to other Key Learning Areas. The life skills developed through this process are hard to ignore; development of a love for learning, encouraging a ‘growth mindset’, self-worth, personal interest, collaboration questioning, and the list goes on.

These are the skills that employers are looking for in future employees. Suzan Adams (2014), a writer for Forbes, led her article The 10 Skills Employers want Most in 2015 Graduates with, “Can you work well on a team, make decisions and solve problems? Those are the skills employers most want when they are deciding which new college graduates to hire.” It is the desire of educators to prepare students to be successful and productive members of their future.

These skills should start to be developed as young as possible. Learning through play is important to develop social skills; team sports allow for goal setting both personally and as a part of the whole.

Genius Hour can provide a vehicle for the 21st century skills to be developed, giving students the opportunity to see the need and value of this skill set.

Finally, teachers should consider the marketing of the Genius Hour brand in their setting. Get students excited and engaged before they even know what is coming. Consider using the image of a light bulb as the catalyst, placing

The educational benefits and real-life applications were very clear. Genius Hour could provide a platform for students to develop their soft skills, or 21st century skills, that educators know they will need for their future.

these around the classroom and the school a week out from telling anyone what it is about. A couple of days before the launch, add the words ‘Genius Hour is coming!’. Students will talk and ask questions about it and, by launch day, the only thing they will want to know is, “What is Genius Hour?” This marketing process will only take 20 minutes in total, but will have students ready and willing to listen.

Success Story James Watt, a Year 4 student at Inaburra School, was set the challenge of Genius

Hour and he was immediately hooked.

James has dyslexia and finds many of the everyday structures of school more challenging because of his “learning difference”, as described by James. He chose to research the question, “How can I tell the world about dyslexia from kids’ perspective?” What eventuated from this young man’s quest to tell the world about something so personal will be an inspiration to his learning community for a long time. He created a powerful and thought-provoking clip and then entered the online Genius Hour Fair, developed and facilitated by Melbourne-based educator Eleni Kyritsis.

This gave James the global forum to share his message. James’ impact on children and adults around the world was seen through the comments left for his presentation. He also received awards for both Outstanding Question and Most Votes for the 2015 competition.

James’s experience is just one Genius Hour success story.

Now it is your turn. If you are keen to see students engaged, grow their love of learning, have great questions asked and develop a learning community that is keen to support your students, then set the three guidelines: 1. Research something.

2. Create something.

3. Share it.

Welcome to Genius Hour!

ETS

For a full list of references, email: admin@interactivemediasolutions.com.au

Justifying the one hour of time from a crowded timetable is a daunting concept. However, Genius Hour can be justified through many learning areas… Each of the students’ questions could be linked to other Key Learning Areas.

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Jason Hosking is an Australian-based primary school classroom educator and Stage Coordinator. He is passionate about facilitating learning for all students to reach their potential and encourages students to explore what their potential is and not let others decide what they can achieve. Jason believes that educators must share ideas using their global networks to enhance and innovate the teaching profession for the benefit of learning that can then happen in the classroom. Jason can be contacted via Twitter @HoskingJason

EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS 069

teachingtools

The Benefits Of

Coaching

In The Classroom | By Stacey Ashley | Coaching is recognised as one of the most effective ways to bring out the best in people, to develop talents and strengths, and to nurture learning. It is a powerful technique of listening and questioning that provides a myriad of benefits on many levels, whether it is in a large corporate environment, a small business or within a classroom. The following outlines the key benefits of coaching.

• It has been proved that coaching improves retention of learning and also offers opportunities to talk about what has been learned from an experience or situation. As a result, this learning can then be applied to action. For example, if a student is not making progress with a piece of work or an activity, it would be beneficial to ask them, “What do you already know that might help you resolve this problem with this task?” Another good question is, “What strategies have you learned recently that you could apply in this situation?”

070 EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS

• Everyone likes to feel heard and listening without judgement is one of the greatest gifts anyone can provide someone else. Research (iOpener Institute) has shown that for adults in the workplace, the single most important factor contributing to their happiness at work – their ability to maintain a positive mindset – is whether they feel listened to. More than likely, this is exactly the same for children.

Students with a positive mindset will have all of their resources, strengths and knowledge available to support their learning.

• Coaching creates a common approach to working together on activities and solving problems. Great questions and listening also encourages teamwork and motivates students to work together. This approach also provides opportunities for them to learn from each other and develop the skills of collaboration and knowledge sharing.

For example, if during an activity a student becomes unsure how

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teachingtools

Coaching is recognised as one of the most effective ways to bring out the best in people, to develop talents and strengths, and to nurture learning. to proceed, or simply cannot remember how to do an activity, a teacher might ask, “Who can help you with this?” or “Who would you like to work with to solve this problem?” or even, “What else might help you to work through this activity?”

• A coaching approach offers opportunities for students to make great choices and decisions for themselves, creating personal responsibility and accountability. When faced with a teacher suggesting or telling them what to do versus them making their own choice about a course of action or decision, students are far more likely to follow through their own choice than the one the teacher has made for them. By expecting them to make a good choice or decision, teachers are also demonstrating to students that they have placed great trust in them to do what is right for them – someone believes in them.

• Another great application of a coaching approach in the classroom is in setting clear and agreed goals, whether this is between teacher and student, within student peer groups or students setting goals for themselves. By having students participate in the goal-setting process (rather than the teacher setting the goals for them), they are also increasingly likely to contribute to the achievement of the end goal. As a teacher, it can also provide great insight into what is important to the student and areas where he or she may have concerns or expectations.

• Using a coaching approach in the classroom also assists students to develop resourcefulness and resilience, particularly in stressful situations. By using a supportive and coaching approach, students will learn to focus on what they ‘can do’ rather than ‘what they cannot do’. In doing so, they will also learn to cope and learn new skills. Even in those instances when a student fails to meet a goal or complete a task, a teacher can use a coaching approach to ask questions such as, “What did you learn from this that you can use

next time?” thus creating opportunities for learning and development.

• In following a teacher’s approach and role modelling, students will also develop their own coaching skills; in particular, how to bring out the best in themselves and the people around them. As a coach and a mum, one of my favourite times of day is when I pick up my children from school and they ask me, “Mum, what great things did you do today?”

Even if a teacher is not a trained coach, here are a few ways to use coaching questioning and listening techniques to change the style of conversations in the classroom: 1. Next time a student is challenged or feeling frustrated by a set task or activity, try using a simple coaching approach like the GROW model. This model will help the student to find his or her own way forward.

cannot do. The objective of a reframe is to shift their mindset into a more resourceful one, one that supports them, allowing them to take ownership of the situation and to take some action. It also encourages them to feel more empowered in situations where they may have felt a lack of control.

The GROW model is as follows: • G is for Goal • R is for Reality • O is for Options • W is for Way Forward

Stacey Ashley is passionate about leading and facilitating great change, enabling people to be their best, to become true leaders, and create extraordinary results for themselves and their organisations. To find out more about Stacey, visit: www.ashleyconsulting.com.au

A teacher’s role is to simply ask good questions, which will encourage the student to be resourceful and look for options and opportunities for themselves and the people around them. Good questioning techniques include: • G What would you like to achieve? Or what would you like to happen?

• R What is happening now?

• O What options do you have to move just one step forward?

• W What will you actually do?

2. Another great way to help students become more resourceful is the technique of reframing. For example, if a teacher hears a student saying something like, “This is too hard”, or “I cannot do this” ask them a simple open question such as, “How can you make it easier?” or “What can you do?” The aim here is to have students focus on what they can do rather than what they

072 EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS

Examples of good reframing statements: • What can you do right now?

• How can you help/change the situation?

• What one thing can you finish/change/ start/fix today?

• What is one little step you can take right now?

In conclusion, combined with the many other training methods available today, coaching can make a huge contribution to the improvement of people’s performance and productivity – whatever their age! ETS

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getconnected 074 EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS

Using Online Study To Get Ahead In The Real World

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getconnected

| By Sheena O’Hare | With everyone’s lives already so fused to the online world, it is not surprising to learn that 44 percent of 5.1 million current Australian jobs are at risk from digital technologies in the next 20 years (PricewaterhouseCoopers, 2015).

The education sector is under enormous pressure to advance in step with technology to ensure that students are equipped with the right skills to thrive in this technology-driven environment.

A recent report released by the Australian Higher Education Industrial Association revealed the impact external factors such as digital disruption will have on universities in the next 10 –20 years. One key finding was the clear disconnect being felt by students between what is being taught at universities and what is going to be useful in the workforce.

Online universities, such as Swinburne Online, are working hard to bridge this gap by placing an intense focus on teaching workplace skills alongside the academic content of their degree courses.

Driven by Demand Students are increasingly demanding authentic learning opportunities where they have real-world experiences and problem-solving scenarios. Due to work commitments, the desire to travel or family responsibilities, many students do not want a rigid timetable or the expectation of physical attendance.

They still want access to quality teaching and the ability to make connections with others, but this is now expected to be on their terms and timeframes. With so many processes in everyone’s day-to-day lives now taking place online, when students face outdated administrative barriers that threaten to slow down or block their access to education, they become frustrated. Online education works hard to remove these administrative barriers so that students only have to worry about achieving their goals. The ability to study anywhere at any time

without commuting, struggling with administrative processes or spending a fortune on study materials is, not surprisingly, becoming more appealing to the modern student.

Advantages of Digital Literacy Today’s world is a digital world, one in which it is difficult to function without basic technological skills. Children spend a large amount of their time on computers or tablets both at school and at home and these days anyone under 30 struggles to remember a time without computers, mobiles and 24/7 connectivity.

Digital literacy allows people to interact with the world around them.

It facilitates 24/7 interaction and communication with friends, family and work even after they have left the school ground or office for the day. Online education provides a range of opportunities for students to make sense of the wealth of information that is available while also, almost subconsciously, learning to use technology effectively and appropriately. Students are able to engage with multimedia to read and interpret text in ways that allow them to construct their own meaning. They are encouraged to work with their peers to interact, discuss and share in order to build on their knowledge.

They are encouraged to come to an understanding that all people are constructors of meaning and they do that much better and more successfully when they work together.

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The majority of today’s students are digital natives and as a result most of them can easily use the Internet to find resources, videos, podcasts and presentations on any subject matter.

However, what they do need help with is in differentiating the valid online resources and discovering how to best make use of the information.

University 2.0 The rapid pace of technological change is felt by everyone. Every couple of years, phones and computers outdate, and most people are reluctant to get left behind using an old operating system. A recent study by PricewaterhouseCoopers, highlighting the characteristics of the newest generation of workers, revealed that 41 percent of those surveyed said that they would rather communicate electronically than face-to-face or over the phone. This millennial generation expects that the technology they use on a daily basis to enhance their personal lives is mirrored in both an educational and workplace context. Their affinity with the digital world, having grown up with smartphones, broadband and social networking, has resulted in a demand and expectation of instant access to information. In order to stay relevant and useful to this iGeneration, universities need to consider planning for resources that are needed in the dynamic demands of higher education.

Studying online, however, certainly

… many students do not want a rigid timetable or the expectation of physical attendance. They still want access to quality teaching and the ability to make connections with others, but this is now expected to be on their terms and timeframes.

The ability to study anywhere at any time without commuting, struggling with administrative processes or spending a fortune on study materials is, not surprisingly, becoming more appealing to the modern student.

does not mean studying alone.

Students still need constant support, the ability to collaborate with peers and regular feedback. Swinburne Online students have access to support from liaison officers and learning advisors every day of the week. Collaborative learning is an important part of the curriculum, with students teaming up with online discussion boards and social networking platforms.

The Global Office The traditional post-school trajectory of people studying in their 20s and working in the same career until retiring in their 60s is largely outdated.

The Foundation for Young Australians predicts that today’s young people will hold as many as 17 different jobs, in five different careers, over the course of their working lives. A larger number of students and graduates are keen to study and/or work overseas and, in response, the workplace itself is evolving to cater to a progressively mobile population. In this increasingly globalised world, online learning can help prepare students to excel in today’s virtual office. While it can take time for students to adapt to a more independent learning style, fitting study hours around work, family or travel, the likelihood is that this ability to self-motivate will pay dividends well into their working careers.

Teaching the Teachers It is predicted that by 2030, over 5 million jobs will disappear due to technological advances (CEDA, 2015).

On the flipside, many new jobs will be created. The students of today must acquire skills needed for the future, and teachers are a crucial part of navigating this new kind of industrial revolution.

In working with primary education students, it is evident that the skills they develop will allow them to motivate children in their learning through technology, cater for a range of learning styles and enable their school students to be creative and reflective.

If teachers are not confident in the use of technology, they will not use it in their classrooms. These are the skills that principals are looking for in their teaching staff. Acquiring these skills is not only crucial for the career prospects of teachers, it is also crucial for the students they will be teaching, for the jobs they will be doing that do not yet even exist.

While all sectors are under immense pressure to keep up with technological advancements, the education sector simply must stay ahead of the curve.

After all, educators are the ones teaching the future teachers and educating a future workforce that will look very different from the workforce today. ETS

For a full list of references, email: admin@interactivemediasolutions.com.au Sheena O’Hare is responsible for delivering Swinburne Online’s range of Education degrees. She has been teaching and researching in the education profession for over 30 years in Scotland and different states of Australia. She obtained her PhD investigating the online interaction of teachers and students within a preservice teacher program.

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SpecialFeature 078 EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS

Inspiring Students And Teachers With STEM: Resources For Your Classroom

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SpecialFeature

| By Annabel Astbury |

My son started Year 9 in February. Let me say up front: while he is a good lad, he certainly seems to be displaying the characteristic charms of a Year 9 boy.

After a leisurely break at the beach, and many, many hours playing Fallout 4 and a smattering of age-inappropriate games, my son lamented two days before the start of term, “Why do I have to go to school? I can learn all the stuff they teach me on YouTube.” It was a fair question and, at risk of alienating him, I bumbled through an appropriately benign response that highlighted socialisation and so on.

Three weeks into term one and my reluctant scholar has been happy to talk about his school life once a week with me. He is enjoying the new “strict but fun” English teacher as they look at Animal Farm and has learnt that “French is a completely different language that I have no idea about” (yes, he really said this) and (a surprise turn) told me, “I cannot believe how good the IT elective is; it is the best.” This last comment is particularly telling, because it comes from a student who needs a lot of support with maths and has had little interest in science at school.

The IT elective is focused on robotics and a very popular plastic modular brick product that introduces students to coding and robotics. His enthusiasm is not for the science or technology content per se, but the act of creation.

The course seems to marry science, technology, engineering and robotics – it is a nice introduction to the disciplines.

Students respond well to it because it addresses real-world problems and, in doing so, students are using skills that future employers will expect them to have.

The Federal Government’s National Innovation and Science Agenda recognises that Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) skills will be essential for students’ futures, with an estimated 75 percent

of future jobs in the fastest growing industries requiring skills and expertise in the areas of science, technology, engineering and maths.

In their implementation of the Australian Curriculum, some schools are taking STEM skills very seriously and integrating this area as an essential part of their own curricula. This is where teachers see students taking on robotics projects, building bridges from pasta, even restoring an old car – all projects which require STEM skills.

While every school may not be on the good ship STEM, it is certainly not because of a lack of resources. In Australia alone, there are hundreds of activities, competitions, groups and initiatives that can help support teachers and students in these areas. Many of these are outlined in the Chief Scientist’s STEM Programme Index 2016 (http:// www.chiefscientist.gov.au/2016/01/spi2016-stem-programme-index-2016-2/).

ABC Splash has launched its very own STEM hub where they will be adding resources each month to help teachers and students get excited about STEM (www.splash.abc.net.au/stem).

Teachers can search by year level and popular STEM topics, including coding, robotics, engineering, nanotechnology, construction and careers.

For teachers who do not know where to start, here are some of the content highlights on the Splash STEM hub: 1. Hour of Code activities The Hour of Code is the place to kick off for teachers who are unsure of where to start with coding. It is a worldwide movement to get kids, parents, teachers – everyone! – coding, even if it is just for one hour. Splash has some great videos with Hour of Code activities, as well as students from Australian classrooms telling why they enjoy being part of the initiative. To get started, have a look at ‘Why every day should be Hour of Code’ then http://splash.abc.net.au/home#!/

080 EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS

m e d i a/16 0 89 9 0/eve r y - d a y - h o u r- ofcode-day and get students coding with a beginner activity (http://splash.abc. net.au/home#!/media/1618065/hour-ofcode-graph-paper-programming) that does not require a computer.

2. Robotics From mechanical hands to drones to drawing robots, Splash has built up quite an arsenal of robotics resources.

Teachers who are just entering the world of robotics might find it useful to check out the resources on teaching robotics (http://splash.abc.net.au/ h o m e # !/m e d i a/14 6 0 3 2 8/ te a c h i n g robotics-with-rita-trovato), starting a robotics club (http://splash.abc.net. au/home#!/media/1460240/roboticsclub-with-geoff-shuetrim) or getting girls into robotics (http://splash.abc.net. au/home#!/media/1460350/teachingrobotics-with-shirleen-sharma). Splash has also created a series of interviews with University of New South Wales students who explain how they can get robots to play soccer and how they developed a world-class robotic soccer team! (http://splash.abc.net.au/ home#!/media/2131900/telling-robotswhat-to-do)

3. Design solutions An integral part of the Digital Technologies curriculum is the concept of â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;design solutionsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. It is important for students to be able to design solutions to problems using technology. The range of contemporary resources in the design solutions section of the Splash STEM hub explores topics such as how 3D printing is providing solutions to the medical industry (http://splash. abc.net.au/home #!/media/20 614 47/ creating-a-new-ankle-with-3d-printingtechnology) and how solutions have been designed to help predict how a bushfire might spread (http://splash. a bc.net.au/home #!/med ia/216 3917/ s p a r k- a - b et te r- wa y-to - p re d i ct-t h e spread-of-bushfires).

4. Engineering For some fun, practical engineering activities, check out the engineering section, where students can watch an experiment that examines how the shape of an object can affect its

strength (http://splash.abc.net.au/ home#!/media/30429/building-withdifferent-shapes), get some inspiration to build their own structure and learn more about Ancient Egypt. Have a look at this student experiment that explains how ancient Egyptians moved and lifted the huge stones in the construction of pyramids (http://splash. abc.net.au/home#!/media/1226531/ ra m p i n g - i t - u p - e g y pt i a n - py ra m i d style).

5. Careers A career in STEM is not just about being an engineer or a scientist. It is about taking a passion and marrying it with the skills that the STEM learning area provides. The Splash hub has loads of examples to share with students, like a jeweller who designs jewellery to help people with health issues in times of crisis (http://splash.abc.net. au/home#!/media/1604084/leah-heiss) or a games designer who uses maths

and a passion for games to bring joy to kids around the world (http://splash. abc.net.au/home #!/media/160 410 6/ games-designer-and-developer). Think fashion is just about drawing designs and making clothes? Learn how these creatives need maths to make sure their designs work (http://splash.abc.net.au/ home#!/media/21824 06/yes-fashion designers-need-maths-skills).

The collection of STEM resources will be added to each month and do not forget to watch out for some of the cool STEM competitions that will set various challenges to keep students excited about the areas of science, technology, engineering and maths. For a once-aterm email update on STEM resources on Splash, sign up at splash.abc.net.au/ stem. There is plenty to inspire teachers and students to make, create, solve and learn. ETS Annabel Astbury is Head of Digital Education at the ABC.

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spotlight

The American School In Japan Relies On Parallels Desktop Business Edition For Its MacOnly Environment Operational Situation Summary

in Chofu and an Early Learning Center in

information technology tools empowers them

• A seven-person IT team supports more

Roppongi, Tokyo. With more than 150 staff,

to be more imaginative and helps them make

than 1,500 machines in a school that uses

the school offers diverse curricular and co-

smart choices.

Apple devices almost exclusively.

curricular programs.

• Some staff in the technology,

All students from grade 6 to grade 12

ASIJ is a member of the National Association

bring in their own Apple MacBook Pro and

communications and administrative

of Independent Schools and is fully accredited

MacBook Air computers and all grade 2 to

departments use iMac devices

by the Western Association of Schools and

grade 5 students bring their own iPad devices.

and are required to access several key

Colleges. Around three-quarters of graduates

Even pre-schoolers use an iPad. Most faculty

Windows-only applications from

matriculate at colleges in the US, with most

members use MacBook Pro and iMac devices;

Blackbaud for the administration and

of the remaining quarter matriculating in

a few accounting staffers only run Windows

fundraising database.

Canada, the UK, Australia and Japan.

PCs, largely for legacy application reasons.

Notable

alumni

include

former

US

Solutions Summary

Ambassador to Japan Edwin Reischauer,

Challenges

• The American School in Japan (ASIJ)

Academy

ASIJ

deployed Parallels Desktop for Mac

Fontaine, and president and CEO of Sony

driven institution, but around 40 technical,

Business Edition on the iMac devices of

Corporation Kaz Hirai.

communications and secretarial staff using

more than 40 staff.

Award–winning

actress

Joan

iMac

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devices

a

predominantly

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several

Mac-

key

• The Parallels environment is wire-based

Computing Environment

Windows-based applications from Blackbaud

and separate from the school’s wireless

ASIJ has long been an early adopter of

that are a gold standard for schools and non-

Internet network to reinforce security.

information technology as a vital learning tool.

profit organisations. One of those users is Matt

The school first deployed personal computers

Wilce, the school’s director of communications

Benefits Summary

in the mid-1980s. It was one of the first schools

and annual support.

• Staff members find using Parallels simple

in Japan to hook up to the Internet, as part of

a Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) pilot

colleagues

program in the early 1990s.

(EE), used for ASIJ’s student information

and seamless.

• The school saves around US$24,000

every three years from not having to buy

Wintel hardware.

The

Blackbaud run

applications

include

he

Education

and Edge

ASIJ is virtually a Macintosh-run institution

database. This software handles all aspects of

with a wireless environment running on an

administration, from admissions, attendance

• The IT team finds it easy to manage the

open network, making it easy for students to

and schedule data to health information, bus

Parallels licences and likes being

go directly online. It has about 40 staff using

assignments and co-curricular data. Another

able to experiment with different

business-critical Windows administrative and

Windows

virtual machines.

database applications through a separate,

ASIJ runs is Raiser’s Edge (RE), a relationship

wire-based Parallels environment that ensures

management database, which the school

everything ‘just works’.

uses for handling current family and alumni

Parallels Products Used • Parallels Desktop for Mac Business Edition.

According to Josh Raub, manager of IT services at ASIJ, the school took that approach

offering

from

Blackbaud

that

records, event registrations and fundraising data.

Established in 1902, ASIJ is one of the world’s

because it is highly committed to working with

leading international schools, with about 1,535

students through its Digital Citizenship Program.

NetCommunity content management system,

students from 40 countries at its main campus

It believes that giving students access to

which can pull information directly from both EE

084 EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS

ASIJ’s

website

uses

Blackbaud’s

Unless otherwise expressly stated, the review of the product or products appearing in this section represent the opinions of the relevant advertiser and do not represent the views or opinions of Interactive Media Solutions or the other advertisers or contributors to this publication.

and RE. Surveys and mass emails to constituents are sent through the web interface, which connects

to

the

Blackbaud

databases.

Raub says that because Blackbaud is very integrated with the Microsoft technology stack, it is unlikely that Mac versions of the software will come out any time soon.

Solutions Although recognising the importance of the Windows platform for its staff’s use, ASIJ was also keen to avoid the clutter and the additional

cost

associated

with

running

and maintaining dual machines just to

port is connected,” said Raub. “That is a great

accommodate Blackbaud.

feature because the two networks are not

Although quality, rather than raw cost, was

ASIJ chose Parallels Desktop for Mac

touching each other, as we do not want the

the overriding factor in choosing Parallels,

Business Edition for its staff accessing EE and

internal network to be accessible outside. We

Raub notes that Parallels saves ASIJ around

RE because their work requires them to switch

keep things seamless so people do not really

US$24,000 every three years in hardware

between OS X and Windows frequently. “Boot

know they are running two systems – Parallels

spending alone. But the other significant

Camp would have been impractical in that

Desktop for Mac Business Edition makes that

savings have been in time and frustration.

respect because of the reboot times,” said

happen.”

“Parallels provides a nice, seamless experience

Raub. “We also looked into VMware but found

Blackbaud users amongst his colleagues.

without us users having to know what is going

Parallels easier to understand. We also liked

Results

that we could configure it the way we needed

As one of the staff who constantly uses

“We have been able to streamline a key part

and the quality is better; systems could run

Blackbaud applications, Wilce loves the ease

of the school administration because Parallels

faster. Parallels integrated better with OS X.”

on in the background,” added Wilce.

that Parallels has provided. “In the old days,

allows Windows to just get out of the way. And

Just as students get direct access to the

I used to have two computers, the Mac for

Parallels Desktop Business Edition has made it

Internet through the wireless network, the IT

design and communications and a PC for

easy for the IT team to manage licences and

team configured the system to enable iMac-

accessing constituent information. I would

upgrades. We can play with different VMs and

equipped staff to work wirelessly on the OS X

tend to avoid using the PC to access the

tweak them. Then all we have to do is copy

platform, but go through a separate, wired

database and resort to calling out to someone

the VM file to a new machine; we do not

internal network when using Windows with

to provide the information. That is because

have to worry about the settings. It just works

the Parallels virtual machine (VM) for the

having to start up and log in just to look up a

because Parallels takes care of drivers and

Blackbaud database.

quick query was such a pain that I never did

configuration,” concluded Raub.

“One of the things we like about Parallels is

it,” he said. “Parallels makes your workflow so

that we have it set up so the Ethernet port is off

much easier because you are not switching

Please contact Kevin Greely at kgreely@

for Mac OS X with the iMac – to their Mac, it

devices. That has made a big difference to

parallels.com if you’re interested to try Parallels

does not exist – but within Parallels the Ethernet

me.” His experience is echoed by the other

Desktop for Mac Business Edition.

EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS 085

showcases HISY Bluetooth Camera Remote Now you can capture every moment in its entirety with the HISY app-free wireless camera remote for your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch. Connect the remote to your iOS device via Bluetooth in seconds and start shooting photos from a distance. Whether it is a team photo or an in-class activity that requires everyone within the frame, or an attempt at achieving a difficult angle to show your surroundings, HISY enables you to see the bigger picture with video and photo compatibility.

HISY is easy to use. Simply connect the HISY device via Bluetooth, place your iOS device where you want it and start snapping pictures or video. There is no app to download, so once you connect, you can start snapping. With a range of up to 27.4 metres, the HISY remote lets you focus on the bigger picture.

Capture moments in their entirety with the simple click of a button.

The HISY remote comes in a variety of colours to match your personal style. And it is small enough to fit alongside your iPhone in your pocket, so it is always ready for action.

HISY is distributed in Australia by the same people that bring you Swivl.

Visit www.aptech.com.au for more information.

Acer C730 Chromebook You cannot deny that Chromebooks are coming and they are a force to be reckoned with. For schools that are considering integrating them as part of their 1-to-1 program, the offering from Acer is a good one because it is reportedly much faster for surfing the Web than any Windows computer. The battery life is particularly good and Chrome is virtually virus-free, which is a definite advantage, even if it means only being able to install Google software. Granted, it is a bit of a paradigm shift for schools that are not prepared to look at anything other than a traditional laptop computing experience; however, it is recommended they look at the schools that have rolled them out successfully before making a decision.

Another feature worth noting is the full-sized HDMI port at the rear of the Chromebook â&#x20AC;&#x201C; the HDMI cable will be out of the way when teachers or students want to use the Chromebook as a desktop device while plugged in to a monitor. Also, since it is a full-sized port, an adapter is not needed; just plug in a regular HDMI cable.

Visit buyitonline.computelec.com.au to get a deal that is designed for schools on a website that is for schools only.

086 EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS

Unless otherwise expressly stated, the review of the product or products appearing in this section represent the opinions of the Editor or relevant editorial staff member assigned to this publication and do not represent the views or opinions of Interactive Media Solutions or the advertisers or other contributors to this publication.

+ MANAGEMENT BUNDLE FOR WINDOWS Centralised cloud-based control that saves you time

What could you do with the Bundle?  Manage all device features and

 Confidently delegate with one-click, temporary templates

controls from anywhere  Start secure testing zones in a click

 Report on user activity

 Easily push content to student

 Get single sign-on to Office 365  Make device deployment and user

devices  Manage Win, iOS, MacOS, Chrome OS and Android from a single spot  Monitor student class activity in real time

management simple  Filter devices wherever they go  Save time with solutions and an intuitive interface

And a lot more...

lightspeedsystems.com/mb

EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS 087

showcases JetDrive Go 300 Running out of storage space on your iPhone or iPad? Transcend’s JetDrive Go 300 Lightning/USB 3.1 flash drive is designed to expand your iPhone, iPad or iPod storage by up to 64GB. With the exclusive JetDrive Go app, you can effortlessly explore, move, backup and manage photos and videos between the JetDrive Go 300 and your iOS device.

Exclusively designed for the JetDrive Go 300, the JetDrive Go app features an intuitive interface that allows you to quickly browse, move and copy your photos and videos between the camera roll and the JetDrive Go 300 in a few taps.

Discover a new way to share photos without limitations. With the JetDrive Go 300, you can copy every precious photo and video to one place. Give it to your friends, so they can browse and copy files without having to connect to mobile Internet.

Dual connectors mean double convenience. The JetDrive Go 300 combines a Lightning connector and a regular USB 3.1 (Gen 1) into a flash drive, providing you an ultra-convenient way to backup and transfer files among iOS devices, Mac computers, PCs and laptops. Equipped with a SuperSpeed USB 3.1 (Gen 1) interface, the JetDrive Go 300 has incredible transfer speeds of up to 130MB/s, allowing you to transfer an entire 4GB high definition

Google JetDrive Go 300 Australia to find your nearest distributor.

movie in only 28 seconds.

Lenovo ThinkPad 10 Here is a versatile Windows 10.1-inch tablet that is great for athome and on-the-go use, as well as for delivering productivity in the classroom. Use the ThinkPad 10 with the ThinkPad Tablet Dock or Ultrabook Keyboard for full PC capability and enjoy a complete ecosystem of options, including a digitiser pen and 4G LTE. Constructed from premium aluminium with Gorilla glass to protect its ten-inch, full high definition vivid display, the ThinkPad 10 tablet delivers a premium mobile experience with enhanced productivity capability in a purposeful lightweight design. Users can be creative with four flexible modes – tablet, stand, laptop and desktop. When connected to the optional ThinkPad Tablet Dock or USB3.0 docking station, teachers can add an external display, mouse, and either the Compact Bluetooth keyboard or the ThinkPad 10 Ultrabook full-sized keyboard, to easily transition from a highly mobile tablet to a resourceful classroom device.

Core), 2M Cache (up to 2.39 GHz), Windows 8.1 64bit with BING MS

The Quickshot cover also makes taking photos a breeze – a

Office Home and Student (1 year), pen and digitizer, and a one-

quick flip of the cover that protects the eight megapixel camera

year warranty.

launches the app automatically.

ThinkPad 10 comes with an Intel Atom Processor Z3795 (Quad

088 EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS

Visit buyitonline.computelec.com.au for more information.

Unless otherwise expressly stated, the review of the product or products appearing in this section represent the opinions of the Editor or relevant editorial staff member assigned to this publication and do not represent the views or opinions of Interactive Media Solutions or the advertisers or other contributors to this publication.

EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS 089

showcases Dux Rugged Case For iPad Pro Here is something we think is definitely worth checking out if you are considering upgrading to the iPad Pro. STM brings all of you styleconscious butterfingers a rugged case for the iPad Pro that is designed to protect your device, store the Apple Pencil, and brave the bumps of everyday life.

With its slim and lightweight design and boasting best-in-class protection, the super protective polycarbonate and rubberised thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) bracket gives even the most accident prone among you some added peace of mind. Drop tested to meet the US Military Spec 810G durability tests, this is one tough piece of armour.

One thing that we really appreciate is that the translucent design does not block out the iPad Pro’s superior aesthetic qualities. Instead, it celebrates them with clear panels, which allows for easy asset tagging in schools’ asset management programs and works seamlessly with the Apple Smart Cover and Smart Keyboard. We were also really pleased with how easy it was to install.

Why not get your iPad Pro protected by STM and have it shipped to you from Macintosh Addict today.

Visit www.macintoshaddict.com.au for more information.

Joey 10 Charging Station Taking a look at one of the latest releases from PC Locs, the Joey 10 Charging Station is a cost-effective charging station which looks perfect for schools. With great design, quality and features, this station efficiently charges 10 devices in the time it usually takes to charge just one, with up to 2.4 amps of power at each port.

The Joey 10 Charging Station also offers security and peace of mind by keeping a school’s device investments safe. The high-quality steel construction and a hardened steel padlock protects the devices while they are stored and charging.

Compatible and designed to store most iPads and tablets, it can also accommodate a variety of different protective cases.

For more information visit www.poweredlife.com.au

090 EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS

Unless otherwise expressly stated, the review of the product or products appearing in this section represent the opinions of the Editor or relevant editorial staff member assigned to this publication and do not represent the views or opinions of Interactive Media Solutions or the advertisers or other contributors to this publication.

JetDrive Lite Introducing Transcend’s JetDrive Lite storage expansion cards for the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro with Retina display. JetDrive Lite expansion cards are a quick and easy way to gain the additional space you need without adding any bulk to your MacBook computer.

The JetDrive Lite is truly plug and play. Simply insert JetDrive Lite into the card reader slot on the side of your MacBook and instantly boost your storage capacity. With up to 256GB available, you can store up to 124,000 photos, 64,000 songs or 3,840 minutes of full high definition video.

It is also blazingly fast. JetDrive Lite cards can achieve read speeds of up to 95MB/s and write speeds of up to 60MB/s, which for time-poor educators will really save time. It is perfect to use for Time Machine backups, iTunes libraries, or anything in between.

You can also rely on JetDrive Lite as a safety net for your data. Bring accidentally deleted files back with Transcend’s exclusive RecoveRx software, available as a free download with JetDrive Lite expansion cards. There are different sizes, so all you need to do is choose the one you want and match it up. The JetDrive Lite series is specifically designed for MacBook Air and MacBook Pro with Retina display computers.

Available in four different sizes, each is individually sized to suit the slot dimensions of each model.

Get yours online from www.ramcity.com.au

JetDrive 500 With so much demand put upon your schedule and your computing, it might be time to consider supercharging your Mac. With file transfer performance that far exceeds stock solid state drives (SSDs), JetDrive SSDs provide you with both speed and stability. If you are a multi-tasker or you put heavy demands on your MacBook, JetDrive SSDs can deliver the performance you need.

Additionally, JetDrive 500 brings you double benefits in one kit.

Transcend’s JetDrive SSD upgrade kits come with a beautifully designed USB 3.0 enclosure crafted out of solid aluminium, allowing you to repurpose the original SSD. Use it for Time Machine backups, Aperture libraries, or anything in between.

Take control with JetDrive Toolbox, your personal software

Overall, the JetDrive 500 is beautiful, practical, sleek, solid and pocketable. Its clean, simple lines and solid aluminium construction make the included enclosure a perfect companion

companion. Exclusively developed by Transcend for JetDrive

to your Mac. With a thickness of 1.08cm and a weight of 60g,

SSDs, JetDrive Toolbox monitoring software leverages S.M.A.R.T.

transporting your data will now be an absolute breeze.

technology to detect possible drive failures before they occur.

Additionally, the Health Indicator function can monitor the

Get yours today from www.ramcity.com.au and extend the life

wear-out level of your SSDs.

of your MacBook.

EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS 091

showcases Logitech Keys-to-Go UltraPortable Keyboard Hate standing in front of a restless class full of students while you toggle around searching for something on your Apple TV one painful letter at a time? Here is a great solution to what is becoming the age-old problem of not being able to type quickly and normally into your portable devices. Now you can launch the content and applications you need and input the data you want at lightning speed. The Keys-to-Go keyboard is for iPad, iPhone and Apple TV and also comes in a version for Windows and Android.

The Keys-to-Go keyboard comes in a variety of different colours to match your personality. It is the super slender, uber-handy and ultra-portable fits everything and goes anywhere keyboard solution that schools everywhere should be looking at right now because it connects easily over Bluetooth and it has a rechargeable threemonth battery with battery check indicator light.

For more information or to purchase your Keys-to-Go keyboard, visit Scholastic at www.scholastic.com.au/retail/ newmedia

Atlas Protective Case For iPad Pro The Atlas is a lightweight and low-profile protective case that provides a touch of class with a uniquely textured fabric cover and storage for the Apple Pencil. Its overall stylish design protects from bumps and scratches without adding bulk, whilst the textured fabric provides an elegant wrap around for your iPad Pro. The front cover cleverly folds inwards to support typing and multiple viewing modes and the instate on/off cover means the magnetic cover activates sleep and wake functionality to save energy and ensure your iPad Pro holds plenty of charge for you throughout your busy school day, while also providing easy access to all buttons and parts.

Check out more colours and designs for the Atlas at: www.stmbags.com.au/education-corporate/

092 EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS

Unless otherwise expressly stated, the review of the product or products appearing in this section represent the opinions of the Editor or relevant editorial staff member assigned to this publication and do not represent the views or opinions of Interactive Media Solutions or the advertisers or other contributors to this publication.

EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS 93

showcases Epson ELP-DC12 Visualiser We really like this solution because not only is it flexible, it actually enables you to turn your existing projector into a fully interactive education creativity tool. With a sleek, portable and flexible design, the ELP-DC12 offers the ultimate in security and portability, allowing it to be permanently placed in a classroom or carried from room to room. It comes with lots of features and has an easy-to-use interface with numerous input/output ports. In STEM subjects, you can use the ELP-DC12 to demonstrate the view from a microscope, which means showing a dissection in biology class, for example, is now easy. You can also display and project small artefacts in beautiful detail onto the big screen.

Whether you are using the Epson ELP-DC12 Visualiser to display a lesson live to the projector screen, or to capture video footage or still images, or simply as a replacement to an overhead projector, it is a great choice for your school. Now with bundled advanced application software, a great zoom module and a built-in microphone, you can take advantage of features such as live annotation, video recording with audio, image capturing and the time-lapse function. With full high definition (1080p) output through HDMI, lessons in Term 2 have never looked better!

Contact A Brighter Image (ABI) on 02 9938 6866 for more information.

Lightspeed Systems Management Bundle for Windows Now you can get a first-hand look at the Lightspeed Systems Management Bundle for Windows to see how it can simplify your Windows device and classroom management.

The Lightspeed Systems Management Bundle for Windows offers a unique solution that saves precious instruction time and IT resources with delegated management, personalised dashboards and one-click policies that allow you to not only ensure that your students are on track, but also lock devices; set policies; find, add and share resources; and check device status and battery in a single view. You can even measure and monitor it all with comprehensive reports all in a single, cloud-based, multi-OS, personalised solution that is made just for schools like yours.

For more information contact Lightspeed Systems via email apacsales@lightspeedsystems.com

094 EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS

Unless otherwise expressly stated, the review of the product or products appearing in this section represent the opinions of the Editor or relevant editorial staff member assigned to this publication and do not represent the views or opinions of Interactive Media Solutions or the advertisers or other contributors to this publication.

a great opportunity for professional development and access to the latest products, services and resources for your classroom, school and career Friday 2 September - Sunday 4 September Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre

NEW VEN UE

Why should you attend:

Discover 100 exhibitors with NEW products services resources and technology for your school and classroom Hear 50 seminars on topics including: •

teaching and learning programs across the curriculum

•

classroom management and engagement

•

learning technologies

•

literacy and numeracy

Register to visit The Education Show at educationshow.com.au For further information: educationshow.com.au 03 9596 9205 education@iecgroup.com.au

EARN PD POINTS SIMPLY BY ATTENDING

Major Corporate Sponsor

Supporting Sponsor

Media Partner – Digital Technology

The Education Show is a key event of The National Education Summit which draws principals, school leaders, business managers and educators from K-12. For more information on the National Education Summit please visit nationaleducationsummit.com.au EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS 95

noticeboards

Noticeboards

Flipped Learning Simplified with Jon Bergmann

Jon is back! Jon is an international speaker, teacher, author, radio host and flipped learning pioneer, and he will be in the Gold Coast in October and Adelaide in November 2016.

Today Jon is dedicated to writing, speaking and otherwise evangelising the flipped learning concept.

What is the Flipped Classroom and Flipped Learning?

As Bergmann would say, “A flipped classroom really starts with one simple question: What is the best use of your face-to-face class time?

Since each teacher will answer that question in a different way, there is no such thing as one definition of the flipped classroom. However, some commonalities can be seen across the educational spectrum, and we refer to these commonalities as Flipped Class 101. In Flipped Class 101, direct instruction (lecture) is delivered at home via videos that teachers either create or curate, and that which has traditionally been done as homework is done in class. This flip of the time and place that lecture and homework are delivered is the most rudimentary form of the flipped class. There is value in this simple flip which has helped many teachers transform their classrooms into centres of learning and engagement.”

With this basic idea as a starting point, the concept of the flipped classroom has led to a more developed interest in flipped learning.

Flipped learning is what can happen next, once the classroom is flipped; it becomes truly student-centred and teachers are free to engage with students on an individual level.

The concept of flipped learning has taken off. It is a global movement with interest around the world growing among teachers, school leaders and school administrators. It is definitely worth teachers and schools considering whether they need to be a part of it.

It is not Hard In a nutshell, there are five pillars of the flipped learning concept that need to be addressed in order to introduce the concept and the ensuing practice into the classroom and school.

1. Firstly, are the teachers in the school open to the need for a radical redefinition of the role of the teacher, the student and the best use of time between them? Thinking must change!

2. Successful migration to the flipped learning model requires an investment of time. This means support from school leaders and school administrators is pivotal.

3. Technology is central to flipped

096 EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS

learning. Identifying the right technology, the right technology providers and securing the necessary technical training is vital.

4. Successful implementation of flipped learning requires a mastery of the pedagogy and best practices of the flipped classroom. Training is at the core of getting it right!

5. In the end, successful flipped learning comes down to fostering more productive relationships between students and teachers, and keeping the process simple.

Around the globe, increasing numbers of teachers and school leaders are flipping their classes. Jon Bergmann’s goal is to help spread flipped learning’s best thinking, best practices and best technologies worldwide.

To learn more about Flipped Learning Simplified, meet Jon in person at: • FlipCon Gold Coast 2016 @ Saint Stephen’s College on the 13th, 14th and 15th of October 2016 or • FlipCon Adelaide 2016 @ Brighton Secondary School on the 17th, 18th and 19th of November 2016.

Visit http://FlipConAUS.com for more information about the FlipCon conferences.

Unless otherwise expressly stated, the information appearing in this section represents the opinions of the relevant advertiser and does not represent the views or opinions of Interactive Media Solutions or the other advertisers or contributors to this publication.

The Need And Opportunity To Rethink Schooling – Just One Of Many Critical Issues For Schools Leading a school in an age of disruption driven by technology is not easy. There are so many critical issues that schools are facing that need to be tackled. This article is confined to one issue only – the need and opportunity to rethink schooling.

The Need Sounds desperate. But educators are not desperate! Some talk about the issue of rethinking schooling as if they had never started. This is silly.

For years, keen educators all over the world have been exploring ways to rethink and improve schooling.

They are not just starting now; much progress has already been made in transforming schools. What they need to do is to continue this work, moving at a faster pace than ever before, just to keep up with all the other changes in society – especially the immense opportunities afforded by the huge advances in digital technology.

Rethinking schooling does not mean that schools will disappear any time soon. It means that at every opportunity, educators will leverage all of their resources, knowledge and skills to make the contemporary schooling experience challenging, stimulating, relevant and future focused.

The Opportunity What role does and can digital technology play in this exciting movement? How can schools continue to evolve? Digital technology is making many things possible now and the quest to continue to transform schooling is greatly enhanced.

Global collaboration and cooperation by school students is now commonplace and growing.

No longer do students need to be confined to their four classroom

walls. Team work, group work, sharing and collaborative problem solving bring a refreshing new look to many classrooms; all made possible by the advances in digital technology.

No longer does the teacher need to be the expert. A myriad of technologies available provide diverse knowledge sources, a phenomenon which has drastically changed the role of the teacher in reforming schools. The potential for organising a classroom differently is now very high.

Technology offers schools the opportunity to customise and personalise on a large scale. This is a far cry from the inflexible and uniform learning practised in more conventional schools.

Standardised assessment has driven what is accomplished in schools for far too long. Technology changes this to the extent that it encourages students to forge their own direction and pursue their own interests. Individualised lesson plans, specialisation and specialised assessment are the result.

Technology has shifted the need for knowledge to be stored in the head. Because of the explosion of knowledge and technology, knowledge can now reside outside of students’ heads in external resources and their reliance on these resources is great. In short, with technology, students can know and get through a lot more.

The knowledge explosion makes it very difficult for a school to cover all the important information students may need for the rest of their lives.

Covering an overcrowded curriculum is nigh on impossible. The nature of learning has to change and thankfully the explosion of technology allows it.

Students must now learn how to learn and search for the information and

resources they need. A very different kind of interacting in the classroom emerges.

By its very nature, technology fosters a more hands-on, activitybased schooling experience, allowing ‘learning by doing’, in contrast to passively learning by simply acquiring knowledge.

Creativity, making, robotics, imagining, hypothesising, simulation and augmented reality experiences are more possible and come to the fore.

The value of digital technology in developing students with analytical minds cannot be underestimated.

Once complex problems are now made simple earlier in a child’s development. Through technology, students experience the joy of understanding concepts that were once out of their reach, allowing them to engage more fully with their environment and the things that truly interest them – and they are capable of doing this at a much earlier age.

Sustaining the Change The opportunities to change by leveraging technology clearly abound. However, the trick to achieving sustainable change in schools is to learn how to scale innovation – how to take a great idea and have it reach every leader, teacher and student in the school.

2016 Leading a Digital School Conference to be held at the Crown Conference Centre, Melbourne on the 25th, 26th and 27th of August 2016. Keynote speakers Ted McCain and Steve Francis tackle this critical issue on Day 1 of the conference.

Visit www.iwb.net.au/digital for more information and to register.

EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS 097

noticeboards

Noticeboards

Zeina Chalich And Paul Hamilton Confirmed To Keynote At The K–12 Digital Classroom Practice Conference 2–3 September 2016 Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre

The K–12 Digital Classroom Practice Conference explores best digital classroom practice to achieve superior teaching and learning outcomes. This exciting new event is part of the new National Education Summit.

Attend the conference to see the amazing ways digital technology can be used in your classroom to support your pedagogy, deliver the curriculum to your students, and unlock their learning potential.

Whilst at the conference, take the opportunity to kill two birds with the one stone. Make some time to visit The Education Show 2016, a well-known and well-respected free trade exhibition in a new venue (2–4 September 2016, Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre).

The Education Show is also a part of the National Education Summit.

The keynote speakers at the K–12 Digital Classroom Practice Conference, Zeina Chalich and Paul Hamilton, have been chosen for their reputations as best-practice classroom teachers, their understanding of

the place of digital technology in education, and their ability to motivate and inspire.

Zeina Chalich is a dynamic educator and presenter with teaching experience in primary schools and university. In her role as Leader of Learning and Innovation, Zeina leads disruptive change in digital pedagogy and personalised learning – creatively integrating technology and design thinking to transform learning experiences and connect communities of learners. Zeina is co-founder of #aussieED, Australia’s largest educational professional learning network on Twitter, and was a finalist in the EduBlog 2015 Awards for the Best Individual Tweeter Category.

She writes for Educational Technology Solutions magazine.

Paul Hamilton is the Head of Learning Technologies in the primary school at Matthew Flinders Anglican College and the founder of iPad Monthly.

Renowned for his work in the effective use of mobile devices, augmented

098 EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS

reality and iBeacon technology, Paul is a leader and innovator in the Edtech world. Paul has featured in The Age, Sydney Morning Herald and the Canberra Times as a leading pioneer in the Edtech field. Paul is the creator of Edtech Synchronicity, a reflection framework for integrating technology in education.

Zeina and Paul are joined by influential classroom practitioners who will share their knowledge and expertise covering key areas such as: coding in the curriculum; the Digital Technologies curriculum; Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) education; learning through Twitter; the Maker Movement; digital literacy; online assessment and a lot more!

This conference is the one to choose if your goal is to significantly improve your digital classroom practice.

Visit www.iwb.net.au/ classroompractice/ for more information or to register.

Unless otherwise expressly stated, the information appearing in this section represents the opinions of the relevant advertiser and does not represent the views or opinions of Interactive Media Solutions or the other advertisers or contributors to this publication.

S30 Notebook Trolley handy storage bin

ergonomically designed

available in 5 colours

easy to see charge status

loads of venting

designed to accommodate and charge 16 devices large shelves to suit even the largest laptops

VIC NSW

P (03) 9801 1044 P (02) 9749 1922

F (03) 9801 1176 F (02) 9749 1987

secured with multipoint locking doors

breakaway mains connection

large 360 locking castors

E sales@mfb.com.au E sydney@mfb.com.au

EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS 099

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iPad case & printing

$39

with your school’s logo or crest (inc. GST)

Available for iPad Air 1/2, iPad 2/3/4 and iPad mini 1/2/3/4 in UltraProtect and SlimLine.

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Start 2016 in control : PD / Trolleys / Wi-Fi Joining our PD Team

Sync & Charge Storage

Future Proof Wi-Fi

E-Learning educator Nathan Jones has joined the CompNow team. He is helping create PD plans for schools & staff training for 2016. Get your AusVELS e-audit or staff PD planned for the year now!

We have many solutions that make life easier for people managing deployments of mobile technology and the people using the devices.

Secure, sync, charge. Static or mobile. Speak to us about your needs today.

Xirrus is the leading provider of high-performance wireless networks.

Their solutions perform in the most demanding school environments, offering consistent “wired-like” performance with superior coverage & security. Get a demo today.

nathan.jones@compnow.com.au

1800 334 684

sales@compnow.com.au

VIC | NSW | SA | QLD