Education Technology Solutions, Issue #70 by Interactive Media Solutions

FOR PRINCIPALS | EDUCATORS | NETWORK ADMINISTRATORS

Issue 70

Innovation In Education

Are We Being Conned? We Ask Dr. Karl

FEB/MAR 2016 $9.95 (inc.GST) ISSN 1835 209X

IT’S HIP TO BE

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Education Technology Solutions video newsletter. Subscribe today! EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS 003

www.educationtechnologysolutions.com.au

CONTENTS

034

Cover Story

Innovation In Education – Are We Being Conned? We speak with Dr. Karl Kruszelnicki, more commonly known by millions as Dr. Karl, one of Australia’s most prominent science commentators, about the Government’s recent announcement of a National Innovation and Science Agenda and the role of schools in creating innovation. Learn what Dr. Karl really thinks about the role of innovation in education.

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Feature

Pedagogy Driving e-Learning – One School’s Vision Micah Wilkins of Mac.Robertson Girls’ High School examines the school’s vision for e-learning and how a ‘pedagogy first’ philosophy is central to ensuring that teachers can navigate the technology ‘swamp’.

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Feature

Social Media: How To Sort The Candy From The Kale Eliza Kennedy of Be Social. Be Smart, a national program developed to empower young people to harness their social media skills for good, speaks with 16-year-old Australian Young Innovator of the Year for 2014, Taj Pabari, about the role that social media has played in his success at such a young age.

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CONTENTS 022

Interactive Learning

Mal Lee and Roger Broadie examine the profound implication of 24/7/365 schooling.

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Computer Lab

Professional learning and innovation specialist Johanna Wilkins Bennett looks at the three criteria that are not always the obvious, but are essential, when choosing a device for students.

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Plugged In

Toby Trewin, Education Technology Manager at Hale School in Perth, looks at the power of Microsoft OneNote in the classroom.

044

Office Space

Science and physics teacher Brad Murphy looks at ways to manage the implementation of new technologies and pedagogies in the classroom.

048

Next Step

Dr Jane Hunter focuses on what the recently announced National Innovation and Science Agenda might mean for education.

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066

Let’s Talk Software

Do your students understand their rights and responsibilities as digital citizens, appropriate digital behaviour, and how to protect themselves and their technology from external threats?

056

Professional Development

What is the value of feedback in digital learning tools when helping students learn.

066

Teaching Tools

Frank Lucisano, CEO and founder of ScopeIT Education, asks if an outdated education system is failing today’s students?

070

Get Connected

How can a simple ‘health check’ of your school’s document printing policies potentially save the school thousands?

074 Rail Road Deep Thought Into Curriculum With Technology Human thought is lost! The rituals, discipline and scholarly tradecraft which hold the key to catacombs of deep thought within human society are being dismissed by young people. Or are they? Shane Skillen, Director of Digital Pedagogies at Brisbane Girls Grammar School, argues that we are yet to appreciate the complexities of knowledge acquisition in the information age. If teachers and parents can identify the commonalities and respect the differences, they can help young people develop a meaningful, critical and reflective attitude towards deep learning and understanding.

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008

Letter from the Editor

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5 Minutes with an ICT Leader

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Leading a Digital School

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Cyber Chat

016

Your Say

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Calendar of Events

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Tech Stuff

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Back to School 2016

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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 Annabel Astbury, Johanna Wilkins Bennett, Karen Bonanno, Roger Broadie, Mike Dooner, Katherine Hawes, Jane Hunter, Eliza Kennedy, Fabienne van der Kleij, Mal Lee, Frank Lucisano, Emily MacLean, Rob McTaggart, Brad Murphy, Shane Skillen, Toby Trewin, Micah Wilkins 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

08 EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS

Over the Christmas break, I was fortunate enough to spend a few weeks in Cambodia, a country whose education system was absolutely decimated between 1976 and 1979 by the Khmer Rouge under the leadership of Pol Pot (Saloth Sar). The country still suffers the ill effects of the genocide committed by the Khmer Rouge in which an estimated 2 million (possibly as high as 3 million) of the country’s 7.3 million people were murdered. Just about anyone and everyone with an education was wiped out. Yet, despite all the adversity, the lack of education and the lack of facilities, everywhere I travelled in Cambodia I saw young and old alike using smartphones and other technology with a fervour that would rival any First World nation. While young children displayed the kind of intuitive technical aptitude one might expect of any digital native, what I found fascinating was the prowess displayed by many of the older members of the population with regard to navigating their way through functions and menus on smartphones to take pictures, send emails, send and receive text messages, use social networking and so on. I mention this because I find it fascinating that the middle-aged population of a country like Cambodia – people who grew up with little or no education – can still display an acceptance of and even fervour for technology yet, in a country like Australia, where we have opportunities aplenty, we have educators who still suffer from technology anxiety. Most educators today embrace the use of technology by students. The problem is the number of teachers and school leaders who themselves are still reluctant to use technology to enhance their own teaching based on their fear that they will look silly or inadequate in front of their more tech savvy students and colleagues. It is time to get over the fear and move on. It is no longer a case of welcome to the 21st century – we are almost two decades into the 21st century. There should be no more excuses. If you know

anyone who still, in this day and age, exhibits a reluctance to embrace and use technology in his or her teaching, then it is time to get him or her moving in the right direction. For school leaders, here are five simple steps that can be used to help teachers overcome technology anxiety in your school: 1. Promote the school’s early adopters. Hold them up as examples of what can be achieved. Internal public relations can be very powerful. When other teachers see the benefits of emerging technology integrated into the curriculum, anxiety and reluctance to incorporate similar strategies decrease. 2. Address the concerns with open dialogue. Upfront conversations with teachers and other users of the technology are critical. Some educators may not even recognise their hesitation. Easy, non-threatening conversations create a foundation to create a support plan, which is often as simple as having two hours of personal training on a system. 3. Partner experienced users with upand-comers. Inexperience can inhibit new users from identifying the best way to utilise emerging technology. A technology mentor can help the new technology user understand how the technology can help achieve his goals. 4. Invest in training. Most emerging technologies are designed to be simple and easy to understand. But even the most intuitive interfaces benefit from hands-on training. 5. Reinvest in training. If someone is reluctant to use technology, it will take more than one exposure to overcome his anxiety. Set regular in-house and hands-on opportunities to encourage people to test-drive the technology. Make 2016 the year your school becomes a digital school. Regards,

JOHN BIGELOW Editor-in-Chief

EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS 09

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Using Technology To Overcome Cultural Barriers In The Classroom | By Katherine Hawes |

Never before have teachers had such strenuous demands placed upon them to master new ways to teach new skills. In order to effectively educate students in the digital age, teachers must be prepared to gain new knowledge and skills, be aware of how technology is used in the workplace, and how to use the right technologies to support student learning. Technology is now used for conducting research, evaluating sources of information, displaying data, solving problems and working collaboratively on written and oral presentations. The richest uses of technology are those which engage students in active learning while achieving meaningful learning goals. However, technology is also beneficial to break down social and cultural barriers, and support multicultural settings. Due to language barriers, international students often find physical approachability to be more daunting than helpful. Therefore, communication tools such email, intranets, videoconferencing, electronic bulletin boards, messaging systems and virtual teams are useful in breaking down language and cultural barriers while encouraging communication and collaboration. However, not all tools have universal acceptance, so it is important that educators be flexible in allowing

students to choose whatever mode of communication they feel most comfortable with. I was working with a large group of MBA students this year, lecturing on business law. The students were from a range of different cultures and languages. Experience shows that overseas students often struggle with ‘legal language’, along with the added complication of creating an argument rather than there being a perfect answer to each question. As a result, students tend to collaborate with their own cultural groups, rather than diversifying. To assist with learning, I introduced a range of technologybased tools that included: 1. Today’s Meet – This is a fantastic tool for those who teach to large groups of students where English is not their first language. It is simply a virtual classroom where students can type questions into the program while a lecture is taking place. This encourages students to ask questions, (particularly if their spoken English skills are a work in progress) whilst the lecture is happening. The lecturer can view those questions on the screen and can either answer immediately or wait until the end of the class. An added bonus is that the students do not even have to use their real names, which encourages those students who would not generally raise their hand to ask a question. 2. Kahoot – This is a great game-

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based tool that assists in providing instant feedback to students in a non-assessable environment. Kahoot questions can be tailored depending on the goals of the session and, again, it allows international students to participate easily. With a recent class, I mixed up the cultural groups and then tailored the length of time and difficulty of the questions to the group’s needs. In making this more of a gamebased learning technique, it allows for increased team participation and reduces shyness and embarrassment in working with others from different cultural backgrounds. The use of technology in the classroom provides an intercultural, multidisciplinary, blended learning experience in higher education that achieves the goals of breaking down classroom walls and bridging geographical distance and cultural barriers. The students with different skills, coming from different countries and cultures, and interacting with others enlarges the possibilities of creativity, collaboration and quality work. ETS

Katherine Hawes is the founder of Aquarius Education. As well as running her own legal practice, she combines her passion of law and education by lecturing at several universities across Australia. Katherine can be contacted via www.aquariuseducation.com

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

Using Technology To Enhance What We Want For Our Learners

| By Emily MacLean |

Paul Saettler suggested, “Computer information systems are not just objective recording devices. They also reflect concepts, hopes, beliefs, attitudes.” Computers and technology have seen great development over time, which reflects how they are used within an educational setting. Computers in education have evolved from something explored by a few in university settings to becoming mobile devices that are accessible to the masses. The importance of computer literacy skills began to evolve in the microcomputer era, suggesting the importance of developing skills and understanding of the technologies being used. From there, technology became a means of connecting with others through the internet era, while also having a plethora of technological resources available at users’ fingertips to investigate online information. As technology further developed into the world of mobile devices, accessibility became more readily available. Most adolescents now have devices that they can use for educational or personal enjoyment. Because of this, more resources for learning in the forms of e-books, distance education and

social networking could be accessed. With all of this information and experts so accessible, students need to learn how to filter what they are viewing and critically analyse the information in a digital age. The way technology is used in schools now can vary from school to school and from country to country, depending on the resources and philosophies of teaching. In the author’s experience, technology is used as part of the teaching and learning process and should not be thought of as a separate component from it. Students now have the opportunity with Web 2.0 to not only read, but also write and create what is online. Technology provides students a means to showcase their individual creativity as they differentiate how they express their learning. Technology is used in the classroom as a way to develop trans-disciplinary skills that will last beyond the classroom and into the real world. The International Baccalaureate suggests there are six ICT skills that should be included in the written, taught and assessed curriculum. These include investigating, organising, creating, communicating, collaborating

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and becoming a digital citizen. No longer is the focus on specific content; it is how the content is obtained, used and manipulated to demonstrate, challenge and extend students’ learning. Through the development of these skills, students develop their creative and critical thinking, allowing them to take their understanding of concepts to greater depth. Technology should be used in a purposeful and meaningful way to help students make connections, see things from different perspectives, and as a means of reflection in their learning journey. ETS

Emily MacLean is currently an international educator working at Chatsworth International School – Orchard Campus in Singapore as the Education Technology Coach. Emily enthusiastically supports teachers across the primary school to integrate education technology into the classroom. Emily is a Google for Education Certified Innovator (GUR14), a Google for Education Certified Trainer and an Apple Distinguished Educator (Class of 2015).

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Helping Students To Find Flow At A Keyboard | By Rob McTaggart | This is a bit of a response to Brett Salakas’ article on voice typing in Google Docs. Brett is a great speaker and I can see why voice typing would work for him. I have found it much less useful for constructing documents. It is also a response to my own little epiphany about the way I and most of my students compose with their computers. I have been looking to improve our practice and have come to understand and teach it as separating, composing and reviewing. There are two general modes of writing (not including the thinking). These are composing and revising. You can call them writing and editing. Or constructing and styling. Or doing and reviewing (I like the rhyming of this one). It seems we work best if we only work in one mode and not both. Multitasking be damned. I have been teaching my students to type. There are several aspects to this, including learning the muscle memory and techniques of touch-typing. This is only part of the battle. The other big part of typing, and writing more generally, is getting the words out. I can type pretty fast, but ask me to write a report or a blog post and watch me start to disintegrate. I was finding that writing by hand was working better for me because there is less chance to stop and delete what has been done. I am more likely to get into a flow and stay there. But then, I do not handwrite very well and it means

I have to type it up again after I write it. I know many classrooms still work this way; students write drafts by hand and publish them with a computer. In the past, I have compared students drafting stories by hand against them drafting with a word processor. Their handwriting has generally been much faster. A class of Year 3 students and I were discussing this separation of composition and revision. We made some rules for when we are in compose mode. No: • touching the word processor’s bells and whistles (styling and layout) • backspacing • asking about spelling, just spell it somehow • talking • judging what you type • typing gibberish. And, it was brilliant! I set a timer and it was like rain on a tin roof for 10 minutes. The students were so proud of their efforts and they had something that might not be their best work, but it was something that could be proofread, edited and improved. We changed modes, pretending to push our pretend switches, and began to read our work, use the spell checker, edit and improve. Personally, this is something I have been thinking on for a long time, but never applied to my own work until now. Applying it to writing this post, I

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have over 500 words that have taken me about 15 minutes to write and a whole lot less anguish than usual. It might not be my best work, but I have hopefully been able to “hit the ball over the net” as Michel Thomas used to say. As for my students, my next step will be to continue their practice, record some simple data and check for evidence of improvement. I anecdotally think that this is one of the most challenging hurdles in school for a vast number of students (to varying degrees). A small but deliberate approach of helping students to separate these two modes could have a strong effect on their writing output and overall learning. ETS Rob McTaggart teaches technologies from K-6 in Newcastle, Australia. He is co-founder of the Digital Sparks regional student technology design challenge and expo. Rob is a Google for Education Certified Innovator who loves to help students to engage and create with the world using technology. He developed the RAPID Design framework to support students and teachers in these aims. Rob is a moderator for #aussieED and plays a logistics role for the team, managing the website and various channels. He is an ambassador and teacher trainer for Code Club Australia and runs a local Code Club for his students. His main gig is teaching 550 amazing kids every week which makes him a very lucky teacher!

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YOUR SAY Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality and 360 Degree Video in Education | By Annabel Astbury | Oh how we laughed at The Simpsons scene in the early 90s where Lisa Simpson imagined a future class virtual excursion to 13th century Mongolia. Donning the virtual reality headset, the virtual Genghis Khan advises her, “You will go where I go. Defile what I defile. Eat what I eat.” Before we get to how these technologies could be good for education, we need to understand what virtual reality (VR), 360 degree video and augmented reality (AR) are.

Check out the YouTube #360 Video channel (www.youtube.com/channel/ UCzuqhhs6NWbgTzMuM09WKDQ) to see how 360 degree video is being used, especially in news and tourism contexts to give the viewer a more immersive experience of places and events. These videos can also be viewed with a device like a Google Cardboard, which allows the viewer to physically control the view by moving around. Turn your head left, you see what is there; look up, you see what is above you, and so on.

Augmented Reality AR enhances what we see either through a headset or through a viewer like a smartphone. AR overlays contextually aware graphics on to our view of the real world. Applications like Aurasma (www.aurasma.com) allow students to create their own augmented reality content. It also will not be long before kids can project their own holographic Minecraft world onto the lounge room sofa with technology like Hololens (www. microsoft.com/microsoft-hololens/enus).

Virtual Reality Unlike AR and 360 degree video, VR aims to block out the real world completely for a uniquely immersive experience. It can use real-world experiences, such as walking through the streets of New York, or dissecting a human heart. VR uses special headsets like the Oculus Rift or devices which are in the offing like Leap Motion (www. leapmotion.com/product/vr) that allow you to use your hands, feet and body to control things in the virtual world.

360 Degree Video 360 degree video is made using an omnidirectional camera – this means that instead of just capturing one image that can be seen through the lens of a normal camera or video camera, it can capture what is going on behind, above, below and beside you. 360 degree video can be viewed in different ways. It can be viewed on a desktop screen and the views can be controlled by the mouse.

Opportunities for Education Immersive, entertaining experiences The best educational experiences using this technology will be entertaining, delightful and practical. We must remember that this technology will be a natural, usual part of our students’ lives. Sony is about to unleash its virtual reality headset onto the PS4 platform in 2016 – so a 360 degree virtual excursion to a suburban park might not cut it. Having said that, I was delighted to see the

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wonderment and delight on my 14-yearold son’s face when he wore the Google Cardboard to experience the stories available on the VRSE story app (vrse. com/). Integration and understanding The integration of VR and 360 degree video allows students to meet some of the skills and experiences afforded by the new Technologies curriculum. Even Year 3 and 4 students should be able to describe how systems can be used for different purposes in the Digital Technologies Knowledge and Understanding strand. Of course, the application of VR to practical/ experiential experiences is also an exciting possibility. Imagine being able to examine a virtual cadaver or to look at the activity the human brain at an atomic level. Storytelling and understanding narrative construction In a world where students are sophisticated consumers of media, VR helps educators teach students about new ways to construct narratives. Teachers will have to become literate in the way stories are constructed in platforms like VR and 360 degree video so that when students begin making their own stories in these platforms they have a better understanding of how the platform influences narrative, audience engagement, and meaning. ETS

Annabel Astbury is Head of Digital Education at the ABC.

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EVENTS CALENDAR

National FutureSchools Expo & Conference

Connected Education Summit 19–20 April 2016 Melbourne Convention Centre, Melbourne

2–4 March 2016 Australian Technology Park Brought to you by the team behind EduTECH, the National FutureSchools Expo is designed to answer one of the biggest questions facing schools today: What will the school of the future actually look like? Choose from one of five conferences all designed to tackle a different element of the future school, ensuring your whole team gets the most out of your professional development investment: • Immerse yourself in emerging technologies that are changing the way we teach and learn at the ClassTECH conference. • Deliver the new digital technologies curriculum with the Teaching Kids to Code conference. • See the latest in assistive technologies at the Special Education Technology Needs (SETN) conference. • Find out how to integrate technology in the foundation years at the Young Learners conference. • Re-imagine physical and virtual learning environments for the modern learner at the Future Leaders conference. With the huge, free on-floor seminar program and 80+ stands showcasing some of the latest technologies for education, the two-day FutureSchools Expo is where you can get a look at

the future of education. Furthermore, we work with industry to subsidise registration costs to make this an affordable and accessible investment in your learning. • Access the very best speakers from Australia and around the world. • Share ideas, successes and challenges. • Join 1,800+ attendees to discuss, debate and take away implementable outcomes. • This is a second-to-none networking opportunity. • Tailor-make your own experience and choose from five conferences, with multiple streams, plus focused breakout sessions, masterclasses and interactive exhibition seminars and displays (not to mention hours of networking functions). • Save time by meeting with suppliers in one place, at one time. Earn professional development points – when you register, simply tick the box indicating that you wish to apply for CPD/PD points and we will post you a Certificate of Attendance, which you can present to your representative body. Visit http://futureschools.com.au/about. html#sthash.UJbJIMVg.dpuf for more information.

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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 ten 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

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EVENTS CALENDAR

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.

EduTECH 2016 30–31 May 2016 Brisbane Convention Centre, Brisbane 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.  • 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 place, at one time. Visit www.edutech.net.au for more information.

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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 PD for K-12 school leaders, leadership teams and teachers and, a powerful networking program including: • rethink schooling (day 1 theme) • shift to deeper learning (day 2 theme) • develop students who create (day 3 theme). Reflect with colleagues on how digital technology can be leveraged to advance these three critical issues in schooling. 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! We look forward to seeing you in Melbourne in August – a great place to be. Register: ereg.me/digital16 Email: team@iwb.net.au Phone: 1800 760 108

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Designed for forward-thinking Principals or Head Teachers, plus their leadership and curriculum teams, plus teachers and anyone who has a role to play in the use of technology in schools. This congress is intended for anyone in K-12 schools responsible for resourcing, implementation and support of technology. This congress is intended for anyone in K-12 schools responsible for the day to day operations of the school as a business. This congress is designed for the entire library and information services sector to explore challenges facing libraries/ library leaders and how to innovate for the future.

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interactivelearning

24/7/365 Schooling:

The Profound Implications | By Mal Lee and Roger Broadie | Globally, pathfinder schools are moving at pace away from the traditional stand-alone mode of schooling – where teaching is done within the walls of the physical place called school – and are increasingly adopting a digitally based 24/7/365 mode of schooling where learning and teaching happens anywhere, anytime. The implications of this shift for schools, government and society in general are profound. There is a marked shift in a core social process – ‘school’– that society has unwittingly accepted as a constant. Any transformation will not only impact on most people’s lives, but also those undertaking and supporting schooling. By embracing a more socially networked mode of schooling that places the learner and learning at the centre, schooling is being continually transformed as it seeks to use digital technology to better support and enhance student learning every day of the year. This process: • lowers the school walls • increasingly integrates the in-school and out-of-school learning • actively involves parents in teaching • takes advantage of increasingly sophisticated digital ecosystems. Twenty plus years ago, Lipnack and Stamps (1994) presciently identified that in the digital and networked world, the need to attend a physical place to learn would be lessened. Today, that reality is being built upon. On first appearance, pathfinder schools look the same as traditional schools. However, while they have their students attend at the normal time, use the same curriculum and tests and show the same kind of student care, the digital ecosystem that underpins their every operation continually changes their 022 EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS

modus operandi. The increasingly mature ecosystem integrates in-school and out-of-school learning and teaching, stimulating the ongoing evolution and transformation of schooling. It helps to create an organisation, an ecology and a culture that positions the schools to adapt their operations at pace to continually accommodate the increasingly sophisticated technology and client expectations. 24/7/365 Schooling 24/7/365 schooling is a digitally based higher mode of schooling based on trust and respect, where the school is willing to distribute control of the teaching and learning process, and to empower and genuinely collaborate with its total school community in the holistic anytime, anywhere teaching of each child. It is using the village to educate the child. The school is doing what astute families have done for centuries in nurturing their children from birth onwards, using the context and the apt moment to teach their children, quietly assessing their development and working to have each child take charge of his or her learning. It is the balanced integration of inschool and out-of-school teaching and learning; where the school, as the chief educational architects, shapes the process and, while continuing to provide intensive teaching, better identifies those interpersonal, intrapersonal and cognitive attributes where professional teachers can profitably collaborate with the homes in the enhancement of the desired attributes. It is a mode of schooling whose uptake is and will continue to be developed. It requires genuine collaboration with parents, the community and, as children age, business – a development that Lee and Ward identified in Collaboration in learning (2013), a collaboration that invariably begins when schools move to a digital operational base and start socially networking. It requires the school to be willing to relinquish its unilateral control of teaching and to distribute it; in the process trusting, respecting and empowering all within the school’s community – something that

invariably only begins in a significant way at the socially networked evolutionary stage (Lee, 2014; Lee and Broadie, 2015) and the school moves into the bring your own technology (BYOT) phase. Ideally, it needs the total school community to have normalised the use of their personal digital technologies and to have an ecosystem and a culture that encourages all within the school’s community to build on that digital platform. One is thus looking very much at a higher order mode of schooling apparent from the digital normalisation stage (Lee, 2014; Lee and Broadie, 2015) and beyond. It is not the ‘exam cram’ type of schooling found in some Asian societies or indeed one that requires teachers to work inordinate hours, outside the agreed working conditions. Rather, it is a mode of schooling for a digital and networked society where astute educators take advantage of the sophisticated technology to collaborate more effectively in educating the young. Traditional School Largely unwittingly, traditional, paperbased schools have become highly insular, inflexible and dated organisations, increasingly divorced from the real world. They: • operate as they have for decades within the school walls • operate within set hours each week and year • focus almost exclusively on teaching and learning within those walls • use the same organisational structures and practises year after year. They, like other paper-based organisations, find it difficult to quickly adapt to meet society’s ever-rising digital expectations. That insularity is reinforced by school executives who believe they know what is best educationally for each child, who perceive their role as an educational expert is to inform parents – the clients – what is appropriate for their children and who should unilaterally decide what will and what will not be taught and assessed, and indeed what digital technology will or will not be used within the school.

Again, possibly unwittingly, in so doing they have over the last decade reinforced their isolation by erecting tight cyber walls, sought to create virtual walled communities, banned the school use of students’ digital technologies and at times become paranoid (Marsh and Lee, 2010) about the dangers of digital and the need to protect the young. In their funding, they expect to be provided the entire requisite funding from government, to be free to deploy those monies as they wish and to run only those programs funded by government. The desires and needs of the clients rarely rate a mention. The little collaboration there is with parents or children is invariably focused on advancing the school’s agenda. While sometimes said flippantly, many a school executive has commented on the need to keep parents out of the teaching. The reality is that in-school teaching occupies less than 20 percent of children’s learning time annually. Children and their parents have by default been handed total responsibility for teaching and assessing their children in the remaining 80 percent of time – without any assistance from the school or government. Schools have been very slow to recognise the extent and nature of student learning that occurs outside the school walls. It is usually not until the early networked stage that they see the burgeoning digital resources and educational expertise in students’ homes, the normalised use of those resources, the vast untapped potential outside the school walls and to recognise the importance – and ease in a networked world – of genuinely collaborating with the homes and wider networked community in providing each child a more individualised, apt and better holistic education. None of that recognition is evident in the traditional stand-alone schools, or indeed the educational agencies supporting them. In brief, one is talking about insular, inward-looking, risk-averse, largely constant, strongly paper-based schools, where the principals unilaterally control all teaching and show little desire to provide

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interactivelearning

schooling for a rapidly evolving digital and networked world. The Contrast In general terms, the two modes of schooling can be contrasted in the following way:

It is suggested in comparing the two modes that readers reflect back on a previous article Why Schools Have to Go Digital to Remain Viable (Lee, 2015), as the latter provides greater context. Bear in mind that the attributes of the 24/7/365 mode listed are ever-evolving and that within a year or two will likely further evolve.

Traditional Paper-Based Schools

24/7/365 Mode

• Constancy and continuity

• Ever-changing, ever-evolving, ever- transforming

• Insular analogue mindset

• Digital and networked mindset

• Teaching in school only within set hours

• 24/7/365 anytime, anywhere teaching involving all ‘teachers’ of the young

• Teaching using 20 percent of children’s learning time

• Quest to ‘teach’ (scaffold) 100 percent of children’s learning time

• Unilateral control of teaching

• Distributed control of teaching

• Whole-of-class teaching

• Increasingly individualised, differentiated teaching

• Solitary classroom teaching, invariably behind • Increasingly collaborative 24/7/365 closed class doors teaching, anywhere anytime • Distrust – of most staff, parents, students and digital technology

• Trust – in staff, parents, students and digital technology

• Disempowered parents, students and most staff

• All empowered – staff, parents and students

• Minimal home–school collaboration, with teachers unwilling to let homes interfere in teaching

• Extensive genuine home–school – community collaboration in teaching and resourcing

• Pronounced home–school teaching divide

• Marrying of in-school and out-of-school teaching

• Scant recognition of out-of-school student learning

• Recognition and building upon out-of- school student learning

• Paper operational base

• Digital operational base

• Predominantly paper-based instructional technology

• Normalised use of digital and networked instructional technologies

• School controls choice of ICT

• Individual trusted to choose own technology

• Tight control of student Internet access and banning of use of their personal technology

• School encourages students to use own technology in school and responsibly use the Internet

• School website use peripheral

• School website core to all operations

• Teachers instruct students on digital technology mechanics

• Teachers recognise and build upon students’ competence with own digital technologies and apply that functionality in higher order teaching

• Relatively lower order, simple organisation

• Ever higher order, evermore complex organisation

• Tests as school’s prime educational focus

• Holistic connected world education as prime educational mission

• Loosely coupled organisation

• Tightly integrated school ecology

• Structured, tightly planned, linear school development

• Shaped, often seemingly chaotic and messy big picture, non-linear school evolution driven by many

• Monies provided determine programs offered

• Programs offered use both monies provided to the school plus, increasingly, pooled resourcing made available

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Implications The aim of this article is in part to document the emerging mode, but perhaps more importantly to alert schools, school communities, educational decision makers, tertiary educators and politicians to the development and myriad of major implications that flow. By genuinely and more fully involving all parents in the schooling of their children, the nature of schooling is irrevocably changing. By engaging young people much more fully in their learning and in growing their personal responsibility for this, the time and concentration invested grows substantially, enabling much more learning to be achieved from the same financial input into the schooling system. In the 24/7/365 mode, there are implications for teacher training and development, the nature of teaching, curriculum and student assessment, resourcing, school governance and how systems best facilitate and support the evolution of all their schools – the pathfinders and the laggards. How do education authorities ensure some degree of parity of school offerings when working with evolving complex adaptive systems? And they are but a few of the implications that flow from the shift. Conclusion Digital technology is having the same profound transformative impact on schooling (Lee, 2015) as it is upon all other paper-based organisations. As educators and as a society, it is important that that reality is understood and the future is shaped accordingly. 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

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computerlab 026 EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS

Choosing A Device? | By Johanna Wilkins Bennett | Why is it, when searching for the ‘best device for students’ in a search engine, the cogs begin to turn with some protest, spinning wheels of death appear on screen in seconds, and there is very little in the way of immediate advice and clear direction? Simple – finding one answer to this question is just too hard. As an educator, IT director or infrastructure manager charged with solving this modern dilemma, the best place to start is with the learning needs of the students. Now that is all well and good to say – but what does that actually mean for the device decision maker? Taking a MythBusters’ approach to this dilemma, this article looks at three criteria that are not always the obvious constraints when choosing a device – aesthetics, ergonomics and hard fun. Aesthetics Adults see the world differently to their younger counterparts; black devices with black keyboards, tones of greys in logos and lettering, matte and gloss finishes all tend to bypass an adult’s senses. Adults tend to focus on the functionality of the tool rather than its look. The author has spent some considerable hours in schools watching the prolific and oh so important ritual of device personalisation. Why is it that this tribal practice is often disallowed? Adults choose their clothing, style their hair, furnish

their homes and adorn their personalities with indicators of who they are and how they wish to be perceived. However, students in a school environment are stripped of this choice and are not provided with enough aesthetic adornment space for student selfexpression. Ultimately, educators want to support the ideation of self-directedness in their learners. They strive for their students to be critical and creative thinkers, original creators and producers of their own constructed content. Yet school leaders dictate everything from page size to pen colour, neat hair to sock choice. Allowing this area of ownership over the device not only supports the integration of the tool into the learning, it begins to forge pride and care over the tool itself. This is a sure-fire way to lower the service level agreement claims that are stacking up on a work bench somewhere. The aesthetics of a device tend to be higher on the priority list for students than educators acknowledge. Lid texture, palm rest spaces next to track pads, screen edges and keys are all hallowed turf for proclaiming identity. Stickers, photos and even rhinestones tend to adorn these spaces on a device as notable badges of self, and why should they not? Adults set functionality of screen brightness or tracking speed to suit their unique learning styles; so too does the device become an extension of students and in turn an extension of their

EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS 027

computerlab learning process. The other positive – when they do inevitably leave it somewhere, it is easily recognisable.

Imagine like a child and visualise from the students’ perspective. The poignancy of that point of view may transform the choice. How will they hold the device? Use it? Place it is unusual circumstances to catch the right camera angle or to measure the height of the basketball hoop or to record their culinary creations? This tool will be asked to go to places that Captain Kirk never imagined and will lead educators to think beyond the ergonomic desk and chair scenario.

The aesthetics of

a device tend to be higher on the

Ergonomics There are some considerations that need to come to the fore, such as weight distribution, screen size, lid locks and USB ports, but it is necessary to also consider the learning styles and aptitudes of students. The need for anywhere, anyhow, anytime learning and the merits of such practice are often talked about, yet have readers actually sat on cold concrete in an area of the playground known as the ‘wind tunnel’ without filtered canopy lighting and actually balanced a laptop on their ‘lap’ and been able to read the screen for glare? Classrooms no longer need the focus to be directed by a single tool, whether that is the whiteboard on the wall or where the data projects to. Students now carry with them their own viewing tool, so make sure that tool meets particular needs. Does the screen have a matte finish for glare minimisation when vertical and angled viewing is required or for when the screen may be detached and horizontal in tablet mode? Is the weight distribution between the keyboard section and detached screen equal or unequal? Does this hinder or help the clipping in and unclipping process for small, non-dexterous fingers? Does it work for stomach mode? That is, on the floor! If the device screen flips back onto itself and the keyboard tucks under so that it can be held in tablet mode, is it too top heavy so it just keeps flipping to the floor? Or does it need a vice-like grip that requires most of a student’s focus to hold it, and creates non-essential task redundancy of a student’s working memory to sustain? Or has is been discovered that students should not remove the screen of the two-in-one if working outside?

priority list for students than educators acknowledge.

Hard Fun Learning should be hard fun. It should encapsulate wonder, discovery, multimedia extravaganzas and more than reading a maths textbook off a screen. Learning should make learners think, ponder, grow neural pathways and enjoy! Consider a device that will support these elements of learning. Yes, storage, RAM, software and peripherals all come into play to support the action ability of these elements, but also make considerations for what is not known. The early Bauhaus Movement said it best, “Form follows function.” It seems obvious, but is often forgotten – the teaching and learning, the ‘hard fun’, the heutagogy, should shape the device choice, not vice versa. Where is the discovery and the fun in the creation of moving pictures if the device does not have a camera? Where is the ease of transition and fluidity of thought if a touch screen is not considered? How can a moment be relished and unpacked and explored if immediate inking is not available? Have educators ever really watched a learner manipulate a tool? Despite their initial ideas on visual learning styles, the act is much more kinaesthetic than first believed.

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There is a quick flick here, and a swish there, a drag, a copy, a paste, a drop. Maria Montessori once said, “Watching a child makes it obvious that the development of his mind comes through his movements.” Intellectual activity is not motionless. Learning encompasses all action, and educational theory and practice is informed by this idea. A device is an extension of this busy, kinetic, actionable process of hard fun. Consider all possibilities. ETS Johanna Wilkins Bennett is a professional learning and innovation specialist at Expanding Learning Horizons. She has extensive experience in education in various roles, including ICT specialist, technology and applied studies educator, ICT integrator, gifted and talented coordinator, facilitator of learning enhancement, head of middle years program (IB MYP) and most recently head of secondary. She holds a number of qualifications including a Masters of Educational Leadership, Graduate Diploma Education Secondary, Bachelor of Applied Arts and Bachelor of Creative Arts.

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pluggedIn

Organic Feedback

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| By Toby Trewin | One of the best education technology apps in the last 10 years! That is how the author describes this year’s OneNote innovation, the OneNote Class Notebook, a format that now allows for the creation of truly collaborative notebooks between teachers and students. Since implementing this new technology in the current academic year, the popularity has been overwhelming. OneNote notebooks go about their business in an efficient manner and are almost unnoticeable throughout the teaching and learning process. Much of this popularity is due to teachers identifying the simplicity, freedom and flexibility of the OneNote interface, coupled with the unobtrusive, collaborative nature of the technology that is being used across classrooms of all ages and all disciplines. Another reason for the amazing uptake is the constant refinement of the creator tool that now includes the ability for administration to add or remove students (for those ongoing student movements) and add or remove teachers (for specialist or team teaching scenarios). Furthermore, the blank canvas nature of OneNote allows schools the flexibility to tailor the notebook to their student audience and particular discipline.

notebook, this space is live, with instant changes and refinements available to the student audience.

Set up is a breeze and can be completed in a few minutes. Once the notebook is created, there are three distinct areas to enhance the experience for students in the classroom.

Organic Feedback A great example of ‘organic feedback’ Organic student-to-student feedback in the collaboration space within a OneNote Class Notebook was demonstrated by a number of Mathematics students who were off campus using the technology. Shown Formative assessment data taken from student notebooks in this example, a student was challenged with a math problem and drew on his peers for assistance, both in and out of class, demonstrating the anywhere/anytime availability of these digital notebooks. This example was completed in the collaboration space of the OneNote notebook. Amazingly, the students were not directed to this space by the teacher, but instead showed the initiative to utilise this open space to assist each other and provide valuable peer feedback to improve their learning.

1. Content library – This consumption area, with teacher-only edit rights, is designed for common resources and materials. Course outlines, assessment tasks, research materials and more can all be housed in this one common location for students to access and receive the instruction and support they need to understand the concepts that are being delivered. And, as with the entire class

2. Collaboration space – This section of the class notebook is an open permission space, with no restrictions, for both students and teachers to collaborate. Ideal for group work, discussions and collaborative research tasks, this relatively new concept allows for a dynamic format to complete activities and demonstrate effective teamwork to meet the required outcomes. 3. Student notebooks – An individual space for each student is automatically created with specific permissions, only allowing the teacher and that individual student edit rights. This space is ideal for student responses with ‘one-click’ live access for the teacher to provide personalised feedback and assessment marking for that student. This functionality saves valuable time for the teacher whilst allowing opportunities for rich feedback on a regular basis for the student.

Formative Evaluation Another valued attribute of these new notebooks is the ability to efficiently collect and provide ongoing formative evaluation. Through Hattie’s well-renowned visible learning research, formative EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS 031

pluggedIn

evaluation is regarded as one of the highest influences on student learning outcomes. With one click, a teacher can navigate between each student’s notebook to provide informal formative evaluation and also collect formative assessment data to assist in identifying student strengths and weaknesses and to direct his or her own teaching to meet the specific needs of the students. Feedback Loop The OneNote Class Notebooks have created new feedback pathways, such as student-to-student feedback in the collaboration space, that may not otherwise occur in a traditional classroom environment. In addition, the ease of availability to each student’s work has shortened the existing feedback loop, moving beyond the simple ‘great work’ praise comment to enable quick, personalised and detailed feedback to students in a multitude of formats, including typed, written, drawn, audio and video responses. Educational research regards feedback as another high influencer on student learning outcomes, with OneNote allowing an ongoing feedback dialogue between teacher and student within the live notebook and providing numerous efficiencies to repurpose a teacher’s time to provide more meaningful feedback to the student in less time than traditional methods. Blended ‘Old School’ Learning The all-encompassing tools of OneNote allow for the integration of ‘old school’ classroom activities. With teachers often dictated to by the food chain of Year 12 final exams, there is a well-considered reluctance to do away with existing methods such as written tests. OneNote notebooks can enhance this existing practice by including hard copy written work into the notebook via a camera and inserted image. This allows students to continue to practice the written test process and store it in the ultimate filing cabinet, which enables them to build a personalised study resource of their past performances that cannot be lost at the bottom of the bag nor eaten by the dog. It also allows one-click access to the work

The blank canvas nature of OneNote allows schools the flexibility to tailor the notebook to their student audience and particular discipline. Written teacher feedback within a student’s OneNote notebook

by the teacher for formal grading and/or feedback on a student’s performance. This practice has also been successful in capturing whiteboard notes and practical activities (via the record video option) such as experiments and presentations. Teachers should try out the new OneNote Class Notebooks with their next topic. They will be impressed with the ease of use, time saved and intuitive features it contains to seamlessly improve on their teaching practice and to progress meaningful learning for their students. ETS Toby Trewin, M.Ed. is the Education Technology Manager at Hale School, Perth, Western Australia, integrating innovative and effective technology in the classroom for staff and students. Toby’s recent achievements include winning the Turnitin Global Innovator Award and selection as a Microsoft Innovative Education Expert Educator for utilising various technologies to engage students and peers in innovative ways to positively impact learning. In addition to this recent achievement, Toby has been awarded as a Microsoft Innovative Teacher, delivered sessional lecturing at the University of Western Australia, provided course writing and panel membership at the School Curriculum and Standards Authority, became a qualified Microsoft ICT peer coaching facilitator and has presented at numerous educational conferences. Toby can be contacted via email: tct@hale.wa.edu.au

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Whiteboard notes captured with a camera and stored within a OneNote Notebook

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coverstory 034 EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS

Innovation In Education – Are We Being Conned?

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coverstory

| By John Bigelow | When the Liberal Government announced in late 2015 that it would be launching a five-year National Innovation and Science Agenda (NISA) for Australia, many were unsure exactly what this might mean – especially for the education sector. According to the Government’s announcement, a significant part of the program would be aimed at “ensuring the next generation of students has the skills needed for the workforce of the future” and that this would be “critical to ensuring Australia’s future competitiveness on the international stage”. The package includes a range of projects and associated funding which are outlined by Dr Jane Hunter in her article @ideasBoomAu Or Bust? on page 48 of this issue. The science aspect of the Government’s new package, like any good science, should be easy enough to measure and quantify in terms of what it offers and the impact it might have on the education of current and future students. What is not so easy to quantify is the concept of innovation and the role it has in education. What exactly is innovation and how can school help drive new ideas and thinking? In order to help answer this question, I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to speak with one of Australia’s best known science spokespeople, Dr Karl Kruszelnicki, known to millions of Australians simply as Dr Karl. For over three decades, Dr Karl has been bringing science into the homes and classrooms of everyday Australians through his appearances on television programs, his regular radio programs

are fewer than 100 in the entire world). The Apple Masters Program celebrates the achievements of people who are changing the world through their passion and vision, while inspiring new approaches to creative thinking. Dr Karl has degrees in Physics and Maths, Biomedical Engineering, Medicine and Surgery and has worked as a physicist, tutor, film-maker, car mechanic, labourer, and as a medical doctor at the Sydney Children’s Hospital. Dr Karl is currently the Julius Sumner Miller Fellow at Sydney University, where his ‘mission’ is to spread the good word about science and its benefits, which is why we felt he was the ideal candidate to answer questions about innovation and science in education. This always cheerful, knowledgeable and somewhat extroverted purveyor of science facts is not backward about coming forward with his views on education, science and the general state of education in Australia.

which have been aired around the world, his ABC web page Great Moments In Science and his 38 books, beginning with Great Moments In Science in 1984, up to his most recent book, Short Back and Science. Dr Karl’s list of achievements is nothing short of impressive. In August 2000, Dr Karl was one of the first eight Australian Apple Masters to be announced (of which there

When asked what he thought of innovation in education, Dr Karl responded, “I think it is a con.” Which on the face of it, might seem like a harsh statement but as the interview progressed, it became very clear that he had good reasons for his point of view. Dr Karl goes on to explain, “I do not think we actually need innovation. I think we already have many of the answers and

Before we can begin to make real inroads into preparing students for an innovative and competitive future, the Australian education system needs a significant overhaul.

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know what needs to be done. We just need to be willing to do it.” A reasonable assertion as innovation without action is somewhat pointless. According to Dr Karl, innovation in education needs to be about much more than just funding and programs. Before we can begin to make real inroads into preparing students for an innovative and competitive future, the Australian education system needs a significant overhaul. “There was a time, when education was seen as a long-term investment in Australia’s future. Now it appears that it is viewed by governments as either a burden which must be borne by the government or, alternatively, as a moneymaking opportunity.” “I find it hard to see how we can create innovation in education when I can still walk into a school where the majority of buildings are rusting, dilapidated portables that lack air conditioning or even the basic infrastructure required for me to plug a laptop in so that I can do a presentation to the students. In fact, I recently went to a school to give a presentation and took with me some of my books for the school library, only to discover that the school does not even have a library; it has to share one with the school down the road. What role do you think that school will play in driving innovation for the future?” “Do not get me wrong,” states Dr Karl. “It is great to hear the Government talking about the importance of science and innovation in schools, and to see more funding heading into education, but the funding has to be going to the right areas. We need to begin with adequate facilities and educators across the board, not just in some schools.” “If I give a cat $100, I do not get a lion; I just get a wealthy cat. Similarly, you do not get great educators by paying bad teachers more money. I think we could learn a lot from the way Scandinavia approaches education. In Australia, many teachers cannot even afford to

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buy a house. In Scandinavia, teachers challenges. For example, children should earn between $100 and $250 thousand a be able to evaluate which product is year. Students do not do homework and better value for money based on dollars the success of the education system is per gram – the sorts of things people use to directly linked to the success or failure of be able to work out in their heads.” politicians. Because of the higher salaries “We also live in a society (in Australia) for teachers, the country can afford to where people look down on the trades. demand that only the very best educators Our education system has all but abolished are given jobs and all the schools are trades from schools and it is becoming public schools and publicly funded. As a harder and harder for tradespeople to result, any child in virtually any part of the find new apprentices. If you are serious country is largely almost guaranteed the about changing the education system same level of education as any other child. to ensure a better future for the country, Here in Australia, public schools have to this is an area that needs to be addressed. fight for funding and justify every dollar, Why is it that only academic pursuits are while private schools are given millions on given room in our classes? In Europe, they top of the fees paid by have figured out that the affluent parents of you cannot have a attending students. It civilization without It is great to hear the makes no sense.” plumbers. We do not Government talking Beyond the seem to have made funding of schools, about the importance of the same realisation Dr Karl believes there science and innovation in Australia.” are serious issues “Having said all in schools, and to see around the current of this, I do think it is curriculum. “Right very encouraging to more funding heading now, our education hear Government into education, but the talk about the system is aimed at preparing students for of funding has to be going importance university. That is great looking to the future to the right areas. for about one third of and trying to create Australians, but what a better education happens to the other two thirds?” asks system.” Dr Karl gets extremely excited Dr Karl. “What really needs to happen when we talk about innovation in is for there to be a major shift in the way education and what many schools Australia approaches education and the are now doing around space importance it places upon its educators.” travel. He cites the example “Schools should be preparing students of Amazon Founder Jeff for life – not just entry into university. Our Bezos and his recent curriculum needs to include a focus on accomplishments with his teaching critical thinking, psychology and privately funded Blue biology. Too many people today, from Origins spacecraft. students through to adults, believe the “Following the most outrageous and ridiculous marketing recent test flight of claims about special creams or drinks Blue Origins where that will cure you of everything from shortthe Blue Origin sightedness through to baldness, obesity team managed to and everything in between. This happens successfully land because people lack the basic knowledge the rocket after a to critically assess the information behind test flight, Jeff Bezos such claims. Furthermore, our schools now has the most need to be teaching maths and science rare of things in the in ways that will help with everyday universe – a re-used 038 EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS

and re-useable spacecraft. If companies can make money out of space, imagine what governments could do. Now that is real innovation and I think pursuing these sorts of things in schools is exciting and should be encouraged at all costs. However, if we really want to see genuine innovation in education, then I believe the Government needs to take a long hard look at the fundamental issues affecting education in Australia – issues such as quality of teaching, quality of facilities, equitable access to quality education for all Australians and long-term investment by the Government in Australia’s future through education. To me, that would be real innovation in education.” ETS Thanks to Dr Karl for his time and input and be sure to check out his new book Short Back and Science, available through all good book stores.

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Pedagogy Driving e-Learning – One School’s Vision | By Micah Wilkins | In December 1967, The Observer invited secondary students to enter a competition. They were to describe ‘the school that I would like’. This was one such entry: Most teachers say that machines could never replace a human being, as if that was the sole purpose of them. But teaching aids such as these are not and never will be able to do this, and this is not what they are meant for. All a teaching aid can do is to aid the teacher – nothing more. (George, 14) Almost 50 years ago, teachers and students were grappling with the same questions that educators face today: what is the role of technology (‘machines’) in education? How can educators harness technology (‘teaching aid’) to enhance learning for their students? George cuts right to the heart of technology integration: educators need to lead with pedagogy – put pedagogy in the driver’s seat and use technology to accelerate, enhance and extend learning. A Vision for e-Learning The core business of e-Learning is about educating future generations to be fully participating citizens in a digitally networked world, but educators know and understand that good teaching – and a good understanding of how to teach – will always need to precede the learning tool that is used. Teachers need to develop a shared understanding of what good pedagogy is (irrespective of technology) and how they can work together with their students to improve outcomes, including collaboration, critical thinking and creativity. Only then will teachers be in the position to best utilise e-Learning developments in, and out, of their classes. e-Learning is one of the most powerful responses to improving student learning, developing ‘deep learning’ skills and the growing need for education. 040 EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS

The e-Learning vision at Mac. Robertson Girls’ High School (Mac.Rob) was developed in line with Fullan and Langworthy’s work on deep learning; that is, a set of “deep learning goals enabled by new pedagogies and accelerated by technology”. When it comes to the notion of new pedagogies, the visible thinking routines, as developed at Project Zero, Harvard, were utilised. It is this pedagogy first philosophy that teachers need to keep firmly in mind as they navigate the technology ‘swamp’. BYOD and Virtual Learning Days Today’s devices are more portable, more powerful and more affordable than ever before, and individuals can study, or attempt to acquire a skill, when they want, at a pace of their own selection, alone or with others. Bring your own device (BYOD) programs attempt to prepare students for this era. As such, 2015 saw the rollout of a school-wide BYOD program at Mac.Rob. Students were able to connect one personal device to the school’s BYOD network. A wide range of personal devices were connected, from laptops and surfaces to MacBooks, tablets and phones. Lee and Levins’ suggest that having a BYOD program recognises the “reality that most of our students have long normalised the use of the digital in their everyday lives, have in their hands a suite of digital technologies they will continually attune to meet their ever evolving needs and wants, and as a consequence have a set of universal expectations and practices they and their parents will increasingly expect to see respected in the classroom.” Due to the fact that a myriad of devices were used in every class, it reinforced the school’s pedagogy first, tool second vision for e-Learning. It meant that technology was never the driver. It did, however, raise the difficult question of how to design activities and learning tasks that allowed students to use their personal device, without the teacher being the tech expert. As an incremental, but significant step, to achieving the BYOD rollout and preparing their students to be lifelong

digital learners, Mac.Rob conducted two Virtual Learning Days in 2015. Due to the closure of the school during the Melbourne Grand Prix in March, they held a synchronous e-Learning day. Teachers created their lessons online (using Google Apps), and ran their classes in real time. Students and teachers were connected via discussion boards, videoconferencing, collaborative activities and instant messaging. The second day, held the day before Melbourne Cup in November, was run asynchronously; where the training was accessed at the learner’s convenience and could take place in different timeframes and places (blogs, email, discussion boards and so on.) A Powerful Combination Approaches are effective in stimulating deep engagement when they are implemented in such a way as to enable students’ sense of agency and identity, and a learning experience which feels authentic and meaningful (Learning Futures, 2012). In order to prepare teachers for the virtual learning days, a range of crosscurricular and authentic activities that they could adapt to suit the needs of their class were developed. These activities were used in both the synchronous and asynchronous e-Learning days. Basically, the aim was to harness technology to create engaging and meaningful lessons that may not have been possible in a regular class. The following outlines some of the visible thinking routines that can be enhanced by a range of e-Learning tools (with a focus on Pinterest and StoryBird) in order to develop a set of deep learning skills:

Pinterest Pinterest is simply a virtual pinboard. The concept of Pinterest is much the same as having a pinboard at home; however, because it is online, users have access to infinite resources and can share and collaborate with people from around the world. Multiple people can contribute to a shared board. Users can also follow boards that are of interest (for example, the boards students make). These virtual boards are not limited to just visuals; video, text and other material can also be pinned. Students could sign up with their school-provided Google usernames and away they went. These are a few of the activities Pinterest could be used for: • Students doing individual research projects create a board with 10 ‘pins’ based on their field of study (the pins include news articles, cartoons, photos, books and so on). This enables students to visualise and conceptualise their research in different ways. It also has them thinking about their topic from different angles, providing them with ideas that they otherwise may not have considered. • Students create boards, focusing on the various techniques companies use in their advertisements. For example, they could look for the ‘red flags’ in advertising. This is a critical thinking task which attempts to get students to think a little deeper about the messages they are getting (including from their teachers!). • Students collaborate on a shared board on a concept or topic they are looking at in class. This could be something used across the curriculum and built on over the course of a unit, semester or even year.

Deep Learning Skills

Select Visible Thinking Routines

Sample e-Learning Tools

• character education • citizenship • communication • critical thinking • collaboration • creativity

• headlines • see, think, wonder • think, puzzle, explore • connect, extend, challenge • I used to think… now I think • colour, symbol, image

• Pinterest • StoryBird • Pear Deck • word clouds • Google Apps for Education (Classroom and Docs in particular)

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feature Educators need to lead with pedagogy – put pedagogy in the driver’s seat and use technology to accelerate, enhance and extend learning.

One student at Mac.Rob, researching the cultural identity of international students, decided to use Pinterest as a way of conducting her research. Her participants curated a board with images that they identify with. The board was then used as a starting point for an interview in which she basically asked ‘Who are you?’ There are a range of visible thinking routines (in italics) that can be enhanced through the use of Pinterest. These include: • Create a headline based on the topic or issue raised in the board. An extension could be to get students to share their boards and come up with headlines for each other. • See, think, wonder – I see a lush garden with dappled light. I think this garden is likely to be inspired by Chinese design (or perhaps is a Chinese garden). I wonder what is through the circle? • The thinking routines of think/puzzle/ explore and connect/extend/challenge could be used to enhance the e-Learning tool. Both of these routines ask students to think about what they already know and then connect or extend their initial ideas through the use of stimulus material. Pinterest does more than simply act as a substitute for magazines and newspapers as it allows the pinning of a much wider range of material. In order to modify the task, the Pinterest boards could be shared between students or classes. In fact, through Pinterest, students can connect with other people who share similar interests on a global scale. Students can connect with communities to broaden their knowledge and understanding of a concept or idea. This is the real power of the e-Learning tool and where a real connection with deep learning skills is evident.

Students can connect with communities to broaden their knowledge and understanding of a concept or idea. This is the real power of the e-Learning tool and where a real connection with deep learning skills is evident.

StoryBird StoryBird uses visuals to foster creativity and thinking in the classroom. Students must decide what to focus on, what is important and what to ignore, and put that together in a way that makes sense. Students are encouraged to come up with innovative approaches, discuss ideas and pose questions, and the emphasis is on questioning and reflecting. StoryBird can be used across a range of subjects. The following example is from a science class, where the topic was ‘The life of a cell’. The activity was to create a StoryBird to convey the ‘story’ of the cell. What happens to it? What does it do? What ‘relationships’ does it have? How does it cope with adversity? What is its meaning and purpose in life?

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This activity provided the scope for deep and creative thinking, engaging metaphor and analogy. In order to creatively respond to the new information learnt about cells, the students exchanged ideas at the conceptual level. Also, the personification of the cell created an ‘empathy’ or at least a kind of closer understanding of the function and purpose of cells, which helped students see the relevance and importance. When used in conjunction with thinking routines, students develop a deeper understanding of the concept/content: • Students share their stories with the class and then respond to the thinking routine I used to think… now I think. • A follow-up routine has the students create word clouds on the same idea or topic. Students see, think, wonder to justify their StoryBird interpretations by comparing it to the word cloud. • Students select a colour, symbol and image from their stories which they think best represents the essence of the concept/activity. These routines, which promote sustained learning and emphasise connections between ideas, enhance the e-Learning tool. It is this powerful combination of visible thinking routines (as developed by Project Zero) with e-Learning tools that can aid in the development of deep learning skills – skills that prepare all learners to be life-long creative, connected and collaborative problem solvers and to be healthy, happy individuals who contribute to the common good in today’s globally interdependent world (Fullan and Langworthy, 2013). ETS Micah Wilkins is the director of e-Learning at Mac.Robertson Girls’ High School

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officespace

A Management Approach To Implementing New Technologies And Pedagogies In The Classroom

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| By Brad Murphy | Making Change Change is difficult at the best of times, but even more so in schools that have busy schedules, traditional pedagogies with the ‘we have always done it that way’ mindset, and a myriad of approaches, methodologies and technologies all vying for teachers’ attention. David Thornburg put it that managing such change, whether it is at a whole-system level, school level, or classroom level is as difficult as trying to rebuild a car engine while speeding down a highway! (Thornburg, 1995). Just because something is difficult, however, does not mean it should not be done. If teachers expect students to embrace a growth mindset then at the very least so should they, and part of a growth mindset is to embrace challenges and persist in the face of setbacks (Dweck, 2006).

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officespace A Strategy for Change Implementing new technologies and related pedagogies like a Learning Management System (LMS) such as Moodle, or cloud-based collaborative technology like Google Apps for Education (GAFE) requires effective strategy to inform the users of benefits (Aladwani, 2001). Both of these technologies have been introduced to the author’s school over the last two or three years and this would be the case for many other educational institutions. Most schools implement change through a ‘top down’ management approach. Although this is necessary to a point, only using this approach is not ideal, especially when introducing new technologies that require a change in pedagogy in order for transformation of teaching and learning rather than mere replacement to occur (Hughes, Thomas and Scharber, 2006).

it is not impossible. There are two innovation adoption models that can be used to do this – the Concerns Based Adoption Model (CBAM) and Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT). CBAM is the better known of the two, having been used in educational settings for almost 30 years, while UTAUT has only been around since 2003 and therefore has more limited research backing and use (Straub, 2009). Both of these models have their differences, but what they have in common is a method to analyse top down implementation of new innovations and how they are being accepted and adopted. Both approaches will be compared in a future article; however, UTAUT will be the focus in this article.

Assuming research has been done to introduce a new innovation as appropriately as possible, a strategy for change is: 1. Introduce the new innovation. 2. Use an innovation adoption model to determine acceptance Replacement Tech serves merely as a different and adoption. means to the same instructional end 3. Analyse the results I n and target groups Amplification order or individuals with Tech increases efficiency and to have personalised productivity without fundemental maximum professional change buy-in by development Transformation teachers, there to address the Tech allows forms of instruction and learning must be ownership identified that were previously of the process and needs. unconceivable the best way to do that is to include a ‘bottom up’ Hughes J. Thomas R & Scharber C (2006). Assesing approach. However, such an Technology Integration: The Rat - Replacement, Amplification, Transformation approach cannot be just a random guess; it must be targeted and specific to the teachers’ own context because 4. Use bottom up approaches, such as peer the further down the hierarchy the more mentoring and action research, to drive narrow and specific that context is (Klein, collaboration, training and further change. 2006). Bottom up approaches include peer coaching, action research and UTAUT in a Nutshell design thinking, all of which can be used The UTAUT framework is a method of to complement each other. Before a conducting questionnaires using a Likert bottom up approach can be determined, scale with the following classifications: there must be a mechanism to ascertain user perception, community influence, what that might look like for individual satisfaction, service quality, learnability, and teachers. Though this task is a difficult one, technical quality. In a study conducted by 046 EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS

the author, the questions asked to teachers in determining their use of Moodle are shown below and were modified from Users’ Acceptance and Use of Moodle: The Community Influence (Baytiyeh, 2013). The survey can be modified for any technology and for teachers or students to complete. User Perception 1. Moodle enhances the instruction in courses. 2. Moodle enhances the organisation of learning materials in courses. 3. Moodle results in better communication between students and teachers. 4. Moodle results in better collaboration among students. 5. Moodle enables students to be more engaged in courses. 6. Moodle helps managing course activities. Community Influence 7. People who are important to me think that I should use Moodle. 8. People who influence my behaviour think I should use Moodle. 9. My students think that I should use Moodle. 10. The college encourages the use of Moodle. Satisfaction 11. I find Moodle useful for my teaching/ learning tasks. 12. Using Moodle enables me to accomplish my teaching/learning tasks more quickly. 13. Using Moodle increases the effective use of my time in handling my teaching/ learning tasks. 14. Using Moodle improves the quality of my work. 15. Using Moodle enables me to organise my teaching/learning tasks. 16. I find Moodle reliable for my work. Service Quality 17. The college IT staff are helpful in the use of Moodle. 18. When I need help to use Moodle functions, guidance is available to me. 19. On the Moodle course, I can find contact information of my students (for example, email addresses). 20. Questions/feedback can be provided through Moodle.

Implementing new technologies and related pedagogies... requires effective strategy to inform 21. The college offers adequate support for Moodle users (for example, training). 22. The system is well maintained and upto-date. Learnability 23. My interaction with Moodle is clear and understandable. 24. I am skilful at using Moodle. 25. Learning to use the Moodle system is easy for me. 26. The functions of Moodle are clear. 27. I find it easy to get Moodle to do what I want it to do. 28. Moodle is user friendly. Technical Quality 29. The online quizzes are easy to manage. 30. Moodle functions are clear and easy to navigate. 31. Moodle can be personalised or customised to meet my needs. 32. Moodle has many communication features (for example, blogs, wikis and discussion forums). 33. Files in Moodle are easy to upload/ download. 34. Warning messages prevent possible errors from occurring, such as deleting a file. 35. Moodle uses multimedia features properly. Open-ended questions were also included in the survey; however, these are not included as the focus here is on UTAUT. The UTAUT survey captured valuable information about intentions and use (Straub, 2009) of the newly introduced technology; in this case, Moodle. Using the Results The answers to the questions can be used to reveal what the majority of teachers might feel as good or easy as opposed to negative or difficult, allowing appropriate and targeted professional development to be organised. For example, most felt that Moodle enhances the organising of learning material (question 2), so that perception does not need addressing in a wholeschool staff meeting. By contrast, most teachers found online quizzes not easy to manage (question 29), so further surveying as to why this is the case is needed and then

the users of benefits. either more training in Moodle or another, easier to use online quizzing technology is needed, depending upon the research results. Because this was a widespread issue, it could be addressed in a whole-school staff meeting. The message here is that this is a method used that has revealed issues with a technological innovation introduced to a school that would not be known if surveying like this was not done. Now that the issues are known, the widespread ones can be dealt with in whole staff meetings, while the issues that affect individuals can be dealt with in a smaller setting, such as in pairs or small groups through approaches like peer coaching. One way to manage this could be to identify individuals who found a particular feature easy or useful to use and pair them up with someone who found the opposite. To complement the peer coaching approach, changes made as a result can then be implemented in practice as part of an action research process and then the effect of the change analysed and reflected upon and further refinements done where needed. The survey shown above was done anonymously, so follow up would be needed to identify individual needs or a survey can be conducted that is not anonymous to allow for identification. Why a Bottom Up Approach? Bottom up approaches such as peer coaching are personal rather than managerial focused and are needed in addressing concerns in implementation of technology in order to really put pedagogy before technology (Towndrow and Wan, 2012). It allows the school to start with educational requirements for learners’ and teachers’ needs, ensuring pedagogy exploits technology, not vice versa (Laurillard, 2009). Action research on the other hand provides contextspecific support (Khoboli and O’Toole, 2012) far better than one-size-fits-all training (Towndrow and Wan, 2012). More training

needs to be conducted in schools to respond to local contexts (Albion et al, 2015), with every school being unique and requiring agility and empathy (Peterson, 2010). In order for action research to be most effective, it requires reliable and useful data – UTAUT is one way to provide that. UTAUT surveying provides: • an effective framework for understanding teachers’ responses to change • data to design targeted professional development to drive change implementation • tools for explaining the impact of action research (adapted from Khoboli and O’Toole, 2012) • challenges for administrators to look beyond their own beliefs regarding benefits of innovations • examination of the implications of changes on those most affected (adapted from Straub, 2009). No one model accounts for all concerns (Straub, 2009); however, using UTAUT in combination with action research and peer coaching in complementary ways will be far better than pushing a new innovation onto teachers and expecting them to know what to do with it. Adding design thinking and technological pedagogical and content knowledge (TPACK) to the mix will make for a powerful model for change! But that is another article waiting to be written. ETS For a full list of references, email: admin@interactivemediasolutions.com.au Brad Murphy is a Science and Physics teacher who has worked at schools in Western Sydney for 20 years and also taught pre-service Physics teachers at Western Sydney University. Professionally, he has a passion for integrating technology into education in an innovative and appropriate way to transform teaching and learning.

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Nextstep 048 EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS

@ideasBoomAu Or Bust?

| By Dr Jane Hunter |

On Monday 7 December 2015 Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced a five year National Innovation and Science Agenda (NISA) for Australia. There are several prongs to this plan explained in a series of factsheets. I want to focus on three that most directly influence schools, principals, teachers and students: Factsheets 18, 19 and 20. As expected the agenda has attracted widespread commentary in the media and debate ranges from sheer delight that it’s ‘necessary as Australian minerals explosion comes to end’ through to concerns as to ‘whether there will be real Science Technology Mathematics Technology (STEM) jobs for young people when they are STEM qualified’. Briefly, in Factsheet 18 $48 million is allocated to Inspiring a Nation of Scientists with a focus on expanding the Prime Minister’s Science prizes in STEM, there is support to students in Science and Mathematics competitions, mooted development of play based apps for early childhood educators and backup and expansion of community and citizen science projects. In Factsheet 19 $51 million is spirited to Equipping Students to Create and Use Digital Technologies for: “ensuring the next generation of students have the skills needed for the workforce of the future is critical to ensuring Australia’s future competitiveness on the international stage”. It is replete with statistics on “how 75% of jobs in the fastest – growing industries in the next 5-10 years will need STEM skills; almost all will require ICT literacy”. Furthermore the importance of leveraging off the digital literacies curriculum: Digital Technologies (DT) is noted. In this, the largest package of $51 million; there is funding for: EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS 049

Nextstep • online computing challenges for Year 5 and 7 students • ICT summer schools for Years 9 and 10 • an annual ‘Cracking the Code’ national competition for Years 4-12 • support for teachers to implement the DT curriculum through online learning activities • expert help and support for school leaders to drive digital literacy; and • partnerships to bring scientists and ICT professionals into the classroom. In Factsheet 20 Expanding opportunities for women, technology, engineering and mathematics $13 million will be invested in expanding the Science in Australia Gender Equity pilot, establishing a new initiative under Male Champions of Change and partnering with private sector initiatives to celebrate female STEM role models. The NISA initiatives will commence from 1 July 2016. The Chief Scientist, Professor Ian Chubb commenting on the agenda said: You need an education system that encourages curiosity, opens minds to ideas, identifies how people can assimilate knowledge from multiple areas and put it together to turn it into something that other people want … basically it’s about encouraging curiosity and creativity (ABC radio news: 19/12/2015). In total the NISA package means approximately $112 million; across five years that amounts to $22.4 million per year for Australia’s 9389 schools [ABS data 2014]; in real terms $2385 per school for 5 years (almost $12,000 in total NISA funding). Of course the nature of the agenda equates to much more than that as there is in-kind support as many schools and teachers self–educate and top up funding /initiatives with STEM activity using internal resources and so on. While I commend the agenda as footsteps in positive STEM directions there are some gaps in what is proposed. And to quote the esteemed sociologist and critical theorist Jurgen

Habermas: “whose interests are being served here?” Drawing attention to what is not there or whose interests are not included seems important at this early stage. On first glance the NISA places import on a series of external measures to raise the profile of STEM; there is mention of expert help but this needs to occur alongside building teacher capacity in STEM especially in primary schools. For example: the ABC News in its coverage focused on the Young Scientists http://www.youngscientists. com.au/ program as one way to bring science experts into schools. And yes, there are many excellent STEM providers and partnerships are to be encouraged. Nevertheless STEM must be about building teacher capability - it cannot become yet another ‘outsourced program’ or specialized RFF (release from face-to-face) time where teachers stand back and let someone else take their class. I have seen this happen alongside other schools that pay attention to giving teachers time to follow their passions in STEM. Such schools create maker spaces, offer coding programs (although many are outsourced), integrate Minecraft, set up digital media projects and forge links with STEM experts in universities, galleries and museums using video conferencing and face-to-face sessions. Increasing teacher professional learning in STEM is a BIG TICKET item that has mainly been championed at this point through online activity. There never is money allocated to this component in education packages – it was the case in NSW for example, in the Connected Classrooms Program and in the Digital Education Revolution (DER). Yes, there were school newsletters and ‘brekkie with a techie’ opportunities but professional development (PD) for teachers overall was thin on the ground. Implementation of DER happened in spite of scant funding for PD. TeachMeets and #edchats on Twitter including actions by professional

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associations and education conferences are measures that illustrate how teachers take and will continue to take STEM PD matters into their own hands. Such forums foster communities of collaboration where teachers share successes and learn from one another. The hub schools in NSW Department of Education (DOE) schools seek, among a number of targets, to make links with academic partners in universities for research projects, design challenges, ‘hacker’ and ‘maker days’. Three examples of NSW STEM activity in 2015 and there is momentum happening right around Australia: • Ms Georgia Constanti, Principal at McCallums Hill Public School in November 2015 led a Cardboard Challenge on site involving five other schools. More than 450 students participated in the STEM day • At Epping West and Wahroonga Public Schools teams of teachers worked with an academic partner to develop inquiry based units of work in STEM, HSIE and other key learning areas using the High Possibility Classrooms (Hunter, 2015) framework; and • Development of the DOE Future Think Space is another exciting innovation. Teachers need time to enhance their pedagogical and content knowledge base in STEM. Time can be bought for teachers for RFF in schools with funding. Teachers becoming and remaining learners in STEM are paramount in the NISA. Consider these eight critical moves for success @ideasBoomAu: Will the online learning activities planned in the NISA be accredited PD? I imagine so. Will low SES schools have a greater allocation of the funding to build teacher and student capacity to catch up with better resourced schools? Professor Richard Teeece always talked about students in low SES schools needing the “keys to success by doing the long hard subjects like high level mathematics, science, and computing subjects”.

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Will primary and high school teachers be given time to up-skill and play to increase their own subject matter knowledge in computational thinking, coding, scientific concepts, design thinking, hardware navigation, new apps and software? In December 2015 at a High Possibility Classrooms workshop with K-12 teachers in Canberra just days after the NISA went ‘live’ teachers spoke yet again of how they want to engage in STEM in more trans-disciplinary ways. However, current assessment models, curriculum and education policies are restrictive and PD of any sort is rarely embedded into the everyday experience of teachers in schools. Will wifi and bandwidth in public schools, for instance, be enough to cope with increased demand from STEM? Proposed measures must ensure good connectivity for most of the day. BYOD policies have created bandwidth issues in many schools and education jurisdictions take … time to respond. Digital technology is important but where is the imagination about diverse forms of genuine innovation? John Byron, Honorary Fellow from the Centre for Higher Education at The

University of Melbourne noted: “The agenda is welcome but ignores our urgent need for humanities, arts and social science approaches” (in Higher Education supplement in The Australian, 9 December, p.33). Parity of time for these approaches is essential. Will programs like Ambitious Science Teaching based on 30 years of research find a way into thinking and setting up the ‘expert help’ that digital literacy in Australian schools commands? (see 21st Century Learning blog post on 10 December 2015 from Aaron Sickel, lecturer in secondary Science curriculum in the School of Education at Western Sydney University: Changing the Teacher Education Curriculum: A Shift from Knowledge to Practice). How can school systems better support principals who are already grossly overloaded to mobilize as STEM innovators? This requires a whole conversation all of its own. Will there be positions or enough jobs in STEM when young people leave school or step into universities to further qualify in STEM subjects and then seek STEM careers/opportunities post 2020?

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If school leaders, teachers and students’ experiences are necessary precursors to guaranteeing we have young people ready and willing to pursue STEM then the funds allocated to Australian schools are sorely needed. Indeed the NISA is an exciting one; nonetheless consideration of possible gaps will mean @ideasBoomAu does not become @ideasBustAu ETS

For a full list of references, email: admin@interactivemediasolutions.com.au Dr Jane Hunter teaches in the School of Education at Western Sydney University. She leads innovative pedagogical change projects and professional development in schools. Her book Technology Integration and High Possibility Classrooms: Building from TPACK (2015) is creating new spaces for enacting future-focused learning in classrooms. In March 2016, she is a keynote speaker with schoolbased colleagues Bianca Hewes and Debbie Evans at the Future Schools conference in Sydney. Follow Jane on Twitter @janehunter01

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Supporting Online Policy Within The School | By Karen Bonanno | With increased use of technology and high usage of the Internet by young people, it is imperative that schools take some responsibility in making sure students of all ages know what their rights and responsibilities are as digital citizens, what appropriate digital behaviour is, and how to protect themselves and their technology from external threats. Digital citizenship involves knowing how to utilise technology in order to engage appropriately and responsibly in society. Digital citizens apply their skills and knowledge in using a computer, mobile phone or web-ready device, and the Internet, to participate in and contribute to personal and school environments. Rights and Responsibilities Digital rights and responsibilities set an expectation that each user will follow the rules and procedures, as identified in school and at home. In an ideal world, when someone posts, shares, comments, emails and so forth, others will enjoy the information without abusing it, passing it off as their own work, or use it to threaten or harass. Unfortunately, this is not always the case and it is important to set some boundaries and maybe advocate the mantra of do not harm. Students need a clear understanding of how to behave in an online world. Through internet-enabled devices, students can be active digital users and need to develop respect for others, self and intellectual property as online consumers and creators. They need to build trust in an online space and be trusted. Some simple tips to survive include: follow acceptable use policies; use online material ethically, including citing resources and/or requesting permissions; and report cyberbullying, threats and other inappropriate use. The High-Wire Act: Cyber-Safety and the Young interim report (Joint Select Committee on Cyber-Safety, 2011) identified several areas of risk for young Australians as follows: • cyberbullying • cyberstalking, online grooming and sexting • exposure to illegal and inappropriate content • technology addition • breaches of privacy and identity theft • information sharing.

In addition to the submissions received, the committee also conducted a survey (Are you safe?) involving 33,751 participants aged between five and 18 years. When asked the question, ‘Where did you learn about cyber-safety?’, 42 percent indicated at school, 31 percent from family and 14 percent from friends. When asked, ‘What can be done to make the online environment safer?’, 24 percent indicated the need to learn about it at school, which was followed closely by the need to talk about it with family. It is evident that the school plays an extremely important role in the education of young people and that family provide a supportive role when youngsters face the personal risks of being online. It is estimated that about 20 percent of young Australians aged eight to 17 years have experienced cyberbullying, with the peak age group of 10 to 15 year olds being the highest targeted group (Katz et al, 2014). An objective of the school community is to make students more aware of the issues and consequences of engaging in a digital society and, subsequently, what their rights and responsibilities should be when online. An extremely useful site for digital rights and responsibilities is the Common Sense Education K-12 Digital Citizenship Curriculum (2015) – https://www.commonsensemedia.org/educators/curriculum Primary aged students can learn that staying safe online is similar to staying safe in the real world. Learning the basics for crediting creative works is also on the agenda, as well as developing an understanding of what plagiarism really means for them. They explore what cyberbullying means and what they can do when they encounter nasty online behaviour. The classroom lessons at this site allow students to compare, contrast and explore similarities and differences between in-person versus online communication. Secondary students learn higher level skills such as identifying what factors can intensify online cruelty and cyberbullying, as well as creating solutions for dealing with cyberbullying situations and being able to help others when this occurs. They are introduced to more detail on copyright, fair use and the rights they have as a creator of information, as well as valuing the creative works of others. Etiquette Digital etiquette sets standards for online conduct and how one should behave in a digital environment. In particular, it is important

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to establish rules for proper use of digital devices. For example, 39 percent of teenagers would answer a ringing phone while having a face-to-face conversation. Some have allowed their ringing phone to interrupt a job interview and had the audacity to take the call and ask the interviewer to leave the room because it was a personal conversation! Phubbing is rife. Phubbing is defined as the act of snubbing someone in a social setting by looking at your phone instead of paying attention (stopphubbing.com). According to stopphubbing, 87 percent of teens would rather communicate via text than face-to-face. An objective for the school community is to make students more aware of what is appropriate digital behaviour. They need to know how often and where they are using technology and how their use of technology affects those around them. The Common Sense Education K-12 Digital Citizenship Curriculum provides a variety of lesson plans to address digital etiquette. Young students can learn how to show respect when online by exploring the similarities and differences between faceto-face and online communication. Security Before going online, it is essential to take some precautions to secure and protect internet-connected devices and any sensitive information. Elements of digital security are important for any student to learn. Here are some tips to pass onto students. Some are relevant for their computer/laptop as well as mobile devices. Get them to set up passwords for protection, such as the user account or password lock, especially if the device is shared or if they want to avoid others using their device without permission. For other passwords that are required to access social media networks, for example, there are a few rules: do not make the password personal, do not reuse the same username and password combinations for multiple sites, do test the strength of the password, and do make sure passwords are a mix of letters, numbers, symbols and capitals. Do not go without antivirus and antispyware on computers/laptops. Keep these up-to-date on a daily basis as viruses are pervasive and destructive. Run full system scans regularly to make sure the

system is clean. Avoid sharing wireless security keys with others. Seek permission first from a trusted adult before letting someone else piggyback on the connection. Make sure any wireless router requires a password; do not leave this open. Be cautious when accessing public hotspots for sending confidential or sensitive information. An open gateway to the Internet might be great when users are out and about, but the worst-case scenario is an outsider could potentially gain access to a device over the shared wireless network. Be alert for spam via messages and attachments – if the sender is not familiar, do not open them. Sometimes friends can unwittingly be the sender of a malicious message, so watch out for ‘strange and odd’ attachments. When recycling computers/laptops, make sure the system is wiped. Just deleting files and emptying the trash will not provide enough protection. Adopt a similar approach to recycled phones as well. An objective for the school community is to make students aware that the networks they use, for example, school and home, need to be protected from external threats. Students need to know how to protect their technology and themselves in a digitally connected world. 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 three general capabilities that connect with digital rights and responsibilities, etiquette and security.

Call to Action School leaders are in a position to set the tone for appropriate technology use by students. Policy and procedures can be supported by good teaching models and relevant classroom activities. For some young people, it was their parents who created their digital footprint before they were born by sharing the baby sonogram photo album; or inadvertently by allowing their eight-to 12-year-old to open a social media account, either ignoring the legal age restriction or believing the networking space was private. According to the Australian Communications and Media Authority, research on children aged eight to 17 years, as children become older, going online is an integral part of their lives (Raco, 2014). It is essential for schools to implement programs that support the development of digital citizenship skills for younger students and to continue these programs throughout their schooling years. 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 http://eduwebinar. com.au for more information. For a full list of references, email: admin@interactivemediasolutions.com.au

Curriculum/General Capabilities

Content Descriptors

Digital Technologies

Collaborating: for example, Year 3-4 students work with others to plan the creation and communication of ideas and information safely, applying agreed ethical and social protocols. Evaluating: for example, Year 7-8 students evaluate how well-developed solutions and existing information systems meet needs, are innovative and take account of future risks and sustainability.

ICT

Recognise intellectual property; apply digital information security practices; apply personal security protocols; identify the impacts of ICT in society; collaborate, share and exchange; understand ICT systems; manage digital data.

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

Express emotions appropriately; develop self-discipline and set goals; appreciate diverse perspectives; contribute to society; understand relationships; communicate effectively; work collaboratively; make decisions; negotiate and resolve conflict; develop leadership skills.

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A Century Of Automated Feedback:

Beyond The Teaching Machine

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| By Dr Fabienne van der Kleij | What would today’s classrooms look like if teacher feedback was limited to telling students if their solutions are correct or incorrect, without any additional explanation? Undoubtedly, this would be unacceptable. Yet, this is very much the reality when it comes to feedback in digital learning tools that are supposed to help students learn. Feedback is widely recognised as one of the most important elements in the learning process. Teachers spend a considerable amount of time providing feedback to students. Often, there simply is not enough time to provide feedback to each individual student based on their work. Educational technology has been designed to overcome this obstacle, for example, by using digital learning environments with assessment tasks. In such environments, students’ responses to a task can automatically be scored and students can be provided with automatically generated feedback. Although this may seem a solution, research suggests that much of the feedback provided in current digital learning tools does not help students learn. The Teaching Machine In fact, many digital tools include feedback that resembles the type of feedback in the ‘teaching machine’, an invention of the 1920s by the American Professor of Psychology Sidney Pressey. The teaching machine was the first tool to automate the assessment and feedback process. It presented a multiple choice question to the learner, who had to select a response, and the machine automatically informed the learner of the correctness of his answer. This type of feedback is called knowledge of results (KR), and often comes in the form of ticks and crosses. The teaching machine only allowed the learner to proceed to the next question after he had selected the correct response. The idea was that in this way, students would learn the correct response.

The teaching machine was groundbreaking at the time and laid the groundwork for digital learning tools as they are known today: computers, educative games on consoles or handheld devices, smartphones, tablets and digiboards. These tools provide several advantages, such as multimedia tasks, and can provide students with immediate feedback that they can use to directly adjust their knowledge and skills, or confirm and strengthen existing knowledge and skills. Although the technology has evolved considerably, the feedback in many of these digital learning tools has not. This is problematic because KR is not a very effective way of providing feedback. Research Evidence about Feedback Effectiveness In fact, not providing any feedback is just as effective as providing KR, according to a large-scale overview study that compared and contrasted the results from 40 studies across the world. This study looked at the effects of different methods for providing feedback in computerbased learning environments on students’ learning outcomes (Van der Kleij, Feskens and Eggen, 2015). It pointed out that there are substantial differences between the effects of different methods for providing feedback. A very important aspect to consider when providing feedback is the type of learning that is intended. The ground rule is: more complex learning requires more complex feedback. A century ago, around the time when the teaching machine was invented, education focused strongly on memorising facts, and multiple choice questions were very popular in assessment. Over time, the way educators think about learning has changed dramatically and the focus has shifted from knowledge and memorisation to complex skills and applying knowledge and skills in complex and ever-changing situations. The methods used for assessment have also changed considerably, although

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... research suggests that much of the feedback provided in current digital learning tools does not help students learn.

the use of multiple choice questions remains popular in current digital learning tools. When the learning task requires students to memorise or understand material, providing them with feedback in the form of the correct answer can be quite beneficial. This type of feedback is called knowledge of correct response (KCR). When the learning task is more complex, and requires the learner to apply their knowledge and skills, KCR has limited effectiveness. In this case, elaborated feedback (EF) works best. Elaborated feedback includes information additional to KR or KCR, for example, in the form of an explanation, worked out solution, strategic hint or a reference to additional study material. This type of feedback actually includes instruction and is not just focused on the correctness of the learner’s response (Hattie and Timperley, 2007). This additional information can help students determine how to improve. The research evidence so far suggests that elaborated feedback is most effective when it does not provide the correct response, but rather provides hints or strategic information or questions that stimulate students to think deeply about the task and their strategies. This type of EF is useful beyond the immediate task and can help students become more effective learners in the long run. The overview study also showed that feedback in the form of praise, reward or punishment does not help students learn. An example of praise is “you are brilliant”. This kind of feedback does not relate to the task, but rather to the learner as a person. Previous research in classroom settings has also highlighted that praise is unhelpful and can even result in negative consequences, such as self-esteem, motivation and persistence (Hattie and Timperley, 2007). Some digital learning tools include feedback that is a combination of praise and KR, for example, “well done”. This type of feedback is also not very helpful, because it provides very little information about the learning. So perhaps

it is also time to rethink the ‘punishment and reward’ mechanisms in digital learning tools such as tablet apps in the form of tokens and rewards. Although these might be encouraging for students who do well, the consequences for students who encounter difficulties may be disastrous. Students should not be punished for their mistakes; these are critical opportunities for learning at which feedback can have very powerful effects. Feedback for the Future Digital learning tools can be rich learning environments when multimedia are used appropriately. Yet many of the learning tasks resemble paper-and-pencil tests, and feedback often comes in the form of ticks and crosses or written text. The potential of digital learning tools is huge, but many promising possibilities are not yet being exploited. For example, learning tasks could take the form of simulations, and feedback could be delivered in the form of audio, video and web links to online resources. This would make feedback more accessible and engaging, and eventually increase student learning. Also, developers of digital learning tools need to rethink the feedback process. Research shows that feedback is most

effective when the student feels the need to receive it. Therefore, digital learning environments that include feedback on demand, for example, in the form of hints, would align much better with students’ needs. Feedback is not a one-way street; students are not only receivers of feedback but also demanders as well as providers. Feedback is often not perceived by students in the way the developer of a learning tool intended. This is partly due to the lack of interactivity in digital learning tools. It should be possible for students to ask for additional elaborations on feedback, for example, through links to additional study material such as YouTube videos. In the interests of students, it is time to stop using antique methods for providing feedback and finally say goodbye to the teaching machine. ETS For a full list of references, email: admin@interactivemediasolutions.com.au Dr Fabienne van der Kleij is a Research Fellow at the Learning Sciences Institute Australia at Australian Catholic University. Her research covers various topics in the area of formative assessment, such as feedback and assessment for learning in classroom practice.

A very important aspect to consider when providing feedback is the type of learning that is intended. The ground rule is: more complex learning requires more complex feedback.

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feature

Social Media: How To Sort The Candy From The Kale 060 EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS

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feature | By Eliza Kennedy |

Taj Pabari is a 16-year-old, Brisbanebased CEO. The impressive teen entrepreneur is the founder of FiftySix, a company producing educational and interactive products for children to immerse themselves in innovative technology. He is also the winner of The Australian Young Innovator of the Year for 2014; a Young Social Pioneer for The Foundation of Young Australians; a TED speaker; and the founder of two other ventures. This, and more, can be learned from his LinkedIn profile. After connecting with Taj on LinkedIn, he agreed to talk about the role that social media had played in his success. “Connections,” he said. “It is all about connections.” The Year 11 student has been using LinkedIn since he was 11 years old, when he started a tech blog for children, written by children. He used LinkedIn to reach out to tech reporters who would connect him with prospective writers wanting to have their work published. “I did not think I would get a response, but through LinkedIn I had about an 80

A few years later, the first FiftySix investor found Taj Pabari through LinkedIn. “He had also invested in another venture in the UK through LinkedIn,” Taj said. “He had never even met this person. I was a suggested connection – we had a few Google Hangouts and Skype calls, we connected on Twitter of course, and then we met in person in Brisbane. That was in January 2015. I would not be doing what I am without him.” The teen uses Twitter extensively too. “I did not do much on Twitter initially really, I was just following my favourite tennis players.” He learned the power of Twitter through the Forbes 30 under 30. “I could tell from talking to these people that I needed to sort out how I was using Twitter – what I learned was the power of the chain reaction when you use the right hashtags. I can also interact with competitors in a friendly way on Twitter and have a bit of banter with the odd tweet here or there to keep up with what is happening.” Anyone that does a Google search for Taj Pabari will quickly find out about his accomplishments, experience, talents and passions from his highly Current social media visible social media accounts, including Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, education rarely focuses Facebook and YouTube. It is on supporting students apparent that he leads a very active and positive digital life. Whilst the to leverage and harness young CEO believes connections the positive power of to be the greatest benefit of social media, it is the digital story he tells social media. Instead, the through what he posts and shares emphasis has tended to on these networks that facilitates be on protecting, rather the connections in the first place. Undoubtedly, this teen’s than projecting, their digital online presence is exceptional footprint with privacy settings. for someone his age. He acknowledges that even though his percent response rate, because they peers know about the power of social could see my profile and what I was all media, they rarely leverage it to its full about. With email I would not have got a extent. In particular, he flags LinkedIn reply. LinkedIn enabled me to connect as the biggest opportunity missed by with reporters all over the world.” teenagers. “Those who have even

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heard of it probably do not have it filled in, but I think everyone needs to put their best foot forward here. This is the way to get connections and mentors so that when you are looking for an internship or partnership, you will have a massive network to reach out to.” Current social media education rarely focuses on supporting students to leverage and harness the positive power of social media. Instead, the emphasis has tended to be on protecting, rather than projecting, their digital footprint with privacy settings. Despite this, Taj reiterates many young people still have inappropriate public profiles that share everything with everyone. Fear-based social media education that flags only the prospect of a negative online reputation will, at best, encourage teens to shy away from social media or go towards anonymous or impermanent platforms like AskFM or Snapchat. This strategy will not help them get ahead in a world where a robust online presence is not only advantageous, but increasingly expected. Everyone only needs to look at the example of Taj Pabari to see the opportunities that can come about through a public, purposeful and positive online presence. In his recent article The Digital Tattoo: Think Before You Ink, Rob McTaggart similarly suggests that perhaps the biggest threat to students is also the greatest opportunity. He proposes that the time has come to move the conversation about the online world past fear and avoidance and to think about how students can be educated and empowered to establish a strong and positive online presence. He also argues for the creation of a new continuum for students to develop a unique digital tattoo to help them prosper. Psychologist and digital technology expert Jocelyn Brewer has created the concept of Digital Nutrition, an

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feature award-winning framework for teaching and moderately – key aspects of Digital the principles of a healthy, balanced Nutrition. relationship with technology. Borrowing Just as teachers educate students from the healthy eating pyramid and on traditional storytelling, so too do food nutrition principles, she advocates students need to be educated on sorting the candy from the kale to digital storytelling to enable them to enable positive, long-term relationships consistently represent their own story with the online world to get the best out online in a positive and authentic way. of technology, while By shifting the avoiding the pitfalls. focus to what Borrowing from Although Brewer they should the healthy eating points out that be posting on pyramid and food it is not so much recommended about the specific social networks nutrition principles, she network being (both on private advocates sorting the used, but rather the a c c o u n t s intention or goals and public candy from the kale it is being used for, accounts) – to enable positive, arguably Snapchat instead of what is like the candy of they should not long-term relationships social media and be posting – with the online world LinkedIn the kale. students can to get the best out LinkedIn enables build their own students to create unique online of technology, while a digital portfolio presence that avoiding the pitfalls. of their education, reflects what experience and they want accomplishments; publish longto be known for on the social media form blog posts; join groups, make platforms most relevant to them. This connections and build their professional best practice can and will open many network; follow companies and industry doors for Generation Z as 93 percent influencers to gather knowledge and of employers now use social media to information; and research universities source and screen candidates. and the careers of their alumni. Given Using Taj Pabari as an example, his this and the fact Google ranks it so latest post on LinkedIn was a picture of highly, LinkedIn is like a digital superfood him with the Queensland Premier and for creating a positive online presence. the caption: “Insightful evening at the However, even Pete Evans cannot First Advanced Queensland Reception exist only on kale. Taj Pabari’s mix of with The Honourable Annastacia public accounts on LinkedIn, Twitter, Palaszczuk MP, Premier of Queensland!” Facebook, Google+ and YouTube is His latest Facebook activity is an widely recommended as best practice updated cover photo of him on stage for successful personal branding online. for his TED talk and his most recent tweet These are the social media networks is a quote from Richard Branson, “You do most employers use to find and filter not walk by following the rules. You learn talent. Not only do these networks by doing and falling over.” Across all have the most members, but they the major social networks, Taj portrays a also rank highest with Google, which well-considered image and consistently is what matters for online reputation posts in a way that tells the type of story management and controlling a digital that opens doors. footprint. Importantly, Taj Pabari uses This particular teen does admit to these networks mindfully, meaningfully already having five years of practice and 064 EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS

strong mentorship to perfect his digital storytelling. For others, a starting point for the type of continuum suggested by Rob McTaggart is to introduce younger students to a platform like GoEnnounce. This network was created to give tweens and teens a safe and private way to digitally track all their experience and accomplishments at school and communicate with mentors and relatives to keep them informed of progress. A GoEnnounce Student Page creates a digital representation of who that student is, which can then be used for applications, scholarships or job opportunities. Encouraging the creation of a digital portfolio on platforms like this can upskill students in positive social media behaviour and give them practice in appropriate digital sharing before they interact on more public platforms. As they progress along the continuum, they can apply their skills in positive digital storytelling online with ageappropriate guidance. With such a staged and digitally nutritious approach to social media education, more 16 year olds could be like Taj Pabari, with an acquired taste for kale. ETS

Eliza Kennedy is a director at Be Social. Be Smart, a national program developed to empower young people to harness their social media skills for good. It partners with secondary schools to upskill students in strategic and effective digital sharing, connecting and communicating. The sessions are founded on the principles of scenariobased, just-in-time learning. They incorporate a mix of storytelling, video and visualisation to engage and inspire students to use positive posting on social media for improved relationships, powerful personal branding, professional networking and community involvement. Connect with Be Social. Be Smart. on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn, or visit www.besocialbesmart.com.au for more information.

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Is An Outdated Education System Failing Students?

| By Frank Lucisano | Education is a topic held close to most people’s hearts. Ask anyone about their views on education and, although they may be wide and varied, most are passionate about their opinions on what should and should not be taught. Some think that school can be a waste of time; others would do anything to go back and learn more. Teaching for Tomorrow What is usually agreed upon is that education is about passing on knowledge and skills, from one person to another, for benefit and use at a later time. This helps enrich students’ lives and also the community and world around them. So, knowing that, educators can ask the questions, “Is the current format and system of education processes delivering those results? Are educators teaching for tomorrow, or are they teaching for today? Or, worse still, for yesterday?”

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Here is something to ponder. Are schools currently teaching students to handwrite? Obviously, the answer would be yes and rightly so. It is an absolutely essential skill and being literate is part of the social construct. However, are schools teaching students to touch-type? Currently, in most cases the answer is no. Now go back to the original goal of education; to pass on knowledge and skills for benefit and use at a later time. Does the average child communicate (and will communicate in the future) through written or typed language more often? Why is writing taught so early, but typing is not taught until well into high school (if at all)? The reason is simply that there is an outdated and inadequately revised curriculum in place that is designed to teach for a world that has since moved on. Perhaps it is time to sit down and re-think what skills the next generation of students need to be equipped with for their lives to be as productive as possible.

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teachingtools

... there is an outdated and inadequately revised curriculum in place that is designed to teach for a world that has since moved on. Fortunately, many schools are now embracing changes and implementing new programs within their schools. Are readers’ schools one of these? If not, why not? Education should not be about comfortable, easy-to-deliver information. It is hard work, ever changing and just too important to not put every bit of effort into. Teach a Man to Fish… Everyone knows the old saying, ‘Give a man a fish, he eats for a day. Teach a man to fish, he eats for a lifetime’. Education should have this focus and not be centred on specific skills that might not provide benefits at a later date. There is a wealth of data and information at society’s fingertips and students should have a strong focus on learning how to research and parse this information rather than trying to boost their memories. Perhaps one part of a reviewed assessment strategy should also therefore be to make students focused on research skills rather than who has the greatest recall skill. Why are most examinations not open book? Why cannot students take their computers into a test? In real-world situations, are people rarely so cut off from information that they cannot ask a question on how to do something? The first thing most people do when they need to learn something is head over to Google. com. This is the real world today and presumably the world today’s students will live in tomorrow. To be clear, this is not a recommendation for leaving the old system completely. There are obvious benefits and time of necessity to memory-based learning and retention of knowledge. However, students should be learning for the real world they live in and assessed based on how their lives will be lived. Exams should be made open book, with computers at hand, but also more difficult but relevant by asking something so wildly specific to test students’ understanding of working out what it is exactly they are looking for. They will need to assess where

they may find that information and lastly, and perhaps most importantly, to assess the quality and validity of what they find. Is this not the most efficient and useful skill for someone to acquire for nearly every facet of their future lives? Why are educators still forcing students to memorise pages and pages of information that often end up either useless or out of date? Education is about empowerment, so why not give students research skills? Computers – a Tool to be Exploited This can all be achieved by learning how to master the use of a computer. A computer can be an amazing research hub. With the world’s knowledge searchable via many search engines, there is little excuse to not know basic facts about the world. Educators should upskill their students to be able to fully utilise this tool by effectively using this method of communication and teach them how to type to do that efficiently. As educators, inspire students to learn and dream about what is achievable. This is where learning computer science can be more than just about learning to code. Many advocates of code face rebuttal by saying “not everyone can be (or wants to be) a programmer”. Precisely, but computer science and ICT education can be about so much more. It is about a wide and far ranging suite of knowledge, applications and topics. It is about well

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thought out processes and is based squarely around logic and problem solving. And therein is the key – problem solving. Computer science teaches students to identify the problem, outline the goal and research the solution, which is exactly what educators all want their students to be able to do in their lives. Regardless if it relates to academic pursuits, careers, family life or society and culture, learning how to efficiently identify with this framework of problem solving can only be beneficial. By showing them that the computer is a tool and not just a glorified portable TV, educators can equip students with the ability to harness that power. If a person has a problem – research it. Individually or collaboratively, with education centred on research, the benefits are enormous. Perhaps if the education system and processes are slightly refined, educators can give students the skills and knowledge to build a better world for themselves and society for tomorrow. ETS Frank Lucisano is the CEO and founder of ScopeIT Education, which focuses on furthering the available curriculum for Australian and international students with comprehensive and structured syllabus that is aligned to the Board of Studies, Teaching and Educational Standards (NSW) to help schools deliver 21st century education to their students.

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How A Simple Simple Health How Health Ho Ch Could Save Check Save Check Could Sc Thousand s Schools Schools Thousands

| By Mike Dooner | Educational institutions of all sizes continue to face various challenges in today’s economic environment. Issues like cash flow and financing remain top of mind. At the same time, schools everywhere must continue to find ways to operate more efficiently and automation can play a leading role in reducing both administration and other operational costs, since it reduces the amount of time needed to complete routine tasks. With so many potential areas to consider, there is plenty of opportunity for improvement. One of the most effective ways for a school to get both short-term and long-term gains is to review its document management and printing processes. While often ‘invisible’, these processes can cost significantly, but can be relatively easy to fix. This article explores some of the ways primary, secondary and tertiary educational institutions can quickly and easily improve their document management and printing processes to create a smarter, more efficient workplace through simplified workflow. The benefits include better knowledge management, reduced human error through automated processes, and significantly lower costs.

Is Document Management Choking Productivity and Efficiency? Documents are a vital part of a school’s processes, but they could also be choking productivity and efficiency. Documents can only add value if they are easy to create, find, edit, approve, retain and print. When employees are used to working with outdated or manual systems, the costs are not immediately apparent. A quick audit of document management processes, however, can pinpoint areas where improvement would deliver immediate cost savings. Most educational institutions can benefit significantly from taking a more strategic approach to print and document management infrastructure. This includes better document handling and digitisation, process automation and printer fleet

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getconnected management. When these three elements are in place, only then can significant benefits be realised. Why Schools Should Move Away from Paper-based Processes When employees search physical filing cabinets or even school servers to find the documents they need, it adds minutes and hours to each day, making them less productive. Poorly named files mean employees must open each document to find out if it is the document they need. If employees need to access multiple documents to work on a particular project, this compounds the problem, unless they can instantly pull up a list of all the documents related to that project. For every minute employees spend looking for the documents they need, they are not adding any real value. Version control is also a significant issue for the education sector in general. Employees often waste time updating or working on documents that are outdated, simply because there was no way to tell that it was the wrong version. This is why many schools report losing or accidentally destroying important documents or files. When staff members experience issues or delays accessing the documents they need, the flow-on effect can be enormous. For example, when parents call looking for a fast answer to a simple question at a school, they can be left waiting as the employee tries to find the right information. This leads to a negative perception that carries with it the possibility of prompting parents to consider moving their children to another school. Digital Document Capture The cost of time spent looking for documents or working on the wrong versions of documents adds up quickly. It could cost thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars

per year. By automating the process of scanning paper documents, digital document capture solutions make it fast and efficient to digitise documents. Converting paper documents into digital format can help schools extract data or information using optical character recognition (OCR) technology. It makes these documents searchable, so they are more useful than if they had been stored in a physical filing cabinet. Being able to manage and share information in this way can improve collaboration, increase document security and reduce the need for

a standard document he is taking time away from more value-added activities. As well as the time it takes to create these documents, there is the risk that an error will go undetected until it is too late. Document Automation Automation systems can use a logicbased system to create documents automatically with pre-approved text and data. According to the Association for Image and Information Management (AIIM), companies can eliminate up to three quarters of the hidden labour costs associated

One of the most effective ways for a school to get both short-term and long-term gains is to review its document management and printing processes. physical storage space. Importantly, it lets paper-based documents become part of automated workflows. Furthermore, by applying electronic document management security in the workplace, schools can minimise the risk associated with human error and unauthorised access. Even when employees perform to impeccable standards, manual processes can result in confidentiality breeches and an excess of sensitive material being either printed or scanned. Managing the Risk and Expense of Manual Processes Educational institutions often create many versions of documents such as contracts and letters as part of their daily operations. Creating these documents manually is time consuming and error prone. They require careful proofreading, which adds even more time to detect and rectify human errors. Every time an employee creates

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with manual data entry and other manual processes by implementing automated document processing. The Hidden Costs of Print and Printer Fleet Management Educational institutions of all sizes maintain a fleet of printers, from black-and-white desktop multifunction models to large-format, colour printers. Keeping track of each machine, its output, and the costs to run and maintain it, is unrealistic. An unmanaged print environment can cost more than $650 per employee per year, according to Gartner. Managing a fleet effectively involves being on top of seven key considerations: â&#x20AC;˘ Equipment age: If the fleet is ageing and is made up of various makes and models, then maintenance costs are likely to be high. The older a printer gets, the more regularly it needs to be serviced and the faster it uses consumables like toner. Additionally,

Documents are a vital part of a school’s processes, but they could also be choking productivity and efficiency. having multiple makes and models means economies of scale cannot be leveraged when it comes to buying parts and consumables, and conducting maintenance. • Cost: If printers are not maintained effectively and used appropriately, then the cost of printing can spiral out of control. Additionally, if the exact costs of printing are not seen, then employees are less likely to consider printing costs at all, resulting in indiscriminate printing and even higher costs. According to Gartner, companies spend between one and three percent of their annual revenue on printing. • Size: Many organisations do not know the optimum number of printers for their size and printing needs. This usually results in organisations having too many printers rather than too few: most have a ratio of 2.2 employees for every printer. This means maintaining more printers than necessary, while each printer remains underutilised, making the total cost of ownership far higher than it needs to be. • Support: If employees are not sure who to call when a printer jams or runs out of toner, this can cause delays, which costs money. According to Gartner, 40 percent of IT and help desk calls are printer related, which distracts highly skilled IT staff from innovation and mission-critical work. At the same time, staff often become frustrated because they cannot print when they need to. • Sustainability: When paper bins become overloaded, it is a sign that employees are printing more pages than they need to. This is not only an

operational cost, but it also creates a negative environmental impact. • Mobility: Employees need to print documents from wherever they are. International Data Corporation (IDC) predicts that the total number of pages printed from mobile devices is expected to grow at a compound annual rate of 12 percent by 2016. • Security: 90 percent of organisations have suffered at least one data loss through unsecured printing, according to Gartner. When employees can print without restriction, confidential documents can end up unclaimed at the printer. This creates opportunities for information theft either at the printer itself or from the paper waste bins. A pull-printing solution, where employees must swipe their ID card at the printer to retrieve their pages, can reduce security concerns significantly, while minimising the amount of unclaimed printouts. Managed Print Services Managed print services (MPS) essentially outsources printer fleet management to an expert. It can significantly reduce the time it takes to manage print devices, lower capital and operational costs by consolidating and streamlining printer fleets, and free the IT support team from printer-related enquiries. MPS gives organisations visibility into how much they are printing and how much it costs, giving them more control, saving money and boosting productivity. It can also help improve document security. An MPS solution manages all printers and their consumables, including paper, toner, ink and other supplies.

Get a Workplace Health Check Educational institutions of all sizes can save significantly by optimising print services and document management processes. The first and most important step is to undertake a business audit or health check. This exposes areas for improvement and highlights opportunities to save time and money. For schools with limited resources, this can sound daunting. However, with the help of an expert provider, schools can consider optimisation an ongoing activity as opposed to an end goal. ETS Mike Dooner is the Marketing Manager – Content Services at Konica Minolta.

Automation systems can use a logic-based system to create documents automatically with preapproved text and data.

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Rail Road Deep Thought Into Curriculum With Technology | By Shane Skillen | Human thought is lost! The rituals, discipline and scholarly tradecraft which hold the key to catacombs of deep thought within human society are being dismissed by young people. Or are they? Mr Shane Skillen, Director of Digital Pedagogies at Brisbane Girls Grammar School argues that we are yet to appreciate the complexities of knowledge acquisition in the information age. If teachers and parents can identify the commonalities and respect the differences, they can help young people develop a meaningful, critical and reflective attitude towards deep learning and understanding.

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SpecialFeature

I often find myself involved in conversations from various perspectives about young people and the nature of deep thinking. Increasingly, my research on this topic leads me to a paper, or an article lands in my inbox about neuroplasticity – the differences between deep and surface learning or perhaps the changing adolescent mind. More often, however, I find tirades against the use of technology and the role it plays in the acquisition and development of knowledge. So I am frequently struck by people’s deep ambivalence and dichotomous disposition towards technology: it is society’s great saviour and at the same time, its nemesis. Australia’s Prime Minister, Malcom Turnbull, recently emphasised the significant shift from convention when he spoke publically about the disruptive nature of technology, “We have to recognise that the disruption that we see driven by technology, the volatility in change is our friend if we are agile and smart enough to take advantage of it.” Furthermore, the Prime Minister alluded to this imminent refocus by emphasising the direction of future policy, “We will ensure that all Australians understand that their government recognises the opportunities of the future and is putting in place the policies and the plans to enable them to take advantage of it.” So there appears to be consensus from Government that the people of Australia need convincing and reassurance on the benefit of technologies. Despite the antipathy, I will reinforce that the information age continues to unveil disruptive technologies with the potential to radically change and shape the way people live, and even the process of decision making. The ensuing years will place emphasis on the tacit skills of entrepreneurialism, innovation, design thinking and creativity. It is the realisation of the knowledge worker theorised by Professor Peter Drucker (1969). In the scope of human history, the information age is but a speck on the

lens. I read somewhere once that the wage for a Roman legionnaire remained the same for 300 years. The industrial revolution had its roots in the 15th century and developed for almost 400 years before culminating in the onset of mass production in the early 20th century. The information age is but 50 years in the making and really only took off with the rapid expansion of the World Wide Web in the 1990s. Fast forward 20 short years to the emergence of 3D printing as a consumer-level process, which is threatening to turn the concept of manufactory on its head. These technological innovations and their associated complexities have rapidly become essential to most people’s way of life. So why are there so many detractors simultaneously prophesying the end of human thought? Perhaps the discomfort that gives rise to the rhetoric bubbles to the surface due to the sustained demand for innovation that has and will continue to diminish demand for traditional academics. Life-wide learning involves discovering a little about a lot, and a person who knows what he does not know, or at least where and how to find out, and these tacit skills are of equal importance to having a depth of knowledge in one area alone. This challenges the very notion of deep, philosophical ponderings. In 1996, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) prophetically cited the capacity to learn new skills as paramount and predicted the distribution of power (knowledge) being diffused to collaborative networks, diminishing the requirement for specialisations. It implored universities to actively seek industrial partners to spur innovation rather than rely upon generic research and education. The OECD report codified knowledge into four categories: know-what, knowwhy, know-how and know-who. At the time of printing, it had already deflected know-what (facts) and knowwhy (scientific principles, the laws of

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nature, mathematics, computational thinking and so on) to the Internet and related technologies. The significant growth in technology and self-paced online learning is rapidly addressing the know-how (specific application of skills) which places emphasis on the collaborative practice of know-who (to know who can). This requirement to place trust in technology and harness social and professional networks and embrace new ways of working makes many people uneasy. Technophobia runs deep in society’s common imaginations, but my observations are that it features far less in those of the young. Their answer to the technological ‘what if’ is a very different one. While some people have grown up and old with the worry that computers will eventually outsmart them, the young seem safe in the knowledge that technology has and will continue to improve society. In this age of mobile apps, Photoshop and high definition visual effects, young people are sceptical about these fears, resistant to warnings of computerderived dystopias, and questioning of older people’s perceptions. After all, thanks to Your Baby Can Read DVDs, Reading Eggs, Mathletics and, most recently, apps, they have experienced the acquisition of knowledge through technology for the entirety of their short, busy lives. The thought processes of young digital natives are not diminishing or becoming shallower; they are merely developing differently. They are diffusing knowledge through their networks to problem solve problems more complex than the individual. It is the realisation of the knowledge worker theorised by Professor Peter Drucker (1969). Technology is often imagined in popular culture as the cause of a society’s demise. Science and speculative fiction ask of technology, ‘what if?’ The answer often looks like HAL 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey, SkyNet from Terminator, or Ultron from the Marvel Universe. Technology is often the arbitrator of evil in such scenarios.

On 22nd October 1895, the famous derailment of Gare Montparnasse garnered worldwide media coverage. Even today, the famous image of a steam train ending up on the Parisian sidewalk of Place de Rennes is still emblazoned on retro art posters as a reminder of the malevolence of technological advancement. Hindenburg, the Y2K/Millennium bug and most recently the botnet conspiracy all reiterate this fear.

This famous image is still used today as a reminder of the malevolence of technological advancement.

Is it hard to imagine a world in which people are inspired to push boundaries and think deeply about a concept in a YouTube video or the fictional freedom of a novel or film? It should not be; in fact, it is most certainly happening. A study in the UK found that one third of university students were drawn to Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) not through the laudable examples of Brunel or Curie, but through film and other media. A quick iTunes search reveals a plethora of zombie and vampire movies. Rather than decrying this trend, can people not see in it the likelihood that it may inspire a generation of potential immunologists, virologists or anthropologists, all unknowingly theorising and discussing the best approaches for pandemic disease control? Films like Iron Man and

Star Wars, and computer games such as Minecraft are potentially inspiring a generation of architects as well as electrical, mechanical and biological engineers. Anton Chekhov once wrote, “Man can be better when you can show him what he can be like.” Technology can show this just as readily as it has shown doomsday at the hands of tech-gonewrong – so perhaps older people can better recognise how the young are establishing thought processes if they look to the young’s surroundings. The possibilities of a limitless future, the bombardment of information and the uncertainties of their own career pathways are forcing them to filter copious amounts of information, network to discover the unknown, retrieve what is relevant or of interest and store it for later; a process quite comparable to what a computer uses to replicate thought. It is this tacit iterative way of working that gives industry the agility it needs to re-imagine, refocus and refine. In ancient history, religious piety and fervour structured thought. The advent of Guttenberg’s Press and the printed page propagated free thinking and the expansion of machines and science fostered people’s desire and established a process by which to understand, catalogue, process and control the natural world. This boom in science conceived the information age and the advent of the knowledge worker where people can network, trade, crowdfund or crowdsource ideas, and microfinance for social good and socialise in virtual environments. This expanse of seemingly limitless possibilities is a boon for creative thought and endeavour. Adaptation is everything, and remaining static and single-minded is a sure way for a person to find himself on a Parisian sidewalk in the Gare Montparnasse sense. So how can the process of deep thinking be approached or defined with any relevance to the present? How does a productive young person begin to solve complex problems? Part of the

answer lies in what has become known as design thinking; spending time with the question, ‘what if?’ This is the foundation of creative endeavour! It is not the realm of daydreamers, time wasters and procrastinators. The first stage of design thinking is to empathise or understand all of the possibilities before fine-tuning or selecting an area of emphasis: ‘What if we could… ?’. The next phase, ideation, returns to the question: ‘What if it looked like... ?’ Prototyping, testing and evaluating follows on and the consensus is once again on repetition, interaction, linking ideas to knowledge and critical analysis; all undoubtedly qualities of deep thinking and all skills that can be further developed in an engaging manner through technology. Arguably, there is one emergent skill set that is causing a significant and disruptive impact on society’s way of life – the ability and willingness to augment the use of technology. These experimental interactions with technology, combined with a collective of agile minds, leads people to discoveries which nobody knew needed to be discovered, and inadvertently evolves society. Deep thinking has not left the young; it has not departed the tracks, plummeted as a flaming fireball or diluted itself over the World Wide Web. The majority of young people are asking, ‘what if?’, spreading their networks, storing knowledge and crowdsourcing to foster their understanding, discover what is important, and determine what relevance this knowledge has in their lives. It is hard for the young to philosophise on the world and the way in which it works. Their fear perhaps is in dwelling with a thought for too long in case all other things change. If I can offer them any advice to span their productive lives it would be in the sage reflective words of HAL 9000 to put yourselves “… to the fullest possible use, which is all I think that any conscious entity can ever hope to do.” ETS For a full list of references, email: admin@interactivemediasolutions.com.au

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 

 

                          

 

 

   

 

 

                          

 

             

     

 

Response Response A A SA SA D D SD SD NA NA

Percent Percent 36.84 36.84 26.32 26.32 15.79 15.79 10.53 10.53 10.53 10.53

Response Response A A D D SA SA SD SD NA NA

Percent Percent 52.63 52.63 15.79 15.79 10.53 10.53 10.53 10.53 10.53 10.53

Response Response Overall Overall SA SA A Grade A Grade D D A A SD SD B B NA NA C C D D F F

Percent Percent 42.11 42.11 42.11 42.11 15.79 15.79 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00

Encouraged Questions Questions Encouraged

Mean: 2.32 2.32 Mean: Understood Subject Subject Understood

Mean: 2.63 2.63 Mean: Class

OMR Test Center has the same reliable scanning and mark recognition of Classic OMR Workstation, optimized for the high-volume, highspeed needs of a centralized test-processing center. OMR Test Center is designed to work with Scantron’s high-volume scanners like the iNSIGHT 70, iNSIGHT 150, or the OpScan 16.

objectives have been met along the way? New Data Solutions has always had a keen

Response Response SD SD A A   SA SA D D NA NA

Mean: Mean: 2.26 2.26

Percent Percent 36.84 36.84 31.58 31.58 15.79 15.79 15.79 15.79 0.00 0.00

Item Item Analysis Analysis Graph Graph Report Report

principles,

when

Score centrally, analyze locally—import assessment results scanned using Classic OMR Workstation or scored using the Scantron Score™ Test Scoring Machine into Classic Analysis Edition to allow teachers to create reports and analyze student performance at their desks. Install this edition on multiple workstations in a single school.

Percent Percent Mean Mean Score: 77.58% 77.58% 47.37Score: 47.37 42.11 Frequency 42.11 Frequency 10.53 10.53 3 3 0.00 0.00 5 5 0.00 0.00 7 7 3 3 2 2

Benchmark: Benchmark: 75.00% 75.00% Percent Percent 15.00 15.00 25.00 25.00 35.00 35.00 15.00 15.00 10.00 10.00

 

negatively

Class Class Frequency Frequency Distribution Distribution Report Report

testing and assessments in the education

applied, often have the opposite• Classroom effectEdition of their teaching strategies. Classroom Edition (sold only with the Scantron Score Test Scoring Machine) is a special introductory

that traditional assessment strategies do not

Percent Percent 36.84 36.84 26.32 26.32 21.05 21.05 10.53 10.53 5.26 5.26

assessment

really is about progress and we recognise

Response Response A A SA SA D D NA NA SD SD

Class Frequency Distribution Report

Equal Treatment Treatment of Equal of Students Students Response Response SA SA A Percent Raw A Score Percent Score Score Raw Score D D 90.00 54.00 - 60.00+ 90.00 -- 100.00+ 100.00+ 54.00 SD SD - 60.00+ 80.00 48.00 - 53.99 80.00 -- 89.99 89.99 48.00 NA NA - 53.99 70.00 -- 79.99 42.00 70.00 79.99 42.00 -- 47.99 47.99 Mean: 3.37 Mean: 3.37 60.00 36.00 60.00 -- 69.99 69.99 36.00 -- 41.99 41.99 0.00 0.00 0.00 -- 59.99 59.99 0.00 -- 35.99 35.99

to the projects that drive improvement in

As parents ourselves, we know that assessment

Percent Percent 26.32 26.32 26.32 26.32 21.05 21.05 15.79 15.79 10.53 10.53

Page Page 1 1

• Classic Analysis Edition

interest in bringing an exciting new perspective

What leads to student selfawareness and the starting point for academic, social and emotional intelligence?

Response Response A A D D SA SA SD SD NA NA

• Classic OMR Test Center

then how will you know if each of the learning

sector.

        

Item Analysis Graph Report

Page Page 1 1

• better information to enable adjustment to

Why choose the DataLink 3000?

Classroom Edition (sold only with the Scantron Score Test Scoring Machine) is a special introductory

version of Remark a USB drive,per then presents that data in five commonly used •improving Provides fast document scanning at that upaccepts to data 60viapages minute. intent: student learning outcomes. • Processes reports. It also exports the test scoring machine to a pages variety of popular gradebooks. Classroom tests in large volumes, scanning at up toscores60 per minute Introducing the New Data Edition can be installed on up to 25 computers and is available only with the purchase of a Scantron • Marks exams with up to 150 questions. New Data Solutions is here toScore help schools Test Scoring Machine. Solutions suite of devices • Works with DataLinkWhy Connect software the to deliver immediate results with detailed analysis choose DataLink 3000? that make all of these evolve• Captures beyond full the10-digit traditional bureaucracy and reporting. and proficiency reports ID field for data collectionbenefits come alive. built around which is to a deliver • Processes testsDataLink in largetesting, volumes, scanning at up to 60 pagesresults per minute • Works summative with Connect software immediate with detailed analysis • Scores exams with up to 150 questions proficiency leading and cause of painreports. and stress forchoose teachers New Data Solutions offers products that range Why the DataLink 3000? Providing Actionable • Works with DataLink Connect software to deliverInformation immediate results with detailed analysis • Captures pre-printed test data via barcode reader and students alike, bybe providing formative and from portable, classroom-friendly scanners • Questions can linked to learning objectives/standards and results easily imported into For Tests And Basic Surveys and proficiency reports yourassessment school’s database. continuous tools that for teachers can through stand-alone, high• Processes tests in volumes, scanning uptoto 60 pages perhigh-speed, minute • Captures full 10-digit IDlarge field data collection andatreporting • exams with up to 150 questions rely Scores on•everyday. Relieves the burden of classroom marking withvolume fast andworkhorses. simple electronic data capture.

•

Works with DataLink Connect software to deliver immediate results with detailed analysis continuous via barcode readerThese devices make assessment easier and and proficiency reports

•It Captures takes time to embed a pre-printed test data

do enough to ‘close the feedback loop’ for quality feedback is essential for professional

assessment culture into Melanie a school, Todd however less stressful, such as the Apperson desktop • Captures 10-digit field for667 data collection and reporting 0422 562 p: +61 3full 8370 6204ID • Scores exams with tobenefits 150 6204 questions across longer term, up the03 are scanners that enable continuous assessment p: 8370 e: the info@newdatas.com.au

development and self-awareness in adults. It

numerous. w: www.newdatas.com.auand provide powerful data-based reports that w: www.newdatas.com.au

students. It has been known for many years that

e: info@newdatas.com.au

seems logical that the same benefits and value

• Captures pre-printed Student Benefits

should be available for our children.

Trusted Capture Solutions: OMR/ICR scanners | software | forms | data collection • Captures full 10-digit ID Data field for data and reporting • self-awareness, aware of what they know collection the mediumto large-volume Scantron QLD: 07 3448 0024 PO Box 201 QLD 4020 | VIC: 03 8813 0247 PO Box xxx VIC xxxx | FAX: 03 8813 0248

The reality is that the assessment needs to

test data via barcode reader

you can act on immediately. Alternatively,

This document and information including attachments are private and confidential.

and do not know

solutions are capable of scanning hundreds

happen throughout the year and whilst we are

• self-efficacy, starting to understand how

and thousands of test papers at the admin

passionate about the concept of continuous

they learn and belief in their ability to

and system level. New Data Solutions offers

assessment, New Data Solutions recognises

apply this in difficult situations

solutions that work seamlessly with your ‘fill in

that for time-poor teachers, just the thought of

• self-management, learning becomes

the bubble’ answers to extended responses

setting tests, marking them, gathering, collating

using intelligent character recognition.

and analysing the data can be overwhelming.

• self-confidence, willing to ask for help and

The increasing demand for measuring school

performance and the data being published

Teacher Benefits

implement in just a couple of minutes without

in the media, places significant pressure on

• underlying sense of support from

the need for high-level IT skills.

teachers to have students perform well on

colleagues, students and parents in

tests as a cohort. Let us face it, assessment time

assessment practices

can be stressful for teachers and whilst most

• having greater awareness of the whole

Brisbane and Melbourne via email:

schools already have an assessment culture,

info@newdatas.com.au for more information.

080 EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS

more self-directed know the right questions to ask.

Now you too can have access to very simple, time-saving solutions that are easy to

Contact New Data Solutions offices in

child through constant feedback cycle

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.

EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS 081

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RICOH PJ WX4141NI Ultra Short Throw Projector Affordable and interactive and with a record-breaking throw distance of 18.8cm, this is a truly amazing projector that can be placed just centimetres from the wall, ensuring that nothing comes between you and your content. Say goodbye to what bugged you about your other projector, including shadows, noise and glare. The projector also comes ready to collaborate with multiple locations using interactive features, with a large display capability of up to 203cm in classrooms – all you need is a wall, desk or ceiling on which to mount it. Weighing in at 3kg, Ricoh’s breakthrough Ultra Short Throw projector is remarkably light and one of the world’s smallest, brightest (3300 lumens) and closest range projectors you will find. For the environmentally conscious classroom, you can even choose Eco mode to cut lamp intensity and power consumption by 33 percent. The built-in Ricoh Interactive Kit comes included as standard, converting any whiteboard into an interactive one, with electronic pen. You can even import, markup and save your annotations and drawings as a PDF file. But this is not the end of its interactivity – you can remotely share and interact with up to four other locations through the projected screen, via the same network. With built-in wired and wireless LAN connectivity, you can wirelessly project the content that lives on your PC, Mac, iPad or iPhone. Schools that manage devices using Crestron Roomview and AMX NetLinx will be pleased with its compatibility. Another pleasant surprise is the wall colour correction feature, which adjusts the colour of the projected image automatically to compensate for the background colour of whiteboards, wall or other projection surfaces – which is very clever indeed if you have chosen a trendy off-white colour scheme for your walls. Contact Ricoh Australia via the website on: www.ricoh.com.au/contactus for more information.

Orbus Hardsided Laptop Case Step into style this year with an innovative hard-sided case, the Orbus. Ideal for use as a protective cover for your laptop as well as a lap desk when on the go, the hard finish EVA outer shell acts as a protective barrier while the interior is lined with a new and improved patent pending dual layer foam protection system to safeguard your laptop from damage. The thoughtful internal design also aids in the ventilation of your laptop while in use and the silver interior gives it a fresh and trendy look. For teachers and students on the go who want to protect their technology; not a problem, it is a Targus. Visit targus.com/au/educationseries for more information.

082 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.

2016 The ProJet 660Pro If you have not heard yet, let us be the first to tell you â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Konica Minolta is bringing 3D printing to schools in a big way, partnering with 3D Systems to help students create full, photo-realistic colour 3D prints. This range of printers gives anyone with a need for colour the flexibility to prototype anything in the exact colours they specified and are safe, school friendly and easy to use. The ProJet 660Pro is the simplest and most efficient large-build, full-colour 3D printer we have seen, with a net build area of 10 x 15 x 8 inches (254 x 381 x 203 mm) and with a build speed of 1.1 inches per hour. It is fast, accurate and uses eco-friendly, non-hazardous materials with zero liquid waste. It prints to a resolution of 600 x 540 dpi with a minimum feature size of 0.004 inches. It incorporates professional 4-channel CMYK full-colour 3D printing to produce exceptional, high-resolution models. The ProJet660Pro is ideal for students interested in stop motion animation, model creation, product design and development, digital manufacturing, fine art production and so much more. All models produced can be sanded, drilled, tapped and electroplated and have high temperature resistance for use in moulding. As with all Konica Minolta Color Jet printers, the ProJet660Pro requires minimal training and expertise. Visit Konica Minolta at www.konicaminolta.com.au/Products/3D-Printers for more information.

Kensington Universal Charge and Sync Cabinet As your school deploys more tablets into classrooms and across larger numbers of age groups, you will soon find that having an easy and secure storage place for them at the end of each day is quickly going to become a drama. Luckily, Kensington has its own answer to this challenge. Introducing the new Charge & Sync Cabinet, Universal Tablet. With enough space for up to 10 tablets, including iPads, Galaxy Tabs, Kindles and more, this cabinet provides an ideal way to charge the tablets at night, so they can be powered up and ready to rock and roll in the morning. Tablets with protective rugged cases are not an issue because each bay inside is adjustable to accommodate fat stacks of rubberised kid-proof pads. Stack up three cabinets in series and you have storage for up to 30 tablets in one classroom. With security in mind, this solution comes with a tamper-resistant, retracting front door and customised key access. The included mounting plate or cable lock goes the distance to keeping the cabinet firmly in place. Visit buyitonline.computelec.com.au to get a deal that is designed for you on a website that is for schools only.

EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS 083

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2016 Avid Everywhere Schools across Australia may be very familiar with the Avid name and many have for many years invested in Avid solutions to provide their staff and students with industry-standard, cutting-edge media tools. Here is what you need to know now: Avid Everywhere is the new platform that is already changing the way content creators connect with content consumers more powerfully, efficiently and collaboratively, and it is set to create a dramatic shift in the way things are done. Avid Everywhere is a seriously robust solution that is positioned to be recognised as the most fluid end-to-end, distributed media production environment ever conceived. The Avid MediaCentral Platform, in conjunction with the corresponding Artist Suite, Studio Suite, Media Suite, Storage Suite and upcoming private and public marketplaces, together form a comprehensive ecosystem that encompasses everything from media creation to distribution (and monetisation), addressing every aspect of the new digital media value chain. The Artist Suite is the content creative tools – Media Composer, Pro Tools. The Media Suite is the asset management tools – Interplay Production, Interplay MAM, Media Director, Media Distribute, and Media Index. The Storage Suite is anything that stores a piece of media – Avid ISIS, Airplay Playout and Ingest servers. Put simply, Avid Everywhere shortens the timeline for production because processes that used to be serial are now parallel. It is a system built for every member of a production, not just the editors. Ask Amber Technology about Avid Everywhere and how it can put your school in the driver’s seat and produce students that are job ready for the emerging digital future. Visit www.ambertech.com.au/contact-us for more information.

The EduTouch 84-Inch Interactive Panel EduTouch 84-inch Interactive Panels are designed specifically for education – with toughened anti-glare glass, 10 touch point interactivity and a five-year warranty (modular built-in PC optional). The EduTouch interactive LED panel supports six-point multi-touch based on infrared technology, combined with the Easiteach software. Interactive activities are easily performed on the EduTouch LED panel using either your finger or a stylus. It can bring great flexibility to your kindergarten, classroom, lecture room, conference room or lecture hall. The EduTouch Interactive Panel also comes in 55-inch, 65-inch and 70-inch formats and comes with full HD (1920 x 1080) resolution. Visit IG3 Education nationwide at www.ig3education.com.au for more information.

084 EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS

IG3 Education Ltd t/a Eduss Learning

IG3 2016 Education

EduTouch Interactive LED Panel (55”, 65”, 70” & 84”)

 INTEGRATED ANDROID DISPLAY TOUCH CONTROL

(WHITEBOARD FUNCTIONALITY WITHOUT PC)  USB WIFI DONGLE – WEB BROWSING WITHOUT PC CONNECTED  ANTI-GLARE  10 POINT TOUCH

PRESS PLAY OR SCAN THIS CODE TO VIEW THE VIDEO

 5 YEAR WARRANTY  PC MODULE OPTIONAL FOR ALL EduTouch PANELS

WARRANTY

YEAR

ANTI GLARE

FULL INSTALLATION SERVICES AVAILABLE SOFTWARE

TRAINING

THE EDUCATION SOLUTIONS SPECIALISTS EduTouch Kindy Trolley

Interactive Software Solutions  ReadMe Literacy  The Language Market:



Japanese



Chinese



Indonesian



French



German



Italian

EduTouch Automated Interactive Table

AUTOMATED

 Learning A-Z - reading solutions  Snowflake MultiTouch software  Kurzweil - Special Needs Literacy  IG3 Math and English Literacy

EduTouch Height Adjustable Mobile Solution

IG3 Education Training and Professional Development IG3 Education’s face to face Basic, Intermediate and Advanced training courses have been specifically designed to ensure

edPad Windows 10 Tablet

proper usage of Interactive Technologies and the integration thereof in the classroom.

TECHNOLOGY FOR TEACHING AND LEARNING

edPad

EduTouch EduTouch

Magic Carpet

1800 334 633

info@ig3education.com.au

EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS 085

www.ig3education.com.au

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Twelve South HiRise Stand For iPhone 6/6S And iPad Mini Now here is one of the most beautiful, brushed metal stands we have seen, designed to work with your Apple Lightning Cable and virtually any iPhone/iPad mini case. Add style and convenience to your workspace by placing HiRise on your desk to charge while your hands are free to work. Unlike most other docks, HiRise does not block your speakers, microphone or headphone ports. This vertical pedestal is small and beautiful enough to use anywhere in your home or office. It is the ultimate perch for keeping your iPhone or iPad mini fully charged and ready to go. HiRise for iPhone is compatible with iPhone, iPad mini and iPod touch, with adjustable support posts that fit even the most protective cases. Visit Macintosh Addict at www.macintoshaddict.com.au or call (03) 9013 7333 for more information.

Philips Power Bank 10,400mAh When you use and rely on mobile technology, it is battery life that usually lets you down. Carrying a portable power pack means you can recharge anywhere, anytime, and keep going. Philips Power Bank 10,400mAh has a big rechargeable battery so it can recharge your phone four to five times, or recharge a larger device. It is all maths, depending on your deviceâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s battery size. There are many rechargeable power packs on the market, so picking the reliable ones that can last the distance can be a challenge. This unit is made by one of the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s biggest brands and the attention to quality is evident; even the carry pouch included to protect it in your bag is good. Using the power bank itself is simple: plug in up to two USB cables and plug in your device at the other end. Press the button and recharging is underway. This means that any USB cable will work, so you can charge devices using a newer iPhone or iPad with lightning cable, or an older 30-pin cable, or a phone or tablet with a micro-USB power port. Really, if you have a USB cable, you can charge. The unit itself is compact at 97 x 23 x 70 mm, so it is easy to carry and have on hand for when the flat battery symbol appears. Get the Philips Power Bank from www.poweredlife.com.au

086 EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS

2016 Easy Spelling Aid Children’s Education App

Juno Get ready for fantastic digital stereo sound from the installation-free Juno tower – superb for both voice and media amplification. The three-speaker 2.1 line array (two mid-range high frequency drivers and one woofer) provide full, rich stereo sound, with volume level cleverly controllable via voice command. For voice amplification, We are suitably impressed with this application because Easy Spelling

Juno lets you use up to five microphones simultaneously through

Aid is actually much more than a spelling and reading helper – as if

the optional Channel Expansion Module.

that was not already enough! It is a very special go-to literacy and learning tool that defeats dyslexia and dysgraphia through the use of colour backgrounds and special fonts. Also, beyond giving kids instant help to spelling problematic words, it is a friend to children at the primary level from all backgrounds because it boasts superior, accurate and incredibly fine-tuned speech recognition in multiple languages, including English, Spanish, Chinese, German, French, Turkish, Italian, Japanese and more. Through this educationally compelling app, young students everywhere are starting to enjoy the benefits of self-directed learning by not having to wait for help from parents or teachers, which is a big plus. It even helps kids learn about homophones and to better understand word usage by giving them exercises in comprehension and vocabulary, even going so far as to use context to determine the correct spelling of a word; for example, “They’re playing over there, in front of their house” or “Two friends had too much to eat”. Extraordinary stuff! What makes Easy Spelling Aid unique is that it breaks away from simply teaching a list of spelling words. Instead, it acts as a tool when a child is faced with a word they do not know how to spell. Improving literacy performance and working to help children learn how to spell is a significant part of the app’s design, value and purpose – which sets it apart from anything we have seen. As a real mind boggler, we tested the app to its limits, by speaking the word ‘supercalifragilisticexpialidocious’ into the app with an east coast Canadian accent and, believe it or not, it replied instantly, spelling

Meanwhile, the next-generation Adapto digital engine actively

the word correctly.

scans audio 375 times per second to suppress feedback squeal before it starts and, in doing so, it is almost as if the Juno can

Overall, we found the app really easy to use. Simply press the

bend the universe and break all the rules. Juno features patented

microphone button, speak the word or phrase and receive the

OptiVoice technology to emphasise critical speech sounds, so kids

correct spelling, displayed in one of the Australian, New Zealand,

comprehend even more, which is a huge benefit that is practically

US or UK primary school writing styles. We believe without hesitation

impossible to look past. In the past, this kind of technology was

that Easy Spelling Aid is a real game changer and well worth

complicated and temperamental in general. Juno has turned all

downloading straight away.

of this on its head and made it easy.

Easy Spelling Aid is available for download in the AppStore, Google

Visit gofrontrow.com/au-en/juno for more information.

Play and through Amazon. EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS 87

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2016 Osmo Game System For iPad I opened Osmo Game System from Tangible Play full of hope, but with the background thought, “What if this is another waste of money?” Teachers and parents are always looking for ways to use iPads and tablets for more than just Minecraft, so I opened up the Osmo Starter Kit to check it out. Using an iPad 4, all I needed to do was slip the iPad into the moulded plastic base unit of the Osmo and then clip the red reflector over the camera. This reflector is the genius, as through this tiny set of mirrors, Osmo can see what I am doing in the real world – you know, on the table in front of me, NOT on the iPad screen. I had downloaded the Osmo game apps from iTunes already, so I was quickly ready to go. Osmo was quietly engaging and fun, even as an adult. I enjoyed the feedback from the game as I worked through the puzzles. Kids will love the points they can collect for getting the right answers. Groups of up to four could work on a puzzle with Osmo. It is fun, educational and will suit schools and families with students 6–10 years of age. An Apple iPad 2/3/4, iPad Air, iPad Air 2, iPad Mini 2 and later is required. An Android version is likely in the future. Osmo can be downloaded from www.poweredlife.com.au/accessories/electronics/ osmo-game-system-for-ipad.html

Griffin Survivor Custom Case Its durability is legendary and its compatibility is incredible because it protects iPad 2, iPad 3 and 4th generation, plus it comes in a dazzling array of 294 colour combinations. Even though we got ours in grey/ white, we could not imagine it being any easier to find your school colours and customise your tablet fleet with the grooviest colour combos you want. Now more than ever, protecting your iPad from drops, dust, rain and vibration has never looked more the way you want it, even if you need to take your tablets into the great outdoors. Everything about the Griffin Survivor makes you feel confident that your device will be kept snug and safe, even in the most accident-prone situations. Visit www.scholastic.com.au/retail/newmedia/ for more information.

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Versavu Slim 360 For iPad Mini Now you can interact with your iPad mini from multiple angles with the Targus Versavu Slim 360. Magnetic closure ensures your device’s safety while on the move and the raised bezel keeps your screen safe from accidental scratches. It is compatible with iPad mini Generation 4, 3, 2 and 1. One thing we noticed straight away was how deceptively simple it looks – the design is actually incredibly clever and lightweight, auto waking the device when opened and putting it into auto sleep when shut to conserve battery life. Besides being stylish, it is a Targus, so you have peace of mind knowing it has passed Mil-Spec testing and your iPad mini will be protected from drops up to four feet. It is also made from durable polyurethane and polycarbonate space-age materials. Visit targus.com/au/educationseries for more information.

Gripcase Often when schools purchase tablets, and particularly when teachers purchases one for themselves, usually it is envisioned that they will use it walking around the classroom, showing content on the fly. In other words, they can show what they are talking about while they are teaching. They buy the device and download a handful of apps, but they overlook something critical – how they will physically present with it and allow interaction. When we first encountered the Gripcase, we thought it was really just for kids because of the kid-sized protective handles the case has integrated all the way around the sides – and there is no question that it is actually perfect for bulk purchases in schools to protect iPads in the primary school environment. But what we think is really great about the ‘handles’ feature is that it allows teachers to walk around holding the tablet without smudging up the glass or having their fingers get in the way of students seeing the full picture. Should the iPad slip and fall, damage will likely be avoided because this is such a robust and rubbery solution, with such a great ‘feel’ – and we think it actually smells pretty good too! Visit www.scholastic.com.au/retail/newmedia/ for more information.

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2016 GoPro HERO4 Black Whether you are into flipped learning or capturing school events such as sports days, camps, speech nights and the like, you need a great camera and, dollar for dollar, there is no better all-round video camera on the market than the new camera GoPro HERO4 Black. Featuring a powerful processor that delivers super slow motion at 240 frames per second (fps), this Emmy Award-winning camera is also capable of incredible high-resolution 4K at 30fps and 2.7K at 60fps video, as well as 1080p at 120fps, to enable stunning, immersive footage of your students and their world. The HERO4 Black also features new Night Photo and Night Lapse modes, which offer customisable exposure settings of up to 30 seconds for single and time-lapse photos. Whether your students are shooting the Milky Way or a campfire hangout, Night Photo and Night Lapse allow them to capture ultra low-light scenes like never before. The HERO4 Black also features built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, allowing students to connect to the GoPro app, Smart Remote2 and more. The GoPro app transforms a phone or tablet into a live video remote for the camera, offering full control of all functions and settings, easy shot preview and playback, plus sharing via text, email, Facebook and more. In fact, the Smart Remote allows you to control multiple GoPro cameras from distances of up to 180 metres. Other features include SuperView, a video mode that captures the world’s most immersive wide-angle perspective; auto low-light mode for optimal low-light performance; QuikCapture mode, allowing you to power on and start recording automatically with the press of a single button; and a powerful new audio system, to capture clean, high-fidelity sound. Visit www.gopro.com for more information

The ScanSnap iX100 Fujitsu’s ScanSnap iX100 is the world’s fastest battery powered ScanSnap and lets you take scanning literally anywhere. Whether scanning tests, permission forms, contracts, or even plastic cards, the iX100 takes scanning beyond the desktop and into your mobile world. Completely wireless and weighing only 400 grams, the iX100 brings unparalleled convenience and wireless scanning to your PC or Mac as well as iOS or Android device with the touch of a single button. We love our ScanSnap iX100 and we use it absolutely everywhere. It is so easy to use, even from your mobile phone. All you need to do is download the ScanSnap Connect app from either the AppStore or Google Play. Once that is done, you are ready to scan. Press the blue scan button in the app and your document will be fed through the ScanSnap and the digitised version sent to your phone. Easy peasy! Visit www.fujitsu.com/au/ for more information.

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Apple iPad Pro The all-new iPad Pro from Apple features a stunning 12.9-inch Retina display with 5.6 million pixels, the most ever in an iOS device, and groundbreaking performance with the new 64-bit A9X chip, rivalling most portable PCs – although it has to be said that this is not a portable PC, it is still an iPad, but with upgraded iPad features and functionality. iPad Pro’s 12.9-inch Retina display, with 5.6 million pixels and refined multi-touch technology, is the most advanced and highest resolution display ever in an iOS device. It delivers greater contrast, more uniform brightness and improved energy efficiency through photo alignment technology, oxide thin-film transistor (TFT) and variable refresh rate. A new four-speaker audio design provides powerful, clear and rich stereo sound, and a refined unibody enclosure of anodised aluminium gives the iPad Pro a sturdy feel with a thin and light design that is easy to hold. Apple’s powerful new 64-bit A9X chip, with third-generation 64-bit architecture, provides desktop-class central processing unit (CPU) performance and consoleclass graphics. Ultra-fast wireless connectivity keeps you connected wherever you go with 802.11ac Wi-Fi with multiple input, multiple output (MIMO) technology, support for a wide range of 4G long-term evolution (LTE) bands and other fast cellular network technologies (DC-HSDPA, HSPA+). Ten-hour battery life (depending on how you use the device) delivers the efficiency that users have come to expect from iPad. iPad Pro comes in three gorgeous metallic finishes, including silver, gold and space grey. If you are looking for a larger, faster iPad, then check out the iPad Pro. Visit apple.com/au for more information.

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2016 Zoom F8 Field Recorder Before now, dedicated field recorders have been out of the price range of most schools. Any school audio-visual lab looking to record audio at things like school speech nights, interviews for school videos and websites or other video productions have had to make do with hand-held digital recorders, which have been okay, but are extremely limited in both function and quality. However, Zoom – makers of the H4 and H6 portable digital recording systems, two of the best portable hand-held recorders on the market in recent years – have turned the audio industry on its head with the recent release of the Zoom F8 Field recorder. For around $1,700, this amazing unit gives other similar devices from Sound Devices and Nagra, two of the most widely used professional field recorders, a genuine run for their money at less than a quarter of the cost. This amazing little unit is compact, light, extremely robust thanks to an aluminium casing, and is packed with important features such as eight XLR combo inputs and Zoom’s best yet microphone preamps with an extremely low noise floor (−127dBu EIN) and high gain (up to 75dB), with +4dB line inputs. The F8 can record at 24-bit/192kHz resolution and is equipped with onboard limiters designed to provide overload protection. Limiting can be applied to all eight channels simultaneously at full resolution, with 10dB of headroom and controls for setting threshold, attack and release. One of the most impressive features of the F8 is the in-built time code function which utilises a Temperature Compensated Crystal Oscillator (TCXO) that generates time code at 0.2ppm accuracy, enabling rock-solid syncing of audio and video. The F8 supports all standard dropframe and non-drop formats, and can jam sync to time code being provided by external devices. An input and output are provided on standard BNC connectors, enabling easy integration into any rig. The F8 also features a bright, 2.4-inch, full-colour backlit LCD display for level meters (which can be set to monochrome mode), making the F8 easy to use in any environment – from low light to direct sunlight. What is more, the F8 records in BWF-compatible WAV format at 16-bit or 24-bit resolution, and at any standard sample rate up to 192kHz. Furthermore, when recording files in MP3 format, you can choose bit rates of 128kbps, 192kbps or 320kbps. To further enhance the professional appeal of this unit, the F8 incorporates a ton of redundancy. You can record on two SD/SDHC/ SDXC cards, up to 512GB each, simultaneously, allowing you to instantly backup or split recordings (for example, save eight tracks onto one card and a stereo mix onto another). The F8 also features a 4-pin Hirose connector, which enables the use of external 9–16 volt DC battery packs. Alternatively, internal power is provided by eight AA batteries. The F8 can switch power sources from a DC battery pack to the AA batteries at a userdefined voltage level for uninterrupted recording. You can also use the supplied 12-volt AC adapter when not on the go. Another great feature of the F8 is that files are saved periodically during recording. This provides an extra level of protection in the event of unexpected file interruption; for example, power loss or the removal of an SD card. Last but not least, while the F8 can be mounted to a tripod and attached to your camera using the included mounting bracket (a feature which we loved and is great if you are shooting with a DSLR), there is also a protective case available (the PCF-8) which not only carries and protects the F8 but also a range of microphones and leads, making it the ideal companion. When it comes to value for money, you really cannot go past the Zoom F8 Field recorder. This has to be one of the most impressive products we have seen this year. Visit www.dynamicmusic.com.au or contact Dynamic Music on 02 9939 1299 for more information.

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2016

Retrospect Backup And Recovery Software With the right solution, educational institutions everywhere can rest easy knowing that their digital assets are safe. Retrospect’s enterpriselevel features provide local and offsite backups, precise point-in-time restores, built-in file-level deduplication, VMware integration, iOS remote management of multiple backup servers, enduser-initiated restores, and industry-leading customer support, all with no dedicated IT staff required to manage it. In fact, Retrospect’s new High-level Dashboard provides a high-level view of the entire state of your backup environment. See at a glance what backups are running, how much you have backed up in the last week per day, which computers are not protected, the state of your storage, and more. Retrospect offers peace of mind through its automated ‘fire and forget’ design that keeps data protected with little or no babysitting, with iOS app and email reporting to keep admins informed. There is no need to tell Retrospect to do a full backup; it intelligently backs up only the unique files that it does not already have. It also ensures compliance and data security through encrypted backups to safeguard sensitive information that is susceptible to loss or theft and supports Write-Once Read-Many (WORM) digital tape archiving. Plus, because it saves a complete point-in-time file listing of every backup, Retrospect always restores exactly the files that belong on a volume; no unwanted files get restored that later require cleanup. Need to protect laptops that come and go from the network? No problem. Retrospect’s Proactive Backup feature watches for computers and automatically backs them up when they connect to the network. What is really smart here is that Retrospect reduces the overall power demands for backups – Retrospect awakens sleeping/standby mode computers to back them up and then allows them to return to their low-power state. What you will also enjoy are some really special benefits that provide additional protection. Retrospect detects failing hard disks and sends an alert for immediate backup, as well as ‘bare metal’ disaster recovery of non-bootable systems. It can even make use of multiple hard disk destinations, whether grouped together or used independently. Retrospect includes a wealth of data about your backups in the operations log, which now comes included, to give you complete insight into each backup’s progress, which means you can filter emails based on errors, warnings, or other keywords to hone in on issues as soon as they happen. Get Retrospect for your school this year and enjoy peace of mind in 2016! Visit apac.sales@retrospect.com for more information.

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2016 WORKFLOW MANAGEMENT PROCESSOR Digital Director is the only Apple certified (MFi â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Made for iPad Certification) electronic device that connects your camera and iPad to help manage the photo and video workflow, from setting your camera to sharing your pictures. It works with Canon and Nikon DSLRs and iPad Air and Air 2.

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Aussie Kids Get A Tech Boost From World-Leading Experts At Cisco In Collaboration With CSIRO

Australia’s next generation will get a first-hand look into the work of realworld technology experts thanks to a new collaboration between Cisco and CSIRO. Cisco Australia has now reached the key milestone of having over 10 percent of employees engaged in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) skills mentoring. Cisco launched the AUSTEM2020 initiative in March 2015, which builds on Cisco Australia’s longterm commitment to tackle the STEM skills shortage and help create an innovation economy, boost productivity and boost jobs growth. A key component of AUSTEM2020 is engaging Cisco Australia’s employees to participate in CSIRO’s Scientists and Mathematicians in Schools (SMiS) program, with a focus on ICT. SMiS is a national education program, managed by CSIRO, which connects teachers and industry and research professionals to get kids inspired about STEM. Cisco’s Vice President Australia and New Zealand, Ken Boal, said, “Since we kicked off our participation in CSIRO’s SMiS program, we have seen an overwhelming interest from our employees right across Australia,

with over 120 employees stepping up to this important opportunity to help boost Australia’s innovation capability.” With participation and engagement of STEM subjects declining, SMiS is a great way of getting more kids inspired about science, technology, engineering and math. Cisco employees are already inspiring students to think about how they can be part of creating and using technology to solve real-world problems – like improving public transport, community safety or food security. Johanna Emptage from Courtenay Gardens Primary School shared, “Our SMiS partner from Cisco is helping us run a special careers session with some of our Year 6 students who have an interest in an IT career, as well as some extra assistance for our afterschool code club – it is great to have a real-life professional working on this with us.” CSIRO SMiS program manager Claudette Bateup explained that the next generation are using technology more and more in everyday life, and their future careers will depend on their understanding in this area. “It is fantastic to have Cisco as a partner

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in our program so that we can pair up more teachers with current experts and instil a passion for STEM in Australia’s future innovators,” Ms Bateup said. Ken Boal also added, “The SMiS program is Australia’s leading national STEM mentoring program and we are thrilled to be part of it. Cisco has set a target to have 20 percent of our workforce by 2020, mentoring 20 hours each year. We are well on our way to meeting that goal.” I encourage other businesses and organisations who have expressed concern about Australia’s declining STEM talent to get on board with SMiS and reap the benefits of improved staff engagement and help build our next wave of innovation, jobs and economic growth.” Cisco employees also participate in STEM mentoring programs in the tertiary sector, through the Cisco Networking Academy program, as well as specific programs that are targeted at increasing female participation with the University of Technology Sydney and the Queensland University of Technology.

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 New Priorities In Cloud Application Control

Traditional web content filtering solutions such as Secure Web Gateway (SWG) struggle to provide the tools necessary to deal with new threats such as the radicalisation of young people. Focusing on just the best-known social media sites is not enough; vigilance must extend to as yet unknown sites and apps. CensorNet has risen to this challenge by adding powerful Cloud Application Control (CAC) to its web filter products and services. It allows users to: • see who is accessing what, and

monitor student activity on social media and cloud apps such as Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Flickr and Dropbox • track specific content and search for inappropriate phrases related to terrorism, radicalisation and cyberbullying • track activity on any device including bring your own device. See a short video demonstration of how CensorNet’s Cloud Application

Control works at http://Bit.ly/1KorTv6 Be proactive; see how CensorNet can help your school community stay safe with FREE evaluations available to schools, education consultants and resellers on request. For more information, contact Custom Technology via email: info@CustomTech.com.au, phone 02 9659 9590 or visit: www.CustomTech.com.au

EduTECH – One Giant Festival For ALL Of Education

30th May – 1st June 2016 Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre Preparations are underway for the largest education event in the southern hemisphere and AsiaPacific. EduTECH 2016 will feature eight parallel conferences, eight post-event masterclasses and one giant exhibition, which is expected to attract over 8,000 professionals and educators. EduTECH congresses and exhibition

runs over the first two days of the event, and the masterclasses are held post-event (1st June 2016). Attendance at EduTECH will provide unparalleled networking opportunities with educators from across the region, exclusive access to some of Australia’s and the world’s most well-regarded education experts, as well as the exclusive chance to see the latest advancements in technology from world-leading providers. Some of the confirmed speakers include Jane McGonigal, David

Thodey, Baroness Susan Greenfield, Ian Bean, Dr Bron Stuckey and many more. Attendance at EduTECH counts towards professional development, which delegates can record with their relevant state teacher registration board. Early bird rates apply until 1st December 2015. For more information or to register, visit edutech.net.au/registration.html or call 02 8908 8555.

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Schools Slash Energy Bills While Students Get Smart About Energy Management Australian schools are saving up to 40–50 percent on their energy bills, while students learn about smarter energy management, thanks to a unique program launched by energy reduction specialists CSR Bradford. Engineered to suit individual schools, Bradford’s Energy in Education Program undertakes a detailed assessment of a school’s energy use to examine how its operations can be upgraded to reduce energy demand and utility expenditure. “We examine the school as a whole to assess how and when it uses energy and then look at ways to reduce the load by implementing technologies, including energy efficiency upgrades and fully equipped solar systems,” explains Matthew Jones, National Schools Program Manager at CSR Bradford. The program is operated in partnership with ASCA, a national procurement body comprised of 3,500 schools, and National Australia Bank, whose heritage in educational lending

has enabled them to develop a specialist finance package – allowing schools to fund participation in the program though their energy savings. “Rising energy prices have led to mounting pressures on school budgets. Data shows us that lighting, for instance, represents between 30 and 50 percent of a school’s energy usage – and thanks to advances in LED lighting it is a primed asset for upgrade,” explains Jones. The Energy in Education Program builds on the success of the National Solar Schools Program, a government initiative that provided over $217 million to implement a range of energy efficiency measures in almost 60 percent of Australian schools until its conclusion in 2013. St. Joseph’s College in Ferntree Gully, Victoria, is one of the first schools to have already signed up to the Energy in Education Program. Commenting on their participation, Tim Rowler, the school’s Business Manager, explains, “The Energy in

Education Program is a critical part of our long-term planning, as the savings we can generate from smarter energy management can be put towards other areas of the school’s development.” The program also incorporates an educational package to integrate into the curriculum, allowing students to track and analyse the energy production profile of the school. For example, inbuilt monitors allow the solar system to feed data into the classroom from which students can learn. “We are teaching the leaders of the future, so it is important to set a positive example. An added benefit of the program is that we can use the monitoring software to study what the solar panels are achieving. This is an effective way to show students the practical results of this initiative and how their school is working to improve the environment,” Rowler says.

Peggy Sheehy, Larry Rosenstock, Dr Karl Kruszelnicki and many other world-renowned speakers are confirmed to present at the National FutureSchools Expo. Taking place in Sydney from the 2nd to 4th March 2016, the National FutureSchools Expo will be headlining some of education’s best speakers, including: • Peggy Sheehy, virtual world and games in education pioneer (USA) • Larry Rosenstock, CEO of High Tech High (USA) • Dr Karl Kruszelnicki, Australia’s most popular science communicator • Lane Clark, pedagogical expert and international learning consultant (CA)

• Jennie Magiera, Chief Technology Officer of Des Plaines School District 62 (USA). The National FutureSchools Expo is an annual national three-day event dedicated to schools and proudly brought to you by the team that organises EduTECH, Australia and AsiaPacific’s largest education event. This event consists of one central exhibition and five parallel conferences designed to tackle specific areas of the future school:

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• • • • •

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Early bird discounts end on 28th November 2015. Visit www.futureschools.com.au to learn more about this landmark event.

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