Dancing to a different tune in her new role at ETV

ETV has appointed Courtney Robinson, previously teaching at Riccarton High, as its National Support Manager. From first position to her new position, here she tells us a little about herself, her role and the exciting resource packs she’s already creating for teachers.

Congratulations on joining ETV. Can you outline for us your new role?

There are three main parts. Firstly, support existing ETV clients with professional development opportunities to make sure each kura is getting the most out of their subscription. I have already met so many passionate teachers, IT staff and librarians. I am also available via the ‘Help’ button on ETV. You can meet with me every second Wednesday of the month in our Zoom support sessions. Also, keep an eye out for ETV workshops on specific tools or pedagogical practices.

Secondly, I manage ETV’s social media platforms. It’s important to me to engage with clients regularly and create a sense of community. A lot is going on when you’re teaching, so I’m excited to highlight new and relevant content through these channels.

Thirdly, I am building resource packs for educators. These use content that is on ETV and provides opportunities for deeper learning by wrapping the video content into wider contexts with supporting activities.

What attracted you to the job?

Working with ETV allows me to explore parts of education that I am passionate about. I get to share my contemporary teaching knowledge with educators and support them in intentionally integrating content into their classrooms. It’s important to me that teachers also think about their digital competency, so our students can dive past the superficial/surface-level instances of technologies in the classroom.

Also, working for a not-for-profit aligns well with my vision of what education should look like and creates a sense of connectedness with the people I work with inside ETV and out. The work ETV is doing around awareness of copyright licensing and equitable access to resources in education was a big drawcard.

Can you tell us a little about your background?

My background is in the performing arts, specifically ballet. I grew up as a dancer and completed full-time dance training before becoming a secondary school teacher in 2018. My first teaching role was a Paraparaumu College and in 2020 I joined Riccarton High School. I’m incredibly grateful that teaching gave me space to both dance and explore my love for learning.

Woven into my teaching career is my Master’s Degree. In 2019, I began a postgraduate certificate with The Mind Lab, which snowballed into a Master of Contemporary Education … and sparked my love for digital technologies! I don’t think I will ever stop engaging in academia and being a part of communities like EdTech NZ. My research was focused on asynchronous collaboration between classrooms. I used project-based learning and this allowed me to explore ponderings around agile and lean methodologies in the classroom.

After completing my research, I continued to work on the implementation of digital technologies to increase student communication and the teaching of digital citizenship in secondary schools.

What do you think you bring to the job?

I’m excited to see what change I can create in this role and the community I can build. The rapid development of digital technologies over the last few years has had a huge impact on what and how we teach. I’m constantly a learner myself, which sounds a bit cheesy, however, I mean it. My focus in 2022 was learning more about software development and disruptive technologies like AI, Big Data and IoT. I will always be futurefocused in this role, and bring current and well-researched ideas to the team from either a pedagogical or technological perspective. If there’s a new OECD report, educational framework or Ed Tech review, you can bet I’ve read it!

Why should schools use ETV?

ETV provides great resources for educators. Currently, the extensive library houses well over 150,000 videos for educators to use (links will never expire), our EVA interactive annotation video tool helps deepen learning by utilising sight, sound, colour and movement. You can request to upload anything you can’t find on the site already. I haven’t even begun to talk about the collaboration functionality of ELINK either …

Did you use ETV as a teacher?

I did and it was a huge help in planning and creating colourful learning pathways for my students. We could use videos on ETV to identify and evaluate the effectiveness of choreographic devices or critique the technique of different dance

Meet EVA

EVA can turn any video into an enriched interactive experience with 17 different types of annotation and interactive tools that pop up while the learner watches the video. These can include labels, text boxes, links, images, quizzes, and more. The full range of no-response and response-enabled tools are available with your ETV subscription. It can also be used by schools that do not subscribe to ETV.

More at etv.nz/eva styles. ETV also helped me learn about Haka and other dances that I was not so familiar with, yet I knew it was important to explore with my students.

There were also many times when ETV was there to save the day. Creating interactive videos in EVA helped me understand where my students were with their learning.

Can you tell us about ETV’s new resource packs for teachers?

ETV is wanting to help educators create engaging learning with modern ideas and topics relevant to our place in the world. We are seeing huge changes to the New Zealand Curriculum being rolled out and we want to help make these changes as smooth as possible.

These new resources use EVA to provide educators with pre-made interactive videos and surrounding content. Our packs are future-focused, designed to combine subjects in one topic, designed to support skills for the 21st Century, and support core

Each new pack will come with three pre-made interactive videos and a mixture of worksheets, presentations, infographics, group activities and reflection ideas. These packs are available once you’ve logged into ETV.

What resources are available now – and are more planned?

We currently have two resource packs available, entitled ‘Kaitiakitanga’ and ‘By Chance’.

Kaitiakitanga blends big ideas and learning objectives found in the refresh of the Digital Technologies, Chemistry and Biology and Social Studies subjects for Level 1 NCEA. It focuses on the concept of Kaitiakitanga (Guardianship), Kauri Dieback and the different perspectives on the protection of Significant Natural Areas. Two subjects you may think are chalk and cheese have been explored in By Chance. Dance and Digital Technologies work together to explore the concept of chance by creating a randomizer to make movement patterns. This pack is designed to get junior secondary school students moving and exploring basic programming skills.

A third resource is under development and will support the teaching of Aotearoa New Zealand’s Histories for Years 7-8. The pack will give scope for teachers and students to explore local histories or personal experiences through the ‘Understand, Know, Do’ elements.

Critical thinking opportunities and digital technologies opportunities will give teachers fresh ideas on how to explore this content with their a - konga.

As ETV develops packs, we welcome suggestions and support from our community, so these resources are relevant and meaningful.

Are there any other plans that you can tell us about for ETV in 2023?

We are continuing our campaign to convince the Government to fully fund copyright licences for every school, as is done in Australia and the UK, and looks set to be implemented in Canada. Our teachers will then have peace of mind that they are covered under our copyright laws, and can use any print, music and audio-visual material that they want to in their classrooms. That means safety for schools, but also that content creators are being respected, too.

We will be expanding our free Library, available to all teachers without a subscription, to include content around water safety, road safety and mental health, as our contribution to the health and safety of all akonga from Early Learning through to Tertiary.

We are looking forward to attending the INTERFACEXpo conferences in Dunedin, Lincoln, Cambridge, and Auckland in May, and we will also focus this year on building relationships with the various curriculum associations.

And finally, we will continue to support any school who would like to trial ETV for three months at no charge, including unlimited PLD. For more information about a free trial contact martin.drew@etv.org.nz or call 0800 438 388

Thank you.

If you’d like to know more about ETV’s resources and training, Courtney can be contacted at courtney.robinson@etv.org.nz or on 022 010 7530