empowering the next generation By Rosie Clarke, Editor
presentation skills, and work with students they wouldn’t usually pick, pushing them out of their comfort zone.”
Our Lady of the Pines Catholic Primary School powerfully integrates digital technology into its pedagogy and has been invited by BenQ to become its first Australian Junior Academy. We spoke with the school about its recent collaboration with edtech superstar BenQ, which has allowed teachers to take lessons to the next level. When Brendan Keeling was appointed as principal of the Victorian school five years ago, he made a commitment to update edtech and find a technology supplier that could provide his team with more professional support and upskilling opportunities from their next technology supplier, following disappointing prior experiences. The school’s Digital Technologies leader, Anna Holman told us: “BenQ came highly recommended by school ICT consultant Tserlin Hetherton who had already established a good working relationship with the edtech company. So, in the process of building up our technologies’ curriculum and resources, we were delighted to be introduced and very impressed by BenQ’s interactive classroom solutions.” Following a consultation, she recalls, “we decided to upgrade our fleet of interactive panels to x16
Term 4, 2022 | school-news.com.au
Images courtesy of BenQ and Our Lady of the Pines Catholic Primary School
BenQ RM6502K Interactive Panels, one for each classroom. These were installed at the beginning of this school year, as well as two CP6501K Interactive Flat Panels installed in our leadership hub for staff and leaders to collaborate on.” Anna and Tserlin already facilitate a “TechOLOPy team” of student technology role models, where workshops encourage children to share coding skills and work to “build student voice”. Unfortunately though, “COVID put a bit of a pause” on their plans: “But Tserlin and I like to tackle big projects and were thrilled when we were approached to collaborate with the team at BenQ.” It all began in March when the BenQ team, flew into Donvale to hold an intensive conference session for the school, teaching them about the new panels and how they could be applied in the classroom. Anna revealed: “This was also the initial step to
prepare our students to attend and present at the BenQ stand at EduTECH 2022 event.” EduTECH is one of the largest educational expos in the world and one of the largest teacher networking opportunities in Australia. For students at Our Lady of the Pines, it became a unique learning experience and an opportunity to show other educators how they use these technologies in their everyday learning. Anna said: “All the opportunities offered by BenQ have exposed our students to many new experiences and given them an insight into professions within the technology field. It has taught them so much more about technology outside of basic classroom programs and devices. “Being part of the BenQ Junior Academy has pushed our TechOLOPy team to work collaboratively, improve
TECHNOLOGY
BenQ’s fleet of interactive panels are designed to make sure students are no longer passive learners in the classroom, and teachers using them across the school agree. For instance, one teacher glowed: “I love that there are so many tools and features I can use to teach different things. Sometimes, lessons go on a tangent and having all these features ready to go makes teaching new concepts easier and more adaptable to the children’s needs.” For Anna, “it is all about building partnerships and utilising experts in our network to benefit the students’ learning outcomes”. She enthused: “Collaborating with the BenQ team has been seamless as the staff are attuned to student health and wellbeing and have been really encouraging of the students and have loved their enthusiasm and engagement in their sessions. BenQ staff members flew in and held a conference for our team in March for an intensive session about integrating the new panels into the classroom. “Not all teachers are highly digitally literate, so having expert students in the school to assist has helped our staff and the students gain so much experience, persistence and self confidence in their abilities when they assist their teachers and peers or younger students.”
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CASE STUDY
A classroom tech collab
