National Education Summit

Timothy Ross Head of Department –Digital Learning Allison McDonald Digital Learning Specialist Melanie Webster Teacher Librarian

On 17th and 18th June, colleagues from Knowledge Services, in particular, Information Services and Digital Learning, attended The National Education Summit in Melbourne. The National Education Summit incorporated five individual events under one roof and offered five special areas of interest across teaching and learning:

• Capacity Building School Libraries • STEM Across the Curriculum • Diverse Learners • Wellbeing • Digital Technology and Learning

Spaces.

Representatives from the School were involved in the Digital Technology, STEM and Capacity Building in School Libraries initiatives. The following main themes and key points emerged from these sessions. Capacity-Building School Libraries contained four streams: Leading from the Library, Reading for Pleasure, Creating Community Connections, and Designing Future-Focused Learning Spaces. Today’s students live in a constantly changing world. They need access to programs and services and teaching and learning that will help them develop the essential skills and capabilities needed for their future success.

The different sessions were informative and reinforced the important role libraries play in schools. Importantly, libraries support academic learning. The Kings’ Senior School Library supports a crosscurriculum analysis of assessments and skills, so it was helpful to be reminded of the Information Fluency Framework and how these are guided by the Australian Curriculum’s general capabilities. Literacy and learning through the library were also highlighted, with a reminder that literacy is different across the various subject areas. Emphasis was placed on reading for meaning and how that might look, depending on the topic. This discussion evolved into how libraries can improve literacy rates amongst students, with an emphasis on reading for pleasure and engagement.

While the academic side of libraries is vital, consideration was given to the social aspect of libraries and how they should provide a sense of fun and wonder. Libraries are the school’s heart and can inspire through creative and innovative programming. Marketing and targeting programs to students’ needs and interests were covered, which linked with the exploration of the library as a community

National Education Summit

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space that appeals to, develops skills, and provides resources for its users.

Significantly, students consistently placed as the main motivation behind the different programs, research, and changes considered and implemented. Library users must be a priority. School library personnel and school libraries have an active role in the school community to support knowledge acquisition, skills development, and social intelligence.

Dr Karl Sebire presented the topic, Distraction in a Digital Age, on the retaining of knowledge concerning adolescent learning. The workshop session introduced his PhD work and posed the question of how technology distracts learners from knowledge retention to the detriment of their mental health. He focused on the importance of multitasking vs monotasking and the effect technology has had overall, particularly from the recent lockdowns. The research presented the need for monotasking when learning and allowing students to have time to do nothing and sit in uncomfortable silence to let their brains refocus on one task at a time.

Adrian Francis presented various activities based on the STEM pedagogies of delivering content to students and Using Technology Better. He integrated digital technologies to introduce modern literacies through challenging-based topics. He enforced the concept of students being problem finders and not just problem solvers. As such, the workshop participants were allowed to produce solutions to realworld problems and not just “time filler” activities. Something we need to remember to engage our students in real-world activities where they can see a clear link to, and reasons behind, the learning.

Fiona Morrison from STEMed Magazine presented to the workshop participants the importance of Building a STEM Culture within a School Community. She introduced the concept of contextual-based learning to engage the learner in real-life, meaningful learning. Fiona discussed the use of concepts to teach Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics using an integrated approach; linking perfectly to the IB PYP program used at the Preparatory School and Tudor House. Again, the reinforcement of STEM being a pedagogy and not a standalone subject area can be used to engage students in authentic learning tasks. Workshop participants used technology to solve a real-world problem which was contextually appropriate for our learners.

The Future Trends in Technology workshops introduced participants to new and emerging technological concepts recently brought to the foreground with improvements in digital device capabilities. A collection of technologies referred to as Machine Learning was discussed and demonstrated. In particular, developments in language acquisition and creation through the use of “neural networks” enables an end user to generate succinct passages of text by simply entering a key phrase. As the platform generates text, the user can “guide” the result by further refining and adding to the existing sentences that the neural network has created. These developments in the automatic generation of text will further reinforce the increased need for, and relevance of, information literacy and the ability to discern genuine works from the text that have been computer-generated in an ever-increasing digital landscape. The solution fluency framework was extensively investigated and unpacked with key examples of how to apply the framework in a classroom setting. Essentially, solution fluency is a system for building great problem-solving prowess and critical thinking capacity within our students.

A technology demonstration of an Igloo Vision space was described as stepping into a large virtual reality headset that can be shared with a group of users simultaneously. The enclosure enables 360-degree video feeds to be displayed in real-time for students to interact with applications, such as Google Street view. Furthermore, virtual reality was explored within classrooms during the pandemic lockdown of 2021; facilitating spaces online where educators could provide instruction and provide real-time demonstrations of practical tasks within a virtual environment to their students.

The CoSpaces EDU software environment was an appropriate platform for teachers at Knox Grammar to develop Integrated Learning Assessments (ILA) that focussed on rocketry, with the processes to be completed all remotely. The use of avatars provided student agency to participate, question, and collaborate in real-time with other members of the class under the guidance of the teacher.

The National Education Summit covered a range of topics for both 21st Century learners and educators alike. The multidisciplinary content involved targeted professional learning incorporating technology and varied frameworks around learning. The array of learning has been shared across The King’s School to benefit the needs of our learning communities.