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Teachers, too, are networking online

 

July 2007 

Australia’s educators are grabbing the chance to work online together.

A thousand separate “online communities” have now registered with the innovative edna Groups network, providing 14,000 people with their own spaces to plan and deliver conferences, learn about technologies, create online training rooms or bring contributors together for specific projects.

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“It is less than a thousand days since we launched the idea so a thousand groups is a terrific response,” said the CEO of education.au Greg Black. “But we aren’t surprised. We were confident teachers would be just as keen as students to set up these online networks because there is so much to be gained.”

edna (officially Education Network Australia) was established in 1996 to provide a free source of professional information and news and it now gets over 200,000 page views a month.

edna Groups was introduced in early 2005 to add a new level of interactivity. Users range from early childhood teachers through to educators in schools, the vocational training sector and higher education, all working in groups that suit their needs and interests.

The technology allows them to set up web pages, use online chat to communicate, contribute to and build online information sites using wiki software, upload documents or video files and create news feeds.

“Educators need to use the technologies their students are using,” Mr Black said. “A free, safe online space to use tools and share best practice saves time in evaluating the thousands of web 2.0 tools available and brings educators into contact with thousands of other teachers who want the same thing.”
Innovation has not stopped with edna Groups, however. 

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A major upgrading of the whole edna system was unveiled last year, with new features including podcasting, interactive web forums with instant messaging, the provision of syndicated content and services to a wide variety of other sites and the “sandpit” – an area where users can test-drive new technologies before they are formally incorporated into the site.
“Both feedback and take-up have been terrific so we are clearly meeting a need,” Mr Black said. “Our role is to foster the use of ICT in education in Australia and edna has been one of our most successful ventures.”


For further information or to arrange interviews contact Erika Dauner at (08) 8334 3200 or edauner@educationau.edu.au .

education.au (www.educationau.edu.au ) is a not-for-profit agency established by the Federal and State governments to provide online services that benefit the education and training sector.

The edna Groups web site is located at www.groups.edna.edu.au

The edna web site is located at www.edna.edu.au