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Sixty Seconds of network news from
education.au |
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Volume:7
Issue:10
July
2008
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Latest from education.au
Professor Martin Westwell, Director of the Flinders Centre for Science Education in the 21st Century will be keynote presenter at our next seminar in Sydney, 26 August 2008. Professor Westwell will provide insights into how modern lifestyles and technologies are influencing the minds of the young and old.
The education.au seminar offers a unique opportunity to explore how technology is impacting on attention, motivation, multitasking, learning and work. The morning and afternoon sessions will explore recent research and how to capitalise on the opportunities offered by technology.
Further information and registration details are available from the seminar page. |
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education.au commissioned this research, using McGregor Tan Research, to provide it with informed data about the use of the Internet. Key finding of Internet usage included:
- for research (83%)
- for finding learning resources (80%)
- for professional development (64%)
- for interacting with colleagues (61%)
Barriers of Internet usage included:
- poor infrastructure 41%
- content blocking (40%)
- limited access (21%)
- limited confidence or expertise (20%)
- lack of relevant resources on the internet (12%).
The report and an overview of the report by education.au CEO, Greg Black, are available for downloading from the education.au website.
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Our latest blog posts include:
- domain name big bang solving lack of addresses?
- social e-learning: resources, case studies for social networking in e-learning
- mashing up virtual worlds and interactive whiteboards
- building an Australasian Commons
- immersion - Second Life’s edge
- edna’s first online conference day
- edna online conference archives
- edna workshops 08 online
Subscribe to our
blog RSS Feeds and receive the updates as soon as they are
published! See our RSS Feeds page on how to
subscribe. |
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There is still time for budding film makers and media students to enter the 2008 myfuture Student Video Competition. Registration opened 1 April and entries close 18 August 2008.
Submit a 2-3 minute video clip that profiles an occupation showing real people in real workplaces. Prizes include computers, video cameras and ipods. You could also appear on national television.
View videos from the previous contestants for ideas and get some tips at the myfuture Student Video Competition section on this site. Visit our new homepage to see results for 2007. To see the 2006 winning videos, visit the myfuture Student Videos section of the website.
Entry kits can be downloaded from THE CREW website.
Inquiries: emailadmin@schooltorque.com or phone 02 9522 8855
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edna's hands-on workshops provide training in the use of online services and collaborative tools. The workshops include guest speakers, hands-on sessions and presentations about technologies transforming education. edna workshops also provide opportunities for networking with the edna team and other education professionals. The theme for the edna workshops is edna and me. Seven workshops have already been held with approximately 430 attendees. The next workshops will be held in:
- Hobart, Monday 21 July at The Hutchins School
- Sydney, Tuesday 29 July - FULL
- Darwin, Tuesday 5 August at the Palmerston Library
For more details see the edna workshops page. See also the slide show (Flickr). |
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 edna's online conferences
On Wednesday, 18 June, edna staff successfully held an online conference which consisted of five sessions.
Sessions topics included:
- social networking with me.edu.au
- finding resources for embedding in multimedia
- digital literacies
- learning without borders
- education in other worlds (Second Life sessions)
The archives of the online conference sessions are now available at:
Join the Workshops email list to be kept informed of upcoming online sessions. |
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All Australian governments, states and territories and sectors of education and training have a significant long term investment in Education Network Australia (edna). edna is now entering its eleventh year as a successful national collaborative network to advance the use of information and communication technologies, particularly the Internet, to improve learning and teaching in Australia.
In July and August education.au representatives, the agency that manages edna, will be visiting states and territories to seek feedback on edna future directions and identify opportunities for mutual benefit between education providers and edna.
The manager of edna, Mark Tranthim-Fryer, is inviting interested persons to comment on edna's future directions via his blog at http://me.edu.au/b/marktf/.
Questions and suggestions may also be email to education.au at the following email address:consultation@edna.edu.au |
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Policy and Research
Quotes are requested from organisations suitably qualified to develop an eTransaction Payment Gateway for online payment and reconciliation of purchases through LORN (Learning Object Repository Network). Applicants who have proven experience in providing e-commerce solutions are encouraged to apply.
LORN enables teachers and trainers to find and use online training resources from across the Australian vocational education and training (VET) sector and is being developed to be the national online broker for a range of repositories. LORN will provide the opportunity to aggregate a greater collection of learning objects and resources by providing one interface where buyers can easily access the content available from participating repositories.
Quotes must be lodged by 12.00 noon (EST), Wednesday 16 July 2008. |
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A record number of nominations (over 80), have been received for this year’s Prime Minister’s Prizes for Science, Australia’s most prestigious science and science teaching awards.
The presentations of this year’s Prime Minister's Prizes for Science will be made at a dinner in the Great Hall of Parliament House on Thursday, 16 October.
Further information regarding the Prime Minister’s Prizes for Science is available from http://www.dest.gov.au/scienceprize. |
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NICTA, Australia’s Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Research Centre of Excellence, welcomes $10 million in funding from the Queensland State Government for NICTA’s Queensland Research Laboratory (NICTA QRL). The funding was recently announced by Queensland Premier Anna Bligh.
Under the four-year agreement, the Queensland State Government will commit $10 million to supporting ICT research in NICTA QRL including ongoing development of a range of public security technologies for the state and research on human system integration to ensure ICT systems fit human needs. |
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Six e-learning priorities have emerged across states and territories as the national training system takes an innovative approach in responding to the challenges of a modern economy and the training needs of Australian businesses and workers.
The national training system's e-learning strategy, the Australian Flexible Learning Framework (Framework), has awarded $5.3 million in E-learning Innovations funding to support more than 90 registered training organisations (RTOs) to deliver innovative e-learning solutions for the vocational education and training (VET) system. |
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A growing proportion of students are choosing to defer university studies or take up apprenticeships, according to new research from the Victorian government. The research shows that a lower proportion of Year 12 completers are enrolling in university, with many young people, particularly those from rural areas, deferring studies to work for a year to become eligible for youth allowance and cover living costs.
The results of the On Track survey can be found online at: www.education.vic.gov.au/sensecyouth/ontrack |
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A key recommendation of the Learning Leaders in Times of Change survey is that universities should ‘practise what they preach’ by modelling professional development programs on current university best practice. University leaders want to be taught in the same way they teach their students. The study found that exactly the same flexible, responsive, active, problem-based, just-in-time, just-for-me learning methods found to engage university students in productive learning in studies is what leaders report they want.
The Learning Leaders in Times of Change survey funded by the Australian Learning and Teaching Council and was a joint project of the Australian Council for Educational Research and the University of Western Sydney. |
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This large-scale study into the recognition, enhancement and development of sessional teaching in higher education builds on the Australian Universities Teaching Committee Report (2003a) Training, Support and Management of Sessional Teaching Staff. The aim of the current Project was to identify and analyse current national practice and refocus attention on the issues surrounding sessional teachers in the university sector.
The study found that systematic attention to assuring the quality of sessional teaching in many institutions is inadequate; however, good practice does exist and may be widely adopted across the sector.
The report can be downloaded as a whole or in sections from the RED site. |
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The Twomey report entitled If you think education is expensive has been released in Western Australia. The Ministerial Taskforce: Education Workforce Initiatives, was developed in response to the progressive decline in the number of teachers available to work in Western Australia. Extensive recommendations cover remuneration, leadership and mentoring, flexible learning, housing, vocational education and training, workload, and career progression.
The report encourages delegation and delineation authority, funding and responsibility to where operational decisions need to be made, i.e. to individual schools or clusters of schools. An education and training workforce advisory committee with an independent chairperson and wide-ranging membership is appropriate in order to support current and future workforce planning. |
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More than 200 participants including teachers, universities, community members, business and industry representatives attended the National Curriculum Board’s first consultation forum on the development of national curriculum. The first four subjects to be implemented in this co-operative approach are English, mathematics, science and history.
The board also released a National Curriculum Development Paper as a basis for discussion, available from www.ncb.org.au.
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This report, by Digizen and funded by Becta, aims to support teachers and lecturers with an interest in using social networking services and innovative curriculum approaches, as well as those with responsibility for e-safety, cyberbullying awareness and digital literacy of both staff and students. The report also includes an evaluation tool, produced in conjunction with major service providers, designed to walk teachers through key features of sites they may be considering using to support their teaching and learning practice.
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Eight hundred and ninety-six secondary schools across Australia would receive funding for 116,820 new computers under the Rudd Government’s $1.2 billion Digital Education Revolution. These schools have been identified as being most in need of new school computers with a ratio of one computer for every eight students or worse.
For more information please visit: http://www.digitaleducationrevolution.gov.au. |
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This research commissioned by JISC (Joint Information Systems Committee) suggests that students are starting to mix their social networking sites with their academic studies and inviting tutors and lecturers into their virtual space. The research shows what their experiences were like during their first year and in particular their use of web 2.0 technologies. |
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The OECD is to work with developed and developing countries and international organisations to improve policies for the Internet economy and increase international co-operation on issues such as cybercrime and security.
The Seoul Declaration came at the close of the OECD Ministerial Meeting on the Future of the Internet Economy, held in Seoul, Korea, on 17-18 June 2008. Participants agreed on the need for governments to work closely with business, civil society and technical experts on policies that promote competition, empower and protect consumers, and expand Internet access and use worldwide. |
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Senator Kim Carr, Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research announced significant changes to the way patent and trade mark attorneys operate when advising Australian innovators.
The new regulations change the pre-registration requirements for patent attorneys with a focus on a more skills-based approach. This will result in attorneys being better placed to provide high-quality assistance.
More details: Professional Standards Board website www.psb.gov.au, and IP and business, IP Australia’s Smart Start website www.smartstart.gov.au. |
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The Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Senator Stephen Conroy released new program guidelines to enhance the Australian Broadband Guarantee. Program changes include:
- Up-front payments for large infrastructure deployments.
- Greater flexibility in subsidy levels.
- Improved consumer protections.
- A higher level of broadband service.
For more information about the Australian Broadband Guarantee program visit www.dbcde.gov.au/abg. |
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The Learning Federation (TLF) is in the process of developing a number of learning objects for senior secondary students. With some learning objects already released in the March quarter for senior Mathematics and numeracy, some more are in the pipeline for senior Chemistry.
TLF needs your help to do some user testing of two senior chemistry learning object prototypes. The first testing will be in the next couple of weeks and the second in around 4 - 6 weeks time. If you know of a year 12 chemistry student who would like a $25 voucher (Coles/Myer, Village or Borders) please ask them to register at this link.
The task will be to complete an online survey about the prototype and should take no longer than 45 minutes and can be done at home.
Try Differential calculus: non-linear graphs learning object for years 11-12 from Mathematics and numeracy on the What’s New page on TLF website. |
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