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Sixty Seconds of network news from
education.au |
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Volume:7
Issue:6
April
2008
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Latest from education.au
The Australian Council for Educational Research and education.au supported by the Commonwealth Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR), are presenting a series of symposia to explore and illuminate the possibilities and the realities of the implementation of the Digital Education revolution (DER).
Program details, venues, dates and registration information are available from the symposium page. |
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education.au's quarterly online and print version of 3C newsletter is now available. This issue includes:
- Dark side of the Internet
- Black chat
- Emerging technologies
- Get the search results you need
- ICT defined
- Accessing learning objects
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This conference paper, presented at the 15th International Conference on Computers in Education, discusses the broad context of the ‘open agenda’ – the aggregate effect of trends within the education and training sector toward a growing advocacy and adoption of ‘openness’; as in open source software, open standards, open content licensing and open access to such content. |
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 MoU with ALIA
education.au and the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) are pleased to announce the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). ALIA is the professional organisation for the Australian library and information services sector. It seeks to empower the profession in the development, promotion and delivery of quality library and information services to the nation, through leadership, advocacy and mutual support. This MoU will enable both organisations to promote events and provide quality training opportunities to people working in both the education and library industries. |
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The National e-Portfolio Symposium aims to bring together leading thinkers, policy and decision makers interested in e-Portfolio development to discuss key strategic issues and development.
education.au has invited stakeholders from the school and VET sector and industry to attend the symposium to develop recommendations to assist in the future development and implementation of e-portfolios for students, practitioners and others. Attendance at the Symposium is by invitation and you can contact us if you would like to be placed on the list. |
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Our latest blog posts include:
- Nice post on ePortfolio standards
- How will you celebrate May Day?
- AICTEC Learner Research Project
- Flickr, Shakespeare and the soul of wit
- Shock! Horror! Second Life can educate!
- ed.au blogs on Twitter
- User generated content (UGC) analysis
- Australia 2020 Summit - Initial Report
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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myfuture has a great new range of resources available for teachers and trainers wanting to explore careers. We have expanded our selection of videos to include new careers that can be viewed simply by clicking the video icon on the front page. You can also access the expanded series of Bullseye posters highlighting new careers and job information as well as our regular quizzes and articles. To view these resources just visit our new myfuture.edu.au homepage and start exploring! |
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The Australian education and training community has made a significant long term investment in Education Network Australia (edna), with edna now entering its 11th year as a successful collaborative network.
In May and June this year, the edna team will be seeking input on future strategic directions prior to the conclusion of the current 2006-08 edna business plan on June 30 2008. To be consulted about edna opportunities and proposals in your sector or jurisdiction join the consultation list. We hope that you will take up the opportunity to be part of this planning process which we are calling edna2010.
View a summary of the current 2006-08 edna business plan. |
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edna’s end of year clearance
In order to serve our users more efficiently, the team supporting edna’s Groups and Lists is currently conducting an audit to identify those Group and List owners who may be in need of some assistance and to identify Groups and Lists no longer required.
The audit extends back to Groups and Lists created 1 July 2007 and later. Owners who have not accessed a service for at least 45 days are being contacted. If you own a Group or List created prior to 1 July 2007 that is no longer required or you are in need of help and inspiration, please contact groups@edna.edu.au. |
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The edna workshops team will be in Brisbane on Thursday 1 May and Friday 2 May for a full day conference at the University of Queensland, St Lucia campus. The overall theme of the conference is social networking for educators, with keynote 'Who's paying attention... and to what?' presented by Margaret Lloyd, Senior Lecturer (ICT) Centre for Learning Innovation, QUT. Concurrent sessions cover a broad range of topics at a variety of experience levels, including digital literacy, edna Groups and embedding multimedia.
Following Brisbane, the edna team will be
- Melbourne, Thursday 22 May
- Hobart, Monday 21 July
- Sydney, Tuesday 29 July
- Darwin, Tuesday 5 August.
For more details see the edna workshops page. |
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Policy and Research
National Career Development Week (NCDW) aims to promote awareness of career development and to encourage all Australians to develop the skills to manage their careers, learning, work and lives in order to get the life they love.
This includes achieving both personal and career goals by having a life plan and making time for family, friends and interests.
In 2008, events across Australia throughout the year will lead up to a week of national celebrations from 2 to 8 June 2008. Over 500 careers events are expected to be registered on the website www.ncdw.com.au during 2008. |
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Entries will soon open for the 2008 National History Challenge following the announcement of the Challenge theme: Australia Meets the World.
The Challenge is a research based contest that gives students the opportunity to develop the skills of an historian through an investigation of the past. All students from Years 5 to 12 around the nation are encouraged to take part in this exciting experience.
The National History Challenge promotes the study of Australian history in schools and was established in 1995. Students are now able to register online and entries will close August 2008. For more information about the Challenge and how to enter the competition, visit: www.historychallenge.com.au/ |
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An innovative new online database has been developed by IP Australia that makes the breadth of Australian inventions more accessible.
The database, entitled AusPat, allows inventors, industry and researchers to access patent applications lodged and granted in Australia since 1979. Previously those researching Australian patent literature had to work across several unconnected databases.
AusPat represents the first outcome in an extensive program that will result in a host of other related patent search products, all of which are designed to assist Australian inventors to better understand their particular field of technology.
AusPat can be used by visiting www.ipaustralia.gov.au/auspat/ |
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The Prime Minister affirmed the Government's commitment to science and innovation by chairing the first meeting of the Prime Minister’s Science, Engineering and Innovation Council (PMSEIC) of the Rudd Government.
PMSEIC is a critical part of the Government's agenda to bring together the best and brightest from across Australian society, to formulate evidence-based solutions to key problems and drive economic and social change.
Reports from these PMSEIC expert working groups are making a valuable contribution to scientific knowledge in areas of vital importance to Australia’s future.
Further information on the Council and the expert working group reports can be found at: http://www.innovation.gov.au/pmseic |
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Australian Research Council (ARC) Federation Fellowships worth more than $23 million over five years have been awarded to 14 outstanding researchers. Biographical information of the winning researchers is available from the media release. |
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The Australian Bureau of Statistics has released the Internet Activity Survey as at the end of December quarter 2007.
Highlights include:
- 7.10 million subscribers to the Internet in Australia. This compromised 964,000 business and government subscribers and 6.14 million household subscribers.
- Non dial-up subscribers increased by 33%, from over 3.91 million to over 5.21 million between September 2006 and December 2007.
- Dial-up subscribers dropped by 31%, from 2.75 million to 1.89 million.
- Non dial-up subscribers represented 73% of total Internet.
- Wireless technology continues to increase to over 481,000 subscribers at the end of the December quarter, compared with 186,000 subscribers at the end of the September quarter 2006.
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The 2008 Undergraduate Applications, Offers and Acceptances report has found that fewer students are being turned away from universities, with nearly 80 per cent of applicants being offered a place.
In 2008, there was a 4.5 per cent decrease on unmet demand compared to last year - the lowest level recorded.
This report shows that demand and supply are broadly in balance at the aggregate level but there are some fields of study where we need more graduates.
View the new report on Undergraduate applications, offers and acceptances. |
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The Initial Report from the 2020 Summit to the Prime Minister, sets out the key results of discussion by 1000 Australians over the weekend of 19 and 20 April in Canberra.
The Report includes results across the 10 streams of the Summit, including ambitions, priority themes and top ideas from each stream.
A more detailed, final report of the Summit to the Prime Minister will be prepared and made available on the web site. |
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Libraries should look for increased value from their principal library-wide computer systems, ensure that those ‘library management systems’ are integrated with other institutional systems and look to break down barriers between library users and resources. These are some of the recommendations of a report which takes a far-reaching look at the library management systems (LMS) market and attempts to help influence the future development of a crucial element of the academic library environment.
The report, commissioned by JISC and SCONUL, is based on findings from 100 UK higher education libraries and attempts to analyse the LMS market and its place in a user environment increasingly dominated by high expectations around ease of delivery, unhindered access to resources and their integration with user-generated content. |
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A collection of innovative new e-learning resources will provide education and training assistance to some of Australia's most critical industries.
Funded by the national training system's e-learning strategy, the Australian Flexible Learning Framework (Framework), the Series 11 Flexible Learning Toolboxes (Toolboxes) are responding to the needs of Australian industries.
In 2008, Series 11 Toolboxes will be developed for the following industry areas: Water Industry, Community Services Industry, Business Service Industry, Manufacturing Industry, Financial Services Industry, Events Industry, Aeroskills Industry and Children’s Services Industry. |
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The site includes:
- easy to follow guides to research, essay writing and study skills
- over 500 digitised resources from the State Library's collections
- worked examples available at point of need, illustrating bias in primary sources, how to understand an essay question and much more
- video interviews with prominent authors, historians and artists including Helen Garner and Nobel Laureate, Peter Doherty
- teacher and student resources with a focus on critical literacy and thinking processes
For information about professional development programs, email ergo@slv.vic.gov.au. |
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The Australian Education review 53: The Leadership Challenge: Improving learning in schools,
written by University of Tasmania researcher Professor Bill Mulford, was released by the
Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER).
The review draws on papers from ACER’s 2007 Research Conference and many other contemporary sources within the leadership research literature to address and provide a focus for the issues facing Australian school leadership.
Advances in science and technology, changes in demography, increased globalisation and pressures
on the environment are causing education organisations to broaden and personalise curriculum and to
rethink school structures and the role of the principal within them.
Professor Mulford calls for more research and policy attention to be given to the career paths of school
principals in order to meet the challenge of identifying and developing the next generation of school
leaders. |
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This paper, by Shawn Callahan, Mark Schenk and Nancy White, explores what we mean by collaboration and why organizations and individuals should build their collaboration capacity. The paper also outlines a series of steps for developing a collaboration capacity. |
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The joint meeting of the Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs (MEETYA) and the Ministerial Council for Vocational and Technical Education (MCVTE) marked the start of a new era of collaboration. All governments agreed to work together to improve education and training in Australia. Key outcomes of the meeting included: developing a new declaration on the future of schooling in Australia; implementing the Digital Education Revolution; national partnership arrangement for quality teaching; a new approach to early childhood and reducing Indigenous education disadvantage.
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Following the March 2008 content release, the What’s New section of TLF website is now updated with a selection from the latest learning objects and digital resources for you to view and explore. Catalogues have also been updated and can be easily downloaded.
Some of the content showcased includes:
- School day: analogue from Early Years gives students the opportunity to sequence four images that illustrate stages in going to school in the mornings. Students then match analogue clocks with each image, and match the time, in words, to each clock.
- Wild ride: get a grip: assessment from Science assesses students’ ability to conduct a test, collect data and make predictions.
- A range of contemporary images licensed from Getty Images.
Information on how to access TLF online curriculum content is available on TLF website. |
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