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Sixty Seconds of network news from
education.au | |
Volume:7
Issue:1
February
2008
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Latest from education.au
In this vodcast, education.au CEO Greg Black discusses collaboration in the education and training sector, both in Australia and internationally. He compares the effects of lack of communication, in building interoperable online infrastructure, to that of the Australian railway network which was severely hampered by individual state decisions to use different rail gauges.
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inspirED, a new initiative from education.au, is running a video competition to discover innovative uses of technology to enhance teaching and learning in Australia's classrooms.
Australian teachers are encouraged to submit a short video (5 minutes or less) describing how they have used any type of ICT in the classroom to enhance teaching and learning.
Submit entries by 21 April 2008. |
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openDSM is open source software developed by education.au to enable organisations to provide searches across multiple search engines and databases simultaneously. It can be easily incorporated into any website, including using the 'look and feel' of the website. openDSM is a java application and the code is available online. It is currently used on enda, the Government Education Portal and GLOBE. Read more...
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Our latest blog posts include:
- Open source distributed search manager ready to go
- Have your say
- Howard Rheingold on Collaboration
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Blogging and collaboration - who owns what?
- International Mother Language Day, 21 February
- The social graph: claims and verfication
- For those that seek to discourage the use of mobiles
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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Career Services
Experimenting with different kinds of search in myfuture can help you discover a wider range of awards or scholarships.
One search method, for example, is to use the Refine Search criteria. You can search using a key word, or you can use the Refine Search criteria, with or without a key word.
The Refine Search criteria include scholarships that target particular groups. The group categories are:
- Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander descent
- educational disadvantage
- mature age
- non-English speaking background
- physical, medical, psychological or learning difficulties
- rural and isolated area resident
- women and men in a non-traditional field of study
myfuture currently displays over 300 scholarships for rural and isolated area residents.
Explore more scholarships at:
myfuture.edu.au>The Facts>Funding>Awards and Scholarships |
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edna
education.au is reviewing the services provided through Education Network Australia (edna) in order to improve the service and determine future priorities.
Your feedback on the edna website, edna Groups, newsletters and other edna services will be invaluable.
The edna feedback survey will take no longer than 10 minutes to complete and you will be eligible to win a prize.
Your responses are anonymous and used for aggregation purposes only.
By completing the survey you will be eligible to go into the draw to win a $100 book or music voucher. | |
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To blog or not to blog? This and other related questions were put to listeners in the latest episode of E-learning Insights. The result was a rich cross-section of viewpoints from educators from Perth to Tropical North Queensland and across education sectors. Listeners submitted their responses either via email or by a voice board in our edna Sandpit Groups. | |
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edna's hands-on workshops provide training in the use of online services and collaborative tools.
Each one day mini conference will include guest speakers, hands-on sessions and presentations about technologies transforming education.
The theme for the edna workshops is "edna and me". Participants will be challenged to consider their current digital learning footprint, what use they are making of web 2.0 tools, particularly social networking environments, and how edna can contribute to professional and student learning.
Further information relating to registration and workshop dates is available from edna.
If you would like to receive workshop updates join the workshop email alert list at: http://www.lists.edna.edu.au/lists/lists/subscribe?list=workshops
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Policy and Research
The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Education, Julia Gillard announced the appointment of Mr Tony Mackay as Deputy Chair of the Rudd Government’s new National Curriculum Board.
In addition, the Minister has written to all State and Territory Education Ministers and the National Catholic Education Commission and the Independent Schools Council of Australia inviting them to provide their nominations for the National Curriculum Board.
The new National Curriculum Board will comprise representatives from each of the states and territories, and three representatives from the Catholic and Independent sectors. |
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The aim of the program is to contribute sustainable and meaningful change to teaching and learning in Australian schools that will prepare students for further education, training, jobs of the future and to live and work in a digital world.
The Australian Government is committing new funding of $1 billion over four years to provide:
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The Prime Minister of Australia Kevin Rudd will convene an Australia 2020 Summit to help shape a long term strategy for the nation's future. The Summit will bring together some of the best and brightest brains from across the country to tackle the long term challenges confronting Australia's future - challenges which require long-term responses from the nation beyond the usual three year electoral cycle. Submissions must be received no later than COB Wednesday 9 April 2008.
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A new metadata application profile for The Le@rning Federation was published in January 2008. This metadata profile supports the access, search, selection, use, trade and management of digital content. The profile is based on the IEEE LOM metadata model. It replaces Metadata application profile v2.2.
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The Minister for Education announced funding of $800,000 for a unique Family-School and Community Partnership Bureau which will be delivered to help develop partnerships between parents, schools and the community.
The aim will be to reach the disengaged, the disempowered and those families that often are not drawn into their children’s learning.
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Applications for the 2008 Competitive Grants Program close on 27 March 2008. The 2008 Competitive Grants Guidelines are available to download.
Applications for the 2008 Leadership for Excellence in Learning and Teaching Program close on 10 April 2008. The 2008 Leadership Program Guidelines are available to download.
Applications for the 2008 Priority Projects Program close on 23 April 2008. The 2008 Priority Projects Program Guidelines are available to download.
The next step in broadening engagement with the Carrick Exchange will take place in a few weeks with uptake planned for Carrick Fellows and those working in funded projects. The Carrick Exchange has been one of the Institute’s leading projects since 2006. |
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The 2006 National Reading, Writing and Numeracy Benchmark results were released by the Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs (MCEETYA).
The results showed that the majority of Australian students in Years 3, 5 and 7 achieved the minimum benchmark standards in reading, writing and numeracy.
However, it is concerning that the levels of achievement amongst Indigenous students, literacy in boys, and students living in very remote regions, remains significantly lower than the overall standard.
The results for Indigenous students in year 7 numeracy for instance showed that less than half, 48 per cent, met the benchmark in 2006. |
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Australia’s educators and policy makers now have a comprehensive picture of the level of ICT literacy of Australia’s Year 6 and 10 students following a landmark study completed by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER).
The report of the National Assessment Program – ICT Literacy Years 6 and 10 has been released by the Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs (MCEETYA). It reports on a study conducted in 2005 involving approximately 7400 students from Years 6 and 10 in around 520 schools across Australia. | |
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Funding of $7 million is now available to registered training organisations (RTOs), business and industry across Australia to integrate e-learning into their education and training programs, as part of the Australian Flexible Learning Framework (Framework).
Funding is available for organisations that:
* embed e-learning in industry ($620,000)
* produce further Flexible Learning Toolboxes ($1m)
* develop e-standards ($80,000)
* support e-learning solutions in the vocational education and training (VET) system in their state or territory ($5.3m). |
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Ninety-two percent of TAFE institutes are using Flexible Learning Toolboxes (Toolboxes) as an important part of e-learning, a new survey of TAFE institutes across Australia has found.
The survey, commissioned by the national training system’s e-learning strategy, the Australian Flexible Learning Framework (Framework), involved more than 2,200 participants and assessed the impact of Toolboxes on e-learning in Australian TAFE institutes. | |
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This publication presents the results of a national survey of Australian employers conducted in 2007. The survey collects information about employers' use and views of the vocational education and training (VET) system and the various ways employers use the VET system to meet their skill needs.
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The vocational education and training sector (VET) has a reputation for providing learners with a second chance. This report critically examines this idea, and finds that although VET provides opportunities for a second chance at education to many prospective students, the percentage who complete their studies and gain a qualification is modest.
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A specially commissioned survey shows that 95 per cent of parents think the use of interactive whiteboards and other high tech tools help their children learn at school.
Almost 80 per cent of parents questioned on behalf of Becta (UK ICT agency) think technology can bring lessons to life and engage their child in subjects they find difficult, while more than 60 per cent believe the use of computers raises standards. |
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 TLF-AATE - Transformative pedagogies with new technologies
In 2007 The Le@rning Federation conducted a joint project with Australian Association for the Teaching of English (AATE) titled - Transformative Pedagogies with New Technologies. Fifteen exemplary English and literacy teachers from across Australia contributed their experience and expertise to show how they integrated TLF's digital content into teaching and learning.
These ideas and individual teacher works are now available to be viewed and download from TLF website.
The Le@rning Federation English and literacy catalogue can also be downloaded from the TLF website. | |
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