Connected Classrooms Program in Action - NSW

Connected Classrooms Program in Action

c o n n e c t e d c l a s s r o o m s p r o g r a m

usage of the CCP technologies delivers new ways of teaching and learning

ISBN 9780731386956

SCIS 1490344

© NSW Department of Education and Training 2010

This work was produced and published by the Connected Classrooms Program 2010

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Part A - Connected Classrooms Program in Action: An Analysis and Evaluation of the Qualitative Evidence Page

Introduction 5

The Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians 7

21st Century Learning – What Is It and How Might It Be Managed? 9

Using Digital Technologies for Learning – an Historical Perspective 12

Recent Educational Innovation Employing Web 2.0 and Mobile Technologies 16

The Connected Classrooms Program 17

Methodology Employed For Qualitative Evaluation of the Program:Using Qualitative Evidence, Issues of Validity and Reliability 23

Exploring the Compendium of Practice and DVD Resource in Relation to the Nominated Benefits 26

Discussion 47

Recommendations 50

Part B - Appendix

Connected Classrooms Program Compendium of Practice 55

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Author’s Acknowledgment

This study was written by Susan Groundwater-Smith, Honorary Professor Faculty of Education and Social Work University of

Sydney. It has been made possible through the funding and cooperation of the Director of the Connected Classrooms Program

Dimi Papadakis and the Educational Outcomes Business Change Managers, Sue Beveridge and Tim Hand. As the report has been

prepared each has contributed to its accuracy. The writer thanks them for the time and attention that they have paid to the study.

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The Connected Classrooms Program in Action:An Analysis and Evaluation of the Qualitative Evidence

Introduction

This study sets out to examine and evaluate the qualitative evidence captured during the Connected Classrooms Program (2008-2010). It draws upon a range of narratives contained in the Program’s Compendium of Practice, an Appendix to this report, and exemplified in the related DVD resource. It places the evaluation in the context of a number of policy and practice settings, including, among others, The Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians and matters in relation to 21st Century Learning. The study acknowledges past work in researching the use of digital technologies as a means of locating some of the continuing challenges offered by the field of practice. It proposes that more recent educational innovations employing collaborative technologies including Web 2.0 may be the circuit breaker that will encourage substantial change in teaching and learning.

While it is recognised that there may be a number of research methodologies that might be employed to illustrate the effectiveness of the Program the case is made for the adoption of a qualitative methodology that is appropriate to the investigation being undertaken. Having established a justification for the use of narratives of practice as evidence the study then turns to the accounts captured in the Compendium of Practice and DVD resource and aligns these with the nominated benefits. As well it addresses a number of additional emergent themes, some of which may count as unanticipated outcomes. Finally the study develops a series of recommendations

that could inform further policy and practice development.

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The Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians

In December 2008, the Ministerial Council on Education, Employment and Youth Affairs (MCEETYA) composed of Ministers of Education from all of the six states and two territories that make up Australia made a declaration on the educational goals for young Australians. Essentially, the Council nominated two goals: that Australian schooling promotes equity and excellence; and, that all young Australians become successful learners, confident and creative individuals and active and informed citizens. It situated the evolution of these goals in, among other things, the context of the burgeoning of globalisation and technological change that places ever-increasing demands on education and skill development; and with regard to the changing nature of the employment market. In particular, and in reference to the discussion which follows in this report, it argued:

Rapid and continuing advances in information and communication technologies (ICT) are changing the ways people share, use and process information and technology. In this digital age, young people need to be highly skilled in the use of ICT. While schools already employ these technologies in learning, there is a need to increase their effectiveness significantly over the next decade. (p.5)

Realising the achievement of these fundamental goals rests with both the governments of the States and Territories and the Commonwealth. Thus the Federal Government has set out its own Digital Strategy for Teachers and School Leaders (2010). Its ‘vision’ is to enable school teachers and school leaders to integrate ICT in their educational practices to improve school effectiveness and provide students with the skills that are required for the 21st Century:

21st century schools require 21st century programs and educators capable of using 21st century resources and strategies for learning (p.4)

The Connected Classrooms Program in Action

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It is seen that the strategy will be achieved by teachers and school leaders “gaining access to rich online resources, world class technology, curriculum and ICT professional development” (p.2). As well, it is understood that there is a commitment for the Australian Government to work with State and Territory Governments in furthering its vision.

Interestingly this emphasis upon the integration of ICT into teaching and learning was also manifest in the Adelaide Declaration on National Goals for Schooling in the Twenty-first Century (MCEETYA, 1999). On the cusp of the new millennium it was specified that students should be confident, creative and productive users of new technologies, particularly information and communication technologies, and that they should understand the impact of those technologies on society (Goal 1.6). Later in this discussion it will be argued that in spite of these aspirations the capacities of teachers and schools to change are often hampered by their own dispositions to learning and to teaching.

Before turning to the specific Program that has been enacted by the NSW Government, The Connected Classrooms Program, which in many ways anticipated Commonwealth and MCEETYA policy, it is important to further discuss what is meant by the term 21st century learning, one that is often employed but difficult to define. As well, we need to examine, with some care, learning using ICT towards the end of the last century and the lessons that we may take from the range of practices that have been employed in schools.


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21st Century Learning – What Is I t and How Might I t Be Managed?

When one lives in the midst of a revolution it is not always clear what the nature of such massive and pervasive change might be. But by all accounts it is clear that the new millennium has brought with it technological change of such scope, pace and magnitude that it is impossible to ignore in terms of the kind of learning that is required Kellner, D.(nd:2010). Educational practices that evolved over the last century and before that may look quaint to us now, but in many classrooms they linger in one form or another. Groundwater-Smith, Ewing & Le Cornu (2011) drawing on Cunningham (1972) listed the beliefs and assumptions that were most dominant in the early years of federation in Australia and continue to persist in the minds of some today, among them were:

That the main if not the only road to learning is through memorization and that the main tool of learning is repetition.

That the teacher must first provide facts before the pupil can begin to think. Pupil activity, it was held, should take the form of application of what has been passively received.

That the value of knowledge depends on its exactness. Matters on which there is room for differences of opinion have little place in school studies.

(Cunningham, 1972, pp. 103 – 104)

In contrast to these beliefs it is now argued by Wagner (2008) among many others, that the skills that are required concern themselves with: critical thinking and problem solving; collaboration across networks and leading by influence; agility and adaptability; initiative and entrepreneurship; effective oral and written communication; accessing and analysing information; and, curiosity and imagination.


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‘Anytime, anywhere’ learning is now a ubiquitous term in reference to 21st Century learning as is the concept of the teachable moment that engages learners by investigating phenomena as they are currently being acted out in our society. Such moments are not confined to actions of the teacher, but are also inclusive of the initiatives of the students. As Prensky (2007:46) has concluded, “We are all learners. We are all teachers”. However, as he observes, teachers and students may have real difficulty in communicating with each other in a digital age, quoting one young person “You really have to slow down when you talk to teachers” (p.40). Kellner, D. (nd:8) advises that computer culture is:

A discursive and political location in which students, teachers and citizens can all intervene, engaging in discussion groups and collaborative research projects, creating their websites, producing innovative multi-media for cultural dissemination and engaging in novel modes of social interaction and learning.

These forms of interaction will increasingly impact upon practices both within and beyond the school. School leaders will need to become increasingly “savvy” about what is required within their schools both in terms of the technology and the changing pedagogy as they go about ‘reinventing themselves’ (Degenhardt & Duignan:2010). In turn, schools will need to adapt to becoming more accessible to the community in general and parents and caregivers in particular as the division between school and home as sites for learning become more and more intertwined (Ward & Parr, 2010).

Prensky lists the new technologies that have valid potential use in education, among them: email, search, texting and instant messaging, blogs, wikis, the Wikipedia, podcasting, polling devices, peer to peer (P2P), complex computer and video games, networking, augmented reality, social and community building tools, digital cameras/videocams, phone-based cameras/videocams, GPS, speed enhancers, interactive whiteboards, DVDs, wireless technologies and many others (p.40). Doubtless, another decade from now we shall have new terms and devices that have not yet even been imagined.


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So how are schools and teachers coping? How may such a change be managed? This report concerns itself with one significant transformational initiative undertaken by the NSW Department of Education and Training (DET) – the Connected Classrooms Program that has introduced to schools not only powerful technologies, but also strategies that potentially interrupt the kinds of assumptions and beliefs cited by Cunningham and discussed above.

However, before turning to this specific Program we need to ask ourselves “are there lessons that we can learn from the last twenty-five years?” After all computers did not just appear in our classrooms yesterday.


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Using Digital Technologies for Learning – an Historical Perspective

Quoting the Commonwealth Schools Commission, 1983, p. 1, that computer education in Australian Schools is of fundamental importance to Australia’s future, Lloyd (2005:11) asks us to recognise that the employment of ICT in education may “uncannily resemble the past and the present”. Indeed, a quick scan of articles and conference presentations made during the nineteen eighties bear just such a resemblance to current concerns and discourses. For example, in the opening to her paper on the implementation of micro-computers in schools Fleer (1989:1) commences with the statement:

There is a strong commitment by education authorities for computer technology to become part of the curriculum in most Australian schools, however, little research has been focussed on how this will happen.

While the focus of her study was specifically in relation to access for Aboriginal students, during the second half of that decade, many of her observations could also be taken as relevant for most school contexts and implementation plans at that time in that it raised questions regarding access and equity. Oliver (1993) sought to replicate a 1985 study in 1991 that assessed the development of information technology skills in upper primary and lower secondary school students in a school district in Western Australia. He concluded that despite a significant increase in usage among primary school students the secondary school computing agenda had changed little. He suggested that if measures were not taken to overcome the problems that he had identified such results would be the outcome of a similar study should it be undertaken in 1998. One might further speculate that should a study be undertaken in 2010 it might produce similar results.


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Schiller (2000:2) similarly argued that although computers had been in use in Australian schools for over 15 years (at that time) “visits to classrooms and principals’ offices indicate that information technology has not yet been integrated into the daily learning activities of the school. Computers and other forms of information technology remain isolated from the mainstream of learning experience because of teacher apprehension and even phobia about using computers in the classroom”. A number of studies from around the time of the beginning of the new millennium confirm this perspective. Perhaps a more subtle issue is not so much to do with teachers taking up computers in terms of teaching and learning, but how they actually employ them. Hayes, Schuck, Segal, Dwyer and McEwan (2001:12) observed in their study of ICT use in NSW schools, that “teachers generally integrate computer-based technology into their existing teaching strategies”. Thus for example, should they adhere to the Cunningham cited assumption quoted above, “That the teacher must first provide facts before the pupil can begin to think. Pupil activity, it was held, should take the form of application of what has been passively received” then he or she will employ technology as a means of enabling that belief.

More recently attention is being paid to the take up of interactive whiteboards (IWBs) in classrooms and the impacts that these have on pedagogy and student learning outcomes; so has pedagogical change occurred? In United Kingkom for example it would seem that in a number of settings, principally secondary schools, IWBs are being integrated as a learning tool for whole class teaching, with them acting as a data projector that can navigate multiple screens and generate a dynamic form of display. Teacher centred adoption of the IWB in this context has met with some criticism with Moss et al (2007: 7) concluding “multi-modal resources had most impact when their potential to enhance understanding, rather than marshal attention, had been clearly understood and their use was treated as an integral part of subject learning.”


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This insight is echoed by Schuck & Kearney (2007) in their reflections on the use of IWBs in classrooms 2005 – 2007, in a study where they noted that “IWBs fit well with most teachers’, administrators’ and students’ views of classroom learning as whole-class, teacher directed and resource filled.(p. 5). Similarly, Zevenbergen & Lerman (2007) argued that teachers were able to increase the pace of their lessons using IWBs and provide greater opportunities for student participation, albeit within a traditional teaching paradigm. In the field of mathematics education the representation of mathematical ideas may have been enhanced, but the overall pedagogy remained similar to that employed in traditional lessons.

Another recent concern has been in relation to the adoption of video conferencing (VC) where it has been suggested that a feature of the technology would be an increased possibility of peer interaction and peer tutoring. Martin (2008) has noted that successful student-to-student learning first needs careful preparation and that the additional interactivity offered by VC does not necessarily translate into increased interactivity between students.

Other recent studies have turned to researching the actual experiences of young people, investigating their images of technology and its impact upon their lives and the uses to which it might be put. Sheehy & Bucknall (2008) have encouraged such enquiries but once again cautioned that researchers should carefully prepare students in order that they can provide authentic feedback. Groundwater-Smith (2008) was mindful of this reservation and sought to pose the following questions:

1. How is learning understood and constructed by young people?

2. What assists and gets in the way of learning (in digital environments)?

3. How do young people learn using digital technologies in and out of schools?

4. What would young people desire in terms of supporting and sustaining their learning using digital technologies.


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The study conducted on behalf of the NSW DET made it clear that young people well understand learning as a dynamic process that happens when they are substantively engaged. They saw that their learning environment needs to be well organised; that the ICT resources are adequate; that they employ a large range of digital technologies in their homes, but that they have fewer opportunities to employ these in schools; and, finally, that they would welcome tools that would enable them to engage in everyday communication and be creative producers. “They were looking for what might be termed a ‘young persons’ space’ where they could conduct forums and employ those multi-media tools which they were accustomed to using outside school” (p.3). Clearly, the last of these relates closely to the intentions of the Connected Classrooms Program.

So what might the circuit breaker be? Is it that Web 2.0 will bring technologies into the classroom that will be so inimical to past practice that teachers will have to change and accommodate to the revolution? As Vass (2008:16) notes:

It is obvious that young generations are breaking away from the traditional transition model and are instead habituated to a more democratic collective approach towards knowledge building. This mindset is in sharp contrast with traditional school practices, with the implication that new media participatory cultures will essentially reshape and reconstruct

our understanding of and beliefs about school, culture, community and employment.


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Recent Educational Innovation Employing Web 2.0 and Mobile Technologies

Web 2.0 is a term that connotes the concept of interactivity and collaboration. It is less to do with the acquisition of knowledge and more to do with the participation of users in the development of knowledge. The classroom community employs a range of social practices to construct and interrogate knowledge. Knowledge creation is seen as a complex and dynamic activity that is widely distributed beyond the local and immediate. Learners themselves are seen as having a capacity to generate and communicate new ideas, theories, artefacts and insights and share them both within and beyond the school room. The digital tools that are to be found in the Web 2.0 environment allow young people (among others) to be active creators and contributors. Indeed, Groundwater-Smith & Mockler (2009) suggest that we can now see the emergence of ‘Mode 3’ knowledge that moves beyond the kind of knowledge that hitherto has been constructed in places of privilege. Web 2.0 technologies afford networking on a scale previously inconceivable (Van Weert, 2006).

Web 2.0 websites go well beyond retrieving information; they provide the opportunity to search, link, author, tag, extend and signal. They are social as well as cognitive. Manifestations such as blogs and wikis extend engagement and involvement. When we combine concepts in relation to Web 2.0 technologies with those associated with what has become known as ‘Mobile Learning’ we can see the power of convergences that relate very closely to the innovation associated with the Connected Classroom Program with which this report is concerned. Traxler (2007) contrasts mobile learning with ‘tethered learning’ where he argues that it is not only a matter of devices such as smart-phones or wireless laptop computers but also the ways in which they are employed:

… so mobile learning is not about ‘mobile’ as previously understood, or about ‘learning’ as previously understood, but part of a new mobile conception of society (this may contrast with technology enhanced learning or technology supported, both of which give the impression that technology does something to the learning)

This view is echoed by Price, Roussos, Falcao & Sheridan (2009:2) when they argue that technology for learning is no longer only about the computer screen, but about physical action, physical objects, school spaces and real world environments.


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The Connected Classrooms Program

The Commitment to the Connected Classrooms Program was made by the NSW State Government on 16 March 2007, when the Premier announced a $158 million investment over 4 years to enhance the Department’s ICT capacity for teaching and learning.

The Connected Classrooms Program is made up of three key projects:

�� Interactive Classrooms

�� Learning Tools

�� Next Generation Education Network

The need for Connected Classrooms comes from the demands of today’s students: it will facilitate wherever/whenever learning as students consume, remix and create knowledge.

Interactive Classrooms

The project will:

equip every NSW public school with one Interactive Classroom (interactive whiteboard, video conferencing facilities, PC with internet connection, preloaded lesson creation software and data collaboration software)

enable online field trips and access to experts via video conferencing

enhance opportunities for collaboration between students, teachers and schools across DET

provide necessary infrastructure to facilitate collegial support networks for teachers.


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Learning Tools

The project will provide tools that support the ability to create, store, edit, reuse, manage, view and deliver digital learning content from collections and repositories to staff and students across NSW. It will deliver an adaptable and scalable system to provide the latest Web 2.0 technologies to staff and students for teaching and learning.

Specifically it will provide:

a secure individual online working space for all students and teachers

upgraded email services to appproximately 1.2 million school and TAFE students

online access to student reports for parents/caregivers

collaborative environments such as blogED for the discovery and sharing of digital learning content.

Network Enhancement Project

The project will:

enhance bandwidth capacity and reliability

enable interactive environments at all 2,500 DET sites by providing:

enhanced authenticated and filtered internet browsing services;

increased bandwidth and speed;

network upgrades to support the delivery of Interactive Classrooms and Learning Tools.


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The Connected Classrooms Program, is a multi-million dollar initiative, seen to have a number of benefits. Principal of these is its capacity to enable all stakeholders to connect one with the other. In its Business Case (DET NSW 2008) the Department of Education and Training argued that the Program would provide among other things increased access:

� for students to use tools for authoring, manipulation and self expression allowing them to become creative producers

� to contemporary learning technologies which are synonymous with 21st Century skills; and,

� to curriculum choice and specialised teachers and subject experts.

Importantly the Program was seen as one that could enhance student engagement through teachers integrating technology in new ways into quality teaching and learning.

There was a recognition in the Business Case that:

This new capacity will support DET’s goal of building a collaborative community where intellectual property is retained within the organization, where the cultural diversity of all stakeholders is leveraged and where children can work in a protected environment (p.4)

The case acknowledges that students and many of their teachers are already using a myriad of Web 2.0 technologies as a means of connecting to the world and students varied learning experiences.


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A key component of the Program is the provision of video-conferencing for each school in this large and varied system. It was seen that video conferencing facilities would enable “online field trips through direct video links with national parks, museums, universities, industry experts and others” (p.5). Such video-conferencing would be enabled by the establishment of a single interactive classroom to each school1. Thus the Program, over its four year life, was committed to providing these classrooms, in over 2200 schools.

Among the reasons for proceeding with the initiative the Business Case (p.9), argued that the use of the technology would enhance student engagement, access for students to online tools ‘when and where they require’, parental peace of mind ‘in relation to the appropriateness of the electronic content their children are exposed to’. Consequentially, in relation to all of the above, it was argued that the business community would benefit from school leavers with 21st Century skills.

It has been noted that the Connected Classroom Program consists, itself, of three main projects, the Network Enhancement Project enabling the second two which are of interest to this report. The principal of these is the Interactive Classroom Project with its capacity to: connect schools and students, access experts outside the classroom; support teacher professional learning and enhance and amplify the curriculum in the context of the Quality Teaching Framework.

1 In its statistical bulletin “Fast facts” derived from 2009 figures the DET indicated the number of Government schools in the Primary Sector was 1629; in Central Schools 67; in High School sector, 398; in SSP Schools 113; and Environmental Education Centres 23, totalling 2230 public schools across NSW.


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The second project of interest is the provision of Learning Tools that will enable a secure online working space, upgraded student email services; online access to student reports; and a “collaborative environment for the discovery and sharing of digital learning content”(p.17) with the provision of Web 2.0 tools such as blogED.


Note: At the time of writing, December 2010:

a. 90% of schools have had an interactive classroom installed with the remaining 10% scheduled for installation in

early 2011.

b. 98.5% of DET sites, schools and TAFEs have had their network services reviewed and/or upgraded.

c. All 1.3 million students have been provided with an enhanced email service through Google’s G-mail and

approximately 17,000 blogs have been created using the DET blogED online collaborative learning tool.

d. Parental online access to student reports and a secure online personal file storage and shared workspaces (known

as eBackpack) are due to be delivered in Semester 1, 2011.

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Among the reasons for proceeding with the initiative the Business Case (p.9), argued that the use of the technology would enhance student engagement, access for students to online tools ‘when and where they require’, parental peace of mind ‘in relation to the appropriateness of the electronic content their children are exposed to’. Consequentially, in relation to all of the above, it was argued that the business community would benefit from school leavers with 21st Century skills.

The benefits identified in the Business Case have been incorporated into the CCP Benefits Management Plan (p23). Many of these benefits are perceived as “non-financial”, that is those that do not yield readily to a direct financial measurement regime; hence this study will use qualitative evidence to explore and evaluate those Program outcomes that impact on learning, these being that Connected Classrooms Program technologies:

B1 Increase opportunities for collaboration between students;

B2 Increase opportunities for collaboration between teachers and students;

B3 Increase opportunities for collaboration between teachers;

B4 Increase access to virtual excursions and events;

B5 Increase access to specialist teachers and external experts;

B6 Increased access to broader subject choice including Physics, extension Maths and language courses;

B7 Increase opportunities for gifted and talented students;

B8 Provide additional transition strategies from Primary to High School;

B9 Provide students with access to contemporary learning technologies synonymous with 21st century learning; and

B10 Enable the creation, sharing and delivery of curriculum content.

Before turning to the evidence that has been made available it is important to make the case for employing ‘testimony’ in the form of the many accounts of practice collated over three calendar years (2008 - 2010) in the Program’s Compendium of Practice and through the real-life accounts recorded in the DVD resource. The DVD resource consists of 11 videos, an introductory video and 10 videos of recorded footage of teachers and students using CCP technologies which are mapped to the non-financial benefits.


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Methodology Employed For Qualitative Evaluation of The Program:

Using Qualitative Evidence, Issues of Validity and Reliabil ity

The principal purpose of this qualitative evaluation of the Connected Classrooms Program is to identify evidence that the non-financial benefits (B1 - B10) that were sought for are being achieved. This is not to claim the extent of that achievement, but rather that there are indications, from a number of narratives in the Compendium of Practice and in the DVD resource, that they are being experienced by teachers and their students as the interactive classrooms and associated learning tools are being deployed to NSW Government Schools. A second purpose is to identify issues and concerns that may require ongoing attention.

In his discussion with respect to evaluating mobile technology Traxter (2007: 5 - 6) argues that there are no a priori attributes of what constitutes a ‘good evaluation’ of the outcomes of technologies that are so recent in their constitution and application such as the program with which this study is concerned. He suggests that among the attributes that should be considered are that the evaluation be:

� Rigorous, trustworthy and transferable;

� Efficient;

� Proportionate;

� Appropriate;

� Consistent with the philosophy of the given program or project;

� Authentic;

� Aligned to the medium; and consistent.

� Ethical;

Further to this list the concept of ‘triangulation’ could also be added, this requires that more than one data source is employed in order to derive multiple perspectives on a given phenomenon (Barbour, 1998).


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In relation to the first of Traxter’s attributes, that the evaluation be rigorous, trustworthy and transferable, these concepts find their parallels in quantitive inquiry where the emphasis is upon facts and causes of behaviour (Bogdan & Biklen, 1998) and where the information takes the form of numbers that can be quantified and summarised and is perceived as ‘objective’. The inquiry meets tenets of reliability where results are seen to be consistent over time and can be replicated under a variety of circumstances. Validity is seen to refer to whether the inquiry measures that which it was intended to measure and that the constructs that have been employed will actually define the problem. These criteria are based upon a number of assumptions regarding the research tradition that has been adhered to (often labelled positivist) and may not apply to the kind of ‘messy’ and dynamic world of change such as bringing complex technology into a myriad of settings with all of the variables associated with schools, teachers, students and contexts. These are real-world settings where the phenomena being explored are unfolding in variable ways at a variable pace. Golafshani (2003:601) draws upon notions of consistency, dependability and trustworthiness to make the case for sound, reliable qualitative research.

When considering efficiency and proportionality it is important to take into account that the cost, effort and time are commensurable with the scale of the evaluation. An appropriate and authentic evaluation is one that draws upon forms of data that are in tune with the phenomena being examined. Within these concepts rests the notion of confirmability where member checks are conducted such that they are satisfied that the data represents their work, thoughts and activities2. This is of particular relevance where the accounts of these are maintained, rather than disaggregated (Morse, Barrett, Mayan, Olson & Spiers 2002). A second order of verification can come about as a result of the evaluation being systematically monitored for its appropriateness and authenticity by key stakeholders.

2 All stories in the Compendium of Practice were checked with those whose work was represented in order to ensure that the accounts were authentic. This procedure is very important in contexts where qualitative information is being collected in that it can be counted as both a validation and ethical exercise so that those people whose work is depicted are honoured and respected.


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Ethicality is always a key concern whether employing qualitative or quantitative methods. Furlong & Oancea (2008:15) make the case that to meet standards of excellence in applied and practice based research it is essential that propriety and trustworthiness are basic to the value and legitimacy of the work. This view is reflected in the same volume by Groundwater-Smith & Mockler (2008) who also draw attention to an ethical consideration that the investigation should inform participatory social action and embody a critical dimension. Perhaps too often there is the temptation to engage in celebratory accounts rather than ones that may unsettle and disturb. They conclude:

Quality is always troublesome and never easily resolved. It requires of researchers not only an understanding of the technicalities of research and reflective practice, but an unwavering commitment to ethics and the improvement of the human condition … (p.89)

Evidence, then, is a challenging matter when we are considering how effective the introduction of interactive classrooms and associated learning tools have been in NSW public schools. As Holkner, Romeo, Henderson, Auld, Russell, Seah & Fernando (2008:86) have observed:

The extent to which research constitutes evidence for the introduction of ICTs into the classroom depends on your point of view. Our point of view is that educational research does not supply rules for action, but hypotheses for intelligent problem solving. It can help us understand what works in a particular situation, but not what will work in future situations. The role of the educator is to use research findings to make one’s problem solving more intelligent.


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Exploring the Compendium of Practice and DVD Resource in Relation to the Nominated Benefits

From its inception the Connected Classrooms Program has published Bulletins fortnightly, issues 1 – 29 (2008 – 2009) and monthly, issues 30 – 39 (2010). These have formed the basis for the Compendium of Practice as eighty-three “stories from the field” that provide the narratives of practice. Ewing (2010) sees a narrative approach as one that enables the identification of important enduring themes in practice. She sees professional stories as coalescing into “songlines” in the form of tracks across the landscape. Importantly, she indicates that songlines “suggest a continuing, ever-changing movement” (p.5) which, in turn, signals an incompleteness in or around the actions and events. This is particularly pertinent to this study in that an innovation as substantial and far reaching as the Connected Classrooms Program is one that is bound to continue to grow and flourish well beyond the program’s statutory life.

As a way forward each of the nominated benefits of the program will be examined in relation to the relevant stories identified in the Compendium of Practice and captured by the DVD resource. The stories will be discussed in terms of the evidence that they provide. Simultaneously this account will nominate key themes as they demonstrate specific benefits or sets of benefits. This is of particular importance with reference to the clusters of benefits that address matters of collaboration (B1 – B3) and access (B4 - B6).


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Collaboration Cluster : Benefit 1 – Benefit 3

Collaboration in environments mediated by video conferencing facilities brings with it a range of issues. To work collaboratively, whether students working together; teachers and students working together; or teachers working with students; requires a number of assumptions to be met and skills to be exercised such as the building of trust, the capacity for clear communication and the ability to manage a range of opinions and positions. The principal challenge of collaboration is that individual creators bring with them different theories, mind maps, models and precepts of the matter being discussed and/or investigated. Each will have evolved these out of diverse experiences and opportunities. If individuals are to collaborate in order to learn it is more than them merely working side by side. It involves them in participatory knowledge construction that has the capacity to be transformative. It is important to be aware that additional interactivity offered by such procedures as video conferencing does not necessarily translate into increased interactivity between students or their teachers (Higgins, Beauchamp and Miller 2007).

Collaboration is, first and foremost, a social activity both enhanced and made difficult by the complexity of encounters in Web 2.0 environments. Collaboration is not to be mistaken with a striving to achieve consensus, but rather is an opportunity for distributed problem solving based upon the collective reasoning and critique of those participating. It is not sufficient to imagine that using the capabilities and capacities of the Connected Classrooms Program technologies will lead inevitably to collaboration or that such a provision may be seen as the nominal raison d’être for collaboration.

Importantly it should be understood that, just as there are stages in a ladder of participation, so too is the practice of collaboration developmental. The Connected Classrooms Program could be seen to cohere with the first three levels of participation that have been put forward by Shier (2001:110) where participants are listened to, supported in expressing their views and seeing these taken into account. Shier’s model is particularly useful in considering the Program because it embodies the nature of commitment required for it to be successful, namely that there is an opening created, that an opportunity occurs and that there is an obligation to provide conditions that are built into the system. The opening creates conditions where collaboration can occur, such as sharing and discussing; the opportunity enables a range of views to be expressed; and the obligations are that due weight would be given to the concerns that the participants express.


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B1 CCP technologies increase opportunities for collaboration between students

Altogether sixteen narratives from the field have been collected in relation to this first benefit. Collaboration is variously understood as providing:

� a capacity for schools to share, directly with one another, for example, rural schools and city schools;

� an opportunity for schools to engage in competitive games with one another;

� a means for developing interaction between urban and rural schools to understand and appreciate their varying contexts;

� an ability for a number of schools to participate in a virtual conference in relation to an event such as an agricultural field day;

� an occasion for connecting to international students;

� a means for schools to engage with each other, local communities and businesses in developing shared concerns; and

� an opportunity for students to work together to discuss and solve their concerns through the Really Active Motivated Students (RAMS).

While there is ample evidence in the accounts that these events occurred it is not always clear that the agency for collaboration rests upon the students. The opening account derived from Bulletin 24, 11th September 2009 (over one year later from the time of the first Bulletin published in June 2008) reports upon a global school project managed through the Macquarie ICT Innovations Centre. It reports that since February 2009, over 35 video conferences with 200 schools engaging with 17 Aboriginal community presenters and involving 5000 students have been conducted. It is clear from the narrative that students have had a unique opportunity to hear more about Aboriginal dance, art, artefacts and language and that students created their own responses using a variety of media. Furthermore, the Bulletin reports that students were able to witness creativity in action, they were able to see, listen and then construct. Clearly, an opening and opportunity was created for them in that they were engaged in sharing and sophisticated forms of communication if not actively collaborating with each other to produce some form of knowledge or artefact.


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Similarly the stories include a number of showcases and wide ranging forums in which students participated and demonstrated their achievements. In a sense we might think of the majority of the accounts in this section as mediated collaboration in that the opportunities that were provided to the students were orchestrated, albeit most skilfully, by their teachers or by project officers.

However, there are several narratives that demonstrate work of a more advanced collaborative nature that enhances the learning of students in different sites and locations and where there is a peer learning model as espoused by Martin (2008). For example, the technology has enabled in one case the development of a sophisticated assessment task that requires students to communicated their understandings of scientific phenomena to a ‘live audience’ who may interrogate them and stretch their understanding beyond mere reportage. Bulletin 27, 6th November 2009 reports on the interaction between an extension class in science and maths in a city high school presenting their experiments in nanotechnology to students in a remote central school and rural high school.

In another case, Bulletin 28, 20th November 2009 we learn of a peer tutoring program in the performing arts whereby students collaborate through actual visits and exchanges and via interactive classroom links as they strive to create mutually satisfying products.


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B2 CCP technologies increase opportunities for collaboration between teachers and students

Five accounts have been selected as exemplifiers of this benefit. Several of the projects were based upon the employment of the blogED collaborative learning tool. In March 2010 the Connected Classrooms Program published the following information regarding blogED, specifically for parents and caregivers:

As part of its ongoing commitment to enhanced student learning outcomes through the use of technology the NSW Department of Education and Training (DET) has developed a blogging tool known as blogED. BlogED was developed in accordance with DET policies and guidelines and has incorporated feedback from students, teachers and parents. Students access blogED through their DET student portal. When using the DET blog students are able to:

� use the same login they use for email and internet browsing

� experience the same filters that are currently applied to the use of email and internet browsing

� be guided by current permission forms regarding confidentiality and privacy

� be protected by DET standards of acceptable use of online communications.

As well as these assurances the information continues:

A blog (an abbreviation of weblog) is a personal website, organised like a diary or journal, which shows the author’s most recent additions first. It enables the author to write regular entries expressing their view of events. Depending on the permission levels set for a blog, the readers (audience) of the blog are able to ‘post’ to a blog or ‘comment’ on a post. For some blogED types moderation is mandatory. [So] What is an educational blog? An educational blog is an online journal where a student writes (makes posts) about their learning, which may be commented on by other students, the teacher or a wider audience as approved by the teacher. Students can add, link to or embed copyright compliant media such as photographs and videos to their blogs. DET blogs can only be set up by teachers. Teachers are able to moderate posts and comments on the blog.


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The intimation is that by using this powerful tool, teachers and their students may collaborate in learning. In one instance (Bulletin 25, 9th October 2009) a teacher of English for Speakers of Other Languages created a class blog that allowed students to enter posts on a range of experiences and events, for example, news, TV and film, sport, travel, celebrities and so on. Her role was as moderator as she corrected and commented on the contents of the various postings. In another case (Bulletin 33, 18th June 2009) a class blog was created that captures the development of a study of Balinese culture. In both of these instances it could be argued that the application is one that suggests sharing as the first step to collaboration as discussed earlier in this study. In a third instance, students engaging in science research (Bulletin 33, 18th June 2009) there is testimony that demonstrates students contributing to each other’s learning through talk and discussion. The fourth example offered as evidence of this benefit and published in the same Bulletin, is the conduct of a video conference festival in which 6000 students and 400 teachers took part through 25 video conferences engaging with, among others, the Curriculum Directorate K – 12, National Parks and Wildlife Service.

The DVD resource makes specific mention of the uses of blogED in all stages of learning: primary, secondary and TAFE. It is seen to be a tool that gives students a wider audience and provides a ‘safe’ space for them to collaborate. It is a confidence building application in that students can nominate the extent to which their individual blogs will be made available to others. Students can survey earlier blogs to trace their own growth and development by looking at earlier posts. TAFE students use the tool to communicate with supervisors when on work placements and are enabled to reflect on professional practice.

Extracts from the DVD resource also demonstrate that collaboration between teachers and students mediated through the interactive technologies has a capacity to break down perceived traditional barriers and allow a greater demonstration of thinking that lies behind the creation of products.

Altogether, these examples give insight into the ways in which interactive technologies can be used to enhance the mutual engagement of teachers and learners.


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B3 CCP technologies increase opportunities for collaboration between teachers

Altogether thirteen cases are cited in relation to this third benefit within the set associated with matters related to collaboration. They provide a spectrum of interactions ranging from what might best be characterised as video seminars with academic colleagues and world leaders, to a demonstration of ways in which professional practices can be jointly constructed and employed in a context where teachers work with each other as mutual problem solvers.

In the case of the former the facility enabled:

� the DET senior executive, school and regional leaders to interact with an acknowledged world expert with respect to the impact of digital technologies on schools and their management (Bulletin 12, 13th March 2009);

� teachers to engage in professional dialogue regarding practices, research and innovation in the areas of ‘Open and free education’, ‘Aboriginal education’ and Building communities of schools’ (Bulletin 14, 21st April 2009);

� the training of teachers to meet the needs of students with disability (Bulletin 20, 17th July 2009) in the uses of blogED (Bulletin 32, 21st May 2010 and Bulletin 34, 23rd July 2010); and applying lesson study as a means of improving planning and delivery (Bulletin 18, 15th June 2009)

� early career teachers to both share their experiences and discover more about specific teaching strategies (Bulletin 16, 18th May 2009)

� participants to share ways in which they were employing the Effective Lifelong Learning Inventory (ELLI)3 as an Australian Government Quality Teaching Program strategy (Bulletin, 29, 4th December 2009); and

� the virtual supervision of students during practicum placement (Bulletin 31, 23rd April 2010).

3 The inventory is used to assess an individual or class’s ‘learning power’ that then feeds into teachers planning for relevant and engaging learning experiences building on strengths and fostering the weaker dimensions. It has been used very successfully with Indigenous learners (Deakin-Crick, 2006).


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The cases also included further evidence of extended collaboration where the problematics of professional practice were discussed. But the interactions transcended discussion and sharing, for ideas were developed and refined, and strategies moderated - whether in relation to assessment (Bulletin 29, 4th December 2009) or teaching difficult concepts such as place value as it underpins mathematical operations (Bulletin 29, 4th December 2009) or expanding skills and knowledge (Bulletin 34, 23rd July 2010). In the latter instance the development provided evidence of teachers themselves initiating and maintaining the project within what was described as “an organic process, teachers managing the whole thing”. Most recently a project has been evolving using the DET Yammer network, which provides a social networking tool for teachers who hold regular video conferences in order to discuss enhancing student motivation (Bulletin 38, 12th November 2010).

Clearly, all thirteen accounts provided opportunities for teachers to engage in professional learning in supportive and challenging environments. They were able to experience both visually and orally a range of innovative practices and ask questions of their colleagues. Much of this was made possible by the accessibility afforded by the technology.


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Access Cluster : Benefit 4 – Benefit 6

The State of New South Wales is one that includes not only a large metropolitan conurbation stretching from Wollongong in the South to Newcastle to the North, but also a string of coastal towns covering over one thousand kilometres. It encompasses a rural world West of the Great Dividing Range (sometimes referred to as “the sandstone curtain”) that stretches out to the most remote of communities. The Department of Education and Training is composed of ten regions that embody these wide geographical, topographical and variously populated spaces. Providing access for schools students to cultural institutions (such as galleries, museums and environmental centres) is difficult to say the least. Equally, there are considerable difficulties in the name of equity, that all schools in the system have access to specialist teachers and external experts. Finally there are significant challenges for students to be enabled to enrol in subjects beyond the experience and expertise of the staff of their school.

Access is an important social outcome in a system that is so widely distributed and diverse in its nature. David Suzuki (2003) understands and explains the impact of place. Autobiographies and biographies invariably draw upon place as a significant, but not exclusive set of conditions, influencing later behaviours and practices, ideologies and values. Clearly, schools are located in a range and variety of social and geographic spaces, however much of the literature on learning whether mediated by technology or otherwise, does not take account of its situated nature. Patton (2000) drawing upon the work of Deleuze argues that understanding social geography is essential to the formation of policies and practices. This is both in terms of the apparatus of government (in effect those who decide upon staffing, the syllabi, high stakes assessment and state-wide testing, buildings and the like) and of the collective wills and desires of those who occupy the space, these being variegated and significantly determined by class, race, ethnicity and gender. This is found to be demonstrable in the work of McConaghy (2002, 2004) who outlines the many challenges experienced by NSW teachers in rural and remote communities.


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B4 CCP technologies increase access to vir tual excursions and events e.g. Galleries, Libraries and Museum

The Compendium of Practice provides fifteen stories from the field. These may be classified as:

� access and participation in events;

� access to performances;

� access to external agencies; and

� access to virtual excursions.

Events are an important and significant part of students’ lives. While they may be ‘one-off’ occasions they are usually memorable and can even be life changing. Often, though, it is difficult for them to participate because the venue may be hard to reach, expensive, or too small to accommodate the number of people wishing to participate. The National Film and Archive Event (Bulletin 32, 21st May, 2010) was just such an occasion. As part of a school screen program the event provided students with access to those working in the Australian Creative Arts industry and hear accounts of experience from actors and directors. Schools who participated came from as far afield as Armidale to the North, Dubbo to the West and Wollongong to the South.

The DVD resource, recording samples from this event, demonstrated the ways in which students felt enabled to put their questions directly to actors and directors; they were able to experience the notion of a rehearsal space and discover how new insights about the characters being portrayed accumulate as the performance becomes richer and deeper. These insights were made possible by the quality of the questions that students asked in a context where they felt relatively relaxed and where immediate feedback was put into practice.

In a different vein, 23 primary schools engaged in an event arranged by Questacon on Canberra (Bulletin 29, 4th December). As a result 1200 students from both NSW schools and ones from South Australia, Tasmania and the Northern Territory participated. They were able to hear from and interact with five polar region scientists and a whaling captain and hear about how polar regions are being affected by climate change.


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Some events took students beyond Australia, for example students from Penrith High School engaged with students in South Korea to conduct an Asia-Pacific Mock trial (Bulletin 16, 18th May 2009). As well, students from Gordon Public School were able to take a virtual journey to Kigluait in Alaska (Bulletin 25, 9th October 2009). Others were local such as the Sydney Region Debating Gala Day (Bulletin 29, 4th December 2009) and the Weather Observation Activity conducted on the North Coast (Bulletin 17, 29th May 2009).

A specific event format is the performance. Students from more distant schools, studying the same text as their contemporaries in metropolitan schools with greater access to theatres and the like may feel at something of a disadvantage. The Connected Classroom Program enabled schools from the Western, Riverina and New England regions to watch a live theatre performance of “Ruby Moon” (Bulletin 17, 29th May 2009).

Access to external agencies is no easy matter. Connecting to NASA may be seen as an exceptional privilege, but one that was made available through video conferencing to a Sydney boys’ school (Bulletin 21, 31st July 2009). Not only was the occasion seen as one that was stimulating for the students, but also connected closely to the NSW Quality Teaching Framework and was seen as ongoing as a stimulus to student learning. It was reported on the DVD resource that students were astonished and amazed to find out, not only how astronauts lived and slept but even how they could “go to the toilet – always something fascinating to young people!”


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School excursions offer real challenges to teachers. They require careful organisation and management and can also raise issues of equity and social justice – not all families can afford them and even with school assistance they can be costly. Using the facilities of video conferencing schools were able to connect to the Australian Museum (Bulletin 6, September 19th, 2008; Bulletin 19, 29thJune 2009) and to visit the Australian Cricket Ground (Bulletin 31, 23rd April 2010). In the latter case the provision was tailored to the needs of students attending remote and regional schools such as Cudgegong Valley, Jerilderie and Gilgandra.

Regional Directors themselves were also treated to an excursion; in this case to the Great Barrier Reef (Bulletin 17, 29th May 2009). This was designed to enable them to experience first hand the power of the interactive classroom.

One event that sits somewhat outside these other access occasions was a multi-media project where students created a successful entry to a competition based upon the TV series “Getaway” (Bulletin 28, 20th November 2009). The work drew upon concepts in science and interactive communication.


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B5 CCP technologies increase access to specialist teachers and external experts

Fourteen stories are reported in this section of the Compendium of Practice. In some senses it might be better to characterise the section as “access to external experts who function as specialist teachers” as each case demonstrates how successfully those who are in command of their field of practice can communicate and interact with young people in schools.

Students had opportunities to participate in discussions with:

� people in creative industries;

� sportspeople;

� scientists; and

� significant community members.

It is not often that so many school students can meet with and question the authors of the books that they so cherish. One school hosted such an event with Morris Gleitzman (Bulletin 9, November 14th, 2008) while 12 other primary schools participated via a video conference. They heard of how his stories arose and even were able to talk with him about the possibilities of writing themselves.

The Australian picture book author, Graeme Base (Bulletin 10, 2nd December 2008) revealed how long it takes to create a book and the immense amount of effort that is required. While Pat Flynn (Bulletin 23, 28th August 2009) revealed that many of his ideas grew out of being a teacher and coming to understand the interests of young people. Another creative person who inspired students was novelist and cartoonist David Hackett (Bulletin 14, 21st April 2009). They were able to experience first hand the ways in which he builds up his illustrations. These stories clearly demonstrated the power of the video-conference to reach a number of participants who might otherwise never have “met” people of these creative capacities.


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Clearly it is also the case that young people hold sporting heroes in high regard. Students from Menindee Central School, one that is relatively remote, were linked up with sixteen other schools in order to interview Kurt Fearnley, Australian Champion Paralympian (Bulletin 14, 21st April 2009). They found his persistence and perseverance highly motivating. In a similar way Socceroo Mark Schwarzter interacted with 100 students from five DET regions (Bulletin 20, 17th July 2009) hearing about his commitment to healthy living and physical activity.

Scientists and their work are often quite remote from the day to day experiences of students. Eight high schools were able to be connected to engage with a practicing astrophysicist, Dr Andrew Hopkins (Bulletin 8, 31st October 2008). They learned about our universe and were enabled to transcend their sense of remoteness and isolation. Dr Hopkins revisited schools with colleague Professor Bryan Gaensler ( Bulletin 12, 16th March 2009) to not only discuss their field, but also advise about careers and opportunities that the students might not have previously considered. At a later point 2500 students from 50 schools as far apart as Tumbarumba, Broken Hill and Newcastle, participated in 18 forums with leading scientists covering such ground as research on marine mammals and the impacts of climate change (Bulletin 24, 11th September 2009).

A virtual visit to Taronga Zoo Education Centre (DVD resource) demonstrated how engaging and beneficial it may be to meet with and interact with not only the zoo education experts, but also some of the fauna that they care for. It is difficult to represent in words the looks of amazement, awe and wonder on children’s faces as they saw, at close quarters, insects, frogs, birds and mammals. In one shot of a tawny frogmouth bird opening its beak it was possible to see one student opening her own mouth in perfect synchrony! Importantly, it was also noted that while not all students will be able to actually visit the zoo for those who can the virtual visit can act as an advance organiser for learning and a stimulus for follow through.


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Historians offer particular insights into Australia’s culture and development. The Historic Houses Trust is assisting in bringing Australian convict history to life (Bulletin 38, 12th November 2010). New resources will be launched in February, 2011, demonstrating the ongoing nature of the program.

Experts in the field are many with diverse talents and experiences. School captains at Carlton Public School, along with nine surrounding primary school conducted “Captains’ Day” with leaders from the Police Local Area Command and the NSW Rural Fire Brigade to discover what their duties and responsibilities were and ways in which leadership is developed (Bulletin 8, 31st October 2008). Unsung heroes were also affirmed in the project undertaken at Menindee Central School (Bulletin 34, 23rd August 2010) during NAIDOC week. Sharing their Indigenous heroes with Lindfield East Public School and Keira High young people heard the many moving stories of local Aboriginal people and the ways in which they dealt with their travails.


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B6 CCP technologies increase access to broader subject choice including Physics, extension Maths and language courses

Access to broader subject choice necessarily also means access to specialist teachers and to other students desirous of studying those subjects. Four cases are reported in this section of the Compendium of Practice. The first of these portrays the interactive classroom technology being employed to teach vocational training to students from a number of Central Schools in the West of the State (Bulletin 25, 9th October 2009). Not only is the program directed to the students but also supports their teachers in areas of design, assessment and planning.

The second story from the field relates to delivering curriculum choice to the same area of the State where over 900 students have benefitted from teaching over 35 subjects to 15 schools across the region (Bulletin 35, 20th August 2010). Again teachers also have their own professional learning enhanced through the Program.

In terms of teacher professional learning, currently language learning centres are being established in 42 schools (Bulletin 38, 12th November 2010). These are designed to assist language teachers in exploring a range of uses to which the interactive classroom technology might be put.

The DVD resource was able to demonstrate how Senior students function in the same virtual classroom and are not isolated because of the lack of a Physics teacher at their school due to an enrolment too small to support a class. One student, employing the language of today’s young people spoke of his capacity to ‘mash’ subjects together, referring to his ability to seamlessly blend what he was learning in situ and what he was learning in the virtual Physics classroom.


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Varying Opportunities Cluster: Benefit 7 - Benefit 10

As well as the earlier cited opportunities for collaboration and the matters associated with access as discussed above the Connected Classrooms Program has also produced opportunities in a number of other areas concerned with particular needs. None of these stand alone; each interacts with the other in complex ways, but then it has always been recognised that educational practices are complex, influenced by a wide array of factors some of which can be managed and controlled more readily than others.


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B7 CCP technologies increase learning opportunities for gifted and talented students

Attention is drawn to three instances in this category. The first of these encompasses provision of partnerships between secondary schools, TAFE and university to enable extended learning in maths and science for highly able students in both primary and secondary settings (Bulletin 23, 28th August 2009). The various forums and workshops illustrated the kind of authentic collaboration discussed earlier in this study in that, for example, students from Parramatta Public School used the learning that they had experienced to collaborate with each other and design learning experiences for their peers. This project was continued and further reported on in Bulletin 26, 23rd October 2009 demonstrating that earlier work is being developed and built upon.

The other case reported in this section was specifically focussed on teacher professional learning in that a presentation was developed in relation to an eGATS! Project and various COGS4 units, each of which was designed to meet the needs of highly able students.

The DVD resource coverage demonstrated the development of the XSEL5 Virtual Selective High School in Western New South Wales. The presentation reminds us the region covers over 365 000 square kilometres and is larger than Western Germany. Being enabled to attend a selective high school would normally be very difficult for students from this region; as it is the students do not have to leave their families and can participate interactively with their talented peers. It has been noted that the infrastructure, built by the Connected Classrooms Program is particularly well suited to this purpose and assists in re-defining what a classroom is.

4 COG is the acronym for Curriculum Outcome Groups. The KLA learning outcomes have been grouped in each COG to take advantage of connections that can be made because of similar content, processes or skills and to make connections between ideas to maximise students’ learning. Each connected outcomes group is designed to be taught over one term and where essential for learning, there is adequate repetition of outcomes.

5 It is possible to see current work at the XSEL Virtual Selective High School by going to:http://www.xsel.schools.nsw.edu.au/sws/view/455464.node


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B8 CCP technologies provide additional transition strategies from Primary to High School

Again, it is evident that there is considerable overlap between the benefits. The Compendium of Practice brings together two stories from the field in this area. Just as the cases already reported referred to connections being made between various school sectors, this section also draws attention to working from the primary to the high school. Using the philosophy of ‘teaching to learn’ Year 8 students volunteered for an extension activity in science where they prepared and taught a lesson on asthma and respiration to younger primary students (Bulletin 11, 27th February 2009). Not only did they link via the video conference, where they demonstrated procedures but also they developed a quiz, worksheet and set of instructions that were made available to the primary students so that they might readily follow the procedures being demonstrated.

In the other instance classroom teachers from Stages 3 and 4 worked on a sequence of literacy lessons that would attend to the NSW Quality Teaching Framework and enhance student capabilities in writing paying attention to vocabulary, theme and paragraphing (Bulletin 22, 14th August 2009). Stage 4 students provided feedback to their Stage 3 counterparts and in doing so also became more attuned and aware of these writing features. As well, teachers worked collaboratively to develop assessment rubrics and how they might best moderate professional judgement.

The DVD resource illustrated the ways in which these interactions occurred with teachers and students commenting on their beliefs that there was now less fear and apprehension about going to high school, previously seen as something of an ‘unknown’ and that they were feeling more confident and excited about the prospect.


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B9 CCP technologies provide students with access to contemporary learning technologies synonymous with 21st century learning

What better way to teach about technology than to use technology. As the DVD resource noted pedagogy is being redefined for children who were born after the internet was invented. The first of the stories in this section involved some 2000 students from each of the state’s ten regions. Students undertook to develop multi-media projects along with an engaging title, a synopsis and a promotional advertisement (Bulletin 27, 6th March, 2009). They were reported to have gained considerable skills in PowerPoint presentation, Bridgit6, and using the facilities of video conferencing (VC). As well, they learned some of the so called ‘soft skills’ such as the employment of a VC etiquette guide and public speaking.

Three of the five stories made reference to using blogED as a communication tool. In one case to provide a forum for the school’s SRC to capture student voice in relation to internal and sometimes contentious issues such as the school uniform (Bulletin 22, 14th August 2009). In another blogED was employed to provide a medium for student reflection in relation to visual arts tasks (Bulletin 23, 28th August 2009); while in a third instance young people employed a ‘blog-log’ to capture elements of the First Fleet voyage and for parents to view their achievements (Bulletin 24, 11th September 2009).

It is notable that one story in this section reported upon the adoption of video-conferencing to enhance learning for young people attending a School for Specific Purposes (SSP) (Bulletin 27, 6th November, 2009). The school is using the technological capabilities of the interactive classroom to engage students with a range of challenging behaviours, autism, obsessive compulsive disorders and cognitive impairment. One class in the school gained a state award in digital story construction, in another case a young student was enabled to have a voice hitherto denied him.

6 Bridgit is a data collaboration software that allows both communication and demonstration. It can be used to support student and teacher professional learning; c.f,http://www2.smarttech.com/st/en-US/Products/Bridgit/


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B10 CCP technologies enable the creation, sharing and delivery of curriculum content

Again, it should be emphasised that there is ample evidence in relation to earlier benefits that there is significant sharing and delivery of curriculum content. The six stories contained in this final section of the Compendium of Practice have been selected to draw specific attention to this important professional outcome.

Connected Outcomes Groups (COGS) are an important resource for teachers who have an enthusiasm for inter-disciplinary studies. Electronic hubs have been formed that allow teachers to engage with senior curriculum advisors to meet, collaborate and share (Bulletin 26, 23rd October 2009). They have been enabled to construct and develop resources that can be immediately used in their classes. For busy teachers this must be a boon.

Teachers have been enabled to learn about dynamic geometry and graphing software using Dynamic Calculus and Geometers Warehouse using the free open source software GeoGebra (Bulletin 11, 27th February 2009). Similarly, collaborative learning software has attracted teachers to draw upon the Lesson Activity Toolkit to develop lessons in a variety of Key Learning Areas (Bulletin 31, 23rd April, 2010). While Primary Teachers have had access to My Primary Classroom (Bulletin 33, 18th June 2010) again using SMART Notebook7 software that unlocks a variety of interactive whiteboard resources.

At a time when there is much lively discussion regarding the content and management of a National Curriculum teachers have had an opportunity to comment on the drafts for English, History, Mathematics and Science as they are released for consultation (Bulletin 32, 21st May 2010). Thirty three video conferences were conducted involving over 800 teachers in 426 locations. This enabled a coherent, integrated response to be developed and submitted. The DVD resource demonstrated that the conferencing and consultation between teachers not only saved time and travel but also led to a more coherent and informed response.

Thus video conferencing, the interactive white-board and tools such as Bridgit, blogED, and SMART Notebook lesson creation software have all contributed to teachers creating, sharing and delivering their practices in a manner that recognises talent and innovation between more and less experienced practitioners.

7 SMART Notebook lesson creation software http://www.smarttech.com/us/Solutions/Education+Solutions


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Discussion

There can be no question regarding the richness of the evidence that has been made available through the Compendium of Practice and DVD resource. It is clear that the intended benefits are being achieved. The penetration of the technology into schools: large and small; metropolitan; regional and remote; primary and secondary; is noteworthy. Similarly the number of teachers who have been involved in being the pioneers is significant, this number includes the whole career spectrum – early career through to highly experienced practitioners. The curriculum coverage demonstrates the applicability of the technology to all key learning areas. Learning has been seen to go well beyond the classroom into other spheres and realms of practice in the arts and sciences and into other communities and cultures such as those of Indigenous people. Linkages have been made to the NSW Quality Teaching Framework such that practice can be reconceptualised and enhanced. Applications have been adapted and customised as authentic tools to meet 21st Century teaching and learning needs, for example blogED and Bridgit.

Looking across the spectrum of practice using The Connected Classrooms Program technologies over a period of three years (2008 – 2010) it is evident that these practices have evolved in sophistication.

In their framework for examining appropriate practices in the employment of ICTs in schools Trinidad, Newhouse and Clarkson (2005) suggest that there are several stages through which practitioners progress. The framework is a helpful scaffold for considering the extent of the evolution of the Program.


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Trinidad et al (2005) have a preliminary stage which describes a threshold where practitioners neither know about nor are committed to the use of digital technologies in their classrooms. From this they progress to ‘investigation’ where the school and teachers accept the possibilities of such technologies but have reservations and are unsure about the impacts upon their teaching. The next progression is to ‘application’ where there is greater confidence that the technology will make a contribution to teaching and learning, but are still uncertain regarding the ways in which it might change classroom practices. They then nominate a point in development that they name ‘the critical border’; this is the point where significant change takes place. The qualitative evidence that has been examined in relation to the Connected Classrooms Program suggests that this border has now been crossed, leading to ‘integration’ where the technology is seen as a suite of comprehensive tools used to address multiple learning outcomes; and, in some cases, to ‘transformation’ where the combined affordances of the IWB, VC, Bridgit and blogED act as a catalyst to support all learners allowing for enhanced collaboration, extended community engagement and “new ways of teaching and learning”.

However it would be too sanguine to suggest that there are not several ongoing issues that will need to be addressed as the Program moves into the future. The burgeoning of Web 2.0 technologies, information sites and peripheral resources means that it is quite possible that teachers and their students will become quite overwhelmed. It is important to bear in mind that interactive technologies, powerful as they are, cannot replace mindful and professional classroom practitioners. Teacher time is being increasingly intensified in an environment where both state and federal policies are in a state of flux and change and where community expectations are ever-increasing. These debates are being framed in terms of the evolving needs of a knowledge society governed by relationships based on knowledge, information, and market competition so clearly outlined in the DVD resource focusing upon 21st Century Learning and written about over the past decade (Smyth, Hattarn, Reid & Shacklock, 2000). There is no clear consensus regarding what these changes mean for teachers or for students other than that they are relentless and ongoing.


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It is understandable that the major thrust for the Program would be one that attended to new ways of teaching and learning. However, at some juncture, it will be helpful to uncover and discuss those stories from the field where there may have been difficulties and challenges. Having such accounts will also assist in sustaining the Program beyond its completion. This need has been noted by the OECD (2010) who in its report,

highlights key issues to facilitate understanding of how a systemic approach to technology-based school innovations can contribute to quality education for all while promoting a more equal and effective education system. It focuses on the novel concept of systemic innovation, as well as presenting the emerging opportunities to generate innovations that stem from Web 2.0 and the important investments and efforts that have gone into the development and promotion of digital resources (promo).

Hannon (2009) argues that many models of innovation assume that practitioners should be at the receiving end of initiatives that have been developed elsewhere. However, this policy restricts the sources of innovative ideas and energy. She proposes that, for scaling up purposes, it is vital that the practitioners themselves are consulted and that their accounts of practice are treated as a source of evidence. This has clearly been the case with the Connected Classrooms Program with its many and varied stories from the field. The point being made here is that, as a supplement to these, we also need to know where those challenges and difficulties lie in the complexity of new technology innovations and how they are being addressed.

Clearly, other sustainable and continuing ICT innovations will grow over time and will yield important lessons for all. What can be said with confidence is that this has been a major learning experience for all who have been involved. Among other things, practitioners have learned about new ways in which to function in interactive classrooms connected to other schools, other places, and other colleagues; students have learned about themselves and ways in which they better understand their milieu – locally, regionally and globally using increasingly sophisticated tools and applications; leaders have learned to assist in the management of teacher professional learning and complex technology installations; and finally, the DET itself, as a large organization, has learned how to steer such an ambitious Program and listen to those voices from the field.


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Recommendations

1. DET continues to track the benefits of The Connected Classroom Program building on the work documented in this report;

2. Attention be paid to investigations that will assist in sustaining what the Program has implemented;

3. Substantial, embedded teacher professional learning programs be put in place including action research projects for groups of practitioners, aligned with the Quality Teaching Framework, centred around Connected Classrooms Program technologies that create new teaching and learning opportunities

4. Specific purpose scholarships be created available to school based pioneers to investigate new and emerging technologies and to disseminate examples of innovative practice;

5. This report be made widely available both within and beyond the DET to increase our understanding of the new ways of teaching and learning afforded by the Connected Classrooms Program technologies.


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Appendix

Connected Classrooms Program

Compendium of Practice

“usage of the CCP technologies delivers new ways of teaching and learning”

Compendium of PracticeConnected Classrooms Program

c o n n e c t e d c l a s s r o o m s p r o g r a m

usage of the CCP technologies delivers new ways of teaching and learning

ISBN 9780731386956

SCIS 1490344

© NSW Department of Education and Training 2010

3C C P - C o m p e n d i u m o f P r a c t i c e C C P 2 0 0 8 - 2 0 1 0

Section Page

1 Introduction 5

2 What does a Connected Classroom look like? 7

3Benefit 1 - CCP technologies increase opportunities for collaboration between students 9

4Benefit 2 - CCP technologies increase opportunities for collaboration between teachers and students 27

5Benefit 3 - CCP technologies increase opportunities for collaboration between teachers 35

6Benefit 4 - CCP technologies increase access to virtual excursions and events e.g. Galleries, Libraries and Museums 47

7Benefit 5 - CCP technologies increase access to specialist teachers and external experts 63

8Benefit 6 - CCP technologies increase access to broader subject choice including physics, extension maths and language courses 79

9Benefit 7 - CCP technologies increase learning opportunities for gifted and talented students 87

10Benefit 8 - CCP technologies provide additional transition strategies from Primary to High School 93

11Benefit 9 - CCP technologies provide students with access to contemporary learning technologies synonymous with 21st century learning 97

12Benefit 10 - CCP technologies enable the creation, sharing and delivery of curriculum content 105

C C P 2 0 0 8 - 2 0 1 0 C C P - C o m p e n d i u m o f P r a c t i c e4

C C P - C o m p e n d i u m o f P r a c t i c e C C P 2 0 0 8 - 2 0 1 0 5

PurposeThis Compendium of Practice provides examples of “new ways of teaching and learning” made possible through the implementation of the New South Wales Department of Education and Training’s Connected Classrooms Program. The Commitment to the Connected Classrooms Program was made by the NSW State Government on 16 March 2007, when the Premier announced a $158 million investment over 4 years to enhance the Department’s ICT capacity for teaching and learning.

ContextThe Connected Classrooms Program is made up of three key projects:

�� Interactive Classrooms

�� Learning Tools

�� Next Generation Education Network

The need for Connected Classrooms comes from the demands of today’s students: it will facilitate wherever/whenever learning as students consume, remix and create knowledge.

Interactive Classrooms

The project will:

equip every NSW public school with one Interactive Classroom (interactive whiteboard, video conferencing facilities, PC with internet connection, preloaded lesson creation software and data collaboration software)

enable online field trips and access to experts via video conferencing

enhance opportunities for collaboration between students, teachers and schools across DET

provide necessary infrastructure to facilitate collegial support networks for teachers.

Learning Tools

The project will provide tools that support the ability to create, store, edit, reuse, manage, view and deliver digital learning content from collections and repositories to staff and students across NSW. It will deliver an adaptable and scalable system to provide the latest Web 2.0 technologies to staff and students for teaching and learning.

Specifically it will provide:

a secure individual online working space for all students and teachers

upgraded email services to appproximately 1.2 million school and TAFE students

online access to student reports for parents/caregivers

collaborative environments such as blogED for the discovery and sharing of digital learning content.

Network Enhancement Project

The project will:

enhance bandwidth capacity and reliability

enable interactive environments at all 2,500 DET sites by providing:

enhanced authenticated and filtered internet browsing services;

increased bandwidth and speed;

network upgrades to support the delivery of Interactive Classrooms and Learning Tools.


The Connected Classrooms Program BulletinsA key component of the Program Communication Strategy has been the publication of forthnightly (2008-2009) and later monthly (2010) Connected Classrooms Program Bulletins.

The Bulletin served two main purposes:1. To provide updates for each project under the Program and primarily2. To capture “stories from the field” of how CCP technologies are being used by teachers and students in new ways of

teaching and learning.

Each story has been co-authored by a communications officer and the relevant contributor from the field, and the final draft “member checked” as an accurate account.

This process has allowed the CCP to capture naratives of practice as examples of new ways of teaching and learning.

As at December 2010, a total of 39 Bulletins were published by the Program and made available online on the CCP intranet and “In-Principal”, the online communications to all schools principals.

The Connected Classrooms Program BenefitsA Benefits Management Plan was developed based on the approved Business Case.

A number of non-financial, educational related benefits mapped to the proposed hypothesis that “usage of the Connected Classrooms Program technologies delivers new ways of teaching and learning to engage students” is provided below:

The examples of “new ways of teaching and learning” in this Compendium of Practice have been organised according to the relevant non-financial benefits (B1 - B10) above.

Non Financial Benefits

Benefit 1 Connected Classrooms Program technologies increase opportunities for collaboration between students

Benefit 2 Connected Classrooms Program technologies increase opportunities for collaboration between teachers and students

Benefit 3 Connected Classrooms Program technologies increase opportunities for collaboration between teachers

Benefit 4 Connected Classrooms Program technologies increase access to virtual excursions and events e.g. Galleries, Libraries and Museums

Benefit 5 Connected Classrooms Program technologies increase access to specialist teachers and external experts

Benefit 6 Connected Classrooms Program technologies increase access to access to broader subject choice, including physics, extension maths and language courses

Benefit 7 Connected Classrooms Program technologies increase learning opportunities for gifted and talented students

Benefit 8 Connected Classrooms Program technologies provide additional transition strategies from Primary to High School

Benefit 9 Connected Classrooms Program technologies provide students with access to contemporary learning technologies synonymous with 21st century learning

Benefit 10 Connected Classrooms Program technologies enable the creation, sharing and delivery of curriculum content

Innttrooddduccttiioon


� The images below are taken from the Connected Classrooms Program 3D model which is linked to the intranet and internet, ands developed to assist schools understand what the Connected Classrooms Program would deliver.

� The 3D model, using an immersive learning strategy, provided advice such as professional learning by clicking on the drop-down menu and information for each piece of equipment by clicking on the image.

What does a Connected Classroom look like?

Front View

ceiling microphoneprojectorspeakers interactive whiteboard with SMART Notebook lesson creation software

video conference camera

flat panel VC monitor

remote controls

cabinet with: � room controller

� VoIP � PC with internet

wireless keyboard and mouse

enhanced broadbandOnline learning tools via student portal � Bridgit, data collaboration software � blogED, G-mail, wikiED, eBackpack

vid

professional learning resourcesdrop-down menu

C C P 2 0 0 7 - 2 0 1 1 9

Stories from the Field Page

1 Macquarie ICT Innovations Centre Presents Cuddie-Cuddie in NSW 102 Five Rural Schools Showcase Their Sustainability Projects with Five City Schools 113 One Rural School Competes with Three City Schools 13

4 One Rural Schools Collaborates with One City School 14

5 Five Rural Schools Collaborate with Two City Schools about Traditional Tales 156 Six Rural Schools Engage in an Agricultural Field Day 16

7 Two Rural Schools Collaborate with One City School about Nanotechnology 178 Five Hundred Fifty Nine Classes Participate in “Where’s Collie?” - an Online

Collaborative Project18

9 ESL Teaching Using Connected Classrooms Program Technologies 1910 Campbelltown Performing Arts High Collaborates with West Wyalong High School 1911 Students Collaborate Using Interactive White Boards 2012 Two Rural Schools Collaborate with Students from One City School 2113 Bligh Park Public School Students Collaborate with International Students 2214 Six Schools Using Video Conferencing to Share Their Sustainability Initiatives 2315 Students from Coogee Public Share Ideas on Sustainability with Students in Japan 2416 Really Active Motivated Students (RAMS) Planning and Running Video Conferences 25

B1 - Connected Classrooms Program Technologies Increase Opportunities For


1. Macquarie ICT Innovations Centre Presents Cuddie-Cuddie in NSW (Bulletin 24, 11 September 2009)

Each week primary and secondary school students from across NSW are learning more about Aboriginal culture directly from Aboriginal communities utilising the Connected Classroom. Cuddie-Cuddie (meaning ‘children in language’) is a global school project aimed at sharing and promoting traditional and ancient cultures to young people using video conferencing.

Anne-Maree Moore, Project Manager Collaborative Technologies at MACICT is responsible for the global project; advice, protocols and directions are

provided to the project by seven Aboriginal community advisors from Sydney, the South Coast, Riverina and Queensland.

Leeanne Hampton, CEO from the West Wyalong Local Aboriginal Land Council said, “The most important aspect of our input into the Cuddie-Cuddie project is being given the opportunity to showcase our culture and change community perspective on Indigenous people in NSW”.

Since February 2009 over 35 video conferences with 200 schools have been held, involving 5,000 students across all DET regions. They have covered Aboriginal dance, art, artefacts, ‘bush-tucker’ and language. Aboriginal elders pass on traditional stories from their local area during a VC session, for example, it might be a Dreamtime tale or some aspect of Aboriginal culture. After listening to the ‘authentic text’, students create their own story in a digital format using original artwork, music with narration in their own voice, a dance on video, or an oral retelling recorded on editing software.

In July 520 students from 15 primary schools joined a VC with Rod Slockee, Aboriginal elder from the Bateman’s Bay local area, in Mogo Public School’s Connected Classroom.

Anne-Maree explained, “Rod shared a seagull story, the students then danced a magpie dance while Rod played his didgeridoo. They also introduced themselves and Rod in their own language. It was quite an exciting event!”

Jane McKenzie, Assistant Principal and teacher-librarian at Quirindi Public School in New England Region said, “At our school students in Years 2, 4, 5 and 6 are involved in Cuddie. The stories students listen to using VC are stimulating – content is linked to English, Science and Technology, HSIE and the Creative and Performing Arts”.

At Ulmarra Public School, North Coast Region, students in Years 4, 5 and 6 participated in a recent Cuddie-Cuddie video conference.

Principal, Sandra Armstrong said, “The students were inspired by the stunning art work created by students at Mackellar Girls High School. We were quite mesmerised by the beautiful images being formed in front of us on our IWB. The process was probably the best use of VC I’ve seen so far as it blended method with mystery. Students could see the process, listen to the commentary then add their own designs – all learners were catered for - kinaesthetic, auditory and visual!”

Anne-Maree said, “To date there have been 17 Aboriginal community presenters across Australia - we are pursuing contacts in other countries to feature Indigenous cultures from native America, the Canadian and Alaskan Inuit as well as the Swedish Laps. This ability to share culture is only possible because of Connected Classrooms in so many NSW schools”.

BBBeenneeffiitt 11Connected Classrooms Program Technologies Increase Opportunities For

collllabbborraatiioonn bbeettwwweeeen sstudddennnts




2. Five Rural Schools Showcase Their Sustainability Projects with Five City Schools (Bulletin 18, 15 June 2009)

On Monday 25 May, Verity Firth MP, NSW Minister for Education and Training opened Education Week with Showcase09 from the Connected Classroom at the Field of Mars Environmental Education Centre, East Ryde. Steve Papp, A/Principal and Pat Spiers, a teacher at the Environmental Education Centre hosted the interactive forum to enable the Minister to talk with ten schools from across NSW about their environmental achievements via video conference.

Year 10 student leader, Robert from Thomas Reddall High School, was the MC and invited each of the participating sites from across NSW to present and discuss their school’s environmental project with the Minister. Three of the Showcase09 projects are featured below:

Wyong Creek Public School

Wyong Creek Public School is a small school in Hunter/Central Coast Region. Students at the school focused their environmental project on reducing soil erosion in the creek bed of the Wyong River. Both erosion and revegetating the riparian area are explained in the short film Caring for the Riparian Zone.

In addition to this work, and with the support from their Principal Gale Ball and various community groups, the students have built an outdoor environmental classroom.

After the forum Gale commented, “The whole school (K-6) attended - they enjoyed watching projects from other schools, and were very proud to speak about their project and to represent the Connected Classrooms Program Wyong Creek Public School students presented their environmental film, Caring for the Riparian Zone at Showcase09 region. Video conferencing is an exciting tool to motivate student learning”.

Winston Heights Public School

Another project, from Winston Heights Public School in Western Sydney Region, is Winston Worm’s Tale. Winston the worm narrates the story of Year 5 and 6 students in the school’s environment group building a worm farm, and using fertilizer on the vegetable patch. On the day of Showcase09 students traveled with Marie Kobler, teacher and coordinator of the Winston Heights Environment Group, to the Connected Classroom at Matthew Pierce Public School to present their project.

Here, the students had a ‘taste’ of video conference technology, after the Showcase09 forum Marie remarked, “The students reacted very positively to the VC given it was their first time – they knew exactly where to look at the camera. Afterwards they were keenly discussing connecting up with other environmental groups in the local area using the new Connected Classroom, once it’s installed at our school later in the year”.

Macintyre High School

In New England region at Macintyre High School, Deborah Snaith, Science/Agriculture Head Teacher, worked with her Year 10 students to create a film about raising awareness of the plight of platypus who live along the banks of the Macintyre River. After presenting The Platypus of Sapphire City, Inverell at Showcase09 some of the students said, “The experience of using video conferencing was really awesome, especially being able to communicate with people from other schools from all across the state instantly”.


At the conclusion of Showcase09 Pat Spiers from the Field of Mars Environmental Education Centre recounted: “Today showed how much pride the students had in their work, all the channels were alive – this was made possible by thorough planning of the forum and the use of a range of multimedia, it really felt like a state-wide learning community”.

The seven other participating schools were:

Narooma Public School, Illawarra, South East Region

North Sydney Boys High School, Northern Sydney Region

Merrylands East Public School, South Western Sydney Region

Yenda Public School, Riverina Region

Sylvania High School, Sydney Region

Orana Heights Public School, Western NSW Region

Bungwahl Public School, North Coast Region.






3. One Rural School Competes with Three City Schools(Bulletin 21, 31 July 2009)

Stu Hasic, Technology Advisor from Sydney Region, organised the first DET Jeopardy series and sent the Program his final report. Date: Friday July 3rd 2009 - for many it was just another school morning, however for 20 students at four secondary schools plus audiences of more than 80 eager peers - it was JGFD … Jeopardy Grand Final Day! The students gathered in their school’s Connected Classroom to participate in their fourth challenge, each team having been successful in prior heats and finals.

Teams in 32 schools across DET competed over the five weeks of the competition - more than 740

students in a total of 15 matches; the final quiz was between Sydney Girls, St Ives, Albury and Riverside Girls high schools.

The Program spoke to Tania McGurgan, Visual Arts teacher at St Ives High School spoke about her experience of the tournament:

“The students really enjoyed Jeopardy! and not only those that were part of the team but also those who made up our audiences from Years 7, 8 and 9. It has helped to open up the world of video conferencing to the whole school and for that I am much appreciative, as it has been my job this year to undertake this role. My confidence with using VC has grown; we might even host our own competition in the near future”.

In terms of the learning experience Tania stated, “Quick quizzes based on general knowledge and working in a team are non-threatening ways for students to engage with new technology”.


4. One Rural School Collaborates with One City School(Bulletin 6, 19 September 2008)

Karen Cuthbert, teacher librarian shared her video conference experience with the CCP office last week:

“I met the principal of Boree Creek Public School (near Wagga Wagga) at the iCommunicate conference in June. She introduced me to a Year 5 teacher and in no time, a relationship was established between both schools by students’ exchanging information about their schools via email. Rural students were keen to know whether city students:

would like to live in a small town?

get sick of the traffic?

play games during recess and lunch?

The city students wanted to know:

what transport they use to get to and from school?

how they feel about living in such an isolated area?

what it’s like to live in a small country town?

The email contact was followed up after our first video conference. We began with introductions and then answered each other’s questions. Conversation flowed and both groups listened attentively to responses. After the questions were answered, we opened it up to additional questions. Students expressed disappointment that the session had to come to an end.

This experience has had a flow-on effect, and now two more classes at our school have found buddy classes – one at Tintinhull and another at Kyogle.

I look forward to all classes being able to share learning, cultures and expertise.”




5. Five Rural Schools Collaborate with Two City Schools about Traditional Tales(Bulletin 12, 13 March 2009)

Traditional tales are engaging students in all stages and many curriculum areas via a series of video conferences. Anne-Maree Moore from Murrumburrah Public School, who is organising the series, says that participating schools will be taking turns to invite a guest to tell a traditional tale and answer questions from the other schools.

“The series started with the story telling on 17 February with Wiradguri community member Jacko telling his story to 7 sites: 5 from the Riverina and 2 from Sydney.”

Jacko showed students indigenous artwork and artefacts, and told Dreamtime story. The primary students are now creating their own Dreamtime stories and senior students enrolled in Creative and Performing Arts subjects are inspired to develop contemporary pieces.

“The recordings are watched by many more schools both here and overseas. As some schools do not have access to the DET video conferencing network we are also able to offer streaming of the sessions over the internet via the Codian website (http:// vcrecorder.det.nsw.edu.au/)”, explained Anne- Maree Moore. The students will be back in Week 8 of Term 1 to hear from Rod Slockee (didgeridoo player, song-writer and Aboriginal Community Liaison Officer from Batemans Bay District Office). Future videoconferences will host guests telling indigenous stories from Central Australia, Native American stories from the USA and Celtic tales from Wales.

Twenty schools are registered for the series, including two from Wales and three from the USA. From these small beginnings with nine schools in the Riverina and Sydney, the participants’ classrooms are now encompassing all ages, the globe, and ancient cultures via connected classrooms technology.




6. Six Rural Schools Engage in an Agricultural Field Day(Bulletin 5, 5 September 2008)

Agquip is the largest agricultural field day in the southern hemisphere. The event runs for three days and has about 100,000 people visit the site which is set up on a wheat paddock just outside Gunnedah in northwestern NSW.

This year we created a ‘Connected Classroom’ on the wheat paddock. There were challenges and many people to thank for making this unique experience work.

“Over three days we talked to teachers at training sessions being conducted in Tamworth with Marg Elliot and Christine Black, as well as sessions in

Tathra, Bega, Wagga Wagga, Casino, and Narromine. For the participants, this placed video conferencing in a real world context. Participants could ask me questions, and people at the field day could view what they were doing.”

“It enabled team teaching between me at Agquip and Christine in Tamworth. I was able to view what Tamworth participants had produced at the end of their course and interact with them remotely. Interaction was not just limited to the training location.”

“There were also a number of schools that took advantage of the equipment to talk back to their school and give a ‘news report’ on their visit to the Agquip site.”

“Local agriculture students in one year were able to report back to another year level that weren’t on the excursion. Support students from Tamworth High were able to talk to their Head Teacher and tell her about the “wonderful excursion”. Next time we do this, it would be great to use our students to interview agriculture experts at the field day site.”






7. Two Rural Schools Collaborate with One City School about Nanotechnology(Bulletin 27, 6 November 2009)

Last week 15 Mosman High School students (MHS) in Northern Sydney Region conducted a “Beyond Visible” video conference using Bridgit for groups of students at Hillston Central School and Tumbarumba High School*. What was different about this video conference was its focus on student assessment for learning in an extension class context.

Year 9/10 Maths and Science MHS students were being assessed on their knowledge of nanotechnology and whether they could

understand and effectively communicate scientific concepts to a live audience**. Maths teacher Maggie Dendy who takes the elective group said, “We discussed the fact that if they are going to work in the field of science they needed to be able to communicate well and explain complex subject matter so that people can engage with it, and easily understand it. I thought an assessment task with an audience of younger students using video conference and Bridgit would help them develop these skills”.

Topics chosen by the students had names like … shape memory alloys, hydrophobic nanotech, ferrofluids, carbon nanotubes, nanobots, aerogel, invisibility and buckyballs. How many do you know?

Maggie explained further, “The focus of this course is to have fun in Maths and Science by exploring some of the cutting edge areas of scientific and mathematical investigation, in areas like gravitation waves, siRNA and nanotechnology, and encryption”.

Students Paul and Tom spoke about ‘aerogel’, a substance used in the “Mars Rovers” program by NASA. Aerogel is the lightest solid on the planet and is an excellent source of insulation against heat loss. Paul described, “At home we bought some aerogel off American e-Bay, a tiny piece cost $80, and then we set up an experiment to show how even when close to a flame the aerogel does not transfer heat to light a match”. He added, “we filmed the experiment and made video clips for our Bridgit presentation to show how we understood the concept and could get our point across”.

The assessment session went for 40 minutes, during which time the students at Hillston and Tumbarumba remained engaged and asked questions after each pair of students had presented their nanotechnology topic. They were keen to know ‘how long were particular substances, how expensive was it to purchase, how will it impact on the world, how quickly will it be developed to assist with medical, military and household tasks’. The session ended with many of students happy in the knowledge that one day they might, thanks to developments in nanotechnology, become … “invisible”.

In conclusion Maggie said, “Using this technology for assessment certainly developed the students’ confidence; they now know how to better engage an audience. The topics were quite broad, with imagination and creativity being the key. I learnt a lot from today’s exercise. Next time I think I would focus more on the experimental aspects and provide more practical guidance in how to engage the audience. The classes watching could actually see real experiments being explained by students – we could film the experiment and upload the video file into the Bridgit presentation. As an assessment task it was excellent because the students developed a deep understanding of many aspects of nanotechnology and invaluable communication skills both face to face and via the video conference”.




*The template for the “Beyond the Visible” course describes how “academic extension assists students to achieve their personal best in School Certificate Science and Mathematics. It also lays the foundation for Stage 6 Science and Mathematics and supports students in their Year 10 Student Research Project”.

**What is nanotechnology? Often shortened to ‘nanotech’, it’s the study of the control of matter on an atomic and molecular scale. Generally nanotechnology deals with structures of the size 100 nanometres or smaller in at least one dimension, and involves developing materials or devices within that size. The kind of size we are talking about is one nanometre being equivalent to a billionth of a metre.

8. Five Hundred Fifty Nine Classes Participate in “Where’s Collie?” – an Online Collaborative Project(Bulletin 23, 28 August 2009)

“Where’s Collie?” is based on the popular British “Where’s Wally?” book series. The rural and isolated schools version of the well-known character began as an idea for primary students in the key learning areas of HSIE and Science and Technology*. “Collie” is a mischievous garden gnome who travels extensively, engages in unusual activities, and usually goes travelling without telling anyone where he is going or what he is doing!

In 2009 more than 559 Stage 1-3 classes have participated, Mike Tom, Leader - Rural and Distance

Education Programs said, “Collie’s popularity with teachers stems from its strong ties to syllabus materials, Higher Order Thinking Skills underpinned with Bloom’s taxonomy”.

The project begins when “Collie” gives clues as to his whereabouts. The students gather information, research the sites he visits, solve problems and work in teams to locate him. Clues are provided on three days of each week for the five weeks of the project, the clues eliminate a number of possibilities each day until the correct answer is clear. The winning class is the first one to submit their entry online with all the correct answers.

As more schools installed their Connected Classrooms in 2008-9 “Collie” has expanded to include additional elements of interaction. For example in Term 2, ‘virtual excursions’ to the Australian Museum on Australian fauna to support a Stage 2 “Collie’s Clicks” project.

Over 1000 students participated in this project; a teacher whose class participated described, “It improved the students research skills, locating key words, higher order thinking skills. It complemented the QT Framework – elements of Deep Understanding, Inclusiveness, and Connectedness”.

This term, 166 Stage 1 classes are joining a “Collie’s Helpers” project which incorporates ‘virtual excursion’ sessions from the Royal Flying Doctor Service, a vet at Western Plains Zoo, NSW Police, NSW Ambulance Service and a farming property in the Riverina Region. *”Collie projects” are designed to assist all teachers in remote rural and geographically isolated schools as part of the Country Areas Program. If you have an Interactive Classroom you can join in, or if you would like to participate anyway the ‘virtual excursion’ material is streamed live to the web and will be available to download at a later date.




9. ESL Teaching Using Connected Classrooms Program Technologies (Bulletin 25, 9 October 2009)

New England Region is currently piloting the teaching of ESL classes using video conference technology in the school’s Connected Classroom. The initiative was set up by ESL mentor, Jan Johnson, an ESL teacher at Armidale High School. It became clear to Jan recently that there were growing numbers of students in the region who didn’t have immediate access to an experienced ESL teacher, “We had received enquiries from other schools when they heard that I was teaching this course at Armidale High and I thought this would be a great way to use our CCP technologies to support other students”.

Jan currently teaches six students in the Stage 6 ESL course using video conference; commonly agreed periods are accessed by another two schools, Oxley High School and Moree Secondary College.

Early benefits to the senior students in the course are emerging, Principal, Anne Matley, said, “We were very keen to help and we started talking to other schools who wanted to be involved. Jan is able to mentor the ESL teachers at the other sites via email, phone and VC and her vast experience has proved invaluable to teachers of ESL in other schools”.

The ESL initiative in the region has brought together the expertise of the Regional Implementation team from Learning Systems and the Country Areas Program consultancy. The classes will continue in Term 4.

10. Campbelltown Performing Arts High Collaborates with West Wyalong High School (Bulletin 28, 20 November 2009)

The school has an ongoing exchange program with WWHS. It consists of students visiting each others’ school and staying for a few nights each year with billets. One of the highlights of the program is the combined concert held at the end of each trip which showcases the peer tutoring that has occurred in performing arts. This year preparation for the final concert used CCP technologies in rehearsals; it provided a platform on which the concert preparation and final performance during the actual exchange could occur.

Darren Johnstone, Music teacher at CPAHS, organised for the Connected Classroom to be viewed in the performance hall so that parents, students, teachers and community members at WWHS could watch the concert. A live feed from WWHS also meant that those attending the concert at CPAHS could ‘tune in’ to WWHS to receive feedback via comments and applause. Darren said, “The community at WWHS would not have been able to ‘attend’ this concert without the CCP technologies operating at both sites”.


11. Students Collaborate Using Interactive White Boards (Bulletin 31, 23 April 2010)

Engadine Public School’s Craig Snudden has another great excursion story, this one showing how field trips can be paired with multiple technologies to create a unique learning experience.

“I recently used the Interactive White Board to introduce the Google SketchUp program to my Stage 3 class,” Craig said.

“SketchUp creates virtual 3D models, making it a great visual tool to use with the IWB.”

“After an excursion to the city to look at a variety of buildings, students were asked to design their own floor plan for a specific purpose, like an outdoor cafe, a meeting room or a foyer.“

“We used the IWB throughout the project, firstly to model SketchUp to the whole class.”

“Using the IWB allowed the students to be actively involved in the demonstration and ask their questions before engaging with the software themselves.”

“But, as usual, they were teaching me new ways to use it before I’d ended my demonstration.”

“After first sketching out their plans on grid paper, groups used SketchUp to develop designs which they then shared with the class on the IWB.”

“I also asked each group to demonstrate something new they’d learnt about the software as part of their presentation, which provided a great chance for peer learning.”

“Finally, they made up real 3D models from their designs using recycled materials, which we filmed and posted, together with footage from the excursion, on YouTube.

“This gave us another chance to use the IWB, this time to view the video and reflect on the whole exercise to revisit the lessons learnt,” he said.




12. Two Rural Schools Collaborate with Students from One City School(Bulletin 12, 13 March 2009)

Macquarie ICT Innovations Centre and Anne-Maree Moore from Murrumburrah Public School organised a videoconference between two country schools and a city school to learn about each other’s communities.

The video conference was also attended by NSW DET Director General Michael Coutts-Trotter. One class from a country school and from the city school had each chosen a worker in the community and produced a montage of photos and a number of clues to present to the children in the other school.

Based on these clues, the other school class had to guess what kind of worker the person was, by asking 20 questions. The activity was simple, but required high order thinking.

The students enjoyed the activity so much, that they wanted to work together again. At the second video conference each school showed something of significance in their local area. Murrumburrah Public School showed the 1st Australian Horse and the Australian Light Horse War Memorial of Harden Murrumburrah as the site of the first call up muster to the 1st Australian Horse in 1897.

The world-expanding impact on students participating in this small video conference was clearly rewarding. Anne-Maree Moore says that, “The 3 schools participating in the videoconference for the Director General were so happy to have “met” our students and form that connection, they have since joined the Aboriginal story telling series in order to continue that link.”

BBeenneeffiitt 11Connected Classrooms Program Technologies Increase Opportunities For

ccolllllabbboraattiioonn bbeettwweeeenn sstuuddennnts


13. Bligh Park Public School Students Collaborate with International Students(Bulletin 28, 20 November 2009)

In June, Ross Sutherland, Principal of Bligh Park Public School (BPPS) in Western Sydney Region attended the “14th International Conference on Thinking” in Malaysia to present his school’s ‘thinking skills’, and ‘an integrated approach to technology as a tool for learning’. Ross said, “The conference has certainly been a highlight in my career, mixing with Edward de Bono, Howard Gardiner and other leading thinkers, I shared our school’s method of teacher professional learning in technology and the ‘connected classrooms’ we have been doing with the UK”.

BPPS staff made a decision in early 2008 to hold regular, purposeful video conference connections for technology professional learning with other local schools; this led to Matthew Pearce and Rouse Hill Public School joining BPPS later in the year. One teacher from BPPS suggested, “It’s fantastic making connections with other learning sites” and from another teacher’s outlook, “You can share and draw on the expertise of others”.

Students in all stages at BPPS make regular connections with British peers and teachers at St Nicholas Church of England Primary School in Blackpool. Ross outlined, “There are now several schools in the Blackpool area that connect to us – we share and problem solve with students leading students within this process, in our next connection BPPS students will demonstrate podcasting to students at St Nicholas”.

Interest levels and staff confidence in using the technology has increased as a result of hosting frequent connections. Parents in the school are very supportive of the activity and are regularly informed of their child’s progress and engagement in the use of video conference tools as well as the learning focus for international sessions.

Three students offered informed perspectives about what they like about the technology in the school’s Connected Classroom, “I love using the IWB to demonstrate issues we are discussing”, and for another student it was, “learning about their lives – comparing their school life, seeing them eat toast, the different time zones – it’s all very interesting”.

Then a pearl of advice for ‘novice’ student users, “I think it is important that everyone understands the protocols. It can be embarrassing if someone in the group lets the rest down because they were bad mannered or didn’t listen to what was expected”.

So far, ‘connected learning’ at BPPS has included Stage 3 students working with the American Scientific Base in Antarctica, appearing on Extreme Makeover – Home Edition in the US with Hollywood High School, and presenting ‘innovative learning’ in a workshop at the Curriculum Corporation National Conference.






14. Six Schools Using Video Conferencing to Share Their Sustainability Initiatives(Bulletin 35, 20 August 2010)

To launch Education Week 2010 in the Illawara and South East, schools from across the region join forces to share and showcase their sustainability initiatives via video conference.

Students from Cringila Public, Goulburn West Public, Ulladulla High and Dapto High gave presentations on a range of innovative projects. Two Warrawong High students acted as MCs for the event, which also featured Green Teacher of the Year, Carly-Jane Boreland of Keira High.

The event caught the interest of media around the region, with local newspaper and television news reports highlighting the role of the connected classrooms technology in building bridges between schools and the broader community on issues like sustainability.

Regional Director Maria Gray-Spence said, “The event was a chance to bring together partner schools, local community and business leaders and politicians to demonstrate how much is being achieved.”

“Our region covers a large geographic area and this launch allowed us to involve schools and communities from across the region rather than centering in just one location,” Maria said.

“It was a student-centred launch that not only allowed us to focus on this year’s theme, but also to showcase the fantastic technology we have available in our public schools.”

David Ashford, School Education Director for the region, described the event as ‘a technologically excellent way to launch Education Week’.

“The video link up was a great opportunity for all the schools and students involved to showcase their sustainability projects and achievements,” David said.

Annette Broadbent, Principal of Goulburn West Public, said it was a great chance to hear what other schools are doing.

“The ideas shared will certainly form the basis for interesting discussions about school sustainability,” Annette said. “It was great fun and a peek into the future of interactive technology.” Annette’s students presented on the school’s community market garden.

Andrew FitzSimons, Principal at Dapto High said it was ‘entrancing to witness the technological capacity of public education in this region’. Andrew’s students presented on the schools Ecohesion program, an initiative that cuts energy use and models responsible approaches to sustainability.

David Lamb, Principal at Cringila Public, host school for the event, said they have received a lot positive feedback on the day. David’s students presented on their much-loved and lauded permaculture garden.

“Everyone around Cringila is bursting with pride and feeling good about our school, and that’s a great result,” David said.

With the success of this year’s launch, organisers are hoping to make it an annual event.


15. Students from Coogee Public Share Ideas on Sustainability with Students in Japan(Bulletin 35, 20 August 2010)

Sarah Fisher’s Class 4F at Coogee Public School recently held a video conference with students from Japan, again on the subject of sustainability. She shares some of the results with us in this report.

“This is the second year that Coogee Public School has participated in video conferencing with the Kitarissei School in Japan,” Sarah said.

“The theme of the video conference this year was sustainability, and we also explored school routines.”

“Coogee Public students sang ‘Home Among the Gum Trees’, performed a sustainability role play, gave two PowerPoint presentations and asked questions they’d prepared for the Japanese students.”

“The Japanese students, a Grade 6 group, presented board presentations focused around sustainability and school routines, and asked their own questions,” she said.

Sarah said the event was initiated last year by a group of parents and school staff. Parents Sonia Mycak and Andrew Bilinsky, and Principal Paul Wood and Assistant Principal Lynda Ward were instrumental in coordinating this year’s conference, Sarah said.

“The Japanese students used the video conferencing facilities at Mie University, Japan, and this was coordinated by Shigefumi Nagata from the Faculty of Education, Mie University,” Sarah said.

“The video conference was also attended by representatives from the Japan Foundation, and DET.”

“This experience gave both groups of students a greater understanding of global sustainability issues, as well as gaining a greater cultural awareness.”

“This was my first time using the technology and it was really fantastic. Being able to show our students what’s being done in other countries on things like sustainability is invaluable,” she said.

Sarah said the school plans to make the event an annual project, and is about to host a visit from some of their Japanese colleagues as a result of the initiative.




16. Really Active Motivated Students (RAMS) Planning and Running Video Conferences(Bulletin 38, 12 November 2010)

Engadine West Public, Banksmeadow Public, and a growing number of other schools are using the connected classroom to create student-centred learning communities through a new online network.

The collaboration came about through a discussion between several teachers on the Yammer social networking tool currently being trialled by the Department. Yammer (www.yammer.com) includes a space for communities of interest, which now include a Connected Classroom Cafe created by

Craig Snudden of Engadine Public School.

Craig encouraged colleagues Ross Edwards of Engadine West and Lisa Wright of Banksmeadow to use the space to discuss their shared interest in doing more with their schools’ connected classrooms. Ross said the discussion they started quickly turned into a network that is growing all the time.

“I was a bit reserved about advertising for a connection in Yammer but it paid off, we have formed a great team and we’re really excited about our progress,” Ross said.

“We are learning tricks on the way but the key is that we are prepared to accept a challenge and model that for our students.”

The group formed by Ross, Lisa and Craig has been holding regular video conference hook-ups, planned and run by their students.

After holding four successful site to site sessions last term, the group has organised weekly ‘Really Active Motivated Students’ RAMS hook-ups across NSW this term.

Each session looks at two different Web 2.0 tools that the students are interested in, with the discussions continuing between VCs on a RAMS blog and other tools.

“In our first RAMS video conference we had 9 colleagues and 130 students working together across ES1 to Stage 3 and that number is growing each week,” Ross said.

“Our students have benefited from the increased significance of their learning program as they really must focus to prepare well for our conferencing.”

“Reinforcement of learning, summarising and evaluating occurs post conference and that is developing our students’ higher order thinking skills.”



C C P 2 0 0 7 - 2 0 1 1 27


1 blogED Supports ESOL Students to Learn English at TAFE 282 blogED at Collaroy Plateau Public 293 blogED at Armidale High Allows Students to Collaborate and Share Their

Research at Any Time30

4 Six Thousand Students and Four Hundred Teachers Collaborate about Sustainability

31

5 Breaking Down Barriers for Special Needs Students with the Interactive White Board (IWB)

32



1. blogED Supports ESOL Students to Learn English at TAFE(Bulletin 25, 9 October 2009)

“Using blogs in teaching ESOL at TAFE gives me a chance to do four key things: follow each student’s work regularly and make comments on the run; establish a framework for the students to follow in class; provide accessories for learning in the blog - for example video and mp3 files; and share ideas and perspectives”, said Anita Grncarevska.

After gaining her teaching qualifications in Macedonia; Anita was awarded a Bachelor of Teaching with majors in ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) and LOTE (Languages Other Than English) from the University of Sydney and for

the last nine years she has taught ESOL at St George, Lidcombe and Granville TAFE Colleges.

The class Anita worked with in the recent DET blog trial was a composite class of intermediate and post-intermediate ESOL learners (in total 14 students) who were enrolled in a course titled “Access to Work and Training”. There are five units in the course – three are based on planning and carrying out a project working in a team, and the other two are basic computing units.

For one project Anita created a class blog – the students created different items on the blog, for example news, TV and film, sport, travel, celebrities, fashion, health and fitness, music, food and cooking. She described how the students wrote posts in the blog and then she corrected and commented on the content of their postings.

Anita stated how she believed this action changed her teaching practice:

“I created class public blogs with ESOL students at low intermediate, intermediate and upper intermediate levels. All the students, even the ones with weaker computer skills, were keen to be engaged in the blog and were very positive in accepting it as a new tool in learning English. This ultimately gave them the opportunity to learn beyond the classroom. With the ‘public blog’ students had an opportunity to create their own blog and add different links. Students were keen to comment on their peers’ work which was also an opportunity for critical thinking”.

She continued, “The blog has easy access through the DET Portal unlike ‘public blogs’ where an existing email is required for sign up and then they use another blog address - this can create confusion among blog users, especially ESOL students. The process for using the DET blog tool was very straightforward”.


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2. blogED at Collaroy Plateau Public(Bulletin 33, 18 June 2010)

Danka Murray of Collaroy Plateau Public School is one of the many teachers who are integrating blogED into their classroom technology mix with great results.

Danka and her class have combined the blog with the interactive whiteboard and video conferencing tools to create a uniques and engaging unit of work.

“Although I’ve got a growing list of enhancements I’d love to see, I’m thrilled with how the site is working and how the students are interacting with it,” she said. “It’s agreat motivational tool.”

Danka’s 5M blog, a pilot for the school, features a colourful header made up of images of the Balinese shadow puppets the class made from scratch.

The journey of creating the puppets and then writing and staging a performance with them, broadcast to other classes via video conference, is all captured in the vibrant and colourful blog.

“The exercise was the heart of a HSIE Stage 3 learning unit, a study of a cultural group,” Danka explained.

“It was completely written as a SMART Board unit, coving geography, demography and environment lessons, with Notebook links to a variety of resources. It also integrated with components of drama, music and visual arts, and as we looked at the traditional stories of Balinese Wayang Kulit shadow puppet plays, the work linked in with our literacy goals as well,” she said.

Danka said they started their drama work by looking at clips on YouTube, which gave students an idea of all the roles they could play - musician, puppeteers, scriptwriters, narrators and stagehands.

“As we talked through some basic ideas for a narrative, the more creative the students started slipping by my desk, whispering their ideas or dropping off notes,” she said. “These students became scriptwriters.”

“All students made a puppet from their own design, based on their interests - a llama, an elephant, a ninja and so on. With our wonderful drama teacher, Ginny MacPherson, we finalised our script and gave our play a title, ‘Bali: a Land of Magic and Wonder’.”

“After drama and music lessons and several weeks of rehersals we staged our first performance for 6K from Wakehurst Public, who critiqued the show while my students performed. The show was terrific, as soon as the kids knew they had their audience, they sprang into action, and Ms Kirkwood’s class at Wakehurst got busy writing up their feedback.”

“Our second performance was for our fellow straight-5 class at Collaroy, another terrific day. It was then that blogED became available and I started posting my kids’ comments as they were flowing in - so many we had to delete a few of the more self-congratulatory ones!”, she said.

Danka then used the blog to set homework tasks around ‘reflecting on Bali’, and is now setting a new blog task each week.

One of Danka’s suggestions for enhancing blogED is to increase the character limit for comments. She says that having asked her students for 150-300 words, they often want to add much more.

Danka’s class are now planning other projects, and would like to hear from others interested in viewing the puppet show, or being a Connected Classroom buddy class for Marvellous Micro-organisms, a Primary Connections science unit they’re doing this term.




3. blogED at Armidale High Allows Students to Collaborate and Share Their Research at Any Time(Bulletin 33, 18 June 2010)

Graham Hemmings, Head Teacher of Science at Armidale High, has also had some remarkable success using blogED to engage his students, even managing to get them excited about homework.

“I’ve been creating class wikis for several years using PBworks, but the problem with this is getting all student DET email addresses into the wiki - for some reason it wouldn’t let some students ‘in’,” Graham said.

“I started using blogED as soon as it became available, and now have three blogs running, one for my partially selective Year 7 class, one for mixed ability Year 9 class and one for a Year 11 annual snow trip.”

“The great advantage of blogED is that a ‘click of a button’ loads your whole class and sends them an invitation email,” he said.

Graham has been using blogED to post assignments, giving most students 24/7 access and allowing them to collaborate and share their research from home at any time.

“This week my Year 7 students are working in pairs (in class and at home) to research the various phyla of animals, communicating with each other via phone or email on what they’ve researched and what they’re posting.”

“So our blog will have information on all the animal phyla over the next week and students will put together their notes on these phyla from our blog.”

For his Year 9 students, Graham is also posting links and information on how to use OneNote, to help them use the software on their new DER laptops.

The Year 11 snow trip blog provides the group with basic information on what to take and who is going, along with links to snow reports and webcams and pictures and videos from last year’s trip. Graham is also thinking of posting the medical form in pdf format so students will stop asking him to replace lost copies!

For Graham, the difference the technology has made is that students have, potentially, 24/7 access to information they need, and that they can do things like posting their homework or reading each other’s contributions from home.

On the down side, he notes that not all students have internet access at home, and those that do often have to share the home computer. To get around this, Graham says, the school has set up a homework centre in their library and he encourages students without internet access to go here.

One of Graham’s colleague, Melissa Wood, has a daughter in Graham’s Year 7 class. Melissa says that the blog is ‘enormously popular’ with students.

“I had a group of kids from that class at my house on the weekend and I have never heard school students talk so enthusiatically about their homework,” Melissa said.




4. Six Thousand Students and Four Hundred Teachers Collaborate about Sustainability(Bulletin 33, 18 June 2010)

To celebrate the 2010 DET Year of Learning for Sustainability, the Field of Mars Environmental Education Centre and Macquarie ICT Innovations Centre recently hosted a video conference festival to share best practice in environmental and sustainability education. Held over a week from 31 May to 4 June, the festival attracted participation from 400 teachers and, amazingly, 6000 students.

The 25 VCs held in the course of the week included presentations from teachers and students, environmental education centres, Curriculum K-12 Directorate, National Parks and Wildlife Service, Do

Something and even Taronga Zoo staff.

Organisers said the VCs were all very lively events, with students asking and answering questions, watching demonstrations and finding out new facts. The most engaging presentations, they said, were those that maximised interaction with the students through Bridgit desktop sharing.

Leading up to the festival, Steven Papp, the Principal of Field of Mars and Concetta Gotlieb from the Macquarie ICT Innovations Centre hosted a series of VC familiarisation sessions for presenters, as some had never used the technology. These sessions covered setting up and running VCs and best practice tips.

Steven said that despite some glitches with the technology, the overwhelming response from teachers was that the event was a great chance to use the connected classroom in a way that was meaningful, engaging and relevant to classroom teaching and learning programs, without the burden of cost.

“Overall I see the festival as an amazing success, not only for lifting the profile of environmental and sustainability education in the state but as a means of getting schools and environmental education centres to use connected classrooms equipment in a meaningful way,” Steven said.

“In terms of sustainability, the use of the technology also minimises unnecessary travel and helps to reduce carbon emissions,” he said.

Steven said he and all staff at Field of Mars are keen to continue the conversations started during the festival and throughout the year will be hosting the Green Room, a series of informal get-togethers over VC.




5. Breaking Down Barriers for Special Needs Students with the Interactive White Board (IWB)(Bulletin 37, 22 October 2010)

Lee-Ann Kervin, a new scheme teacher at Orange High School, is getting great results using an IWB with her Year 7 ‘intensive care’ class, which she has for a number of subjects.

“The idea with this class is to minimise change,” Lee-Ann said. “They have one base room for their classes which (conveniently for me) has an interactive whiteboard.”

“My main teaching aim is engagement and the IWB makes this easy. I frequently use close passages where I put the words in separate movable boxes below the main text which is locked.”

“As I read it out loud, the students are busting to try and get ahead. When they have figured out which word is next they are allowed to move it.”

“My wheelchair bound student controls the board using a mouse, which means she has as much opportunity as her classmates.”

“I also use maps, puzzles and games based from the board. It doesn’t matter how bad their day was prior, when the kids come in, they control their learning, I just control the environment.”

“The average reading age for the kids (tested at the start of the year) was around 7 years. Getting assessment tasks out of these guys then was like getting blood from a stone. Now most of them are handing it in and even reading out loud in the class.”

“This class has probably taught me more about teaching than most of my career,” Lee-Ann said.


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blogED scrapbook

The NSW DET blogging tool is available

to all TAFE Institute staff. TAFE Institute staff

are able to access blogED and associated

support resources via the Applications

tab on their TAFE portal page.

TAFE

BLOGS

David Gilchrist, Learning Technologies

Officer, New England Institute

We primarily use the blog to support adult learners with their literacy and numeracy work.

Students also use it as a reflective tool for evaluating their own needs, to enable them to set realistic goals. It provides them

with a wonderful opportunity to control the online learning environment.

Louise Graham, Teacher Language, Literacy & Numeracy

Riverina Institute,

Deniliquin Campus

New England Institute’s Educational Developments Unit promotes their blogs through EDUfocus

e-magazine. To help keep pace with the TAFE NSW VLE rollout of product and services, EDU has launched a blogED portal called Virtual Learning Environment @ NEI. The blog gives teachers “at the coal face”

perspectives of VLE topics and other new tools, and looks at what will be coming from over the horizon.

Extract Bulletin No. 35, 20 August 2010 examples of blogED

C C P 2 0 0 7 - 2 0 1 1 35


1 DET Teachers Collaborate with World Expert via Video Conferencing 362 Disability Programs Directorate Extends Special Needs Training to Four Hundred

Thirty Staff Using CCP Technologies37

3 Early Career Teachers Collaborate Using the Connected Classroom Technologies 384 Teachers Collaborate Through Thirty Five Seminars Delivered Through CCP

Technologies38

5 DET Schools Participate in “Sharing Conference” with Educators from Bristol, and the Northern Territory Using CCP Technology

39

6 Four DET Schools Collaborate in the Cross-Sectoral Self and Peer Assessment Project

40

7 Virtual Supervision Trialled with New England University 418 Two Hundred Sydney Region Teachers Collaborate Using CCP Technologies 419 Numeracy Teachers Collaborate via VC 42

10 Nine Schools Work Together on Numeracy 4311 SWIM BUGS - Creating Teacher Led Support Networks 44

12 Getting More Familiar with blogED - Using VC 45

13 Virtual Supervision of Teacher Practicum Placement 45



1. DET Teachers Collaborate with World Expert via Video Conferencing(Bulletin 12, 13 March 2009)

Some of the highest achieving schools around the world are working in new ways, according to Professor Stephen Heppell. As the world rapidly changes, we cannot afford to not change our classrooms. As reported in Bulletin 11, Professor Stephen Heppell spoke to DET senior executives, school and regional leaders via video conference and face to face, about Visioning the Classroom of Tomorrow on 16 February.

The Connected Classrooms Program has produced 4 short videos (now available on the CCP website:

https://detwww.det.nsw.edu.au/lists/directoratesaz/ccp/index.htm) on the themes Stephen Heppell spoke about on this day:

1. The Pace is about the pace of change, global innovation, and the necessity for schools to change “This new world of learning has to be built on ingenuity”.

2. The teachers theme is about “building trust of teachers” in themselves, and by the community, through scholarship, readiness and esponsibility.

3. The “Digital Divide” is about closing the gap between teachers and students, “us-ness”, mutuality, teacher-student partnership and engagement.

4. The Central Vision – Local Ingredients looks at what other schools are doing with ingredients that make for longer time blocks, varied social units of learning, and project based work. “All the edges have got a bit softer and a bit lower.”

In response to the interest generated by Professor Heppell, follow up presentations are being made by Sue Beveridge, to Curriculum K-12 managers and team members, to Sydney Region Principals, and at the Thinking Locally, Delivering Globally - Video Seminars described in Upcoming Events in this bulletin.


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2. Disability Programs Directorate Extends Special Needs Training to Four Hundred Thirty Staff Using CCP Technologies(Bulletin 20, 17 July 2009)

Disability Programs Directorate is using www.inclusiononline-aus.net a professional learning platform to train DET teachers, school executive and regional consultants, in a range of courses for students with special needs.

The outreach of this approach to professional learning was trialled in 2008 and early 2009 with support from the CCP technologies across ten DET regions; this involved 430 personnel from across the Department.

One of the course tutors Judi Byrnes, a Disability Programs consultant from Broken Hill in Western NSW Region expressed her learning experience as being mainly about prior preparation, she said:

“One way to think about presenting remotely is to think of ‘distance as the disability’ and the impact it has on access and participation. The way you ensure there is equal access and that people can interact and participate is to think about the participant as being in the same room with the presenter.The barriers can be thought through and each barrier overcome as much as possible. There is a tech solution for any scenario and it’s about preparation, preparation, preparation”.

In 2009, more than 160 new School Learning Support Coordinators commenced their first online training course, “Understanding Autism Spectrum Disorders”. This course aims to increase the capacity of whole schools to support students with autism spectrum disorders through professional learning.

Trish Rymer, A/Project Leader and Kerrie Kimes, Senior Education Officer, have held training sessions for the course using Connected Classrooms, located in primary and high secondary schools in all DET regions, including training facilities at the iTeach 21 Centre at Dubbo, Macquarie ICT Innovations Centre and Coffs Harbour TAFE.

Melissa Clements, Manager, Disability Policy and Planning explained:

“Online training has become a very important strategy for us in skilling teachers across the DET to meet the needs of every student, including those students with additional needs in learning. The design and mode of delivery of the courses we are rolling out lends itself extremely well to the CCP technologies now available in schools. It’s great to see regions making use of these new resources to promote access to the courses and tutor support”.

The course “Understanding and Managing Behaviour” will be delivered to all School Learning Support Coordinators and additional personnel across the DET using a similar training model in Term 3.


3. Early Career Teachers Collaborate Using The Connected Classroom Technologies(Bulletin 16, 18 May 2009)

Early career teachers in DET schools graduate from their teacher education courses having achieved particular ICT-focused elements in the NSW Professional Teaching Standards framework (in particular elements 1.1.4, and 4.1.5). Sarah Pickthall, an early career teacher in her first year at James Fallon High School completed a Bachelor of Teaching (Secondary) / Bachelor of Science (Maths specialisation) in 2008 at Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga, “We were exposed a lot to using an interactive whiteboard at uni – I did an IT minor - we used IWBs to present our assignments but I

want to use it more interactively for units of work in Maths now that I am at school. At the moment I am using it with my Year 7 Maths students for reinforcing deeper understanding of measurement, fractions and percentages”.

Leslie Casey, Mathematics 7-12 consultant in Riverina office, has linked Sarah to other early career Maths teachers in the region by conducting a number of professional learning afternoons via video conference from each of the schools’ Connected Classrooms. Sessions have focussed on syllabus issues for new Mathematics teachers. Sarah describes, “It was great to talk to other early career teachers, to know what their experiences in school have been like – to know that I am not alone – we share ideas for teaching concepts, and I found out about Geogebra resources on TaLe (http://www.tale.nsw.edu.au) - the students find them engaging. When they use digital material they can move things around – it triggers their imagination and encourages cooperative learning”. In term 2 Sarah plans to expand her repertoire by using ICT in her classroom more often, as well as using technology to build the ‘team skills’ of students in all her Mathematics classes.

4. Teachers Collaborate Through Thirty Five Seminars Delivered Through CCP Technologies(Bulletin 14, 21 April 2009)

The three themes Open & Free Education, Aboriginal Education and Building Communities of Schools grouped the thirty five sessions.

These seminars, delivered via the Connected Classroom, enabled presenters and participants across all regions to engage in professional dialogue, overcoming distance and isolation, time constraints and cost considerations. School teachers and executive, regional and state office staff, DET leaders and academics all shared their knowledge and expertise. Participants explored best practice, current research and successful innovations. Teachers shared what is happening with their students.

Post-conference comments indicate the value of the series, “[The series] showed staff how easy [the video conferencing] process was”; “Good overview of available experiences”; “Examples given that will be able to be used in classroom” and “Links with QT (were) excellent.”




5. DET Schools Participate in “Sharing Conference” with Educators from Bristol, and Northern Territory Using CCP Technologies

(Bulletin 29, 4 December 2009)

Stewart House, Campbelltown Performing Arts and Maitland Grossman High Schools, as well as Wadalba Central School, Cessnock, Waratah West and Maitland Public Schools gathered in Connected Classrooms across NSW on 16 November to share their project learning with other schools.

This event was the first “Sharing Conference” using CCP technologies; it included an ELLI team from the

Northern Territory, Dr Deakin-Crick in the UK plus officers from the AGQTP team and academic partners, Professor Susan Groundwater-Smith and Dr Kath Grushka from Sydney and Newcastle universities respectively.

Meg Dione, Assistant Principal and Deputy Executive Officer from Stewart House, and Kerin Wood and Sharryn Bowes both AGQTP officers organised the four-hour video conference event from Oxford Street with support from Lisa Harmer’s team at ITD.

The technology format for such a long event in an AGQTP project had not been done before, so the timeframe meant short input sessions from the schools (maximum of 15 minutes using video conference), with frequent breaks to stretch and walk around, and it included lunch at each site to allow for time differences.

Meg said, “Some really good outcomes arose from the event, one is the promise from other ELLI schools to video conference together regularly with Stewart House next year when the students are here for 12 days. The intention is to get the students together to share ideas and write joint stories”.

After the event Stacey said, “This was video conferencing at its best. It was an opportunity to connect with educators from around the country and across the globe. It allowed us to share ideas and engage in meaningful dialogue about pedagogy that will really impact in the classroom with students. This just would not have been possible without video conference”.

Ruth added comments in an email from Bristol; it was her first experience of an international “Sharing Conference” via video conference, “Congratulations and thanks for such an inspiring event. Especially for chasing us and getting us all online at the same time ... I look forward to seeing the recordings which I think will be inspirational both for the content and for the modus operandi”.

Sonya Mackenzie, Project Manager, Strategic Priority Projects Curriculum, Teaching and Phases of Learning, Department of Education and Training Northern Territory who had organized the team from her jurisdiction, “It was a great learning and sharing experience and the feedback from the NT teachers who attended was that the “Sharing Conference” using VC was extremely worthwhile. I hope this opens the door to further opportunities for practitioners to share practice and learning across states and territories, and internationally”.




6. Four DET Schools Collaborate in the Cross-Sectoral Self and Peer Assessment Project(Bulletin 29, 4 December 2009)

In 2009 Stacey Quince, R/Principal, Campbelltown Performing Arts High School (CPAHS) and her staff used their Connected Classroom for key activities:

Cross-sectoral Self and Peer Assessment Project run for the NSW English Teachers’ Association

Four DET schools (including CPAHS, Killara, Quirindi, and Rutherford High Schools) participated in an initial VC to establish the needs of English teachers from across the state to discuss the support they required, this connection was used as a catalyst for professional reading from the ETA website, student

assessment methods in English and the role of the project’s mentor.

Stacey in her role as mentor said, “The Connected Classroom and Bridgit especially gave teachers an opportunity to share ICT and other strategies that engage students as active participants in the assessment process. The ongoing nature of the project ensured that teachers could use the Connected Classroom to develop, implement, evaluate and refine their ideas with colleagues with whom they would not usually collaborate”.

Collaboration with Orange High School (OHS)

This arrangement occurred when a teacher at OHS found herself suddenly and unexpectedly teaching HSC drama for the first time. Ken McBeath, Head Teacher Performing Arts at CPAHS was contacted to work with the teacher for professional support and resource sharing using both schools’ CCP technologies. They identified that this technology allows them to view individual students’ performances across sites, and mark collaboratively to ensure consistency of teacher judgment.

Ken said, “This technology offers a unique opportunity to provide professional discourse across the state. It allowed highly experienced teachers with a wealth of knowledge, to share their expertise with less experienced staff and students. It is also an excellent opportunity for students to interact and form relationships of mutual support. The spirit of lifting the level of excellence for everybody is truly an art aesthetic”.






7. Virtual Supervision Trialled with New England University(Bulletin 31, 23 April 2010)

A partnership between the NSW Department of Education and Training and the University of New England (UNE) is using the Connected Classroom to rethink the delivery of teacher training.

Dr Stephen Winn of UNE says the virtual supervision project is using video conferencing to provide real time supervision and feedback to student teachers doing practicum placements. They can also observe and engage with experienced teachers delivering demonstration lessons via VC under a second strand of the project.

“With this combination we can break down the geographic barriers faced by many pre-service teachers in rural and remote areas, connecting them with both academic and support staff at the uni, and experienced teachers in the field,” he said.

“It means student teachers can complete their placements at their local school, and we can deliver supervision to multiple locations simultaneously, at a fraction of the cost. It’s a really cost-effective alternative, maximising the resources of the university while providing student teachers and schools with much greater flexibility.”

“The approach is based on a reflective practice model that has real engagement of academics and schools which will lead to an enhancement of the quality of teacher graduates.”

Stephen said the project is being piloted in schools in the New England region towards the possibility of a wider rollout next year.

8. Two Hundred Sydney Region Teachers Collaborate Using CCP Technologies (Bulletin 32, 21 May 2010)

Sydney Region’s IT consultant, Craig Snudden and Learning Systems Regional Implementation Coordinator, Kathy Danilatos, recently delivered a VC presentation from Hurstville South Public School to introduce the new blogED tool.

The presentation included an introduction to using blogs to enhance teaching and learning and information on how to access and use blogED.

Over 200 teachers from across Sydney Region participated in the VC using their school’s Connected Classroom and the desktop sharing

software, Bridgit.

The event highlighted the enormous potential of the technology for enhancing collaboration and connection across multiple sites, and for giving teachers more opportunities to access professional learning.

Schools that participated included Chifley Public, Ultimo Public, Arncliffe Public, Glebe Public, Peakhurst West Public, Canterbury Girls High, Cleveland Street Intensive English High, Port Hacking High, Rockdale Public, Drummoyne Public, Canterbury Boys High, Canterbury South Public, Woronora River Public and Hurstville South Public.


9. Numeracy Teachers Collaborate via VC(Bulletin 18, 15 June 2009)

Lesson study and Best Start: ‘live cross’ to the Connected Classroom at Normanhurst West Public School Video conference provided an excellent platform for professional learning using lesson study at Ryde State Office recently.

Lesson study is a type of teacher-led professional learning which originated in Japan; it’s designed to foster shared reflection based on classroom evidence. Participants observe teaching practice by focusing on the design and intent of the lesson by watching what the students are doing.

This approach was used in the first session of a series of professional learning workshops on Numeracy for 40 Best Start State consultants and Literacy and Numeracy Leaders. Participants watched Paula Lott, kindergarten teacher at Normanhurst West Public School, teach the concept of “Building number combinations to 10” via video conference.

The camera in the Connected Classroom at the school, operated by Diane Read, Senior Advisor, Best Start Software, zoomed in to observe exactly what the students were doing throughout the lesson. Interspersed with observing students working in groups, Paula would write student responses to “Friends of 10” on the interactive whiteboard which could then be viewed via Bridgit by the participants back at Ryde. At the conclusion of the session, there was a panel discussion about the lesson between Paula, Diane and Greg McLaren, R/Principal of Normanhurst West and the ‘onlooking’ workshop attendees.

Comments in an evaluation after the workshop suggest the VC technology serviced this approach to teacher professional learning very effectively: “I really liked that the study was ‘real’ and very relevant. I learned a great deal”, “Much better to see a ‘real live class’ than an edited DVD”. The lesson study process for Best Start now involves the consultants and leaders teaching the lesson and discussing it when they meet later.






10. Nine Schools Work Together on Numeracy(Bulletin 29, 4 December 2009)

In early November the numeracy team from Curriculum K-12 Directorate, led by Chris Francis, Leader Numeracy spoke to nine schools in Illawarra South-East Region via video conference about progress in implementing the TOWN project for teachers of Stage 2 and 3 students.

“Taking Off With Numeracy”, or TOWN, is a project in the National Partnership on Literacy and Numeracy. TOWN is designed to assist teachers to identify where students’ solution methods in mathematics are breaking down, and provide explicit guidance to move the student beyond the identified hurdle.

In particular, it gives greater emphasis to the teaching sequence related to developing place value, as it underpins the four operations and decimals. TOWN offers both a whole-class program and a targeted in-class intervention.

Chris described the first video conference session as, “A chance to know what’s happening at the local level. The project has a strong emphasis on Quality Teaching, teacher professional learning and uses technology like a secure portal for

data storage, video conference, the interactive whiteboard, Bridgit software and flip cameras to extend the outreach of the project across NSW”.

During the video conference, hosted by the Ryde numeracy team, teachers from Colo Vale, Bega West, Bellambi, Cooma, Cringila, Farmborough Road, Tarrawanna, Warilla North and Warilla Public Schools provided feedback about their project.

Ray MacArthur, Strengthening Numeracy Adviser, in the TOWN team described how, “The use of video conference for teacher professional learning bridges the distance, it allows teachers in schools at the local level to have professional learning discussions with other schools in their region. It gives the schools immediate feedback on their needs instead of having to wait to address issues over longer timeframes”.

Also supporting the ‘tailored professional learning’ approach in TOWN is Bernard Tola, Senior Curriculum Adviser Mathematics K-6 and Lee-Anne Carragher, Aboriginal Education Consultant, Numeracy. Another video conference with the schools is planned for Week 7 this term.


11. SWIM BUGS - Creating Teacher Led Support Networks(Bulletin 34, 23 July 2010)

It may sound like something you’d find in a creek, but SWIM BUGS is actually a network of teachers sharing their interactive Classroom expertise.

The South Western Implementation Mentors (SWIM) Board User Group (BUG) is one of several teacher-lead networks connecting via regular VCs to expand their skills and knowledge.

Remote training sessions using the interactive whiteboard and Bridgit give participants a chance to hear from experienced users, ask questions and test their skills. Session attendance also contributes towards formally recognised ‘teacher

identification’ professional development.

Recent SWIM BUG sessions featured presentations by Jo Bonaz of Warrawong Public on comprehension exercises, and Doug Reckord of the Bournda Environmental Education Centre.

“SWIM BUGS gave the opportunity to present to a network of schools that I would otherwise not have had access to,” Doug said.

Participant Justin Short of Bega Public has found the sessions a chance to tap into other people’s knowledge and ideas.

“I’ve been able to then pass the information and experience I have gained on to other staff interested in learning to use the new technology in their teaching,” he said.

Glenn Buchanan, Regional Implementation Coordinator, says another group, RivBUGS has been initiated in the Wagga area by John Grieg from Turvey Park Public. The group has already signed up 54 members and plans to incorporate some VC sessions this term.

“The thing I am most excited about is the organic process - teachers managing the whole thing,” Glenn said.

In Term 3 SWIM BUGS focus will be Science Technology in COGS.




12. Getting More Familiar with blogED - Using VC(Bulletin 34, 23 July 2010)

Familiarisation sessions* to introduce the new Connected Classrooms Program collaborative learning tool blogED are being conducted around the state.

Recently, the North Coast Region Learning Systems team (Phillip Osborn and Robyn Robertson) delivered a session by video conference for more tha 50 teachers from a number of schools in the area.

Using slides, video and live presentation the team outlined the features of blogED and online support resources available (refer to example in the

centerspread), and discussed ideoas on using blogs to enhance teaching and learning.

Arthur Bain, Principal at Millbank Public, said he found the familiarisation session a great chance to ‘confirm we’re on the right track’.

“It’s amazing to be able to do professional development from an isolated school like ours, to be able to get together as a team and receive high quality presentations like this without having to travel for hundreds of kilometres,” Arthur said.

*For information on blogED familiarisation sessions in your area, contact your local Learning Systems team – https://detwww.det.nsw.edu.au/it/learnsyssupport/ic/contact.htm.

13. Virtual Supervision of Teacher Practicum Placement(Bulletin 37, 22 October 2010)

In April the CCP Bulletin reported on a partnership between DET and the University of New England (UNE) which is rethinking delivery of teacher training.

Dr Stephen Winn of UNE has provided an update on the project, which is using video conferencing to provide real time supervision and feedback to student teachers doing practicum placements.

The project, being piloted in schools in the New England region, allows student teachers to undertake placements at their local school, while UNE staff deliver unobtrusive supervision, to multiple locations simultaneously. Pre-service teachers also have the capacity to observe and engage with experienced teachers delivering their lessons via VC.

“Interest has been enormous,” Stephen said. “We currently have sixteen schools engaged in the trials, and many more seeking to come on board.”

Stephen says the goal is to make virtual supervision and virtual engagement of experienced teachers the standard for all collaboration between schools and universities, to enhance the quality of teacher training and achieve tangible links between universities and schools, wherever the school is situated.



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1 More Than Two Hundred Students Participate in National Film and Sound Archive Event

48

2 Three Hundred Students Dig for a Dinosaur with the Australian Museum 49

3 Six Schools Watch a Theater Performance of Ruby Moon: Theatre in the Connected Classrooms

50

4 Balgowlah Boys Connect to NASA Using VC 51

5 Gordon East Public School Assists Learning with CCP 526 Twenty Three DET Primary Schools Connect with Questacon in Canberra 537 Weather Observation Activity on the North Coast Using Video Conference 548 Students Link up in Asia-Pacific Mock Trial 559 Thirteen Primary Schools Participate in the Sydney Region Debating VC Gala Day 56

10 Do You Remember Dig for a Dinosaur in 2008? 5711 Virtual Excursion to the Great Barrier Reef 58

12 Five Hundred Students from Fifteen Schools Attended Virtual Excurtion to the Sydney Cricket Ground

58

13 NASA Drops in to Sydney Girls High (and Nine Other Schools by VC) 5914 “Getaway - Special Moon Edition” is the Winning Project in “Learn Astronomy

From Our School”60

15 The Historic Houses Trust Connected Classroom Project – Bringing to Life Australia’s Convict Stories

61


1. More Than Two Hundred Students Participate in National Film and Sound Archive Event(Bulletin 32, 21 May 2010)

The National Film and Sound Archive’s School Screen program is partnering with Connected Classrooms to provide students with unprecedented access to people currently working in the Australian creative arts industry.

Coordinator of the program, Imelda Cooney says, “The program aims to give rural and regional audiences a chance to interact with these professionals, to hear their personal stories and learn from their experience, as a gateway to Australia’s audiovisual culture and industry.”

Through live Q&A sessions via video conference, students can get immediate answers to questions and gain insight into the experience of professionals.

In early May, students from nine schools around NSW joined one of Australia’s leading actors, Aden Young and director Ian Darling for the most recent session in the series.

This session followed a successful pilot of the program held late last year which featured Darlene Johnson, director of River of No Return, a documentary about Indigenous actor, Frances Djulibing.

“After the pilot, we were looking to do a video conference that would link in with the drama syllabus, and collaborating with Aden and Ian gave us that chance,” Imelda said.

Aden was part of the Sydney Theatre Company’s production of Hedda Gabler, which was invited to play a season in New York in 2006. The play starred some top name Australian actors, including Cate Blanchett and Hugo Weaving.

Ian directed and produced the insightful documentary In the Company of Actors that followed the cast from rehearsals in Sydney to the glamorous opening night at the prestigious Brooklyn Academy of Music.

During the lively Q&A on both pieces of work, Ian commented more than once that the students were asking very intelligent questions. Aden added that, “It was a real joy to be able to field questions from so many different schools.” The session ended with thunderous applause from the students.

The ten schools that participated include Armidale High, Burwood Girls High, Campbelltown Performing Arts High, Dubbo Senior College, Duval High, Great Lakes College, Tuncurry Senior Campus, Kooringal High, Ku-ring-gai Creative Arts High and Wollongong Performing Arts High.

Lucy McLure, who teaches at Campbelltown Performing Arts High, said her students gained a lot from the experience. Lucy’s class had the added challenge of being the subject of a film themselves, with a DET film crew recording their participation in the event.

“In the end it was worth the effort, and the students really did engage and enjoy the experience of talking directly with Aden and Ian about their work,” she said.

School Screen is now planning the next session in the series, and is calling for suggestions for future events. Schools are invited to nominate actors, or a film, a topic or a unit of study that might be the focus for a session.

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2. Three Hundred Students Dig for a Dinosaur with the Australian Museum(Bulletin 6, 19 September 2008)

Collaboration across portfolios provides an outstanding learning opportunity. This week CCP officers together with officers from Curriculum K-12, Learning Systems, Infrastructure Services and ICT School Education Directors in partnership with the Australian Museum supported the Dig for a Dinosaur video conference with 300 students from 10 schools across all DET regions.

Robert Jones, a palaeontologist and Fran Dorey, a museum school educator spoke about the journey of the 75 million year old Centrosaurus dinosaur

bones from Canada to the museum’s new exhibition in College Street.

Students listened to information about the discovery of the bones and then took turns to ask questions of the two ‘dinosaur experts’.

Students at Grafton Public School were keen to know “How you can tell which dinosaur the bones actually belonged to?” Others were keen to know whether “It was easy to actually dig up the bones?”.

Narrabri Public School students wrote recounts of their understanding for their teacher Nicole Allison, one student detailed her experience in the following way:

“Today we listened to Fran and Robert who are both palaeontologists. They talked to us and nine other schools across our state. First all the schools had to wave and say Hi. All of the schools were connected by video conference and each person at each school asked one question about dinosaurs. The palaeontologists showed us some of the bones they found in the Provincial Park in Alberta, Canada. At the bone bed they were looking for Centrosaurus. They were at the bone bed for about three years. The way they moved all the bones was by putting the fossils in plaster jackets and then placing them in shipping containers for transport back to Australia. Australia traded Australian fossils and opalised fossils for the Centrosaurus bones. The video conference went for 30 minutes. I think that the video conference was very interesting and informative”.

After this video conference Nicole said:

“I am now trying to set up a ‘sister school’ buddy class system so that all children at Narrabri Public School can ‘connect’ and access the technology on a regular basis. We have started with a Kindergarten class here vcing a same stage class at Warialda Public School for informal chit chat and a news sharing spot”.

The power of learning through video conference for 30 minutes was demonstrated by high levels of student engagement.

The learning for Dig for a Dinosaur was enhanced by establishing links to the Science and Technology syllabus and pre-preparing questions from students representing each school.




3. Six Schools Watch a Theater Performance of Ruby Moon: Theater in the Connected Classrooms(Bulletin 17, 29 May 2009)

Ruby Moon, written by Australian author Matt Cameron is a contemporary text on the current HSC Stage 6 Drama syllabus; it explores the sinister side of suburban life when a young girl goes missing.

In Western, Riverina and New England regions on May 13 and 14 senior students from six schools watched a theatre performance of Ruby Moon via video conference. The performance, organised by MSquared Productions (http://www.msquaredtheatre.com.au/ruby-moon), Australia’s

Academic and Research Network (AARNet: http://www.aarnet.edu.au/) and NSW DET, was the first of its kind for these partners using Connected Classroom technologies.

Nick Cross from AARNet chaired the event to enable students from each school to ask questions of the cast after the performance. At the conclusion of the play Glyn Leyshon, Principal of Kooringal High School claimed:

“As a school in rural NSW the ability to have our students experience a production bringing the script to life was invaluable. The ability to question the cast and to listen to the answers - they also gave answers to other questions from students around the state, this was of great benefit ... and all without having to get on a bus or arrange accommodation with additional expense for parents”.

Drama teacher, Patsy-Anne Hill from Parkes High School expressed:

“The ambiguity of the play is so much clearer to my students now that they have viewed it. They were able to observe the elements of production in performance and can now write about them more clearly than before … I cannot say enough positive things about this experience”.

Participating sites were Forbes, Inverell, Oxley, Kooringal, Parkes and Kelso secondary schools. Thank you to everyone involved in bringing this ‘live theatre’ event to life.






4. Balgowlah Boys Connect to NASA Using VC(Bulletin 21, 31 July 2009)

Patricia Moore, an education specialist at Houston Space Centre NASA spoke to the group via VC on Seeing the World in a New Way. During the course of the exchange, discussion ranged across: the study of global warming trends and international space station research, the US satellite Explorer, and how satellites and Earth observation play a role in every day life.

Groundwork for the ‘virtual excursion’ began prior to the day with etiquette activities on how to use the VC equipment, including preparation of 16 ‘expert accounts’ of particular satellites. Each presentation was underpinned by Deep

Understanding, Engagement and Connectedness, all elements in the NSW model of Quality Teaching.

A range of learning scaffolds supported the students to apply their knowledge to create individual satellite research reports for the NASA discussion. These included:

work with academic partner Dr John Hughes from the University of Sydney who introduced the students to Enactment of the Expert;

science advice from Richard Morante from K-12 Curriculum Directorate on the Tall Poppy Campaign;

an interactive lecture by Professor Byran Gaensler from the Sydney Institute for Astronomy on Magnets in the Sky;

NASA lesson notes;

pre-reading material and lesson resources from NASA.

After the ‘virtual excursion’, the 16 students presented their satellite research reports to Year 12 students at the school. This authentic task then had a context, as it was part of the Physics Core Topic: Space, Geostationary and Low-Earth Orbits; it provided students with an opportunity to share their work beyond their classroom using the interactive whiteboard and SMART Notebook 10 software.

Jackson, one of the Year 10 boys said he thought, “It was cool to be connected to another country”. Another student, Lachlan, said after his Tropical Rainforest Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite presentation, “I thought the NASA presentation was very interesting and taught me many things, it provided more experienced insight into space information especially gravity”.

Jeffrey expressed his experience this way,“In the lesson with NASA, we were able to talk to an expert in a specific area of science in an interactive environment that was new, informative, exciting and most importantly, fun”.

Both Joy and Joanne, the QTAL project leaders agreed that quality learning experiences like the ‘virtual excursion’ in a project on science and literacy using technology enhanced the verbal and written skills of students.


5. Gordon East Public School Assists Learning with CCP(Bulletin 25, 9 October 2009)

Students in Stages 1, 2 and 3 (total number=173) have been consistently using the Connected Classroom at Gordon East Public School (GEPS) for a range of learning activities. “The pedagogy in this space enhances what teachers are already doing in the classroom”, according to R/Principal, Gail Smith. She said, “Using VC improves Intellectual Quality by enabling the learning opportunities for students to focus on Deep Knowledge, Deep Understanding and Higher Order Thinking. Also Substantive Communication – it means widening the audience for our students with less teacher-centred lessons”.

In Stage 1 the students did a HSIE unit on transport and shelter. As part of the learning experience they went on a ‘virtual excursion’ to Kigluait, Alaska. During the VC students examined living in Alaska, the dog sleds and how people prepared for life in extreme temperatures.

This stage also worked with St Ives Park Public School on a combined literacy unit using “Through My Window” from www.tale.edu.au. In this unit, Gail said, “The class concentrated on enhancing the VC etiquette for younger students - incorporating speaking clearly and listening carefully – the students were very excited about working with another Year 2 class and going to places they had never been before”.

Another group of students in Stage 2 at the school did science experiments with NASA and spoke to the astronauts in situ. Gail explained, “We have done this two years running because it is so brilliant and the kids are so engaged”.

Angela Churchland, an Assistant Principal at the school, worked with Macquarie ICT Innovations Centre last term in the Cuddie-Cuddie project. The school hosted Frances Brodkin (an Aboriginal story teller) in the Connected Classroom where she told stories to 21 schools (involving 1400 students) in the Northern Sydney Region.

Two Stage 3 students from the school spoke about their experiences using VC for learning, “It’s great to have an opportunity to communicate with other schools” and “I really liked learning about how other schools do things”. These comments were gathered after GEPS and Quirindi Public School in New England Region worked together recently on a project comparing and identifying the uniqueness of their communities.

Students had to write a detailed description of their community, email their peers, and think about how the written word could be interpreted visually. They then created an artwork to reflect their perception of the other community.

Finished art was shared via VC and led to discussions about lifestyle between the two very different schools. This stage has also been involved in Speak My Language, and a GATS “Peg project” with Year 7 students at St Ives High School.

When asked how teachers’ strategize their lesson content if the technology doesn’t all go according to a ‘perfect plan’, Gail told the Program, “As you normally do in a classroom, you have an alternate plan or focus – it’s amazing how adaptive kids are with unforeseen circumstances - they show a surprising level of maturity and patience”.






6. Twenty Three DET Primary Schools Connect with Questacon in Canberra(Bulletin 29, 4 December 2009)

Last week twenty-one Year 5/6 students from Shellharbour Public School (SPS) joined a ‘virtual excursion’ with 22 other DET primary schools to interact with five polar region scientists and a whaling captain beamed out from “Questacon” in Canberra. A total of 1200 students participated in this event which included schools in South Australia, Tasmania and the Northern Territory.

The content in the trip was linked to Stages 2 and 3 in the HSIE strands of Environments, Patterns of Place and Location and Relationships with Places, and the Science and Technology strands of Living

Things, Earth and its Surroundings and Products and Services. Students listened to each scientist speak about their role and how the polar regions are being affected by climate change.

Jacki Richter, one of the scientist’s explained, “Environmental changes are first seen and accelerated at the poles. These changes set the scene for the changes that will occur over time to the rest of the world”. Positioned near the Casey Station, Jacki spoke about ice cores and the information that they provide in relation to climate change. The students watched video footage of her digging an ice core using an ice saw, she then inserted a drill and explained the layers of each core and what that meant to scientists.

Other topics covered during the session included temperature changes, krill and whaling, polar bears, and penguins. Kate Prisk, a teacher at SPS said, “The students learnt how much activity really goes on in both of these regions. There were some nice comparisons drawn between the native people of the Arctic (the Inupiat) and the Aboriginal people of Australia. The scientists talked about how both people worked and lived off the land and were in harmony with their environments”.

After the excursion ended a student from SPS said to Kate, “It’s better than being in the classroom as there were real people on the LCD screen and we could see what they had been doing and they were explaining things as they showed them to us”.

Another student added, “We were really keen to go to Antarctica. We learnt a lot of facts, but with the images we were able to get more information by watching the animals move around and the scientists at work. There was more than one person, so we were able to get an idea of other jobs that people do in these parts of the world”.

Kate concluded, “The idea that students from other schools within Australia were watching with them in this video conference was amazing. Being able to listen to questions that others asked was good, as some of our students had similar ones. It is just not possible for me to deliver the amount of content covered in 45 minutes and keep that level of engagement. The content was fast paced, and by having so many scientists from different backgrounds talking with the students – they were able to get different perspectives and consequences resulting from the same cause”.


7. Weather Observation Activity on the North Coast Using Video Conference(Bulletin 17, 29 May 2009)

A weather activity on temperature, wind direction, cloud cover and rainfall (all topics in the HSIE Primary syllabus: science and maths measurement), took place recently in Connected Classrooms at Moorland and South Grafton Public Schools. Its purpose was to build teacher and student confidence in using technology for an explicit learning purpose. Sue Brown, one of the teachers at Moorland said:

“The students had lots of questions as to how the equipment works. They thought they would be able to use this technology to help them with HSIE units - to connect globally - to talk to other students in different parts of Australia and the world”.

In planning the learning for the activity, teachers at Moorland and South Grafton have worked with another two schools: Chatham and Glenreagh Public to reinforce specific approaches to using video conference.

Quote from teacher planning notes: “Conduct a VC session for no longer than 30 minutes, recommend that two students from each school report weather readings, learn how to record the session prior to the day, find out how to host a VC using the virtual meeting room (VMR) number, and explore what might be included in staff training prior to the event; for example: the on and off switches, video conference etiquette, recording the session, presets and focusing for the cameras”.

From Janelle Buckley’s perspective, Janelle is a Year 5/6 OC teacher at South Grafton:

“The weather activity was an easy, non time-consuming way to get us started with the VC process. Collecting the weather results proved to be very topical the week we participated. The activity made sure I got in and “had a go’’ at using the VC equipment when I had put it off several times last term. Overall the activity was simple but productive as it removed the “mystique” about the technology”.

Murray Woolley, a teacher at Glenreagh Public School, interacted with other schools to assist the learning process:

“Students especially enjoyed the video conference and accessing the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) website and locating the other schools using Google Earth. Glenreagh was in the midst of its second flood in successive weeks and students were very interested in knowing what was going on, in real time”.

At the end of the lesson, a student from Chatham Public School commented, “I thought it was fun to use the Connected Classroom because we could see children from other schools. It was great”.






8. Students Link up in Asia-Pacific Mock Trial(Bulletin 16, 18 May 2009)

Students at Hangdong Law School in South Korea and Penrith High School took part in an Asian-Pacific mock trial using video-conference technology.

Using the school’s Connected Classroom, Year 12 students at Penrith High School recently participated in the Law Society’s International Mock Trial Competition.

The competition was held via video conference in real time and was the first mock trial between an Australian and South Korean school. Robyn Cross, who coordinates mock trials on behalf of the Law Society of NSW said, “Now that this has been such

a success, we’ll look at an Asian Pacific competition with Australia and countries like Korea and Singapore – it’s fantastic for kids to be able to compete against students from overseas”.

Each team competed from their respective site with cameras and screen set up to give a live-time response; after the experience one Hangdong student emailed the mock trial organisers and described:

“It was a truly amazing experience - I would never be able to forget in a lifetime [sic]. Besides being awed by cutting edge technology that allowed us to hold a mock trial session face-to-face with Australian participants thousands away made me feel what globalisation truly means”.


9. Thirteen Primary Schools Participate in the Sydney Region Debating VC Gala Day(Bulletin 29, 4 December 2009)

For the past six years, a small group of schools in the St George area have participated in a face-to-face annual Debating Gala Day to teach primary students the fundamental principles of debating in an engaging, non-threatening way.

This year the idea of a ‘virtual’ Debating Gala Day for interested schools was proposed. On the 12 November, debating teams involving 250 primary students and their teachers at Arncliffe, Canterbury South, Clemton Park, Coogee, Dulwich Hill, Ferncourt, Leichhardt, McCallums Hill, Newtown

North, Peakhurst South, Peakhurst West, Stanmore and Sutherland Public Schools participated in the activity.*

According to Joanna French, Deputy Principal from Clemton Park Public School, “The purpose of day was fourfold, we wanted to enhance our Year 5 students’ skills for more formalised competition in Year 6, as well as provide an authentic, engaging use of CCP technologies in schools across the region. The day allowed teachers to experiment with the technology and to become more comfortable with using it for cross-curricular learning activities”.

Experienced Year 6 debaters in the schools acted as mentors to the younger students, Joanna added, “We had many positive emails outlining how the students and teachers really gained so much through the experience and would like very much to do it again. We have set up a more comprehensive survey to find out exactly how we might do it again next year”.

*On the Debating VC Gala Day three schools still to receive their Connected Classroom travelled to other sites. Joanna, as well as Melissa Cameron, a teacher at McCallums Hill Public School and Paul Robinson, Assistant Principal at Canterbury South Public School coordinated the event.






10. Do You Remember Dig for a Dinosaur in 2008?(Bulletin 19, 29 June 2009)

Well …. Winnie Saur, that amazing life size juvenile Muttaburrasaurs puppet from the Australian Museum has been chatting to 45 students at Colo Heights Public School in Western Sydney Region. Glen Leaf, Principal at Colo Heights said:

“Our recent video conferences with the Australian Museum have been very well received by the whole school. Students have had the opportunity to ask their own questions and gain instant feedback”.

Collaborating with ‘galleries, libraries and museums’ is one of the key outcomes of the Interactive Classrooms Project. Jenny Horder,

Manager of Learning Services at the Australian Museum is very keen to partner with DET to extend the outreach of their education programs into DET schools with their own suite of equipment; she said:

“We are very excited about the flurry of activity with our new VC, we had two 30 minute experimental runs with Colo Heights, one with Winnie, the Museum’s baby dinosaur puppet, and the other about ‘mini-beasts’ with naturalist, Martyn Robinson“.

David Foley gave further details:

“Since the Colo Heights tests the Museum has delivered two open sessions to 43 schools and 1,800 students to supplement the Collie’s Clicks program run by the CAP. Further regular open events and module lessons will be available to schools soon through the Connections Program. The Powerhouse Museum too has conducted its first live VC focusing on the famous World War II German Enigma machine, and the Australian Fossil and Mineral Museum in Bathurst is now ready to begin live delivery to schools. The Dead Bones Society based at the Fossil and Mineral Museum is also ready to offer

writing workshops with children’s author Paul Stafford”.


11. Virtual Excursion to the Great Barrier Reef (Bulletin 17, 29 May 2009)

The Office of Schools, School Education Directors were taken on a ‘virtual excursion’ to the Great Barrier Reef using Connected Classroom equipment recently. This excursion’s aim was to provide a ‘model of practice’ to the 80 participants

of the ‘power of contacting experts’ using video conference technology.

12. Five Hundred Students from Fifteen Schools Attended Virtual Excurtion to the Sydney Cricket Ground (Bulletin 31, 23 April 2010)

In Late March 500 students from 15 schools were lucky enough to get a behind the scenes look at the Sydney Swans ‘inner sanctum’ on a virtual excursion to the Club’s headquarters at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

The tour, hosted by Swans midfielder Jude Bolton, took students to places usually reserved for the privileged few using a mobile camera crew streaming live video. This breakthrough use of the Connected Classroom offered a great demonstration of just how versatile the technology can be - the tour even included a sneak peek at the Swans’ tactics board!

Students discovered that there’s more to a team like the Swans than the 22 players who run onto the field. A range of club staff gave presentations on issues such as health and nutrition, motivation and injury management.

The Virtual Excursion Program was developed by the Department’s Rural and Distance Education Unit to target students at remote and regional schools, but all students are now making use of the opportunities it offers. Schools joining the Swans tour included Alfords Point Public, Botany Public, Cudgegong Valley Public, Culcairn Public, Gilgandra Public, Jerilderie Public, Killarney Heights Public, Mathoura Public, Mona Vale Public, Nulkaba Public, Oaklands Central, Portland Central, Tahmoor Public, Thornton Public and Windsor Public.




13. NASA Drops in to Sydney Girls High (and Nine Other Schools by VC)

(Bulletin 37, 22 October 2010)

In September, Sydney Girls High School had a visit from NASA astronaut, Dr Jim Reilly, following an invitation from the school’s astronomy club.

SGHS science teacher, Jeff Stanger, said Dr Reilly’s visit was shared with another nine schools around the state via video conference.

“The format for the VC was a question and answer session,” Jeff said.

“Dr Reilly answered many questions from each school and covered a huge range of topics, from

the dangers of space and how comfortable space suits are, to the possibilities of using space elevators.”

“His career as a geologist made his talk particularly interesting to students with an interest in science, as he discussed how his work related to exploring the solar system and finding life elsewhere in the Universe,” he said.

Jeff organised Dr Reilly’s visit through a group called YASSA, Young Astronauts Space Schools Australia. For information on YASSA visit www.yassa.com.au.

Distance Education’s Connections unit also runs regular virtual excursions to the NASA Space Centre in Houston.




14. “Getaway - Special Moon Edition” is the Winning Project in “Learn Astronomy From Our School”(Bulletin 28, 20 November 2009)

“Congratulations to Burwood Girls High School and to all the teachers and students involved. The project demonstrated how quickly our students and teachers adapt to and utilise new technology to support learning. Participating schools demonstrated a commitment to expanding their learning and ably confirmed their capacity to create, collaborate and connect with others”, said Carole McDiarmid, Business Executive of the Connected Classrooms Project and Regional Director for Western NSW Region.

The Year 9 team from Burwood Girls High School created their successful entry based on the TV series “Getaway”. They submitted two advertisements, one ‘poster’ style created using Adobe Photoshop, and the other a wmv movie file advertisement made with Adobe Premiere using software on their DER laptops. Astronomy subject matter in the project focused on lunar geology including crater, maria and mountain formations in the Moon’s geological history.

Head Teacher Science, John van Leeuwen who supported the team said, “The girls’ video conference concept was an ambitious plan to include a variety of short and engaging activities using a range of presentation technologies such as Smart Notebook for the IWB presentation, Bridgit for desktop sharing and interactive communication. They also used a third flexi-video camera in their live experiment demonstration, and a remote laptop and data projector to provide background scenes in conjunction with the fixed cameras in the Connected Classroom”.

Apparently fuelled by ‘chocolate’ over many hours of intense planning and groundwork, the team honed content, and practised their delivery and communication skills in preparation for the final video conference performance on October 1. Leah was the Moon holiday host, she explained the various ‘walking, skiing and swimming activities’ it was possible to do on the Moon provided you were wearing the right clothing, “I also enjoyed working closely with my group members, and using the video conferencing software”.

Other team members Alison, Annika and Taylah talked about how the project required them to really think about interactivity, as well as develop new technology skills and appreciate what it was like to ‘learn at a distance’ with students in other schools. Anika and Meredith spoke about “doing research and gaining wider knowledge of science concepts”.

Mia Kumar, Principal of BGHS said, “We always encourage our girls to become involved in a variety of projects, emphasizing teamwork and the development of interpersonal skills. I was thrilled to learn that a team of Year 9 girls had used their creative skills in science, mathematics and technology to win this competition. An added bonus is another connected classroom for our school, so the whole school community is looking forward to more opportunities to enhance learning through technology”.




15. The Historic Houses Trust Connected Classroom Project – Bringing to Life Australia’s Convict Stories(Bulletin 38, 12 November 2010)

The Historic Houses Trust (HHT) has developed a new and engaging program to take advantage of the connected classroom videoconferencing technology. Important historical sources are woven into a theatrical presentation to bring the convict story of Hyde Park Barracks to life and to the classroom. Jeannie Douglass, the Trust’s Head of Education, explains what the project will offer.

“The virtual field trip experience is a dynamic, exciting and interactive way for students to access

the HHT collection and have fun while learning,” Jeannie said.

“Programs are tailored to specific syllabus areas and address relevant outcomes. A museum educator will use enquiry based teaching methods to engage students in a two-way conversation and give them the opportunity to participate in the telling of intriguing historical stories and events.”

“The first program for HHT is currently being trialled with Stage 2 students in a number of schools and will be launched in February 2011,” she said.

In this virtual excursion, Jeannie said, students will be transported back in time to fully explore the life of a convict – through sharing stories with the convict presenter students gain insights into their everyday life and the importance of convict labour to the development of the new colony.

“Students are active participants in the lesson and will be encouraged to ask questions of the convict, observe, analyse, draw conclusions and express their ideas about objects and images presented,” Jeannie said.

“They will even have the chance of joining in a rousing chorus of a convict ballad.”

Each program is supported by online teacher resources to encourage class discussion, suggest follow on activities and

provide videoconferencing tips.



C C P 2 0 0 7 - 2 0 1 1 63



1 Michael Dell Global Business Leader Converses with Two Hundred DET Students 642 Dr Andrew Hopkins Converses with Students from Eight High Schools 653 Three Hundred Students Use VC to Speak to Author Morris Gleitzman on Writing

and Literature66

4 Kurt Fearnley, Australian Champion Paralympian Connected with Students at Menindee

67

5 Author Graeme Base Talked to Six Hundred Sixty Students 686 Socceroo Mark Schwarzer Speaks to a Hundred Students 697 Two Thousand Five Hundred Students Participated in Eighteen Forums with

Scientists70

8 Astronomer VC with Senior Students 719 Author Pat Flynn Talks to Students About His Book 72

10 Students VC with Captains from Police and Rural Fire Brigade 7311 Six Hundred Students Meet Cartoonist David Hackett via Their Connected

Classrooms74

12 Unsung Heroes - Sharing Menindee’s Cultural Heritage During NAIDOC Week 7513 Building Connections and Expanding Awareness of Aboriginal Culture via VC 7614 School Communities Talk by VC with a Holocaust Survivor 77


1. Michael Dell Global Business Leader Converses with Two Hundred DET Students (Bulletin 17, 29 May 2009)

“Business Management and Change”, “Marketing” and “Global Business” are topics in the Stage 6 HSC Business Studies syllabus. Giving students who study this area of the curriculum an opportunity to discuss global business ideas with ‘experts in the field’ is very powerful using video conference technology (Becta, 2004; Chua, 2005; Martin, 2005). On Tuesday 12 May Michael Dell, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive of Dell Computers and Joseph Kremer, Manager of Dell in Australia/New Zealand spoke to 150 senior students and their HSIE teachers in nine Connected Classrooms via a

‘live cross’ to Austin, Texas. The schools/campuses involved were: Gymea Technology High School Willyama Central School Gunnedah High School

Ulladulla High School Broken Hill High School St Ives High School

Richmond High School Homebush Boys High School

Two students, Olivia and Mathew from Gymea Technology High School facilitated the event to all other sites. Topics for discussion ranged across: the effects of government stimulus packages, altering a company’s business model in challenging economic times, and the global financial crisis.

Michael Dell was asked by another student from Gymea Technology High School about ‘advice’ he would give to a young person just starting out in their first business, he replied, “Take risks, make mistakes, but never make the same mistake twice”.

A student from Gunnedah High School said of the VC event, “Very interesting – I thoroughly enjoyed it and would like to do more”.

From a Principal’s perspective, Darryl Ward from Broken Hill High School stated, “The students were impressed by the VC and several commented it helped with their Business Studies course and if circumstances allow we would love to be involved in more VCs of a similar nature for other subjects. It helps overcome the isolation factor when we can access high quality learning material such as this”.

Rod Jones, Principal of Gunnedah High school echoed Darryl’s sentiments, “This opportunity was a fantastic one for my students and their teacher. Prime News did a terrific story about Gunnedah High’s involvement in this initiative. It was great PR for our school and the Program as a whole”.

In a response to the Program office after the VC Michael Dell commented, “I always enjoy the chance to talk with students, and this was no exception. You have a smart and engaging student body, and I know they all bring pride to New South Wales”.

Other leaders of business have offered to conduct video conference events with DET students. This event was a collaboration between the Connected Classrooms Program, Dell, Curriculum K-12 and Multimedia and Conferencing Services, ITD.


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2. Dr Andrew Hopkins Converses with Students from Eight High Schools(Bulletin 8, 31 October 2008)

Julie Haeusler, Manager ICT, Curriculum K-12 Directorate sent us the following account:

If the universe is still expanding, what’s going to happen to us?’ and ‘Do black holes ever fill up?’ were two questions astrophysicist Dr Andrew Hopkins fielded when students asked him via video conference about Planets, stars, black holes and our universe recently.

Students in Years 9-12 at eight high schools: Warners Bay, Lithgow, Warialda, Wellington, Gymea, Batemans Bay, Killarney Heights and West

Wyalong enjoyed the close encounter with a practicing scientist and being able to ask some of the BIG astronomy questions.

They learned about galaxies and the characteristics of stars. One of the head teachers at Warialda High School, Agbe Attipoe, expressed the benefit of the experience, “In rural areas we see these opportunities as highly valued because it cures our students of ‘myopia’ and reduces the feeling of ‘isolation’ because we are away from metropolitan areas.”

Dr Hopkins, who is from the University of Sydney, is a recipient of the prestigious Young Tall Poppy award and is one of many scientists who have agreed to discuss their work with students across DET via video conference.


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3. Three Hundred Students Use VC to Speak to Author Morris Gleitzman on Writing and Literature(Bulletin 9, 14 November 2008)

You may recall when Evonne Webb, regional implementation coordinator, contacted Program office about her upcoming “Talk to an Author” event. It was held last Thursday; here is a snapshot from Evonne’s report:

“Chipping Norton Public School hosted a very successful video conference between Morris Gleitzman and more than 300 Stage 3 students in 12 primary schools. The students discussed the writing process and sought answers to why Morris

wrote about “cane toads; how he kept track of little stories within bigger stories and whether the rumour about him spiking his hair to copy Roald Dahl was actually correct?”

Learning Systems implementation officers worked closely with the teachers and literacy consultants prior to the event.

Advice was provided to the school about how to conduct a multipoint video conference and DET literacy consultants provided advice to teachers about appropriate book and resource selection. Students from each of the participating schools developed questions with their teachers in activities prior to the video conference.

Questions from each school were submitted and culled to 10 scripted questions to be asked on the day. Impromptu questions were also made by text message at the ‘live event’ and were checked before being included. A trial video conference was conducted, a week before to allow the scripted questions to be rehearsed and appropriate pace fine-tuned with students.

The group was instructed on ‘video conferencing etiquette’, for example “it’s better when one child from the group asks the question and the camera is focussed on the student’s chest and head, always to mute the microphone immediately after questions are asked”.

Teachers took the opportunity to practise dialling in and setting the most suitable camera angles.

Morris commented after the session, “Today for me was a glimpse at the future as far as being a children’s author goes. These interactions are important between authors and students because they allow young people to see that stories are created by ordinary people and it’s possible to create and write stories yourself”.

On reflection: student engagement at all points throughout the video conference was high as the activity was an ‘authentic task’.

Outcomes for teachers included: being able to develop and refine skills in using the video conferencing equipment, and deepening understanding of its use as a learning tool.

One of the Year 5 student’s from Beverley Hills North Public School recounted afterwards, “The video conference was all about the Toad series: Toad Away, Toad Heaven and Toad Rage. Mr Gleitzman gave excellent answers to the questions he was asked, he also gave us brilliant tips like how he would come up with ideas when he wanted to write a book and how long it would take him to write a book. It took six months to write Toad Surprise.”

His longest book took him about ten years to write. In Year 5 he would write stories and keep them in his schoolbag. So one day his friends went to his bag to get a soccer ball but instead they found stories and started to read them. When Morris came back his friends told him his stories were really good so he kept writing until he became a professional author”.


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4. Kurt Fearnley, Australian Champion Paralympian Connected with Students at Menindee(Bulletin 14, 21 April 2009)

Georgia Shepherd, teacher at Menindee Central School reports on her first experience of with her 6/7 class.

“On Friday 6 March my students sat absolutely spellbound and listening intently for more than an hour, as they participated in a live video conference with Kurt Fearnley, an Australian champion Paralympian. I have never seen these students as engaged and interested for this length of time before, and it was fantastic!”

Dave Fellows, Head Teacher Access (acting) introduced the idea of using the Connected Classroom at our school to enhance current teaching and learning activities. He arranged for our class to participate in the video conference interview with Kurt Fearnley. In the lead-up we engaged in a range of activities to prepare the students and to link the interview with Kurt Fearnley to all KLA’s. For example, in literacy we looked at biographical recount texts including one about Kurt. In HSIE we were able to look at the countries and cities around the world where Kurt had raced, as well as when and how the Paralympics began.

In maths we looked at time and distance in regards to Kurt’s race times, as well as averages, temperatures, heart rate etc. It was also useful in PDHPE as we looked at responsibility, overcoming hurdles and perseverance.

The interview was the end goal that the students were working towards, and it provided the students with motivation and an engagement level I have not seen before. We joined 16 other schools in the link-up, each of which had an opportunity to ask Kurt a question about his life.

Kurt spoke very well and had my students enthralled for the whole hour. I am now looking at upcoming opportunities for my class to participate in connected learning as it has proven to be a most effective tool.


5. Author Graeme Base Talked to Six Hundred Sixty Students (Bulletin 10, 2 December 2008)

The second “Talk to an Author” video conference event was held on Wednesday 12 November at Revesby Public School. This event was an interactive conversation by video conference hosted by Stage 3 students between revered Australian children’s picture book author Graeme Base and more than 660 students and 50 teachers from surrounding schools.

Both events have been covered in the local media, the following report of the video conference event was sent to Program office by Evonne Webb, Regional Implementation Coordinator in South

Western Sydney:

“Students discussed with Graeme the inspiration for his books, and how he prepared for writing. They discovered that he decided to be an artist at age 11 and that on average it takes him two years to write a book.”

Students were engaged prior to the video conference in class activities and in developing questions for the event. Questions were submitted, impromptu questions were also gathered during the video conference by the facilitators from text messages.

Graeme emphasised good work comes from effort and that three P’s are essential: perseverance, passion and providence. He shared the story of how it takes many drafts to get it right; for example a picture from his book “Enigma” takes one month to complete. He also described to one student whose dream it is to be an author – how that to be a good writer; you must be a good reader.

The student reflected on this experience later in his writing: “Yesterday I had the most amazing experience of my life. Mr Base gave me some great writing tips and a cool signature. I will never forget this day!” The student’s teacher said, “It’s not about the video conference but about how one child was inspired by Graeme Base”.

Ann Pantel, Assistant Principal at Revesby Public School said afterwards, “What a wonderful chance for the students in our school! It’s not often you meet an author and are able to ask them questions. The amazing part is that even though this video conference was aimed at Stage 3 students, the whole school is now reading and talking about Graeme Base books.”

“The video conference is really a very exciting medium to engage and motivate students in learning. Everything went extremely well. I am so proud of our hosts, Varsha and Neer. The medium of the video conference gives the students a purpose for public speaking.”

The two “Talk to an Author” events in Term 4 have involved more than 1200 DET students and staff in South Western Sydney region. Learning Systems implementation officers worked closely with DET literacy consultants to support the teachers and students in participating schools prior to the event.

This support meant offering advice to schools about how to conduct a multipoint video conference that included knowing how to position speakers in close proximity to the microphones, checking remote batteries and cleaning filters on the Sanyo projector.

It was also important that students prepared themselves by dressing appropriately, muting the microphone when not speaking and being on task, as all movements can be seen by other participants around the video conference screen.





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6. Socceroo Mark Schwarzer Speaks to a Hundred Students(Bulletin 20, 17 July 2009)

Mark Schwarzer, OAM is an Australian soccer goalkeeper who plays for the English Premier League team Fulham and also represents Australia in international soccer matches. In 2008 when the Program spoke to the State SRC about learning using video conferencing, one of the suggestions put forward by the students was the opportunity to engage with ‘famous sporting talents’. So, it was very appropriate that such an interchange was organized recently by Michelle Lindsay, A/Deputy Principal at Gymea Bay Public School.

On 25 June 100 students from five DET regions gathered in Connected Classrooms in primary schools at Gymea Bay, Stanwell Park, Lismore and Tamworth as well as Dubbo Senior College to discover how Mark Schwarzer established a life-long commitment to healthy living and physical activity.

“Mark spoke about why and how he became interested in literacy, specifically writing children’s novels as well as the personal leadership qualities and values necessary when representing Australia in sport”, said Michelle.

Regional and city students from different Stages were able to share Mark’s knowledge. Michelle continued, “Mark commented after the VC how impressed he was with the students, the questions they asked and the technology. He really appreciated the opportunity this type of technology could bring to rural and isolated students ... in fact he was amazed”.

Lee Preston, Principal of Tamworth Public School told the Program the event had made a local news sports report that evening and expressed her school’s gratitude and involvement this way:

“It was great to be part of a link up that exposed our students to the expertise and experience of such a high profile Australian sportsman, without them having to travel several hours to do so. Everyone involved was impressed with Mark’s interpersonal skills and his humility. He made the country kids feel as important as our ‘city cousins’”.


7. Two Thousand Five Hundred Students Participated in Eighteen Forums with Scientists(Bulletin 24, 11 September 2009)

“Ignite Your Imagination” was the theme of National Science Week (from 15-23 August) this year. The focus on science continued throughout August in a joint initiative, known as the Tall Poppy Campaign (TPC), by The Australian Institute of Policy & Science, the Faculty of Science at Macquarie University, the Australian Government and the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, and the Curriculum K-12 Directorate in NSW DET.

Ric Morante, Senior Curriculum Adviser Science K-12 said, “The forums were initiated to bring high

school age students into direct contact with leading scientists making a contribution to our understanding of the science behind climate change and its effects on our planet”.

More than 2,500 Year 10, 11 and 12 students and their science teachers from 50 schools participated in 18 forums via video conference. Each exchange featured the latest environmental research on aspects of climate change from Australian and international scientists. For example, Dr Tracey Rogers and Dr Ben McNeil shared new research on ‘marine mammals’ and the ‘impact of climate change on the oceans’; and Drs Leigh Sheppard and Martina Doblin spoke on energy solutions in ‘plankton ecology and climate’.

This year the CCP technologies have increased the outreach of the TPC, Ric said, “When you can have students from Kingscliffe, Broken Hill and Tumbarumba on the same video conference with half a dozen metropolitan schools from Newcastle and greater Sydney - this is fantastic for teaching and learning, consistency across the state and brings home the power of technology to truly advance education in NSW. There is no way this could be done without CCP technologies!”

At two online forums broadcast from Ryde State Office on the 20th August, 600 students gathered in 19 Connected Classrooms across DET to discuss The Impacts of Climate Change on Australian Species and Ecosystems with Professor Lesley Hughes. She is one of Australia’s leading authorities on climate change; based at Macquarie University, Lesley is a member of the “Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change”. “I wake up every morning hoping we scientists are wrong about climate change. The 1990s were the warmest decade and it’s likely the 2000s will break all previous weather records”, she added. Lesley reminded the students, “There is a need to reduce greenhouse emissions” and “To understand that plants and animals are already responding and adapting to inevitable climate change”.

Speaking to Professor Hughes after the forums about technology reducing the ‘carbon footprint’ she said that, “Technology like this is making learning more flexible, it’s bridging the gap between our education institutions - enabling climate change education to be accessed more readily by primary and secondary schools, especially those schools in more isolated situations”.

At Tumbarumba High School, Year 7-9 Enrichment Classes, as well as a Year 11 Biology joined the event. A/Science Head Teacher Kyle Moffitt added, “Students directly questioned some of Australia’s most prominent scientists in the forums. They listened to other schools’ questions and were part of a large peer group of like minded students. As a small rural school, we often have to travel to broaden our students’ experiences … video conference allows scientists to come directly to us”. Hayden, a student in Year 9 said, “I learned how humans can help endangered species and the environment cope with climate change. I have a better understanding of what causes global warming to happen and how to reduce it. I understand now that the earth can’t regulate excess carbon dioxide levels very well and that animals that can’t adapt will die out”.


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8. Astronomers VC with Senior Students(Bulletin 12, 16 March 2009)

Top young Australian astronomers brought their science to Year 10, 11 and 12 students in 8 sessions via Connected Classrooms on 2 and 3 March 2009, in a celebration of the International Year of Astronomy. Dr Andrew Hopkins of the Anglo-Australian Observatory presented Planets, Stars, Black Holes, Galaxies and our Universe and Professor Bryan Gaensler from the University of Sydney presented Magnets in the Sky.

These experts brought the latest in science to NSW DET students. “Hearing about it firsthand makes it engaging, up to date and highly relevant with an Australian flavour”, explained Glen Sawle from

Curriculum Support, where the event was organised.

The sessions with the 2 astronomers continue a larger series organised by Curriculum Support, in which NSW DET students have been talking with young Australian scientists who donate their time to talk to school students as part of the Young Tall Poppies Program.

“Students are presented with first-hand information about careers and opportunities in science as part of the Stage 6 Curriculum and the Young Tall Poppies series provides students with a look at cutting edge science in Australia, by Australian scientists”, Glen says.

The Connected Classroom is enabling students from non-metropolitan areas to meet these scientists, with over 20 video conferences having been held already (one of which was reported on in Connected Classrooms Bulletin No. 8).

Feedback from regional high schools has been very positive. Teachers appreciate the enrichment to science education that these video conference sessions create and are keen to hear about future events, while the students expressed that they got a lot out of the presentations – one student from Narrandera High School is now reportedly “very keen on becoming an astronomer”.

Curriculum K-12 is value adding to these video conferences by recording them and developing teaching and learning resources around them.


9. Author Pat Flynn Talks to Students About His Book(Bulletin 23, 28 August 2009)

“The Line Formation” is Pat Flynn’s latest novel. Pat grew up running around an old dairy farm in Queensland before moving to the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra on a tennis scholarship. He played and coached on the professional circuit before becoming a teacher, where his observations of young people, their interests and stories led to him writing a popular book series about a teenage skateboarder named Alex Jackson. This background was just some of the detail Pat shared in a video conference with 234 Stage 3-4 students and their teachers in early July.

Evonne Webb, Regional Implementation Coordinator from Learning Systems, organized the event with Lynne Marsh, Literacy Consultant 7-12 from Riverwood Office for Campbellfield, Chipping Norton, and Harrington Street Public Schools, as well as Canley Vale, Cecil Hills, Concord, East Hills Girls, Hoxton Park and Strathfield South High Schools.

Stephen Plummer, Head Teacher English at Cecil Hills High School said, “Participating in the video conference has enabled my students to discover ‘the author’ is a real person. Interacting with Mr Flynn has brought the exploration of context and purpose out of the realm of the English classroom and into the reality of the students’ own experience”.

A Stage 4 student from Cecil Hills said after the event, “Books make sense when you meet the writer”.

Stephen also explained that the opportunity to host the event had added another dimension to the students video conference familiarity, “They were able to experience firsthand the process of creating a multimodal production: the use of multiple camera angles, lighting, backboards, sound production, scripts, panning and close-up, not to mention the absolute necessity of being quiet during the author’s presentation. Demystifying the production process has meant the opening of further opportunities for analysis and creativity”.


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10. Students VC with Captains from Police and Rural Fire Brigade(Bulletin 8, 31 October 2008)

Did you hear about the Captain’s Day held via video conference at Carlton Public School?

Last term, Principal, Gavin Patterson gathered together Year 6 school captains from nine surrounding primary schools to hold a day to reflect on What it Means to be a School Captain. Students joined the day using video conference technologies from each of their schools.

This activity commenced with input from ‘captains’ of the Police Local Area Command and NSW Rural Fire Brigade who shared how they understand the role of being a captain. Students considered questions on: What does it mean to be a leader? Is the role difficult? How do you deal with pressure from peers?

Later in the day, captains and vice captains from J.J. Cahill Memorial High School joined the discussion via video conference and talked about leadership from a high school perspective. They shared some of the ‘official and unofficial’ duties they perform including making speeches, work outside the school and their relationship with other students.

It was a very positive experience; the technology aided development of what was planned for the day and enabled the exercise to be carried out efficiently.

Gavin believes the learning experience meant, “All students seemed to gain a number of different insights into the role of leadership over the day, and what was really interesting … whether you are a captain in a high school, in policing, or …. in the rural fire brigade the issues associated with leadership are the same!”



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11. Six Hundred Students Meet Cartoonist David Hackett via Their Connected Classroom(Bulletin 14, 21 April 2009)

South Western Sydney Region schools took part in a video conference with author and illustrator Dave Hackett on Monday 6 April. Students were encouraged to ask Dave Hackett questions about his novels, in particular the series ‘UFO: Unavoidable Family Outing’ and ‘Norman Enormous’. Connected Classrooms technology allowed over 600 students from multiple sites direct access to the author, to watch him create illustrations by drawing onto the interactive whiteboard, and thus to learn about visual literacy.

The SWS Learning Systems Team have a number of video conference events planned for 2009.


12.”Unsung Heroes” - Sharing Menindee’s Cultural Heritage During NAIDOC Week(Bulletin 34, 23 August 2010)

Menindee Central School celebrated NAIDOC week with a unique community engagement project, built around their Interactive Classroom.

NAIDOC week events are held around Australia each July to celebrate Indigenous history, culture and achievements. This year the theme was recognising Unsung Heroes.

The Menindee community recognised its heroes by publishing a book, titled ‘Menindee’s Unsung Aboriginal Heroes’, bringing together the life stories of twelve local Aboriginal leaders, people

who have ‘quietly and purposefully made their contribution to the township’.

As part of the school’s Parent and Community Engagement (PACE) program, Menindee Central decided to bring the heroes into the school, and to use the book as the basis of a range of shared learning opportunities.

In the week leading up to NAIDOC, a different Unsung Aboriginal Hero visited the school each day to share their stories of life in outback NSW. To make the most of this opportunity, Menindee invited two other schools, Lindfield East Public and Keira High, to join them via video conference (VC).

Students in a range of classes were able use the book as a study text, to hear the stories first hand and to ask questions and interact with the presenters and each other in extended VC lessons.

Andrew Stevenson, Principal at Lindfield East, described the event as an ‘absolute winner’.

“This unique strategy of acknowledging local Menindee heroes and sharing their stories of community spirit with other distant school communities deserves accolades. Hopefully this is the beginning of an ongoing link between our school communities,” Andrew said.

Menindee Central’s Principal, Brian Debus sees these links as a great chance for his students to connect ‘outside their little corner of the world’.

“We’re never going to have the resources to take our students to all the places they’d like to visit, but the connected classroom technologies give them the chance to go out into the big wide world,” Brian said.

“Our kids have grown remarkably from this opportunity.”

Brian said they have plans for expanding on the success of this year’s event, and for using the Interactive Classroom to open ‘lots more doors’.






13. Building Connections and Expanding Awareness of Aboriginal Culture via VC(Bulletin 37, 22 October 2010)

In July the CCP Bulletin featured a report on connections made during NAIDOC week between a bush school and some city counterparts. We caught up with the principals of Menindee Central and Lindfield East Public, Brian Debus and Andrew Stevenson, for an update on the ongoing engagement the schools have built, using the Connected Classrooms Program technologies.

“As a result of those video conferences, our kids have grown so much,” Brian said. “It’s linked us and the ties have really grown.”

The small community of Menindee, in the far west of NSW, is around 80% Indigenous.

Brian said the interest shown by a city school in the lives and culture of his students meant a great deal to them, and has helped them see their knowledge and experience in a different light.

“We had five hook ups during NAIDOC week, and our kids grew in confidence with every session. They picked up on some things that Lindfield East was asking about, for instance Johnny Cakes, a regular part of their diet and culture,” Brian said.

“It’s a simple thing, but it’s part of their way of life, and nobody down in Lindfield East really knew anything about it. So our students put together a PowerPoint on how they actually made Johnny Cakes. They really grew in confidence because they were the experts and they were presenting. This has continued and translated into a lot of their writing, which is really good,” Brian said.

Andrew said the link ups provided a great chance for his students to gain an awareness of life in a remote school.

“Our kids had no idea of the geographical setting of Menindee and the lake system, and as Brian said, its Aboriginal culture. It was also the first chance for most of the kids to use the video conferencing gear, so it was an amazing journey for those kids over the week – and for myself,” Andrew said.

To keep the connection going, Andrew and two beginning teachers from Lindfield East visited Menindee in September. During the three day visit, they took part in staff development activities that included a workshop presented by Tyson Yunkaporta, an Aboriginal Pedagogies Mentor who is working with Menindee Central and other schools in the Western Region.

The session was broadcast via video conference and the Bridgit data collaboration tool back to the rest of Andrew’s team at Lindfield East, as was a joint staff meeting linking groups from both schools. Lindfield East is planning a return visit next year, and will play host to a group of Menindee teachers in late November.

“That staff development day with Tyson was one of the best opportunities you could have to expand awareness on Aboriginal culture. That’s something we’d love to do every year,” Andrew said.

“Slowly things are changing, and it’s all through building relationships, tangible links, real connections. It would be impossible without video conferencing. It’s just changed everything.”


14. School Communities Talk by VC with a Holocaust Survivor(Bulletin 37, 22 October 2010)

A recent video conference brought together several North Coast school communities to hear from and talk with Holocaust survivor, Olga Horak.

“Throughout the year, students from Fingal Head, Tyalgum and The Channon Public Schools have been studying Australian Democracy,” said Matthew Jacobson, Principal at Fingal Head.

“This culminated in great discussions about our place on the world’s political stage, a multi-school excursion to Canberra and an investigation of the Holocaust under the rule of Nazi Germany.”

“Students have completed novel studies around the books, Once, Then & Now by Morris Gleitzman. This fictional trilogy follows the life experience of young Felix as he grapples with the loss of family, hiding from his persecutors and then settling into post war life here in Australia.”

“Recently, student leaders from Fingal Head decided that they wanted to continue their study using their connected classroom. They were able to locate Holocaust survivor, Olga Horak through the Jewish Board of Deputies and the Holocaust Museum, Sydney. These students were then responsible for mastering the technical aspects of the VC equipment, training guests, and moderating the 45 minute meeting.”

“What a great time to be a teacher! We had parents, grandparents and community members ask to come along to the event. Everyone was so impressed by our speaker and enthusiastic about the possibilities for future use of our connected classroom,” he said.

Matthew congratulated all the participating students for their thoughtful questions and great maturity on the day. Peter Meadows, Principal at Tyalgum Public School, described the event, and Mrs Horak, as inspiring. He said the Gleitzman works include some pretty ‘upfront’ content but the students appreciated the chance to discuss such serious issues. “To have Olga talk to the children and answer questions took the teaching/learning to a whole new level. Talk about engagement. Talk about pedagogy,” he said.

Martin Gill, Principal at The Channon Public School agreed the event was exceptional, saying his students were absolutely inspired.

Lynda Ben-Menashe, Education Manager with the Jewish Board of Deputies, hopes other schools take up the opportunity to connect with speakers such as Olga.

“The Jewish community is indebted to the Department for inviting Mrs Horak to talk with students who may otherwise never have the chance to hear the first-hand account of a survivor of the Holocaust,” Lynda said. “I know that other survivors would gladly accept such invitations, and the opportunity to connect with the next generation of Australians.”

Lynda said that the Board offers presentations to schools on the Holocaust, anti-racism and a range of other topics.



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2 Access to Broader Subject Choices 813 Language Learning Centres: Teaching Aboriginal, Asian and European Languages 824 Creating Virtual VET Training Opportunities 83



1. CCP Technology Works for Vet Students Enrolled in Metal Engineering, Carpentry and Hospitality(Bulletin 25, 9 October 2009)

Connected Classroom technology is being used to teach vocational training for the Western Access Program (WAP) to pilot the implementation of the Western Access Trade Training Centre. The centre uses video conference for ‘live demonstrations’ from kitchens and construction workshops to more than 60 VET students from Peak Hill, Tullamore, Trangie, Yeoval, Trundle, Tottenham and Tullibigeal Central Schools. In 2010, the numbers of students studying VET at these schools will exceed 80

enrolments.

Teachers at each of the schools can also observe the students practical skills to gauge their competency. Over the next 12 months course instruction and theory components will be beamed into each school by the program coordinators using Connected Classroom technology.

Head Teacher Access, Brendan Maher said, “The technology helps VET teachers from each school work as one faculty.We meet together via video conference with Regional Vocational Education Consultants to discuss issues related to the remote delivery of VET subjects, to validate assessments and to plan the curriculum”. He added, “This way we remain part of a professional group which brings extra support and motivation”.

The first cohort of students is completing preliminary courses this year; in 2010 they will commence Certificate II qualifications in:

Metal Engineering – Mechanical and Fabricator Trades

Carpentry

Hospitality

Since 2005 the WAP has been using video conferencing technology to deliver courses, however last year the rollout of CCP technologies has meant expanded course offerings of over 50 subjects to another nine schools across Western NSW Region*.

Brendan concluded, “We are proving that practical vocational subjects can be well supported by this technology, in fact, just as well as more theory based subjects - our students have enjoyed outstanding success so far”.

*In 2009 WAP offered 29 HSC subjects and 33 Preliminary subjects with commencement Stage 5 students starting their HSC early. Students have also participated in World Skills in Metals and Engineering and Construction.

BBeenneeffiitt 66Connected Classrooms Program Technologies Increase Access to

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2. Access to Broader Subject Choices(Bulletin 35, 20 August 2010)

The Western Access Program recently celebrated 20 years of delivering high quality education to students in Western

NSW as a pioneering connected learning community.

One of the program’s leaders, Brendan Maher of Peak Hill Central, said their goal throughout these two decades has been to give students in rural and remote schools in the region access to the broadest range of subjects possible.

“We’ve used technology to make this goal a reality by making the most of the collective expertise of our teachers,” Brendan said. “We’ve now had more than

900 students graduate under the program.”

“The anniversary has been a chance to reflect on the many milestones, in particular the introduction of technology like video conferencing and interactive whiteboards.”

“After starting with a core group of seven schools, we now offer over 35 subjects to 15 schools across the region, as well as professional learning opportunities for staff.“

“We offer full video conference delivery of courses with IWBs as standard in each studio and currently have three Virtual Meeting Rooms operating full time each day.”

“Next year a Western Access Trade Training Centre will be implemented into the senior curriculum to deliver shared modules with TAFE Dubbo,” he said.

The Western Access Program is one of five cluster groups operating across the state.


3. Language Learning Centres: Teaching Aboriginal, Asian and European Languages(Bulletin 38, 12 November 2010)

The Connected Classrooms Program technologies and learning tools are being used to great effect in Language Learning Centres, now in use in a number of schools around the state. As part of the Australian Government’s Building the Education Revolution (BER) program, 42 Language Learning Centres have been built in NSW government schools.

Each Language Learning Centre is equipped with video conferencing facilities and two interactive whiteboards, one in the main classroom and one in the tutorial room.

On 22-24 September 2010, the Languages Unit at the Curriculum K 12 Directorate ran a three day workshop to support teachers with a Language Learning Centre in using these new technologies.

The program included:

� using video conference facilities to link with other classes learning a language

� developing an understanding of Bridgit, and the impact this can have on creating senior Languages classes across multiple school sites

� blogED and the ways it can create real audiences for language learners

� resources which can be used on the interactive whiteboard, including those created by the Curriculum K12 Directorate, as well as sites where students can create avatars, comic strips and short animations, and

� integrating the DER laptops into teaching and learning programs, including using Audacity and Adobe Presenter, and adding sound files to PDFs.

Participants included teachers of Aboriginal, Asian and European languages. All participants will be continuing to expand on their knowledge and skills throughout Term 4, as they work with their students on these exciting projects.

Sue Lofts, Korean teacher at Wollumbin High, was one of a number of participants who commented on the difference the CCP technologies and learning tools are making.

“The introduction of the new technologies has generated so much enthusiasm among the students and this has already been reflected in increased numbers selecting Korean next year,” Sue said.

“Our new blogs are enabling greater communication between myself and the students and, in the future, we hope to be able to use this technology to communicate with overseas classrooms,” she said.

Jim Rourke, French teacher at Wingham High, said that he and his students are also greatly enjoying the opportunities the technology offers.

“My class and I have had great fun implementing the technology that I learnt about at the workshop,” Jim said.

“My students enjoyed recording their own voices using Audacity and then uploading these files to their avatar at www.voki.com.”

“We have also embedded some of the most successful ‘vokis’ into our new Year 7 blog through blogED. This is technology making learning (and teaching) fun!” he said.





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4. Creating Virtual VET Training Opportunities(Bulletin 38, 12 November 2010)

Gregory Sheath, head teacher of computing studies and VET coordinator at Homebush Boys High, is using the connected classroom to conduct an innovative collaboration between his school and several schools in the New England region. In partnership with Tamworth TAFE, the schools are sharing their expertise to create virtual VET training opportunities. “We have also embedded some of the most successful ‘vokis’ into our new Year 7 blog through blogED. This is technology making learning (and teaching) fun!” he said.

“This is the second year that we have delivered simulated work placements via video conference,” Gregory said.

“Participating schools this year are Uralla and Merriwa Central schools and Homebush Boys High.”

“Sessions are delivered by teachers at Homebush Boys High and Tamworth TAFE, while all students in the work placement learn their HSC theory through Tamworth TAFE online.”

“This year students from all schools have had to deliver some parts of the program to other schools as well,” he said.

Gregory said the project has been running for several years, delivering simulated work placements for Year 11 IT VET framework students.

After its initial success at Homebush, in 2009 Gregory proposed the project be extended to include some remote schools that Tamworth TAFE delivered the IT course to. Mungindi and Goodooga Central agreed to participate in 2009, with Uralla and Merriwa Central joining in 2010.

This year’s sessions, conducted over a week in late October, covered a range of IT and business tasks and activities, using Connected Classrooms Program technologies such as the video conferencing and Bridgit data collaboration tools and other resources.

“The strength of the project is that it allows all the students involved to participate in high quality training from their own school locations,” Gregory said.

“This year’s activities included setting up Linux desktops and servers and establishing a network for all schools to use.”

“Students also developed training and learning materials for a fictitious company, and then presented their work via VC at the end of the week,” he said.

Gregory said feedback from students and staff involved in the project has been very positive. The benefits mentioned included giving participants the chance to:

� communicate and work with new people

� complete realistic IT tasks that would be expected of them out in the business world

� use a variety of technological tools on collaborative projects, and

� gain more appreciation of the differences in school and community sizes.

“Another important outcome, commented on by everyone involved, has been student motivation,” Gregory said.


Tom Urry, Regional Director for South West Sydney, described the event as a ‘wonderful experience for students participating in what was a very complex work placement’.

“The logistics of a one hour presentation delivered from four sites to four sites covering up to 700kms distance was in itself outstanding,” Tom said.

Murat Dizdar, South Western Sydney SED, called it an ‘extremely rich learning experience for all involved’ that incorporated ‘enormous hidden curriculum benefits and experiences’.




blogED scrapbook

Meg Parsons from Dubbo South Public uses blogED to enhance literacy

strategies using an online newspaper generator to introduce media texts to her

stage one students

Opportunities for extended written responses are provided through

this Year 8 library blog, created by Di Cooper of Menai High

EARLY YEARS

MIDDLE YEARS

Extract Bulletin No. 33, 18 June 2010 examples of blogED

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2 Connections, COGs and Communities 893 Teaching Earth and Environmental Sciences Using CCP technologies at LMC 90

B7 - Connected Classrooms Program Technologies Increase Learning Opportunities For


1. How CCP Technologies are Supporting a Western Sydney Region College to ‘Connect, Share and Thrive’ (Bulletin 23, 28 August 2009)

Mark Grady, Coordinator Lachlan Macquarie College (LMC) and Judy Dutton, Project Officer from the same site presented a workshop “Connecting, Sharing and Thriving” at the Connected Learning conference.

The workshop illustrated strategies of how a partnership with secondary schools, TAFE and university uses a range of technologies to enhance Mathematics and Science learning outcomes for local students.

LMC commenced in 2008, its program has three strands;

Applied Mathematics and Science: ‘hands-on’ and ‘on the job’ opportunities and experiences, through partnerships developed with Western Sydney Institute of TAFE, local industry, business and community leaders and groups;

Specialist Mathematics and Science: extension courses for students who intend to undertake tertiary study in Mathematics and/or Science involving University of Western Sydney (UWS) academics and other local and international Mathematics and Science experts; and

Mathematics and Science Teaching: working with UWS to develop and deliver relevant professional learning programs and activities for local Mathematics and Science teachers. This includes action research, and the analysis of local, regional and state-wide Mathematics and Science program evaluations and student performance data.

In 2009 LMC initiated a series of ‘forums’ for Stage 3 Gifted and Talented Students (GATS) to utilize the Connected Classrooms being installed at school sites.

Schools involved in the initiative are Carlingford, Westmead, Parramatta and Northmead Public supported by Arthur Phillip, Northmead and Cumberland High Schools.

At one of the Mathematics forum’s earlier this year, the Stage 3 students from Parramatta Public School met their older peers via VC. This forum supported the students to become familiar with VC etiquette as well as enabling them to work in a group to solve challenging questions.

Mark said afterwards, “These students were looking at what fairness means in probability. The learning was then taken back to the student’s own class and they presented their findings across the school - allowing students to teach other students”.

He continued, “The aim of the forums is to make them as student-centred as possible in a connected environment. They are not ‘lectures’ – the students discuss, share, collaborate, experiment and present their findings”.

Jennifer Kelly, Assistant Principal from Parramatta Public School found, “The students came back from Arthur Phillip High School excited about their experiences and shared what they learned using PowerPoint. It has been a great experience for all of us, empowering the students to challenge themselves both academically and socially in a new student-centred learning situation and it challenged me to grasp the ‘connected classroom’ technology (I’m still learning)!”

Other activities planned from LMC include online Master Classes in Astronomy and Statistics developed in collaboration with the Centre for Learning Innovation, an experience science day at UWS, Earth and Environmental Science Connected Classes (EESCC) for Stage 5 and 6 accelerated students, HSC lecture days and teacher professional learning activities in Mathematics and Science via video conference.

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Francesca Molluso, School Education Director – Connected Learning, Western Sydney Region said, “We are encouraging teachers to use the CCP technologies to personalize learning for students, our experience at LMC will be used to leverage innovative and creative curriculum delivery right across the Region. Not only is it about what’s possible for students, but teachers too will have choices in their preferred professional learning delivery modes”.

2. Connections, COGs and Communities(Bulletin 14, 21 April 2009)

Jennifer Andrews (AP), Michael Wilson (AERT) and Joe Bell (online mentor) from Drummond Memorial PS, Armidale, used to bring the inspiration of their work on 2 innovative projects in 2008 to teachers from the Illawarra and South East Region. Drummond Memorial PS presented a collaborative Gifted and Talented Project (eGATS!), and the school’s Connected Outcomes Groups (COGs) unit “Our Place” on the interactive whiteboard via Bridgit software and discussed these via video conference with the Illawarra and South East Region literacy consultant’s collaborative network.

The COGS Project

Drummond Memorial PS had previously participated in a video conference with State personnel and staff at Broken Hill for the Australian Government Quality Teacher Programme (AGQTP) COGs project. Drummond Memorial PS was invited to be part of the ICT and localizing Aboriginal content into the COGs units because of the school’s information technology facilities. The school took to COGs in a big way. Following the video conference, the schools shared via email tips for resources, scope and sequences, and discussed their issues and successes with the COGs units.

Local Indigenous content was written into the units as Drummond Memorial PS has a significant Aboriginal cohort whose heritage is mostly Anaiwan and Gomeroi. A powerful piece of an elder sharing her experience as part of the stolen generation has been recently shown to a stage 3 class in the COGs unit they are currently studying.

The Connected Classroom has enabled Drummond Memorial PS staff to participate in the state-wide AGQTP project, to form links with similar schools to continue to work together, and to deliver professional learning to other regions.




3. Teaching Earth and Environmental Sciences Using CCP technologies at LMC(Bulletin 26, 23 October 2009)

In Bulletin 23 we covered a Story from the Field on “Connecting, Sharing and Thriving” at Lachlan Macquarie College (LMC) from Western Sydney Region. This fortnight we detail the connected classrooms in Preliminary Earth and Environmental Science; the course offering uses CCP technologies as a means of broadening curriculum choice opportunities for students.

For Stage 5 students involved in the initiative it was an opportunity to accelerate gifted and talented students to complete an HSC course in Year 10, and

for students in Stage 6 it was an occasion to study a course of their choice for the HSC that would not have been possible in a conventional timetable. Judy Dutton, Project Officer at LMC said, “The syllabus topics covered the Preliminary Course topics: Planet Earth and Its Environment–A Five Thousand Million Year Journey, the Local Environment, Water Issues and Dynamic Earth”.

Year 11 students at Parramatta as well as accelerated students from Year 9 at Arthur Phillip High School (APHS) and James Ruse Agricultural High Schools, joined the twice weekly connected classrooms.

Bruce Walters, Science teacher at APHS said, “The classes were a success! True learning went on, the students learned and they learned in a novel way”.

The classes will continue in Term 4 and into 2010, Judy added, “I think it was a very beneficial thing to do. We really didn’t know what to expect, we were piloting it, and it had a very steep learning curve initially. The students enjoyed many aspects of the course”.




blogED scrapbook

Sue Crawford, teacher librarian at Terrey Hills Public, promotes book week by

posting book reviews and embedding YouTube video excerpts of short listed books on her

‘across the story bridge’ blog

Kindergarten at Ultimo Public record their scientific observations and literary responses of their chicken hatchlings in their blogED journal

EARLY -- MIDDLE YEARS

EARLY YEARS

Extract Bulletin No. 32, 21 May 2010 examples of blogED

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1 Learning in the Middle Years in South Western Sydney Region: The Best Way to Learn is to Teach

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2 TLC Uses CCP Technologies for Teacher Professional Learning and Student Literacy

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B8 - Connected Classrooms Program Technologies Provide Additional Transition Strategies From


1. Learning in the Middle Years in South Western Sydney Region: The Best Way to Learn is to Teach(Bulletin 11, 27 February 2009)

The Connected Classroom offers a great opportunity to secondary students to consolidate and extend their learning by presenting to primary students, as a group of Year 8 Science students from East Hills Girls Technology High School recently discovered.

The aspiring scientists became experts in the respiratory system when they delivered an interactive lesson via video conference to Year 6 students at Revesby Public School. Ann Pantel, Relieving Principal at Revesby PS said, “It kept 2 classes engaged for a whole session. They were

very excited about the experience.”

The lesson was Ann’s idea, raised with Heidi Hammond, Head Teacher of Science at East Hills Girls Technology High. Four students from a Year 8 science class volunteered for the extension activity and with Heidi’s assistance came up with a plan for a lesson that was both fun and informative. The primary students were kept entertained with a variety of activities during the videoconference, as the secondary students delivered a lesson on asthma, carried out practical demonstrations and presented a video and quiz via the interactive whiteboard.

The videoconference equipment proved no challenge for the East Hills Girls Technology High students, as Heidi noted, “The Year 8 students were very quick to take over the remote. They took to the VC like ducks to water, and presented professionally.”

The secondary students prepared the Revesby PS students for the video conference by sending the quiz, a worksheet and instructions to be equipped with string, balloons and calculators prior to the event. These simple measures meant that the primary students were able to be actively involved in the lesson, while Heidi, the supervising teacher at East Hills Girls Technology High, manned the volume control to ensure that the lesson was not drowned out by any noise from the eager Year 6 students.

The video conference was a great success, with educational value for both schools. Heidi encourages other schools to do the same thing, saying the exercise “…builds links between the High School and the Primary School. It would be good to have different groups of kids doing this with other schools, to extend their learning.”

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2. TLC Uses CCP Technologies for Teacher Professional Learning and Student Literacy (Bulletin 22, 14 August 2009)

TLC or the Turrumurra Learning Community in Northern Sydney Region presented its project Turramurra Community of Schools: Interactive Connections in Quality Teaching and Learning Strategies using CCP technologies in a workshop at the recent Connected Learning conference.

The project, one of many TLC initiatives, was determined late last year by the Principals of Turramurra High School, West Pymble, Turramurra, and Gordon West Public Schools prior to the installation of each of the schools’ Connected

Classrooms.

Each Principal nominated a classroom teacher to join the project and to work out a sequence of literacy lessons for students in Stages 3 and 4 that utilized the new technology and elements from the three dimensions of the NSW model of Quality Teaching. Throughout the project, CCP technologies were used for the classroom lessons and after school by the project team for planning and preparation. All students were pre and post tested to measure their “descriptive writing skills”.

See the interactive 3D Model at: https://detwww.det.nsw.edu.au/lists/directoratesaz/ccp/model/index.htm.

The project aimed to:

use NAPLAN data from all schools to identify ‘authentic focus’, in this case vocabulary, theme and paragraphing;

share ‘best practice’ in the focus areas via VC lessons for students;

connect the classrooms and enable Stage 3 students to receive feedback from Stage 4 mentors on their written story drafts; and

outline the steps to achieve consistency in teacher judgment in writing assessments rubrics and how to develop deeper teacher understanding of the learning continuum from primary to high school.

Belinda Kelly, Deputy Principal, Turramurra High School, described her learning from the project, “It was a challenging but exciting experience. I learned to accept that to be able to use this technology I needed to take it in small chunks and start with a simple idea. The interactive whiteboard software resources are highly visual and work well with Bridgit - I will always remember the gasp in the classroom when an amazing simile appeared on the interactive whiteboard from a classroom five kilometres away”.

English teacher Veronika Cibas, also from Turramurra High School, witnessed how, “Mentoring in the project developed student confidence and our high expectations encouraged the students to be original in their images for the metaphors.

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1 More Than Two Thousand Students in K-12 Participated in “Learn Astronomy From Our School”

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2 Blogs for ‘Participatory Democracy’ in the High School Context 993 The Blog in Visual Arts at Fairfield High School 1004 Using the Interactive White Board for Teaching and Learning in the SSP Context 101

5 Case Study: No Silent Voices: “We Love the Blog - Thanks for Letting us Use it” 102

B9 - Connected Classrooms Program Technologies Provide Students with Access to

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1. More Than Two Thousand Students in K-12 Participated in “Learn Astronomy From Our School” (Bulletin 27, 6 November 2009)

There was a galaxy of star gazing in 63 Connected Classrooms towards the end of Term 3 … the occasion was a project celebrating the 400th anniversary of Galileo’s first use of the telescope in astronomy.

Ann-Marie Furney, School Education Director and Senior User in the Connected Classrooms Project explained, “All DET regions participated; the project’s purpose was to enhance the video conferencing skills of teachers and students, as well

as further develop the students learning in IT and science syllabus outcomes”.

Using the astronomy theme, each school group had to produce a video conference presentation with an engaging title, a brief synopsis and an advertisement to promote it. The sessions’ took 25 minutes, 15-20 minutes on content and five minutes for questions from other schools. Projects used a mix of desktop collaboration via IWB showing Notebook 10 files, or the use of content Share via video conference.

Five students in Year 8 Science at Willyama High School, Broken Hill entered their project, “Journey to the Moon and Back”. Ellysia, a student in the team believed she had, “Learnt a lot about moon exploration, through Apollo Missions 11 and 13, and how this revolutionised human understanding of the moon. It also enhanced my PowerPoint, video conferencing, Bridgit and public speaking skills”.

Another team member Katelyn said, “I gained skills in filming and camera techniques. Those skills will not be lost”. From her perspective the project was challenging, “Yet very educational and fun. It was our first time competing in such a competition. I am very proud of our video conference, we worked well as a group - it turned out really well”.

Science Head Teacher, Lesley Black, in collaboration with Computing Studies teacher Phil Danaher, supported the Willyama students’ participation. For Lesley the project acted as a professional learning exercise for her understanding and use of new technologies, she said, “It was a brilliant way to redress the inequity that exists between city and country students due to the tyranny of distance. The project was an outstanding success both academically and socially and the input of Ronald Payne must not be ignored. The class enthusiastically embraced this mode of learning and will now spend the later part of Term 4 producing video conference resources for different Stage 5 Science syllabus outcomes – they look forward to using Bridgit to share what they produce with other schools”.

In Sydney Region, at Coogee Public School 12 GAT students from Years 3-6 researched “The Mars Rovers” using the Quality Teaching elements of Deep Understanding and Substantive Communication. Students, Aimee and Anna, inspired their group to create a story about, “Rovers sent to Mars called ‘Spirit and Opportunity’, the content included where the rovers were made, the journey to Mars and the design features of the spacecraft”, said their teacher Catherine Ryan.

“They used Notebook 10, and Garage Band for the presentation. As well as developing their ICT skills, the students applied their science knowledge through creating a play, song and a quiz show to interact with the audience”, she explained.

The students negotiated and cooperated to make their presentation; they worked in pairs and small groups on different aspects of Mars. The work was then sequenced and edited by their teacher to produce the final presentation.

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After the project some of the students commented, “It was interesting using the Connected Classroom for the first time” and “I liked seeing and talking to classes from other schools”.

From Catherine’s perspective, “As a novice to the VC equipment I found the video conference etiquette guide really useful. I had trouble hearing kids speak in one of the other presentations so I made it a priority for my group to use loud, clear voices. Logging on and off is simple and I enjoyed using the remote to change camera shots, it’s probably as close as I’ll ever get to directing a movie”.

Ron Payne from iTeach 21 who managed the Astronomy Project said, “Most of the schools involved had not used the technology much before, they were also introduced to Bridgit - after this learning experience they are now quite at ease using both technologies”.

2. Blogs for ‘Participatory Democracy’ in the High School Context (Bulletin 22, 14 August 2009)

Darcy Moore is Deputy Principal at Dapto High School in Illawarra and South East Region. He has dabbled in new technologies for most of his career but especially since the internet became available at DET schools.

Dapto High School has more than 960 students, and has a developing culture of ‘active student citizenship’. Student leaders at the school this year, namely the Student Representative Council (SRC), seized the opportunity to participate in the DET blog trial during Term 2 with enthusiasm.

In May, Darcy and Renee Gilbert, SRC coordinator (also a Drama teacher and keen blogger) supported students to establish a ‘public’ blog called OurSpace-run by you for you. Sitting behind the SRC’s willingness to gather ‘student voice’ or constituent contributions was, “Barack Obama’s web 2.0 strategy, the students particularly liked his notion of ‘participatory democracy’”, said Darcy. He explained further: “The SRC can see how the OurSpace blog can work for students, as entertainment, as community and a place to agitate for change that benefits the student body that elected them. All posts and comments are moderated as the blog is set up as ‘public’. Students with posting rights have been able to balance common sense with deft political skills”.

One powerful example of the OurSpace blog in action canvassed the issue of the quality of the current school uniform. A student from the SRC made a blog post highlighting his concern; this in turn led to the Principal facilitating a meeting between the uniform supplier and the student which resulted in the supplier acknowledging the matter and offering replacement uniforms and other financial concessions within a week. This student said, “At least we are getting action. The SRC and the student body appreciate that we are being heard and our opinions validated”.

Darcy outlined that OurSpace hosted stills and a video from the school’s MADD (Music, Art, Drama and Dance) Night. Later in the year, Darcy re-capped, “The SRC is intending to have students who nominate for election make brief online video speeches on the blog prior to voting as well as conducting polls on a variety of issues to gather data on what students want - again this is ‘participatory democracy’ in action - students are using web 2.0 tools in a genuinely authentic manner”. At the blog trial conclusion Principal Andrew FitzSimons remarked in comments to the Program, “This strategy has galvanised our SRC in a manner I’ve not observed before”.


3. The Blog in Visual Arts at Fairfield High School(Bulletin 23, 28 August 2009)

“Digital video drove my need to develop computer literacy, and with the development of the new Years 7-10 Photographic and Digital Media syllabus, opportunities to incorporate Photoshop and other software to digitally enhance 2D art forms is endless - Visual Arts, as with every other subject, lends itself beautifully to the use of a blog”.

This is how Kathleen Hannigan, Head Teacher, Visual Arts and Computing Studies at Fairfield High School (FHS) described her motivation for being a participant in the Term 2 DET blog trial. She began teaching at FHS 18 years ago; the school in South Western Sydney Region has more than 1100

students, of which 94% come from Language Backgrounds Other Than English (LBOTE), “A school where at least 60 different languages are spoken”, Kathleen explained.

Kathleen used the blog with her mixed-ability elective Year 9 Visual Arts class of 29 students. “When my students go home, I want them to be thinking about my subject more than any other subject! The blog provides a fantastic link between school and home – I set a descriptive task for homework, I had 27 hits on the blog in 24 hours”, she stated.

Kathleen set daily blogs, and a weekly blog for short and longer learning tasks. Such blogs would be loaded with stimulus material in the form of video, vodcasts, links to internet sites and still images. She outlined, “Because the blog is so easy to manage, I could walk out of the classroom after a lesson, and in five minutes, using the staff room computer, create a homework task that would extend the students thinking of the content they gained that day. This would also prepare them for the next day’s lesson”.

The Year 9 students also were able to upload their own material via the concept of a “Di-Log” (a digital log or journal) when Kathleen gave them authoring rights. Over the trial period students uploaded compressed video art, scans and photographs of artworks, and wrote recounts of their processes.

“What was also interesting” said Kathleen, “The more literate students were able to model better grammar for the ESL students, as they read each other’s responses. When the 2009 NAPLAN results are available, I will be able to design blog tasks that specifically address individual students’ needs in literacy and numeracy”.

One measure Kathleen used to check student engagement using the blog tool was via the ‘careful manner’ in which they designed ‘aliases and avatars’, and how students responded to peers on the blog.

She said, “I felt the class develop more cohesiveness after the blog took off, and the sense of a learning community within the blog has now extended into the classroom. A newly arrived student made a short, two minute film after school - I posted his film for a ‘Friday funny’ activity - the other students were very impressed by what he did. They didn’t know much about him till then - he became a ‘hero’ in the class for a while after that”.

Significantly, Kathleen saw the blog as an opportunity to enhance her relationship with the students. She told the Program in an interview it had supported her to, “Know her students better, I saw more of their personalities, all without much more of my own time. In fact, interacting with students’ written responses on a blog is far faster than taking home a stack of books”.

Three students from the trial commented on what using a blog meant to them, “I know more about the subject because it has a blog”; “I showed the blog to my parents to show them how well I am working in class with other students and how


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much work I am getting done!” and “I like how students can post comments and do their homework on the blog. You learn better since you can locate it on the internet at home, you can’t forget your homework or lose it”.

This term Kathleen has started a new blog “The Hall of Fame” - a list of students who do something well in the lesson; their names are recorded on the interactive whiteboard and noted on the blog. Students are awarded a merit certificate to show their parents and family they have made it to “The Hall of Fame”, “I’ll let you know about the educational benefits, there may be more students trying to answer questions in class, or achieving a numeracy task because they know it will land them in the “Hall of Fame” (lol) - it’s all good fun and they are learning!”

4. Using the Interactive White Board for Teaching and Learning in the SSP Context(Bulletin 27, 6 November 2009)

Fran Borrego is the student who “heard himself speak for the first time using his school’s touch screen interactive whiteboard” – you may have read about him in recent news articles? Research findings support the advantages of how this technology appeals to the visual needs of students with special needs (Schuck and Kearney, 2006).

Fran is in the class at Mary Brooksbank School whose entry “Kangaroo Class Goes to Playmaze” was awarded one of the top three positions in the recent Centre for Learning Innovation “Digital Story

Awards”; the class competed against mainstream schools*.

This School for Specific Purposes (SSP) in South Western Sydney Region has 70 students ranging in age from 4 to 18. Their needs reflect challenging levels of behaviour, difficulties with engagement due to autism, obsessive compulsive disorders and cognitive impairments that impact on their academic capabilities.

“After our involvement in the ‘ICT for the 21st century’ project the school team mapped a three year plan for ICT development; this incorporated cabling the school in June and installation of four interactive whiteboards purchased through the discretionary process in December 2008” said Principal Dianne Robertson.

All of the technology activities in the school have been augmented for students with limited physical mobility, as well as restricted productive and receptive language. Teachers Pamela Carter and Claudia Vera led Kangaroo Class’s digital story project. Pamela said, “Student outcomes and engagement levels have improved dramatically since the introduction of IWB’s at our school. This technology provides our students with access to curriculum content in a way that caters for their highly individualised and sensory based needs”.

For Claudia it was more about, “ICT being an agent for challenging traditional strategies, raising expectations and unlocking potential. It has become an important new mode of expression for teachers and students alike, equipping us with a new common language that helps us better understand and assist each other”. In recent weeks the school has confirmed the purchase of another three interactive whiteboards to support engagement using technology across the school.

*The digital story is about a school excursion, it was made by seven boys in SMART Notebook 10 lesson creation software; it can be viewed at http:// www.cli.nsw.edu.au/support_nav/news/2009_award_winners.htm.


5. Case Study: No Silent Voices: “We Love the Blog - Thanks for Letting us Use it” (Bulletin 24, 11 September 2009)

In Term 2 Mike Cooper, Assistant Principal at Bligh Park Public School (BPPS) in Western Sydney Region posted a comment on the bloglog, “Empowerment! I have a number of children who rarely contribute to classroom discussions. The blog has given them a voice. They’re impressed and so am I”.

The bloglog (a term used by the blog evaluation team) was used to capture the teachers’ feedback. The sense of empowerment Mike cites, “I found that children who appeared disengaged during class discussions used the blog as their ‘voice.’”

He continued, “The posts and comments they made demonstrated that the blog was their preferred forum for expressing views and providing information - the fact that they could post from behind an avatar (and an) alias gave them more strength”.

BPPS has more than 435 students; it has a diverse range of families who are very supportive of the school and its community. During the trial Mike created three class blogs for his Year 3/4 class of 28 students:

a ‘private’ blog that recreated the First Fleet voyage. The term long activity simulated the voyage by sailing ship. Each day the students had to make decisions and keep a ‘ship log’ of the voyage on the blog, for example: which course to set, weather patterns, food shortages, mutinies and disease;

a ‘public’ blog for the parents to view their child’s ‘ship log’. Mike said, “Parents were very impressed with both the standard of writing and the depth of knowledge and information the children were learning from the sailing simulation”; and

another ‘public’ blog to communicate with a class at Barnacre Primary School, near Blackpool in the UK. Its purpose, “Was to share and exchange cultural information about our two schools and countries. We have achieved some success and we will build on this once the English students return to school following their summer vacation”.

For the trial debriefing day, Mike captured his class’ blog experience in a short film, A Day in the Life of the Bligh Park Blog. In the film the students described, “Being able to upload all kinds of photos, download homework” and “The blog improved my typing skills as well as being able to get answers to questions I had from my peers – all while my parents were busy helping our neighbours to move house!”

The film also details Mike’s reflection on the use of the blog for Quality Teaching; in particular he observed evidence of Engagement, Substantive Communication, and Metalanguage. As well as Higher Order Thinking Skills, also present were Narrative and Connectedness in the Significance dimension.




Mike responded, “The Substantive Communication aspect was strong. I noticed that the children were able to slip very easily into the language of the blog and could readily discuss posts and comments. With minimal instruction, each child was able to log in and navigate his / her way around the blog. Many became adept at uploading files, photographs and their homework. It was often the reluctant ‘paper submitters’ who were first to submit using the blog”.

In an interview with the Program Mike explained how using a blog for teaching and learning differs from other pedagogical approaches, stating, “The potential for the blog is huge. Different interest / ability groups can be set up. For example, podcasts of a musical piece could be uploaded so that instrumental music students could practice with their teacher, outside knowledge experts from places like NASA could be invited to post and comment. The blog, in part, re-creates the child’s digital bedroom at school. In the hands of a passionate pedagogue, it is a powerful learning tool”.



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1 Vicki Lowery from Curriculum K-12 Directorate Explains How to Sustain the Implementation and Support of COGs Through Networking Using CCP Technologies

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2 SMART Notebook Content Creation Seminar 1073 Connecting Learning in the Primary Classroom 1074 Using Video Conferencing to Give Teachers a Say on National Curriculum 108

5 Videoconferencing for Professional Learning: Geo Gebra for Beginners 109

6 Connecting Learning in My Primary Classroom 110

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1. Vicki Lowery from Curriculum K-12 Directorate Explains How to Sustain the Implementation and Support of COGs Through Networking Using CCP Technologies (Bulletin 26, 23 October 2009)

A number of ‘hub’ schools across the state have established local networks as a way of sustaining the support for the program: “Curriculum Planning and Implementation, incorporating COGs (Connected Outcomes Groups)”.

Two ‘hub’ meetings were held in Term 3; the first meeting included eight sites hosted by Cobbity, Drummond Memorial, Gosford, Lake Illawarra,

Medowie, Ross Hill and Windsor Park Public Schools. ‘Hub’ schools contacted local schools and invited them to meet, and share COGs achievements, issues and resources.

As part of the first meeting, the schools joined a video conference held at Ryde with Senior Curriculum Advisers - Annalies van Westenbrugge and Anne Southwell, from English K-6 and HSIE K-6, respectively. Both presenters used Bridgit software to show participants the COGs resources available.

Two teachers who attended the first ‘hub’ sent Vicki these comments after the initial meeting, “I would have to say that was a great success. Well done!” and “The teachers in our ‘hub’ came from several schools in Illawarra SE region. We were all very impressed with the Bridgit technology … from our end we could see and hear you well, and we could clearly see the computer work”.

Vicki, a Senior Project Officer at Curriculum K-12 Directorate said, “The Connected Classroom technology provides wonderful opportunities for teachers to meet, collaborate and share”. Alison Partridge, a teacher at Medowie Public School described how, “One teacher brought her thumb drive with files she’d created for S2 COG A using the Notebook 10 software. Three participants in the ‘hub’ were teaching that stage, so all have gone away happy with a copy of resources they can use immediately with their classes”.

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2. SMART Notebook Content Creation Seminar (Bulletin 31, 23 April 2010)

A seminar was held in Sydney recently to take a detailed look at content creation using the SMART Notebook collaborative learning software. Held over three days from 11 to 13 March, the event gave teachers a chance to get expert advice and hands on experience in developing and sharing rich and interactive resources. Offered exclusively for the DET, the seminar attracted 29 participants representing all regions. At the completion of the event, participants were recognised as skilled SMART Notebook users. The quality lessons they created during the seminar will be available in Term 2 on the curriculum support website. The seminar

was led by ELECTROBOARD education consultants in conjunction with DET staff. Presentations were tailored to focus on Key Learning Areas for both primary and secondary stages, and featured tips and tricks for using the software’s design and delivery tools, including the popular Lesson Activity Toolkit. Feedback from participants was very positive. “The best and most valuable course I have been to in a while,” said Michelle Caruso, North Ryde Public School.

3. Connecting Learning in the Primary Classroom (Bulletin 30, 19 February 2010)

In Term 4, 2009 a collaborative project between Information Technology, Learning Systems and Curriculum K-12, brought 30 officers together from two Directorates to work in primary school classrooms with 19 teachers from nine regions. The aim of this approach was to support teachers to effectively embed technology into teaching and learning, and to develop teaching resources that use the interactive whiteboard and video conferencing equipment. An additional purpose was the development of video conference links and possible events based on units of work being done in the teachers’ classrooms.

Producing these quality resources was a partnership between Curriculum K-12 officers and teachers, sharing their knowledge, expertise and experiences.


4. Using Video Conferencing to Give Teachers a Say on National Curriculum (Bulletin 32, 21 May 2010)

The DET Curriculum Directorate has been using video conferencing to consult with teachers around the state on the draft Australian Curriculum. Bill Blake, Manager Curriculum Policy and Planning, reports here on the project.

“The move to a national curriculum is one of the biggest educational changes in Australia for many decades. There are vast implications for students, teachers and the community.”

“Draft curriculum in K-10 English, history, mathematics and science were released in March

for consultation until May.”

“The challenge for us in the Curriculum K-12 Directorate was how to provide opportunities for teachers in primary, secondary, central and special schools, anywhere in the state, to have their say.”

“The new video conferencing equipment, provided through the Connected Classrooms Program, seemed the obvious solution.”

“For some time, school leaders and teachers have been using video conferencing for short meetings, with a limited number of participants, in order to save time, travel expenses and inconvenience.”

“But we weren’t aware whether video conferencing had been used before on such a large scale, with such high stakes.”

“How many schools can participate at once? Can there be interaction? Would teachers participate? Can the technology cope with the load? Would it be boring? These were some of the questions we wondered about.”

“After 33 video conferences involving almost 800 teachers in 426 locations, the answer is an unequivocal “yes”.

“With the release of 14 draft senior secondary courses in English, History, Mathematics and Science, and more phases of the national curriculum in the coming years, video conferencing will continue to be the major means of supporting teacher consultation on the national curriculum.

“We learned a number of lessons from this exercise that we’ll be applying in the future, one being that you need to keep a sense of humour,” Bill said.


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5. Videoconferencing for Professional Learning: Geo Gebra for Beginners(Bulletin 11, 27 February 2009)

Curriculum K-12 and the Centre for Learning Innovation (CLI) collaborated to use the power of videoconferencing to deliver a three week professional learning course on the use of new technologies, including interactive whiteboards, to Mathematics teachers. Teachers from three schools in the Lachlan Macquarie College group of schools, Macquarie Boys Technology High School, Arthur Phillip High School and Cumberland High School, learnt about dynamic geometry and graphing software through using the CLI resources Dynamic Calculus and The Geometers Warehouse, which

were created using the free open source software GeoGebra.

At the first session maths teachers were introduced to the potential of the software with a PowerPoint presentation shown on the interactive whiteboard, and discussion via videoconference of each teacher’s current knowledge and use of dynamic software in the classroom. The teachers’ first task was to use applets (an applet is a small piece of software that produces a dynamic display), from the Dynamic Calculus resource in class, and report back on their experience via videoconference at the second session.

Tutorials were presented on the interactive whiteboard with a walk through of the components of the software and website, and a demonstration of the construction of applets. By the third session the teachers followed the construction of applets on the interactive whiteboard and used their laptops to create their own GeoGebra applets for use in the classroom.

Mark Grady, Coordinator of Lachlan Macquarie College, sees many advantages in professional development of this kind. A major benefit of the delivery of professional learning modules such as GeoGebra for beginners through video conferencing and using interactive whiteboards is that participants were exposed to the great potential of connected classrooms.

“Lachlan Macquarie College aims to build the capacity of teachers and leaders within schools to improve student learning outcomes and make mathematics and science relevant, exciting and innovative. As teachers CLI resource - Dynamic Calculus created with free open source software, GeoGebra Year 6 students in the Sydney Region participate in an interactive quiz show tournament via videoconference become accustomed to curriculum delivery in a virtual environment via video conferencing and the use of IWBs, using quality products such as Dynamic Calculus, students and teachers of mathematics will reap the benefits.”

More GeoGebra for beginners courses are being run in 2008. For information go to Curriculum Support - Mathematics – Professional Learning - Mathematics 7-12 professional learning activities - http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au/secondary/mathematics/prolearn/ pl_activity.htm.

CLI is also developing an online version of GeoGebra for beginners, for independent use, to be available during Term 2.


6. Connecting Learning in My Primary Classroom(Bulletin 33, 18 June 2010)

Got an interactive Whiteboard and looking for a great KLA resources to use? A new website has been created by Curriculum K-12 to bring together the best available curriculum resources and professional learning to help primary teachers make the most of IWBs and video conferencing equipment.

There’s no shortage of material on the internet but how much suits our curriculum, our KLAs, our software and our students?

Connecting learning in my primary classroom has a range of IWB resources, many teacher created,

organised in easy to find Stage and KLA categories.

Each resource is supported by teacher notes, recommending programming and teaching ideas to get the most out of that resource.

“IWBs are great for accessing the Internet and interactive software applications give my students the tools to communicate, collaborate and create,” said one of the teachers involved in the project, Karen Grace from Coogee Public.”

“In my classroom, students explore their own ideas and share them with the class as they reflect on what they’ve learnt and how, creating an interactive and engaging learning experience.”

“My students are motivated, involved, engaged and participate in learning.”

“The SMART Notebooks, developed as part of the project, are a great resource for my planning and can be easily adapted to suit my students’ needs,” she said.


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Connected Classrooms Program in Action - NSW

Documents

Transcript of Connected Classrooms Program in Action - NSW