After the success of Gary Stager’s recent visit to MEC, we are proud to be hosting another Digital Technologies PD.

#MissMakesCode Teacher & Teacher Librarian Training
Thursday October 19^th  at Maryborough Education Centre (term 4, week 2)

#MissMakesCode is being run by the Girl Geek Academy and is targeted at Early Primary Years’ Teachers wanting to inspire young girls to use Digital Technologies.

Purchase tickets for $59 https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/missmakescode-teacher-librarian-training-maryborough-tickets-37912381955  

This fun and engaging event will feature:

• explicit teaching activities for visible thinking, problem solving
• GUI design so that young girls are able to.
• utilising iPad Apps to teach and hone skills
• understanding algorithms and coding structures of sequence, selection and iteration (loops)
• techniques for testing and debugging
• encouraging girls to work in a variety of computational ways to solve problems and create apps/games via coding
• catering for morning tea, lunch, and afternoon tea

Swinburne University will be holding a NAO workshop for students over the Term 3/4 school holidays.  NAO robotics course is designed to introduce students to programming and enable them to work closely with these robots. Students will be introduced to motion and sonar sensors, voice recognition and sound and vision tracking through hands-on practical activities which will bring the NAO robots to life. 

What is NAO?

NAO is a little character with a unique combination of hardware and software: it consists of sensors, motors and software driven by a dedicated operating system. NAO gets its magic from its programming and animation.

The workshop will be run over 3 days (9-3pm) on the 4,5,6 October at Swinburne.

For further information and registrations please visit https://www.trybooking.com/313921

These workshops will be available to students from Years 6 -Year 9 and will be limited to 10 students per workshop.

The cost per workshop is $300.

Book in now for a Digital Coding or STEM professional leanring session with VCAA specialist teachers. There are over 50 sessions sceduled in locations all over Victoria. You can also request your own network session, find out more at: http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/Pages/foundation10/viccurriculum/viccur-proflearn-specialists.aspx

Digital Coding

STEM

Whether you’re interested in implementing STEM, STEAM, Makers Space or Digital Technologies, the Student Makers Conference provides you and your students an opportunity to be upskilled by Dallas Brooks CPS students.

Come an join us to answer some of questions including ‘How does technology best link back to the curriculum?’ and make an informed decision on what is possible in your school.

For more information and to reserve your tickets click here

Date: October 19^th 2017 (week 3, term 4)

Location: Dallas Brooks Community Primary School, Google map link  

Last year, over 120 students attended with 100% positive feedback, recommending the conference for other students.

Click the links to watch some of the videos from Student Makers Conference 2016:

Dallas Brooks CPS YouTube video

Microsoft YouTube video

DBCPS Student Maker Conference 2016

Reserve your tickets now

Submissions close on Wednesday, October 11 2017 

What is the problem, issue or challenge you want to take on? Could you create a game? How is your game or app going to increase awareness, provide strategies,
create empathy or make things better? 
Who is your audience? Can you pitch your idea?

Choose one of these three Design Brief Templates to give to your students (Word, PowerPoint or OneNote)  http://gac.global2.vic.edu.au/create/ It takes them through the whole process and is what they need to pull all of their work, inspiration and ideas together and submit as their final product. They will be judged on all of the work they put into the Design Brief, not just the final product.

Finalists of the Challenge will be showcased on October 27 during the

Education in Games Summit as part of  Melbourne Games Week.

Submissions close on Wednesday, October 11 2017

What is the problem, issue or challenge you want to take on? Could you create a game? How is your game or app going to increase awareness, provide strategies,
create empathy or make things better?
Who is your audience? Can you pitch your idea?

Finalists of the Challenge will be showcased on October 27 during the

Education in Games Summit as part of  Melbourne Games Week.

Check out this infographic describing the differences between ICT Capability and Digital Technology. Download the A3 PDF here or view below.

Other resources that may help to clarify this are:

Blog : Here’s a blog article that discusses the differences between ICT Capabilities and the Digital Technologies.

Video: Vist http://www.digitaltechnologieshub.edu.au/teachers/australian-curriculum/ict-vs-digital-technologies to view the video on Digital Technologies skills vs ICT skills covers: What is the place of ICT skills in the curriculum? How does the Digital Technologies curriculum embody a shift in thinking about digital skills?

Everybody Dance Nao is a competition designed to give students access to the latest robotics software and technology. Join experts from The Brainary to learn the coding language behind an advanced humanoid robot Nao, and then join with your students as they teach Nao to dance.

Register your students below. Entries close 27 September and final dances will be submitted by 27 October. Winning teams will be invited to the Robotica Festival at Scienceworks on November 12.

You can also explore a short training video to get started.

Everybody Dance Nao – Team Registrations

Everybody Dance Nao is a competition that enables students to learn about advanced humanoid robots and have some fun. Teams of three students work together to program a 45 second dance routine for a Nao robot.

The team from The Brainary will be there to help teachers and students along the way. Schools can register up to three teams (of three students each).

Registrations close September 27th, and then teachers will be contacted with more details. Final dances must be uploaded for judging by October 27th.

Ten teams will be selected to come to the Everybody Dance Nao finale, which will be held at Scienceworks as part of the Robotica Festival on Sunday November 12. Teachers, students and parents will gain free entry to the festival as part of the dance off.

Registrations close September 22nd.

Register Here

CSIRO in partnership with the Australian Science Teachers Association (ASTA) and Questacon run a week long, teacher professional learning residential academy called STEM X. 

Applications for the 2018 STEM X Academy will close on 14 September. If you have been looking for STEM professional development that will transform your teaching by improving your capacity to engage your students in science and STEM and help you create your own STEM resources then look no further.  

STEM X plays a pivotal role in drawing on the current national research effort, and assists teachers in placing the Australian science curriculum in the context of students’ lives, experiences and aspirations.  Participants will undertake work with CSIRO and Questacon on a hands-on STEM pedagogy-based program designed to provide practical resources and ideas to take back to the classroom and share with colleagues. They will meet with scientists, learn about their research and develop a suite of activities to use with students. 

Seventy places are available to primary and secondary teachers of science. The five day program will be held in Canberra from 7-12 January 2018. Successful applicants will be asked to make a one-off contribution of $485 towards costs. This contribution will cover flights to and from Canberra and the participant’s closest capital city, as well as accommodation, meals, transport and venue entry fees associated with the program. Scholarships are also available to offset all costs. 

For further information and to apply go to http://asta.edu.au/programs/stemx 

The $1.5 million Digitech Start-Ups Initiative supports the development of STEM skills by providing 150 Victorian government secondary schools with teacher-based professional learning and once off funding of $10,000, to plan and purchase resources to support the implementation of the Digital Technologies Curriculum in their school.

The Initiative encourages schools to foster entrepreneurial and emerging ideas which evolve into innovative products, processes or services, supported by design and computational thinking –   a core component of the Digital Technologies Curriculum.

Find out more

Applications close 29 September 2017 (extended)