February 27, 2017
by Jillian Brown
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Virtual Learning Opportunities for Victorian Classrooms

Virtual classroom events provide easy to access activities for the classroom, delivered by professionals from all over Australia. The tools include Zoom, Polycom Unit, ipad or simply an internet connection

Upcoming sessions include:

Thursday, 23 February
3:40pm Course A. Wolfram Mathematica Virtual Training for Beginners

Friday, 24 February
14:15 ACMI – The Art of Storyboarding – Brendan Tolley

Tuesday, 28 February
15:40 Course A. Wolfram Mathematica Virtual Training for Beginners

Wednesday, 1 March
14:00 Breaking the Cycle South Pole #1
14:00 Cosmic Engine – CAASTRO in the Classroom

Thursday, 2 March
14:00 Digital Author Talk with Leigh Hobbs (Horrible Harriet) – Sydney Opera House
15:45 What’s on in Barwon
19:00 Google Transforming Learning with G Suite and Chromebooks

Thursday, 9 March
14:30 Zoos Victoria – Fighting Extinction
16:00 Zoos Victoria – Fighting Extinction

Tuesday, 14 March
13:30 Lets Talk Recognition – Geelong Art Gallery
14:00 Gravity and Orbits – CAASTRO in the Classroom

Wednesday, 15 March
15:45 How and why FUSE

Thursday, 23 March
14:30 Sea Life Aquarium – Meet the Locals
17:00 Google A whole school approach to integrating Chromebooks

Monday, 27 March
11:00 Places and Spaces of Sydney Opera House (F-2)
12:15 Places and Spaces of Sydney Opera House (3-6)
14:00 Places and Spaces of Sydney Opera House (3-6)

Tuesday, 28 March
11:30 Waves In The Sky – CAASTRO in the Classroom

Wednesday, 29 March
11:00 Aboriginal Perspectives of Bennelong Point : Guwayni Walama
12:15 Aboriginal Perspectives of Bennelong Point : Guwayni Walama
14:00 Aboriginal Perspectives of Bennelong Point : Guwayni Walama

Thursday, 20 April
15:40 Course B. Wolfram Mathematica Virtual Training for Beginners (repeat)

Further information

Further information is available from the Department’s Learning and Teaching Branch, by emailing digital.learning@edumail.vic.gov.au

For more opportunities, see: Virtual Learning Calendar

February 20, 2017
by Jillian Brown
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Professional Learning opportunities, 2017

DET Learning and Teaching Branch are pleased to announce opportunities for Victorian government schools to engage in FREE* professional learning events with local and international educators.

Register now! Spaces are limited and priority will be given to educators from Victorian government schools.

SOLO Taxonomy Workshops

A full day face-to-face workshop that aims to provide schools with further tools, ideas and practical strategies to help teachers plan and implement the SOLO taxonomy in their classrooms.

For more information about the course, see: SOLO Taxonomy Workshops

Invent to Learn – Sylvia Martinez and Gary Stager

Sylvia Libow Martinez & Gary Stager, authors of Invent to Learn, Making, Tinkering and Engineering in the Classroom will be in Melbourne for a series of hands-on workshops.

Virtual Learning Opportunities (classroom events)

Virtual classroom events provide short easy to access activities for the classroom delivered by professionals from all over Australia.

Cosmic Engine – CAASTRO in the Classroom
Gravity and Orbits – CAASTRO in the Classroom
Digital Author Talk with Leigh Hobbs, Sydney Opera House
Let’s Talk Recognition – Geelong Art Gallery
Places and Spaces of the Sydney Opera House
Aboriginal Perspectives of Bennelong Point: Guwayni Walama
Sydney Story Telling Workshop: Horrible Harriet
Staging Stories – Digital Workshop
VET Course – Entertainment Industry Training

For more information or to access any of these events, see: Virtual Learning Opportunities classroom event calendar

Term One 2017 – ICT Planning Workshops**

These full-day workshops walk school leaders through the process of developing a long-term school ICT Plan. The ICT Planning tool can be accessed via https://www.edustar.vic.edu.au/SIPS (Department credentials required to login).

Croydon: 3^rd March 2017
Venue: Melba College-Junior Campus https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/march-3rd-ict-planning-workshop-croydon-tickets-31901378883

Moe: 10^th March 2017
Venue: Moe Regional Office https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/march-10th-ict-planning-workshop-moe-regional-office-tickets-31901095034

Ballarat: 14^th March 2017
Venue: Ballarat Regional Office https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/march-14th-ict-planning-workshop-ballarat-tickets-31901229436

Shepparton: 16^th March 2017
Venue: McGuire College https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/march-16th-ict-planning-workshop-shepparton-tickets-31901958617

Warrnambool: 17^th March 2017
Venue: Trade Training Centre (Brauer College) https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/march-17th-ict-planning-workshop-warrnambool-tickets-31905114055

Bendigo: 21^st March 2017
Venue: Bendigo Regional Office https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/march-21st-2017-ict-planning-workshop-bendigo-tickets-31901586504

Corio: 24th March 2017
Venue: Trade Training Centre (Northern Bay College Goldsworthy Road Campus) https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/march-24th-ict-planning-workshop-corio-tickets-31901825218

Frankston: 27th March 2017
Venue: Neville Rohan Centre, Mt Erin Secondary College https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/march-27th-ict-planning-workshop-neville-rohan-centre-mt-erin-secondary-college-frankston-tickets-31900637666

Flemington: 31^st March 2017
Venue: Debney Meadows Primary School https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/march-31st-ict-planning-workshop-flemington-tickets-31903189298

Who Should Attend?

This workshop is designed for school teams of Principals, Learning Technologies Coordinators and Specialist technicians from government schools only. It is recommended that 2-3 staff attend from each school, and that one attendee is the Specialist Technician*.

Benefits of attending an ICT Planning Workshop?

View this short video where school leaders who attended ICT Planning Workshops last year talk about the benefits of the workshop and the online ICT Planning Tool: http://fuse.education.vic.gov.au/?XH7FW9

*Please note that the Specialist Technician may need a visitation schedule alteration and will require to log the hours against your school’s allocation. If there are any queries or concerns regarding this please contact your Service Delivery Manager.

** This PL opportunity is open to government schools only and requires login to edustar.

Further information

Further information is available from the Learning and Teaching Branch, Secondary Reform, Transitions and Priority Cohorts Division, by emailing digital.learning@edumail.vic.gov.au

For more opportunities, see: Digital learning calendar

*Participants will be charged for catering for SOLO taxonomy workshops

February 20, 2017
by rcrellin
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Support for the Digital Technologies Curriclum

The Victorian Curriculum F-10 has been designed to provide practical opportunities for students to explore the capacity of information systems to systematically and innovatively transform data into digital solutions, through the application of:

Systems thinking – the relationship between people, digital devices and society when developing solutions.
Design thinking – designs that are intuitive to users of all ages and abilities.
Computational thinking – the precise steps and decisions that need to be made to code a solution

Where to start

The Digital Technologies DigiPub provides advice about the curriculum, making links to current practice and getting to know the terminology.

Curriculum Resources

VCAA Curriculum area advice – planning documents, assessment and reporting advice.
Digital Technologies DigiPub – Where to start, case studies, teaching resources, assessment.
Digital Technologies Hub – step by step advice and resources for teachers, school leaders, families and students.
Making DigiPub – creating a maker space, case studies and resources for inspiration.
FUSE – resources linked to Victorian Curriculum content descriptions.
Glossary of new terms – find a comprehensive glossary of important terms.
Frequently asked questions – commonly asked questions around planning and preparing for implementation of the curriculum.
School case studies – find out how other schools have introduced the Digital Technologies curriculum.

Professional Learning and events

CSER Digital Technologies Education run a range of programs including a free online course in the form of a MOOC, professional learning events, the National Lending Library.
PL-in-a-Box – professional learning packages for teachers to run their own workshops in schools.
Digital Learning and Teaching Victoria run a range of professional learning.
Microsoft Educator Community have courses, webinars and resources to support teachers with coding and pedagogy.
Computational Thinking Course for Educators: Google has developed a free online course which includes topics such as exploring and developing algorithms, finding patterns and applying computational thinking to real-world problems.
The Victorian STEM Map shows where teachers and students can access programs, events, professional learning and specialist centres, including coding challenges to support computational thinking.
Digital Learning Professional Learning Calendar highlights upcoming virtual and face to face activities and events.

About the Digital Technologies Curriclum

The Digital Technologies curriculum is part of the new Victorian Curriculum. The Foundation to Level 10 curriculum provides a single, coherent and comprehensive set of prescribed content and achievement standards. All government and Catholic schools are required to implement and report on the Digital Technologies curriculum from 2017.

The new curriculum area should not be confused with integrating the use of ICT across all curriculum areas.

ICT across the curriculum is about students developing digital skills and knowledge to investigate, create and collaborate across all curriculum areas. They also learn safe and responsible use in managing and operating ICT.

Digital Technologies is a specific curriculum that focuses on students thought processes in order to unravel problems, and then design and generate digital solutions.

Students will learn how computers work and how to create digital solutions for real-world problems and challenges with computational thinking, which uses systematic solutions to solve problems, part of this is developing a working knowledge of coding.

Download the fact sheet for more information.

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February 16, 2017
by rcrellin
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Discover Office 365 in the Classroom

Discover Office 365 in the Classroom

Learn about Office 365 for schools and uncover how it works on any device
Explore the possibilities for teacher and student collaboration & productivity
Explore the power of OneNote for learning Discover how to get started at you school

Through this hands on workshop, attendees will be immersed in the DET Office 365 platform and accessing their OneDrive to experience real time collaboration with Word, PowerPoint & Excel. A focus on the ultimate collaborative digital notebook, OneNote, for students and how to create Class Notebooks. You will explore the new Learning Tools feature in Office designed to support learning with reading and comprehension, discover formative assessment tools such as quizzes and surveys with Microsoft Forms and how to easily get started with Flipping & Blending your classroom with Sway and Office Mix.

What to bring: A fully charged laptop, TO Number & EduMail Password.

All sessions run from 9:30 – 3:30

6 March – Microsoft Office, South Bank

14 March – Silverton Primary School

23 March – Mansfield Secondary College

28 April – Frankston High School

15 May – Microsoft Office, South Bank

22 May – Geelong (venue TBC)

February 14, 2017
by Jillian Brown
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Women in STEM

STEM Capabilities for the 21st Century

Quantum Victoria is hosting a series of six FREE ‘Women in STEM’ state wide events. These events are open to ALL Year 9 – 12 students and their teachers. Each event will feature a prominent female leader delivering the keynote across one of the five themes:

Coding and Arduinos
Additive Manufacturing (3D Printing)
Advanced Materials
Robotics and Engineering
Cyber Security

Keynote Speakers include: Dr Leonine Walsh, former Lead Scientist of Victoria, Professor Bronwyn Fox, Director, Factory of the Future, Swinburne University of Technology and Rosie Hiscock, Director of the Science Gallery Melbourne, University of Melbourne.

The dates for each event are:

Monday 27th March
Monday 29th May
Tuesday 30th May
Monday 5^th June
Monday 14th August
Tuesday 15^th August

Places are strictly limited, book early to avoid disappointment. For bookings contact Anna at: admin@quantumvictoria.vic.edu.au

Click here for the program outline or see below.

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February 10, 2017
by Jillian Brown
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ICT Planning Workshops – Term One 2017

These full-day workshops walk school leaders through the process of developing a long-term school ICT Plan that: sipsTOOL

addresses the learning and teaching goals of the school
develops a sustainable ICT plan that meets the needs of the school community
ensures a coherent team approach to ICT planning involving school leaders, ICT co-ordinators, curriculum co-ordinators and technical support staff.

The ICT Planning tool can be accessed via https://www.edustar.vic.edu.au/SIPS (Department credentials required to login).

Term One 2017 – ICT Planning Workshops

Flemington: 24^th February 2017
Venue: Debney Meadows Primary School https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/february-24th-ict-planning-workshop-flemington-tickets-31900639672

Croydon: 3^rd March 2017
Venue: Melba College-Junior Campus https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/march-3rd-ict-planning-workshop-croydon-tickets-31901378883

Moe: 10^th March 2017
Venue: Moe Regional Office https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/march-10th-ict-planning-workshop-moe-regional-office-tickets-31901095034

Ballarat: 14^th March 2017
Venue: Ballarat Regional Office https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/march-14th-ict-planning-workshop-ballarat-tickets-31901229436

Shepparton: 16^th March 2017
Venue: McGuire College https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/march-16th-ict-planning-workshop-shepparton-tickets-31901958617

Warrnambool: 17^th March 2017
Venue: Trade Training Centre (Brauer College) https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/march-17th-ict-planning-workshop-warrnambool-tickets-31905114055

Bendigo: 21^st March 2017
Venue: Bendigo Regional Office https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/march-21st-2017-ict-planning-workshop-bendigo-tickets-31901586504

Corio: 24th March 2017
Venue: Trade Training Centre (Northern Bay College Goldsworthy Road Campus) https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/march-24th-ict-planning-workshop-corio-tickets-31901825218

Flemington: 31^st March 2017
Venue: Debney Meadows Primary School https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/march-31st-ict-planning-workshop-flemington-tickets-31903189298

Who Should Attend?

This workshop is designed for school teams of Principals, Learning Technologies Coordinators and Specialist technicians. It is recommended that 2-3 staff attend from each school, and that one attendee is the Specialist Technician*.

Benefits of attending an ICT Planning Workshop?

February 3, 2017
by Jillian Brown
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A lawyer rewrote Instagram’s privacy policy so kids and parents can have a meaningful talk about privacy

This article was originally published in Quartz on 06/01/2017

In Britain, more than half of 12- to 15-year-olds are on Instagram, according to OfCom (pdf), the country’s communications regulator. So are 43% of 8- to 11-year-olds. But how many of them understand what they signed when they joined? Pretty much 0%, according to “Growing Up Digital”, a report released Jan. 5 (pdf) by the UK Children’s Commissioner.

“Are you sure this is necessary? There are like, 100 pages,” said one 13-year-old who was asked to read Instagram’s terms of service. (Actually 17 pages, with 5,000 words, but still plenty.)

For the report, Jenny Afia, a privacy law expert at Schillings, a UK-based law firm, rewrote Instagram’s terms of service in child-friendly language.

To access the full article, visit https://qz.com/878790/a-lawyer-rewrote-instagrams-terms-of-service-for-kids-now-you-can-understand-all-of-the-private-data-you-and-your-teen-are-giving-up-to-social-media/

February 1, 2017
by rcrellin
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Wolfram Professional Learning

We have a sessions to suit everyone:
1. Face-to-face sessions with Craig Bauling in March
2. Virtual Programme with John Monash Science School starting next week.

Face-to-face Wolfram Hands-On Start Mentor Training

Victorian teachers are invited to exclusive professional development seminars delivered by Wolfram educators to support the use of these tools in the classroom. Numbers for each session are limited so get in early.

This hands-on course will provide teachers who are new to the Wolfram Language the basics for using the Wolfram tool suite within their classrooms. At the completion of this seminar attendees will be recognised as skilled Wolfram technology users. This training is suitable for teachers in all STEM areas.

Wednesday 1 March – John Monash Science School, Clayton
Thursday 2 March – Kensington Town Hall
Friday 3 March – La Trobe University, Bendigo

Wolfram Mathematica Virtual Training Program

Series 1 – Mathematica Skills PD These sessions will give participants the skills required to tackle all required Mathematics for VCE Mathematical Methods Units 1-4. You will be shown how to use the software to answer exam-style questions, how to introduce Mathematica to beginning students, and how to create worksheets in Mathematica for your students to use.
Free for Victorian Government teachers and $280 for Non-Governmnet teachers.
This course will be repeated in Term 2.

Term 1 – Tuesdays & Thursdays over 4 weeks Start Time – 3:40pm – 4:40pm Mode – Online

Term 2 – Every Thursday over 7 weeks Repeat session in Term 2 beginning on Thursday 20th April (Technical Orientation) with the first PD Session on Basics commencing on Thursday 27th of April, concluding on Thursday 1st of June. These will be 1 hour sessions each week commencing at 3:40pm.

Series 2 – Wolfram Mathematica PD Pedagogy

This set of four lessons are designed to demonstrate how CAS (Mathematica) can be used to introduce and explore complex mathematical ideas. Activities will be designed in such a way that will encourage student-centred learning. Sample activities and corresponding Mathematica files will be demonstrated. Participants will write and share their own resources as part the course.

Term 2 – Every second Tuesday over 7 weeks Start Time – 3:40pm – 4:40pm

Mode – Online

January 31, 2017
by Jillian Brown
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Facebook event for Safer Internet Day

Safety in the age of disappearing media

On Tuesday 7th February, Facebook and Instagram will present a #girltakeover safety workshop across Australia and New Zealand, with the children’s charity ‘Plan International Australia’, the anti-bullying group ‘Sticks ‘n Stones’ and the New Zealand safety organisation ‘NetSafe’.

The focus of the session will be on Safety in the age of disappearing media.

The Department of Education and Training (DET) is seeking 40 female secondary students to participate in this half day session, as well as a teacher for each pair of students. This session will be held at Facebook & Instagram’s Melbourne office on Safer Internet Day, Tuesday 7th February, 2017 .

Nominate your students here

So what is the day about?

Increasingly across social platforms — whether it’s SnapChat or new product features on Facebook and Instagram — there is the option to share content that disappears. This may give rise to a false sense of security and safety. Many existing safety education campaigns are focused on the safety strategy, tools and tips in relation to permanent media.

Students will be required to consider the issues and possible messages and policy changes that would be required to support all students to be safe and responsible users in such online spaces.

January 4, 2017
by rcrellin
0 comments

SOLO Taxonomy Sessions

SOLO Taxonomy

The SOLO Taxomomy (Biggs & Collis 1982) has provided a valuable vehicle to identify and support deep learning opportunities in many NPDL schools. It has shown the relationship between surface and deep learning and the importance of scaffolding learning for both.

This workshop aims to provide schools with further tools, ideas and practical strategies to help teachers plan and implement the SOLO taxonomy in their classrooms.

Pam Hook is one of the leading advocates for the SOLO taxonomy and brings a wealth of experience and knowledge to share.

To find out more and register: