DERN Newsletter

Delivering NAPLAN online
The Australian Government is working with states and territories and the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) to move the National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) tests online. Implementation for NAPLAN online will commence from 2017 on an opt-in basis over two to three years.
“Online delivery holds many expected benefits over current paper-based testing, including faster delivery of results to students, parents and teachers.”

ACER online assessment and reporting
ACER online assessment and reporting is a time-effective alternative to paper tests and surveys. Tests available include Social-Emotional Wellbeing Survey, General Ability Tests, Literacy and Numeracy, Progressive Achievement Tests (PAT) in Reading Comprehension and Maths designed to provide objective, norm-referenced information to teachers about their students’ skills and understandings in a range of key areas. A PAT Resources Centre provides teachers with teaching content, lesson plans and activities linked to PAT assessment results

Infrastructure

National Schools Interoperability Program (NSIP)
An initiative of Australian State, Territory and Federal Ministers for Education to support the development of digital learning infrastructure nationally and improve access to information for stakeholders in the Australian school education sector. NSIP promotes the adoption of common technical standards and supports projects that improve the interoperability of information systems used by schools and school authorities across Australia. In particular, NSIP supports adoption of the Systems Interoperability Framework (SIF).

National Broadband Network (NBN)
An Australia wide project to upgrade the existing fixed line phone and internet network infrastructure. NBN Co, established 2009, is a wholly-owned Commonwealth company charged with.

Learning resources

Scootle
A national content discovery portal of over 22,000 teaching resources and high quality metadata, linked to Australian Curriculum. It has integrated features for teachers to sequence digital content into lessons. Access is limited to Australian educators but there are 1500 Creative Commons licensed resources.

ABC Splash
High-quality digital educational content from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), mapped to the Australian Curriculum Science, English, Mathematics, History, and Geography.

Language Learning Space
A program of Australian government-funded learning resources and services for students of Chinese, Japanese and Indonesian language which are accessed via the Scootle login. A free tutor service enables teachers to book sessions with in-country tutors.

Open Education Resources
Assisting schools to better manage and control the costs of copying. The Smartcopying website promotes the use of free-for-education and creative commons licensed material.

Australian Council for Educational Research

Image: ACER

ACER creates and promotes research-based knowledge, products and services that can be used to improve learning across the life span.

Building innovation: learning with technologies

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Kathryn Moyle (2010) explores national and international policy priorities for building students' innovation capabilities through information and communication technologies (ICT) in Australian schools.

Forward thinking: three forward, two back: what are the next steps?

Image: Flickr by CTJ Online

Gerry White (2013) considers what we have learnt about using technology for teaching, learning and educational leadership in the past 30 years, examining the evidence and setting five challenges for the next stage.

National School Improvement Tool (2012)

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Adopted in 2012, based on the Teaching and Learning School Improvement Framework, developed initially with the Queensland Department of Education and Training, and used as the basis for a teaching and learning ‘audit’ of every government school in that state in 2010. The Framework consists of nine interrelated domains.

Digital Education Revolution – National Partnership, 2009-2013

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The Digital Education Revolution (DER) National Partnership was established to deliver system wide reforms in education to ensure that students are equipped for learning in a digital environment.

Beyond the Classroom: A New Digital Education for Young Australians in the 21st Century

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The Digital Education Advisory Group (DEAG) was asked to assess the achievements in digital education to date, identify what remains to be achieved, establish new priorities and develop a strategy for future developments. The Advisory Group identified key areas that need to be addressed via a multi-pronged strategy.

Students First 2014

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Under the students-first approach, the Australian Government will work with the states and territories, teachers and parents to focus on four key areas that will make a difference: teacher quality, school autonomy, engaging parents in education, strengthening the curriculum.

Technology in schools

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The Australian Government supports the appropriate use of technology in Australian schools to prepare students to learn, train and live in a digital world, through online assessments, broadband-enabled education and skills services program and National Schools Interoperability Program.

Australian Professional Standards for Teachers

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The Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL) promote the Standards that outline what teachers should know and be able to do at four stages of Graduate, Proficient, Highly Accomplished and Lead teacher.

Scootle Community

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A secure and social online professional learning network for all Australian educators, on the Declara platform. Aims to build a national network of educators through discussion, blogs and sharing of expertise.

ICT in teacher education in the age of AITSL (2014)

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This 2014 paper is drawn from a 2012-2013 Office for Learning and Teaching (OLT) National Teaching Fellowship investigating the agencies impacting on whole-of course curriculum design in initial teacher education. This paper begins with a discussion of the requirements on both beginning teachers and initial teacher education programs in regard to ICT. It then presents case studies from four universities whose degree programs have been approved for implementation in 2014.

Australian Curriculum Learning Areas: Technologies

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The Australian Curriculum: Technologies draws together the distinct but related subjects of Design and Technologies and Digital Technologies. It will ensure that all students benefit from learning about and working with traditional, contemporary and emerging technologies that shape the world in which we live. In creating solutions, as well as responding to the designed world, students will contribute to sustainable patterns of living for themselves and others.

Preparing for life in a digital age: the IEA international computer and information literacy

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The International Computer and Information Literacy Study (ICILS) studied the extent to which young people have developed computer and information literacy (CIL) to support their capacity to participate in the digital age. The study further addresses the necessity for policymakers and education systems to have a better understanding of the contexts and outcomes of CIL-related education programs in their countries.

How well do young people deal with contradictory and unreliable information on line?

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This 2012 paper examines the question of how well young people are in fact able to recognise whether information is likely to be trustworthy. It draws on data from the first large-scale international assessment of online reading, the Digital Reading Assessment (DRA) that was part of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Programme for International Student Assessment (OECD PISA) in 2009.