Publications

Testing QCAA’s ISMGs using #JavaScript for #Adobe #Acrobat #digital #ismgs

Example of how to automate a junior marking process. 

Example of how to automate a senior #ISMGs marking process. 

Reflective commentary from 2009 “The networked student and the learning landscape”

Connectivism and networked learning have emerged as new learning paradigms that reflect the ability of today’s learner to access endless sources of information, build relationships with others, and collaborate and develop knowledge, all often done outside the formal education environment, on a scale not seen before (Siemens, 2005; Blackall, 2007; as cited in Kligyte, 2009, p. 540).

What can games teach us about educational practice?

Video games have been the topic of debate for years. From their association with behavioural addiction to their influence on social engagement, the popularity of gaming among young people is to say the least, contentious. However, removing ourselves from the pros and cons of actual gaming, it can be productive to explore how some of the non-digital techniques—for example, storytelling and character development—are employed by developers to engage players, both young and old. Perhaps an understanding the efficacies of these techniques can be used in the classroom, to better engage students and inspire learning? By analysing the extraordinary immersive appeal of games we can potentially expand on our pedagogical views for how to creatively engage students in thinking and learning.

When push comes to pull: cultivating entrepreneurial learning

Last month, the Foundation for Young Australians (FYA) released The New Work Smarts report that revealed growing concerns about young Australians not being adequately prepared for their futures.

While it is impossible to forecast where tomorrow’s technology and its concomitant skills demand will lead the next generation, we do know that globalisation, flexibility, automation and robotics will have more influence over determining how jobs are performed, and what jobs are required into the future  (FYA, 2017).

Optimistic superseders

If Australia is serious about kick-starting its lagging productivity growth and exports, and weaning itself off the mining boom, it must ignite and amplify a genuine interest and optimism in a new generation of design thinkers by not eradicating our children’s natural predisposition to experiment and create (Brown, 2009). We also need to train the best and brightest teachers to nurture a new generation of start-up entrepreneurs and innovators with much better access to specialist education and funding.

Young designers: future creators

Think back to the time when you were a child immersed in imaginary play; your open mind brilliantly poised and receptive to possibilities and endless adventures: a world more colourful than anything packaged or purchased. Your intrinsic creativity was limited only by your imagination. What you were doing was designing.

Games Programming – Sample assessment instrument and student response

This sample has been compiled by the QSA to help teachers plan and develop assessment instruments for individual school settings. The QSA acknowledges the contribution of Brisbane Girls Grammar School in the preparation of these documents. The samples presented are a series of extracts from a student response. The sample demonstrates the Standard A descriptors from the Knowledge and communication and Implementation and evaluation dimensions.

Training tomorrow’s technologist

The need for today’s students to be innovative, self-managing and change-ready to contend with the complexities and challenges of the future continues to gain attention from researchers, education authorities and industry leaders (MCEETYA, 2008; Seely Brown, 2011). While technology teaching in schools varies depending on the learning context, resourcing, and leadership, the ultimate goal should be to train our students for a world that we cannot even envisage. Fostering scholarship for tomorrow’s innovative and creative technologist requires a threefold quest: staying responsive to emerging technologies, understanding how to apply technology in educational contexts, and tailoring learning to suit our students’ personal expectations. more

Engineering digital careers for tomorrow’s cloud architecture (Republished) 

Transforming pedagogy to attune to today’s learners is complex and fraught with glitches. How do we nurture digital creativity and inventiveness if only basic operations of standard software are modelled and accepted? Digital media offers far more opportunities for new forms of creativity than producing a PowerPoint. The challenge is real and disconcerting in consideration of the research surrounding future careers based on 21st century skills. Industry leaders of global change and innovation play a key role in revamping our educational institutions processes and agendas.

Engineering digital careers for tomorrow’s world in the cloud

Academic pursuit through the study of technologies has an image problem and bears battle scars from the splendid mythology of its past. While young learners are happy to navigate in a buzz of digital confusion, will they be acquainted enough to be innovative with technology systems of the future?

Assistance with Floodlines learning notes for State Library of Queensland

Brendon assisted SLQ as part of the Learning Associates 2012 Program. Floodlines learning notes align with the Australian Curriculum in History, English, Science and Mathematics. These can be used to enhance students’ learning experiences pre-visit, whilst visiting Floodlines, and post-visit.

Games-based learning: creative steps to a digital future

Game-based learning continues to gain pace as a methodology for engaging young learners in today’s connected age. Integrating games programming into teaching and learning is consistent with current educational theorists and research emphasising the potential of digital games as a teaching and learning tool in today’s educational systems (Gee, 2003; Halverson, 2005; Horizon Report, 2011; Shaffer, 2006).

Digital education evolution (republished)

ICT devices provide many opportunities to enhance teaching and learning while also engaging and harnessing students’ creative talents and power. Students can seek additional support in learning through email, online forums, online classrooms, by watching vodcasts and listening to podcasts.

Designing and developing digital games: secondary education learning context

Senior secondary students studying the Queensland Studies Authority (QSA) elective, Information Technology Systems, have the option to choose games programming as an elective context for their project-based learning. Initially, the students research and analyse current literature and collaboratively evaluate a broad range of existing international educational games (also known as learning objects)

Barriers and facilitators to the adoption of tools for online pedagogy

As institutions and staff adopt new technologies to support online learning, a number of factors impacting the implementation and sustainability of these tools come into play. These include staff perceptions, cost effectiveness, type of support provided by the information and communication technology systems management and the institution’s strategic initiatives for supporting the implementation of these tools.

The networked student and the learning landscape

Networked learning supported by information and communication technology (ICT) is changing the learning landscape for governments, business, schools and tertiary institutions worldwide. ICT in today’s very social online environment is providing unprecedented opportunities for inquiry, contribution, collaboration and support.

Digital Education Evolution | pp 62

The October issue of Independence, the biannual publication of the Association of Heads of Independent Schools of Australia, examined the integration of 1:1 computing in six best practice Australian schools including Brisbane Girls Grammar School.