What technologies do you need to support your teaching and learning programs?

As you may know, the concepts underpinning the Australian Curriculum: Digital Technologies can be taught without a computer or connectivity. You can get to the heart of digital technologies using ‘unplugged’ tools such as role-play, modelling, flashcards, and even pencil and paper. 

However, some aspects of the curriculum rely on, or at least benefit from, having technology to support further learning. But what technology do you need to support your teaching and learning programs?

First, think about the context of your school and your classroom, and the skills, knowledge, mindsets and dispositions you want your students to develop. Consider how technology may assist in developing these. 

See information about some popular educational technologies below, but you could use many other technologies to support your program. Note: inclusion or non-inclusion here of specific products is not intended as an endorsement or a dis-endorsement of any particular product.

Development or programmable boards

These boards help students to develop skills such as design and creativity, problem-solving, logic, reasoning and programming. Students can use these boards to design and create digital solutions to solve particular problems. 

Examples of common development boards include Arduino, Hummingbird and Raspberry Pi. The BBC micro:bit and CodeBug are also programmable devices suitable for primary-aged students. All of these boards and devices either include onboard sensors or have pins that enable sensors to be connected. They also often contain a microcontroller (the brains of the board).

Why use them?

Using programming boards opens up the potential for students to gather data from their immediate surroundings, and incorporate that data into their projects; for example, students could use the data to trigger a particular behaviour. In terms of the Australian Curriculum: Digital Technologies, a project-based task such as this covers Investigating and defining, Generating and designing, Producing and implementing and Evaluating. It can also link to skills in networking and transmitting data.

Programmable robots and their many uses

Commercially available programmable robots can be used to apply and develop programming skills, refine commands and instructions, and develop directional language, measurement skills and data collection. Programmable robots include Sphero, Edison, Dash and Dot, Ozobot, Bee-Bot, mBlock and more. Kits are also available, including the popular Lego Mindstorms, which allow students to design and build their own robotic device. 

Virtual reality and augmented reality

Many schools have started to explore and create virtual environments. Virtual reality (VR) headsets enable students to block out the physical world and become totally immersed in a virtual one. Devices such as the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, Microsoft HoloLens and Google Cardboard can be used in schools to explore this exciting technology. You may also have heard about augmented reality (AR). This allows the user to overlay their physical world with data and virtual objects. Read the Immersed in the future report for more information. 

Find a 'Scope and Sequence' for your year band

Explore a Digital Technologies Hub Scope and Sequence for your year band. Each one highlights different types of technology and how to use them with your students. Soon, Digital Technologies Hub will release a ‘Robotics and embedded systems’ sequence for Year 10, covering robotic kits, electronics and programming boards. This will be available in a few weeks, so watch this space. 

For more information about the types of technology that are available, register for our webinar. Details are below.

Webinar: Current technology trends for secondary schools

8 May 2018, 4.30pm – 5.30pm AEST
Presented by: Nathan Alison, Professional Learning Coordinator for Digital Teaching and Learning Victoria, and Martin Richards, Content Manager for the Digital Technologies Hub

This webinar provides a broad overview of popular classroom technologies in secondary schools, grouping the technologies into categories such as robots and electronics kits. 

Information provided for each category:

• a straightforward definition
• common types of technology
• examples of classroom use
• alignments with the Australian Curriculum: Digital Technologies.

Three caveats:

1. It is possible to implement the Digital Technologies curriculum without any of the physical tech described in this webinar. We will not be discussing the various coding environments and programming languages that can be used with just computers or tablets, nor the unplugged possibilities out there.
2. It is acknowledged that the boundaries between the categories are often blurred.
3. Specific products may be mentioned as examples within a category, but this should not be interpreted as an endorsement or dis-endorsement of any particular product.
    

Scope and Sequence Q&A

Presented by: Martin Richards and Paula Christophersen
During this webinar, we answered your questions about our new Scope and Sequence for the Digital Technologies curriculum. We also demonstrated some of the digital technologies in action to bring the Scope and Sequence to life. 

The recording for this, and all our previous webinars, can be found on our webinars page.

Upcoming events

• F–6 Digital Technologies MOOC, Bowen: 7–8 May, QLD
• Digital Technologies and the NSW Curriculum workshops: 7 May – 25 June, NSW
• ACA–TASITE Digital Technologies workshops: 8 and 14 May, TAS
• STEAMing ahead: SDI, transdisciplinary studies and STEM learning: 8 May, TAS
• Code Club teacher training: 11 May – 18 June, various locations
• ICTENSW 2018 Conference: 13–18 May, NSW
• Discover OneNote and Teams for Education: 17 May, VIC
• Microsoft Education and DET Digital Learning: 17 May – 13 June, VIC
• HTML and CSS fundamentals: 19 May, SA
• Digital Technologies workshops: 22 May – 28 June, various locations
• Google for Education webcast: 23 May, NSW
• 7–10 Digital Technologies PL with Dr Claudia Szabo: 28 May, QLD
• Website building masterclass: 28–30 May, VIC
• ICT Educators NSW workshop: 28 May, NSW
• Teacher Integrated STEM and Data Science workshop: 29 May, VIC
• 7–10 Digital Technologies PL with Dr Claudia Szabo: 29 May, QLD
• F–6 Digital Technologies MOOC: 29–30 May, QLD
• STEM data visualisation competition for year 10–12 students: 30 May, VIC
• Apple Education webcast: 30 May, NSW
• Bring Coding into the Classroom workshop: 31 May, NSW
• ICTENSW Digital Technologies 1 Day Workshop: Kempsey: 1 June, NSW
• EduTECH: 6–8 June, NSW
• Brekkie with a Tekkie Webcast: 6 June, NSW
• Big Day In: 7 June, QLD
• ECAWA State Conference: 8–9 June, WA

Have we missed any digital technologies events happening in your area? Let us know at: digitaltechnologieshub@esa.edu.au so we can add them to our calendar.