Group items tagged

The Budd:e Cybersecurity Education package consists of two activity-based learning modules, one for primary school students, and one for secondary school students.  Both modules contain engaging, media-rich activities and resources, developed in consultation with teachers and subject matter experts.  Here you will also find comprehensive Teacher Resources for Budd:e including background and contextual information, a video demonstration of the modules, lesson plans with learning outcomes for each activity, and curriculum maps for all Australian states and territories. Budd:e is part of the broader Australian Government cybersecurity initiative, aimed at creating a safer, more secure online environment for all Australian children.

I am wanting to take a slightly different approach to this weeks post. The past week has seen the latest round of PISA results and the media has had a field day. Headlines have routinely attacked students, educators and education systems in equal measure. The Canberra Times reported that "Australian school scores plummet on world stage", the Sydney Morning Herald led with "Alarm bells': Australian students record worst result in global tests" and The Weekend Australian went with "PISA global educational rankings: Schools fail on maths, science". 

The role that education plays in issues of social equity and justice cannot be undervalued. It is acknowledged by the United Nations as a human right, 'Everyone has the right to education' (United Nations, 1948) and as outlined in the Melbourne Declaration on the Educational Goals for Young Australians 'As a nation Australia values the central role of education in building a democratic, equitable and just society- a society that is prosperous, cohesive and culturally diverse, and that values Australia's Indigenous cultures as a key part of the nation's history, present and future.' (Barr et al, 2008). Such lofty assertions of the importance of education as a right and national value should be sufficient to ensure that all Australians have access to an education of the highest standard with equitable outcomes for all, the reality is that this is not the case.

The referencing guide for South Australian senior secondary students.

An interesting report with the most interesting data being that "100% of students are online in 2011". While the survey data is apparently representative of the Australian population, I would argue that this figure is not the case and that deeper research needs to be undertaken before these figures can be used as a foundation for embedding technology and internet into education. However, it does show the increasing rate of uptake of online activities within Australia and the trends for access information.

Units of work for Years F-10 based on the Australian Curriculum and using resources from Scootle

A video by ACARA, explaining the Australian Curriculum: Digital Technologies component.

VocabularySpellingCity provides the following sets of correlations to standards: U.S. Standards by State Common Core Standards for each States' Implementation Australian Standards by State Canadian Standards by Province English National Curriculum Standards

"There is to be a discussion amongst the Australian Attorney Generals about the privacy laws in regards to parents having legal access to their children's Facebook accounts .. Unfortunately if you need to force your way into your child's Facebook account to "Spy" on them it's probably because there is already a problem with trust and your child's safety is probably in question."

This is an Australian website with current affairs news articles written for children. There is a good archive of past editions to browse through. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/PSHE%2C+RE%2C+Citizenship%2C+Geography+%26+Environmental

Australian broadcaster's education site and has been revamped.

twitter list of australian educators

A reasonable number of Maths activities developed by the children's arm of the Australian group, CSIRO. You can get them delivered regularly by email if you subscribe.

Sports Blog started by a 14 year old Australian boy. Great inspiration to show students starting to blog to see how far they can go

Discussion of Australian tendencie to shorten words and add 'ie' 'o' and 'er' endings, giving demographic data an words known and used, and linking to research on formation patterns based on invented words.

Brief Age article profiling Hugh Lunn and his book on Aussie slang. Bemoans loss of identity and heritage with loss of (cliched) Australianisms in favour of American slang learned from TV.

Brief news report on changes to the spelling program/programme within Australian government and public service. Notes personal preferences of prime ministers Howard, Rudd and Abbott, and assumptions about what the differences signify.

Short news item on the OED's new words for 2013. Notes Australian origins of word of the year "selfie", as well as noting alternate spellings.

Abstract: Previously assumed to be a homogenous and highly skilled group with respect to information and communications technology, the so-called Net Generation has instead been shown to possess a diverse range of technology skills and preferences. To better understand this diversity, we subjected data from 2096 students aged between 17 and 26 from three Australian universities to a cluster analysis. Through this analysis, we identified four distinct types of technology users: power users (14% of sample), ordinary users (27%), irregular users (14%) and basic users (45%). A series of exploratory chi-square analyses revealed significant associations between the different types of technology users and the university that students attended, their gender and age and whether the student was local or international. No associations were found for analyses related discipline area, socio-economic status or rurality of residence. The findings are discussed in light of the rhetoric associated with commentaries about the Net Generation, and suggestions about their implications for teaching and learning in universities are offered.