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An interesting look at ICT in Australian education and the influence of professional development and conferences.

Educators have always needed to master the understanding of at least two fields of endeavor to be successful. First, they needed to master their content field. They are required to be experts of content. Second, they needed to master the field of education with a clear understanding of the latest and greatest methodology and pedagogy available. The 21st Century has now further complicated the teaching profession by requiring an additional third area of mastery, digital literacy. This is required to accomplish many of the necessary tasks in the space occupied by our nation in a computer-driven world. It is the mastery of this third element that educators struggle with today. It is this third element that also directly affecting the evolution of content and education.

"The internet is awash with exciting and innovative tools, and your students have grown up immersed in this world - get in on the act. The digital revolution has given us instant communication and easy global connectedness, with mobile technology in particular growing at warp speed: in 2013, there are almost as many mobile phone contracts as there are people in the world. This digital transformation has produced some extraordinary online tools for flexible education, which enhance students' learning and promise innovative pedagogy for teachers. However, they can also be daunting and challenging for educators. It is clear that teachers cannot ignore these tools, which go far beyond just Facebook and Twitter. Educators are now dealing with Generation Z - students born after 1995 who have hardly known a world without social media and have always lived a life measured in bits and bytes. Most have access to iPads and smartphones as well as textbooks and, therefore, the massive resource of the internet."

DERN is the Digital Education Research Network. DERN is managed by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) in Melbourne, Australia. DERN is a network for, leaders, researchers and educators interested in the use of digital technologies for learning. Users of DERN may have an interest in ICT, media, pedagogy, emerging technologies and related areas and are probably well briefed in the area of elearning research, as well as scholars seeking details about what research has been done, possibly for their own research purposes.

Interesting take on emerging pedagogy

The Benefits of Digital Learning 1. Richer Resources 2. Customization & Personalization 3. Cognitive Tutors 4. Engagement and Interactivity 5. 100% participation 6. Digital Archives 7. Collaboration 8. Global Publication 9. Online Learning Communities 10. "Serving the Net" 11. Crowdsourcing 12. Software that gets smarter 13. Internet of Things

Awesome blog post on Movie making and literacy skills. Some great pedagogy happening with this group of students. I really like Kynan's philosophy of letting the students learn rather than intervening with teacher direction. Final cut express is a rather complicated piece of software but it looks like these kids have eaten it for breakfast

Thinking Skills

"An up-dated list. Each of these tools can make teaching more efficient and effective, and student learning deeper and more engaging."