As a part of the Australian Government’s National Innovation and Science Agenda, ACARA has been funded to support the implementation of the Australian Curriculum: Digital Technologies in some of Australia’s most disadvantaged schools.
The Digital Technologies in focus (DTiF) project has been designed to encourage whole-school and inter-school collaboration, supported by curriculum officers.
One hundred and sixty schools with a low index of community socio-educational advantage (ICSEA) rating are participating in the project. Since July 2017, leaders and teachers from these schools have been taking part in workshops to help them implement Digital Technologies.
Nine Digital Technologies curriculum officers support clusters of schools, providing expertise to primary and secondary school teachers.
In 2018–20, the Digital Technologies curriculum officers will continue conducting professional learning workshops with teachers and school leaders. These workshops are customised to the specific needs of participating schools, with webinars and online mentoring complementing face-to-face events. Additional workshops have been offered to other schools.
Quick facts:
- 160+ schools
- 2,300+ teachers
- 30,000+ students
- 15 modules offered Australia wide
- 10 project focus clusters
School stories:
- Episode 4 and final report for: St Mary’s Primary School, Moruya, NSW and Bethany Christian School, Paralowie, SA
Resources:
- Key ideas and concepts > Creating preferred futures:
- Online article: Indigenous knowledge and AI help save baby turtles
- Teaching > Digital systems
- DTiF Classroom videos:
- Exploring AI in the classroom: activity
- Exploring AI in the classroom: activity discussion
- Exploring AI in the classroom: teacher debrief
- DTiF Classroom videos:
- Planning > Assessment:
- Digital systems sample assessment task Years 3 and 4
- Tutorials:
- General-purpose programming: a guide for teachers to assist students to move on from block-based visual programming to general-purpose programming languages
Professional learning:
- Webinars
- Expert webinars:
- Nathan Alison, DLTV: Focus on systems thinking. How do we teach it well?
- Elke Hacker, QUT: Using gamification and virtual reality at Qld Health to teach sun safety to adolescents
- Paul Mead, She Maps: A wide-ranging discussion from women in Technology and unconscious bias to digital systems and the ethical and safety considerations of drone technologies
- Expert webinars:
