In the rapidly changing environment of COVID-19, the Academy’s education programs are focusing on collaborating with other organisations to maximise reach and impact.
The Academy’s programs have been connecting within and across the education community to share their freely available resources and to show how they can be adapted and utilised for situations including remote learning.
“Working with others during COVID-19 means that support can be deeper and richer for teachers, meeting them where they are in the midst of upheaval and uncertainty,” said the Academy’s Director of Education, Claudette Bateup.
Working with others during COVID-19 means that support can be deeper and richer for teachers, meeting them where they are in the midst of upheaval and uncertainty.
With remote delivery currently a feature of education activities, including teacher professional learning, the Academy’s programs have featured in two recent webinars for teachers: one by industry organisation the Australian Computer Society, and another by the professional association Digital Learning and Teaching Victoria.
The Australian Computer Society (ACS) developed its Virtual Development Series to assist teachers when they moved to online learning, with the aim that teachers across Australia felt supported and aware there were experts and professionals they could turn to for advice.
In June, one of the webinars in the ACS series featured the Academy’s Primary Connections program.
“The ACS wanted to partner with the Academy to demonstrate to teachers the connections between the Australian Curriculum Digital Technologies and the Australian Curriculum Science,” said ACS ICT Educator Specialist, Catherine Newington.
“The joint webinar allowed teachers to see how they can integrate different learning areas within one lesson. The aim was to show teachers how one lesson could support learning across more than one curriculum area and to help planning lessons, assessment and reporting.”
The aim was to show teachers how one lesson could support learning across more than one curriculum area and to help planning lessons, assessment and reporting.
Watch the webinar: Creating a Digital Technologies scope and sequence (ACS)
Another group responding promptly to the COVID restrictions by offering webinars for educators was the professional association Digital Learning and Teaching Victoria (DLTV). With its usual face-to-face professional learning workshops and events not possible since March, DLTV was keen to serve educators and its members in another relevant way.
“In this time of COVID and lockdowns, many of our webinars have focused on online resources available to teachers, particularly when remote and flexible learning is such a priority,” explained DLTV Professional Learning Coordinator Nathan Alison.
DLTV recently collaborated with the Academy to highlight our digital education resources. “As part of the STEM grouping, maths and science resources have a particularly strong connection to digital technologies. The Academy’s resources have a strong emphasis on students gaining understanding through doing. This is something they have in common with several Digital Technologies skills such as computational thinking.”
The Academy’s resources have a strong emphasis on students gaining understanding through doing. This is something they have in common with several Digital Technologies skills such as computational thinking.
Watch the webinar: Explore maths and science resources with the Australian Academy of Science (DLTV)
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