04.The+significance


 * Explain its Significance. **

** Contextual basis **

Rudd and Smith (2007) proposed a case for change and it is encapsulated in the economic value of human capital investment. Along with the education revolution came the 'Digital Education Revolution'.The NSW model illustrated the overwhelming support for digital learning. It was the beginning of a personalised statewide system of supplying each year 9 student with a Netbook (Learning Device), supported with an infrastructure of wireless networking and a suite of professional learning activities. Was the institution ( school, classroom and education) just finally catching up with the Social and real world that had seen a IT revolution (Henry 2009). Education is not only expected to address the challenge of changing skill and knowledge requirements; it is also expected to provide solutions for inequality, poverty and prejudice, as well as to enable social justice, cohesive society, job skills, the list goes on (Kalantzis & Cope 2010).

= **What was the significance of the humble 'netbook' for our schools?** =

The National Secondary School Computer Fund (the Fund) is assisting schools and schools systems to provide new computers and other information and communication technology (ICT) equipment for students in Years 9 to 12.

=The aim of the Fund is to achieve a computer to student ratio of 1:1 for students in Years 9 to 12 by 31 December 2011. =

The Fund is on track to deliver over 786,000 computers to secondary schools across Australia by the end of 2011. As at 30 June 2011, over 589,000 computers had been installed.

= **1. Was DER significant to challenging our thinking about the purpose of education?** =

Joes NON Laptop.

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= **2. Is DER significant in our Policy, practice and implementation?** =

1.Supported implementation of statewide systems, infrastructure and support systems.
 * The NSW model **
 * = Digital Education Revolution - NSW =

The Commonwealth Government's Digital Education Revolution includes an element called the National Secondary Schools Computer Fund. The Commonwealth and NSW Governments have agreed to work together to provide a wirelessly enabled specialist educational laptop to every NSW public school student in years 9 to 12 by 2012.

=** The Office of Schools has taken the lead on this program to ensure that the focus remains firmly on transforming teaching and learning. **= =** In cooperation with the Information Technology Directorate this $442million project will see over 200,000 laptops distributed across 500+ school sites. **===== || = = **3. Is DER significant in attempting to address social exclusion, inequality and poverty?**

How evenly spread is access to computers and the Internet in Australia and is access a marker of other socioeconomic divisions?

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Following the development of the concept of social exclusion in France and an early emphasis on citizenship and social cohesion, the general European trend in recent decades has been to = conceive of social exclusion as ‘a relational process of declining participation, solidarity and access’. (Silver & Miller 2002)1 =

Australia is a rapid adopter of any new technology. Between 1998 and financial year 2007–08, household access to the Internet at home more than quadrupled (from 16% to 67%), while access to computers increased by 31 percentage points to 75%. However, there remains a significant digital divide with important social consequences because the ability to use and access computers and the Internet today is vital to both schooling and education generally and the ability to participate effectively in the economy and many aspects of modern society (Vinson 2007). Those lacking such access, in the words of Smith Family researchers, amount to the ‘usual suspects’ (McLaren and Zappala 2002), described in the Caslon Analytics The Digital Divides profile as: ‘ ... those on low incomes, without tertiary education, living in rural/remote areas, of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders heritage, with disabilities, with a language background other than English, and aged over 55.

Student Welfare Directorate raised the issues of equitable access and the digital divide that separates low-income students from their more affluent peers. For many low income young people it can be challenging to find opportunities to experiment with media and to engage in the media practices that youth tend to find most meaningful. Schools can narrow the digital divide or participation gap. They believe that this is a good opportunity to leverage action on a staged approach to cyber safety education and support a ‘learn and earn’ model whereby students are required to complete mandatory work units (possibly online) on taking possession of their DET laptops. A comparison to road safety education was made. ( DEC 2010)

= **4.Is DER significant in changing Pedagogy? Challenging the established practice; the role of the teacher, classroom, time, location, skills?** = = = = __ Modelling and mentoring have been crucial to the success to embedding online tools, elearning into the classroom. __ = = Interesting to note that teachers have individual understandings of what constitutes ‘on task’ behaviour and the traditional view of the classroom. The nature, that youth 15-19 are able to multi-task and the concept of a classroom being completely void of noise is absent. Such skills are developed through the inherent adaption and application of the collaborative interactive media presented on netbooks, = = social collaboration involves both online communication and verbal ‘face to face’ interactions. The degree of how each teacher imbeds the blended learning sample lessons has been highly individual and open to how the teacher makes sense of this. = = = = __ Changing face of how we do our school data analysis and how we conduct our business __ =

Work samples, Qualitative Surveys, including reflective use of the Web 2.0 tools to serve both purposes, one as learning content, and used as a reflective tool. Blogs (web 2.0 tools) are used to experience learning of the tools and then to use these to reflect on own learning. Student surveys are reflective tools about their own learning and what aspects of the Web 2.0 tools engaged them to improve their learning.

= **5. Is DER significant in the evolution of STUDENT VOICE, networking, learning communities, social learning and contextual learning?** = = =
 * = There is reputable research-based evidence of greater benefit than risks in giving students access to social media. Research argues that the focus should not be on blocking access as the response to dealing with potential illegal and antisocial behaviour, but that educators should be supporting young people to recognise, manage and negotiate risk for themselves through developmental teaching programs on digital media literacy. =
 * =These arguments are outlined in the attached consultation paper //Allowing out of school hours access to social networking sites for NSW public school students participating in DER-NSW//. Of particular interest is [|//Web 2.0 site blocking in schools//], a report funded by the Australian Government’s Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations.=
 * = Both SSP Reference Group Chairperson and Student Welfare Directorate commented on the value of social networking sites to enable social interactions otherwise denied to students with disabilities and those who are marginalised. =
 * = Similarly Equity Programs/Distance Education raised the socialisation needs of students in isolated communities. =

= **6. Is DER significant in the evolution of teacher professional personal learning and teacher training, individualised learning and social networking?** = = Listening to the students' and educators voices = All cohorts indicated the importance of high quality teachers who form positive relationships and can construct relevant and engaging learning contexts, with and without technologies. Survey and focus group responses identified the following benefits of including technologies in education and training: •Access to detailed and easy-to-access information; •Skill building through problem-solving; •Development of maths and other literacies; •Opportunities to practice tasks; •Increased motivation to learn through self-directed and interest-focused work; •Improved presentation of work including the use of office productivity and multi- media software applications; •Personalized learning that supports different learning styles and levels; and •Increased control of their own learning.

The value of technologies for communication and group work activities was recognised by all cohorts. Tertiary students in particular, indicated they value communication with their lecturers through using technologies such as email and discussion lists.



Listening to students' and educators' voices the views of students and early career educators about learning with technologies in Australian education and training;Research Findings []

= **7. Is DER significant in establishing 'fluencies' (skills) for the 21st Century?** = = = = The Skills Australia Report 2010, //Creating a Future Direction for Australian Vocational Education//, states that the VET workforce is ageing = = with many practitioners needing to be replaced due to retirement or supplemented with additional staff due to scaling down to part-time work. = = This is especially evident with TAFE staff where 66.9 per cent of the workforce are aged 45 years or more in 2005. = = The report concluded that the future capacity of the sector would be compromised without sufficient qualified and experienced staff. = To contribute sustainable and meaningful change to teaching and learning in Australian schools that will prepare students for further education, training and to live and work in a digital world, the government has put in place the Digital Education Revolution (DER), including providing funding of more than $2.4 billion for the National Secondary Schools Computer Fund. The program is on track to deliver access to a computer to every Year 9-12 student by the end of 2011.

= Be a door opener for students, why art has become the "4th R," 9 guidelines of digital literacy, what makes a story, new media narrative in education. = = =
 * Digital fluencies (Jason Ohler)**
 * __ [|Part 1 - ADETA keynote] __. Teachers who open doors, and why we need them now more than ever to open doors for digital kids.
 * __ [|Part 2 - ADETA keynote] __. The nine concepts of digital literacy, and how to apply them to teaching and learning.
 * __ [|Part 3 - ADETA keynote] __. Listen to Jason tell a story, explain how stories work and how we can use storytelling and new media narrative in education.

= **8.Is DER significant to meeting our educational, economic and social investment?** =

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// [|Digital Economy Goal] : //b y 2020, Australian schools, TAFEs, universities and higher education institutions will have the connectivity to develop and collaborate on innovative and flexible educational services and resources to extend online learning resources to the home and workplace; and the facilities to offer students and learners, who cannot access courses via traditional means, the opportunity for online virtual learning.

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**9. Where to from here? Where is the digital education revolutions going....**

NBN-Enabled Education and Skills Services Program information
This four-year program will, from July 2011, invite proposals for innovative online and interactive education and skills services using the NBN. The program aims to demonstrate the benefits of high-speed broadband connectivity to be provided in and across the NBN first-release site areas, including improving online accessibility to individuals at home and in workplaces. It will contribute to the development of services that: The program will make $27.2 million available to source, develop and implement projects associated with NBN first release sites. Projects are expected to commence in 2012 and preference will be given to proposals which are supported by co-contributions. For more information, please visit: @http://www.dbcde.gov.au/nbnenabledtrial
 * [|Home]
 * [|Education]
 * [|Government initiatives]
 * NBN-Enabled Education and Skills Services Program information
 * connect teachers with learners to address skills shortages and improve teaching and learning experiences
 * improve professional development (for example, sharing of resources)
 * enhance community links
 * facilitate workplace training and assessment to improve workplace productivity.

Scribblings
==[|Continuation of the Digital Education Revolution in NSW post 2012] == === by: DERNSW Team ===

Last updated 30 August 2011, 09:48 AM
The Digital Education Revolution- NSW program has rolled out over 190,000 laptops to Years 9 to 11 students in NSW government schools. The 2012 student laptop has been finalised. Full details will be circulated shortly via the DER teams. There has been extensive consultation across NSW, including teachers, students and IT professionals. The new ‘silver’ laptop will be delivered to schools in term 1, 2012. This will be the fourth rollout of laptops under the DER-NSW program and will bring the total number of laptops across the state to over 250,000. The Commonwealth Government has committed to providing funding for the Digital Education Revolution post 2012 and planning has started on the 2013 rollout.

Technology Support Officers
The NSW Secondary Principals’ Council, working with the DER Program Control Group, Regional ICT and the IT Directorate has agreed that the extension of DER-NSW program positions at regional and school level is essential to the continued success of the program. These temporary positions will now continue **beyond 30 June 2012 to 31 December 2013**.