Australasian Association of Distance Education Schools Blog Feed

South Australia is keen to explore new innovations

Fri, 09 Sep 2011 14:46:22 GMT

Open Access College in South Australia recently brought Mark Kent, Assistant Principal at the Distance Education Centre Victoria over to the Marden Senior School Campus to talk to the entire teaching staff about opportunities to work with students in Skoolaborate / SecondLife. The executive team and Mark workshopped options for projects that could be up and running in 2012. Interest was high at the school and we all look forward to working together as we plan for 2012. Stay tuned.

Australasian Association of Distance Education Schools Australasian Awards

Thu, 21 Jul 2011 17:23:35 GMT

Australasian Association of Distance Education Schools Australasian Awards

Recognised Excellence in Distance Education at the 2011 ADDES conference in Hobart.

Winners of AADES Awards for 2011

AADES Australasian Distance Education Project Award winner is Skoolaborate / Art Crimes – Mark Kent DECV, Susan Connell CSDE, Chris Knowlman BSDE.

This award is presented annually to a school, chapter or support organisation which has been judged to have developed a project or program that has been outstanding in providing improved educational opportunities for distance education students at a school level.

This has been a collaborative project between 3 schools the Distance Education Centre of Victoria, Cairns School of Distance Education and Brisbane School of Distance Education, and targeted students aged 15-17, to provide engaging, collaborative learning experiences. The partnership has researched, explored, discussed, shared and created an online learning environment. The aim of the project was to build bridges across the three schools involved and foster learning for both students and teachers. It has explored a unique approach to flexible and online learning in a virtual (in-world) learning space.

The project has focused on values, culture, beliefs and transitions within curriculum areas.

Skoolaborate is a global initiative that uses a blend of technologies including, blogs, online learning, wikis and ‘virtual worlds’ to transform learning. The three SDEs have collaboratively designed online units of work for students’ use. They have provided opportunities for students to access information about values, cultures, beliefs and transitions and view tasks embedded within each concept. The project has created integrated curriculum and digital technologies into collaborative actions.

45 students from the three Distance Education schools participated in the Art Crimes/ Skoolaborate initiative. The Skoolaborate project has been successful in achieving the goal of improving educational outcomes for our Distance Education students – particularly those who are disadvantaged by geographical isolation, medical issues and/or lack of opportunity for social interaction. The diverse nature of the students and the communities they represent have added a distinct richness to the learning experience.

AADES Australasian Distance Education Teaching Excellence Award winner is Clare Schinkel

This award recognises an exemplary classroom practitioner who displays outstanding school based leadership. Clare has been involved in a number of projects that have promoted distance education and particularly Brisbane School of Distance Education (BSDE) to the broader regional community. A recent project she has designed, implemented and is now leading other is the Dotcom Kids project for gifted and extension students in upper primary. This has been adopted by six mainstream schools in the local area. One of the major attractions of this project was that it addressed the need to cater for gifted and talented students. This project is not only supporting students but also building partnerships with teachers and administrators as they grapple with implementing digital technologies and pedagogies - Clare's key strengths. BSDE is now seen as a guiding light for these schools in this area of curriculum development and delivery.

AADES Australasian Distance Education Gold Award winner is Jan Kelly

This is AADES’s most distinguished annual award, granted to a distance educator whose contribution to school level distance education is assessed as outstanding. Jan is a leader and teacher of distance education whose contribution to school level distance education has covered 20 years. Jan has had a number of roles including leadership of Face to Face, Curriculum, Professional Development, Languages and Student Materials Development. She has a wealth of knowledge, expertise and passion and will be a loss to distance education with her retirement at the end of this year. Jan has a clear vision for distance education and she is able to excite others to join her. Jan’s strengths lie in her understanding of curriculum at many levels and flexibility in approach to teaching. She is student centred and constantly exploring ways to maximize the learning opportunities for students. She is able to see opportunities provided by technology and lead the implementation. Jan is collaborative and develops partnerships with relevant people both inside her own school and external organizations.

With the closure of Access Media (statewide curriculum development unit) Open Access College had to take on an unfamiliar role. Jan successfully led Open Access College in the establishment of a materials development unit. The transition to a more flexible, responsive, on-line model included the challenge of cultural change for many staff.

Jan has been an active member of AADES for many years and an executive member for 4 years. She has utilised the AADES network to benefit all distance providers. She has a strong commitment to sharing and working collaboratively across Australasia. She was inaugural member of FLX, AADES collaborative resource mode and participated in projects with the NT, WA and the VET Business Certificate consortia. Jan was the key person to ensuring this success of 2008 AADES Australasian conference hosted by SA

AADES Australasian Distance Education Presidential Citation winner is Marcia Harvey

This award is to be given to those who in the opinion of the President, and their colleagues, have made an outstanding recent contribution to AADES.To be considered for a Presidential Citation the nominee must have made a significant contribution to:

- furthering the goal of AADES

- advancing AADES’s organisational development

Much of Marcia’s work has not been seen outside of the AADES Executive. However, her impact on the organization has been huge. Marcia has been involved in distance education as a teacher and Assistant Principal and in taking the lead in the development of learning materials for distance and regular schools in the NT. She currently leads the ICT4 Learning unit tasked with the development of the use of ICT for learning across all schools in the NT. Marcia joined the AADES Executive in 2005; she has been an advocate for AADES over that time. She was secretary for 4 years. She has been instrumental in the development of FLX, a process of collaborative curriculum development between AADES member schools. She has also led the participating teams in the NT. Marcia was also been an active member of the National Materials Development Network advocating for working across jurisdictions in the sharing and development of high quality materials for students in a distance learning environment. Marcia led the successful organization for the AADES Leaders Conference in Darwin. Marcia has worked at a political level within the NT and Australasia wide to support the AADES agenda. She is a team member and is passionate about the work she does. Marcia has high expectations of herself and the projects that she leads. She has successfully made a difference to education in the NT and to AADES.

AADES Conference Skoolaborate Art Crimes Presentation

Wed, 20 Jul 2011 17:17:07 GMT

The Skoolaborate team consisting of Mark Kent Assistant Principal of the Distance Education Centre Victoria, Susan Connell, Head of Senior School at Cairns School of Distance Education and Chris Knowlman, Head of Department, Virtual and School Services Brisbane School of Distance Education presented Skoolaborate / Art Crimes project at The Hutchins School on the first day of the ADDES conference in Hobart. We addressed a full house who braved the cold and the long walk up the steep hill to attend. The group included teachers, educators, industry professionals and students from Hutchinson school. The presentation showcased the success of the project over the last eighteen months featuring:

• the teaching and learning environment in Skoolaborate.

• the website that houses all the online units shared on a global scale with Skoolaborate partners.

• how we used blended experiences and learning to engage and improve students outcomes.

• the importance of developing relationships and building community.

• the Art Crimes project successfully exploring Values Education via blend of face to face and innovative virtual experiences.

• teachers taking risks in their approaches to teaching and learning.

• data that highlighted the engagement and improvement of students’ outcomes.

• video clips from industry, parents and students giving 100 % positive feedback.

• the increased investment of leaders to actively create national partnerships.

• a virtual tour around our Art crimes precinct displaying the amazing landscape and the students’ resolved art work.

The presentation concluded with our vision for the future ….Watch this space!!!!!!!!!

Skoolaborate / AADES National Partnership

Fri, 27 May 2011 15:20:20 GMT

After running three Skoolaborate workshops in Victoria and Queensland at three Distance Education Schools involving 45 students from years 8 to 12 celebrated artist Daniel Wallwork aka Wally selected 5 students from each school to come together in Cairns for a week long collaborative graffiti culture exercise.

While Antoine met the Victorian students at Melbourne airport and Chris met his Queensland group at Brisbane airport Susan, Daniel and I prepared the outdoor area where we would physically construct the mural and menu planned with chef Yoss and checked out the sleeping quarters.

The kids arrived around 3pm dumped their bags and we did the introductions.

Interestingly many of the students had met in Skoolaborate but not in Real-Life. It didn't take long for those that had already met in the Art Crimes area to connect the dots and reconnect like old friends. Fascinating stuff.

Student "oh you're that large avatar that I was talking to the other day in Art Crimes"

Outside the students checked out the physical space where we'd spend the next 4 days working and unloaded the bare panels and leaned them against the fence so you could see the scale of the mural.

As the work progressed the mural grew in our Skoolaborate space. Check the gallery in this blog for visuals.

Our fabulous chef Yoss who kept us all fed and catered for the carnivores, the vegetarians and the kosher among us.

Wally spent time with the students mapping out concepts and sketching their thoughts on the whiteboard before it was time to transfer some of these basic designs to the panels outside and the panels in Skoolaborate / Art Crimes.

The students were amazing and they worked together on creating, tweaking and developing their designs. As they worked we live streamed 2 hours a day using a basic laptop and a webcam with a reasonable degree of success back to our schools and over the Internet. Parents and teachers were able to see the students at work.

Apart from learning skills in photoshop, photo impact, paint, elements of graphic design, spatial relations, area, etc our virtual world has proved a fantastic vehicle for developing relationships, building community and providing opportunities for meaning communication.

Over the next four days the students worked tirelessly on their piece under the tutorlidge of Wally. Just looking over the gallery photos provide a snapshot (pardon the pun) of the level of their engagement.

On Friday morning with half an hour to spare we downed tools and stood back to admire our collaborative work.

Yoss had prepared a sumptuous feast for the inveiling of the mural by Assistant Regional Director Richard Huilen and around 11.30 Art Crimes was officially presented to the community.

The unveiling was covered in the newspaper, channel 7 and live streamed to the world.

In the afternoon the kids - who had by now become firm friends - said their goodbyes and flew home. Promising to meet again soon in Skoolaborate and continue the story.

Can't wait to see what eventuates.

2011 AADES Executive Meeting in Darwin

Wed, 23 Mar 2011 13:04:32 GMT

The AADES Executive consists of two representatives from each State, Territory or country. Half of the representatives from each state, Territory or country will be elected in each electoral cycle. An electoral cycle will be two years. This year the national executive met in Darwin.

Executive thoughts

Some responses to a quick question of the AADES executives as to immediate thoughts on working so closely with each other over the two day intensive.

“I welcome the plan to broaden the participation of individual teachers in ADDES by publishing names and contact details of those we know may be interested in particular issues on the website. This will give specific purposes for communication which can only enrich the learning for teachers as well as bringing them to the website and establishing networks.”

“As a distance education teacher and manager, AADES is a very motivating and dynamic group with which to be associated. As technologies continue to open doors to authentic learning opportunities, AADES continues to seek ways of providing students who are learning in flexible and distance modes, with dynamic and rich learning environments. Importantly, the Association transcends state borders and remains global and visionary in its perspective.”

“The AADES Executive meeting brought together national and New Zealand educators who discussed strategic planning and best practice in Distance Education schools. This included the pedagogies that have succeeded and current issues in the changing landscape of Distance Education. The meeting provided informed and targeted professional learning that fosters a culture of collaboration with a focus on continuous improvement.”

“It is always very reassuring to meet with like minded Distance Education colleagues. Distance Delivery is a very exciting field and even more so now with technology becoming a very important focus to take us another step further in maximising our support of students and their learning. It is inspiring to learn about what is happening around Australia and New Zealand and beyond and to share our knowledge and achievements.”

Brisbane Art Crimes Progress

Fri, 25 Feb 2011 11:28:24 GMT

Art Crimes is a project currently being successfully implemented using ICT and Virtual Worlds. The project involves a small team of Queensland and Victorian leaders and teachers as a National Partnership. In 2010, Susan Connell (Cairns SDE) Chris Knowlman (Brisbane SDE) and Mark Kent (Distance Education Centre Victoria) successfully secured an AADES Innovation Research Grant to develop the Skoolaborate a SecondLife project.

As with all cutting edge technologies and programs, there were teething problems and setbacks that would deter even the most enthusiastic educator and technician. Not so with this group. Every setback, roadblock and piece of departmental red tape was worked through, worked around or renegotiated. The level of support provided to each member of the team by their individual schools executive and collectively by AADES has been very much appreciated and vital to the success of the project.

Research indicates that eLearning is the fastest growing educational sector worldwide and technology is an important tool in facilitating changes to education that will improve outcomes for students. The Skoolaborate project involves our three schools, and aims to explore different pedagogical approaches to flexible and online learning. It involves students directly in the project and in a new learning experience.

Project outline:
The project focuses on values, culture, beliefs and transitions across curriculum areas.

Skoolaborate is a global initiative that centres on a ‘virtual world’ but involves a blend of technologies including, blogs, online learning, wikis and the virtual world to transform learning. We used these tools with the aim of providing engaging collaborative learning experiences for students aged between 14 and 17 years. The three distance education schools have collaboratively designed online units of work for students’ use.

The Skoolaborate project has directly provided opportunities for students to access information about values, cultures, beliefs and transitions and view tasks set in line with each concept. We have endeavoured to blend real world and in-world experiences to make learning more meaningful and engaging. The project integrates curriculum and digital technologies into collaborative actions.

The virtual world ensures discussion and contribution by all students participating, no matter where they log in from. Everyone can contribute and positively feedback to others working within the online / inworld community. We anticipate that over time the units of work will be modified by the students as well as the teachers and will grow to reflect the diverse nature of our communities.

Skoolaborate / Art Crimes - our virtual learning space is secure and accessible only via invitation. Students from the three Distance Education Schools have been invited to participate. We began with a group of students from Cairns SDE. We have used our initial experiences to improve the skills and understanding essential in achieving our goal of improving educational outcomes for our students – particularly those who are disadvantaged by geographical isolation, medical issues and/or lack of opportunity for social interaction. Last week students at Brisbane SDE worked with a recognised expert in graphic arts and graffiti culture as well as expert teaching staff from BSDE and CSDE and the DECV to successfully deliver and engage the students in a very powerful program of learning. Check out the Gallet titled Brisbane Skoolaborate Workshop.

On March 10^th and 11^th fifteen of our Victorian Distance Education students will participate in the Skoolaborate / Art Crimes project and continue the work begun in Cairns and further developed in Brisbane.

In May five students from each of the three distance education schools will meet in Cairns at the CSDE for a four day workshop that will see them collaborate and produce a real world 3.6m x 2.4m graffiti wall that will be simultaneously developed in our Art Crimes area inworld. This collaboration will be streamed live via the web to each student’s school and also be accessed via the AADES website. http://www.aades.edu.au/

This project aims to improve engagement and explore new pedagogical approaches to flexible and on-line learning for all students. Skoolaborate / Art Crimes has directly contributed to building a culture of collaboration across distance education schools that will continue to grow as we embrace the challenges of the national curriculum.

Skoolaborate is a national partnership that promotes professional learning and sharing amongst distance educators. It has created opportunities for educators to network with others in like schools across the AADES membership. AADES was formed in 1993 and currently has in excess of 1200 members in all Australian states and New Zealand.

Our pilot project has brought together students, support staff and teachers from three of the (AADES) Distance Education Schools. The research outcomes associated with the project will be published and the learning shared with all AADES schools. The Art Crimes project is now getting some attention from school communities overseas that are exploring teaching and learning in virtual environments. The potential to build a global community is here now.

A recent addition to our build in Skoolaborate / SecondLife is a virtual studio and gallery and who knows, by establishing a Studio in Art Crimes and exploring some connections to the business and arts worlds we not only bring realism to the virtual environment but ultimately we may provide greater access for young people to engage in the Arts in a Second Life model in partnership with artists and industry.

Take a four minute tour and hear from a parent and students about their experience at: (this may requre you to paste the following url in your browser)

http://www.wpsvideo.com.au/work/Brisbane%20Skoolaborate%202011.wmv

Specific acknowledgment and thanks to:

Susan Connell / Mark Kent / Alison Butler / Chris Knowlman / Eileen Furlonger /

Students Open Gallery In Skoolaborate SecondLife

Thu, 16 Dec 2010 11:39:44 GMT

Cairns Senior School Students exhibit final folio tasks in the virtual world. This is a national first for Australian Government Schools. As the first stage of a national partnership supported in part by AADES we aim to develop partnerships between schools, students, teachers and artists in our educational space in Second Life in order to provide opportunities for students to:

1. experience working in a virtual environment.

2. build their knowledge and experience of contemporary art styles.

3. trial an innovative delivery options.

4. publish their own work within a professional community and showcase their achievements.

5. collaborate with others and contribute to their own artistic growth and development.

6. build a community of enquiry across Australia and New Zealand

Goals

Establishing our Studio in Second Life and exploring some connections to the business and Arts worlds.This would bring realism to the virtual environment.

Provide greater access for young people to engage in the Arts in a Second Life model in partnership with artists and industry.

Develop and promote supported pathways for young people to participate in the Arts industry.

Developing a dynamic gallery in a virtual environment will enable students will be able to showcase and share their artworks and achievements. This will ultimately improve student outcomes.

For our Distance Education students across Australia, this partnership intends to promote art and artistic expression. This will provide experiences and opportunities for many students to explore a cutting edge virtual environment.

We anticipate that, in time, students may publish their own work within a professional communityand collaborate with others. This will build a community of enquiry across Australia and potentially New Zealand

The Australasian Association of Distance Education Schools (AADES) recognises and values the contributions its members make to the ongoing development of flexible and on line learning. AADES also recognises that many educators at distance education schools are at the forefront of innovative teaching and learning practices. Professional collaboration and sharing of ideas are integral to developing the capacity of educators to explore, learn about and practice innovative ideas in flexible and on-line learning pedagogy.

The 2011 AADES National Conference

Thu, 02 Dec 2010 16:51:24 GMT

Research indicates that elearning is the fastest growing educational sector worldwide. This prestigious conference will enable educators who work in compulsory and post-compulsory settings to develop their understanding of the ways that elearning can enhance the educational experiences and outcomes of their students. Significantly, the conference coincides with the roll out of NBN Australia wide, which will enable the provision of exciting new learning opportunities for all students in our nation. The conference will highlight these opportunities and enable delegates to examine a diverse range of innovative resources, digital technologies, teaching ideas and management practices.

During the lead-up to the conference, we will keep you informed of developments and be available to answer any questions you might have. For detailed information about the event, please refer to the conference website http://www.aadesconference2011.net.au/ . To be kept fully informed of conference updates as they become available please register your interest on the conference website at Register your interest.

Queensland & Victoria partner to develop approaches to National Curriculum issues.

Sat, 27 Nov 2010 18:38:15 GMT

A very exciting two days as three Government Distance Education schools: Cairns, Brisbane and Victoria come together for a two day think tank to share ideas and innovations as they might relate to the National Curriculum rollout. The ideas and questions that we started work on will be available here soon.

Practical examples of learning and teaching in Virtual Worlds

Wed, 03 Nov 2010 11:23:30 GMT

Westley Field’s keynote address is well worth listening to. He talks about the opportunities that technology affords students around relationship building and developing educational capacity. THREE Government Distance Education schools – Cairns, Brisbane and Victoria – have built a professional learning partnership by developing a groundbreaking flexible online learning environment in Skoolaborate/Second Life. Students explored values, cultures and beliefs through graffiti and tagging in the Art Crimes project. This is a real life example of teaching and learning using virtual worlds.

Some of our keynote speakers

Tue, 12 Oct 2010 12:43:42 GMT

One of the most valuable things about any conference is the opportunity to get together with individuals and groups who are traveling a similar journey in order to share knowledge and build relationships. At this years AADES conference there was no shortage of knowledge to be shared. Here are just some of the main speakers.

Mike Hollings CEO of Te Kura opened proceeding with traditional welcome and songs. Speakers included: Karen Sewell (Secretary for Education and CE of the Ministry of Education), Hekia Parata (National Member of Parliament), Elizabeth McKinley (Associate Professor The University of Auckland), Bentham Ohia – (Pouhere CEO of Te Wānanga o Aotearoa), Viv White (Company Director Big Picture Education Australia), Jen McCutcheon (Project Manager Authentic Learning Project for Te Aho o Te Kura Pounamu, Westley Field (Director of Online Learning, Manager of IT and Managing Director of Skoolaborate), Hine Waitere (Director of the Indigenous Leadership Centre within the National Institute of Māori Education – Te Whare Wānanga o Awanui-a-rangi), Brenda Frisk (Business Development Director, Nextspace),

What struck me was the variety, breadth and depth of the presenters and the quality of the discussions that they provoked. I would certainly recommend that if you weren’t there when the conference was streamed that you watch some of the recorded sessions and contribute to the discussions, blogs and feeds.

Mark Kent

2010 AADES Presidents Report

Fri, 01 Oct 2010 10:20:30 GMT

AADES Strategic Plan has a goal to promote the work of AADES schools and their leadership in the innovative use of technology for learning. In pursuit of this goal we have been making representations at an Australian Federal level to Julia Gillard as Minister for Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR). As a consequence we were invited to attend stakeholder meetings facilitated by Michele Bruniges, Deputy Secretary of DEEWR. These meetings briefed stakeholders on the discussions at the Ministerial Council of Education, Early Childhood Development and Youth Affairs. They also enabled stakeholder issues to be raised and forwarded to the relevant sections within DEEWR and the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA).

The venue for the 2010 Leaders Conference was Wellington, New Zealand. This was a great opportunity for Australian AADES members to be able to learn from the New Zealand arm. I would like to thank Te Kura for hosting the conference. In particular, I would like to recognize Sonya Bishara and her team for bringing the conference to fruition.

As AADES schools are heavily involved in the use of blended and elearning it is important that the AADES Executive as leaders of the organization model the innovative use of technology for the professional development of its members. As a consequence the Executive determined to work with MLC (Sydney), who are the key partners in Skoolaborate (a secure section of Second Life) to model possible uses of technology for learning. We have developed a site that integrates the use of social media, webstreaming and Secondlife to facilitate people to participate in the conference in different ways and enable those not able to attend in New Zealand to gain insights from the conference and participate in a variety of ways. We have also used social media to spread the word about the conference and also to spread the word about AADES. We will use the feedback from this conference to inform our use for future professional learning.

With the advent of National Curriculum, the AADES Executive has started discussion on how we might work as an organization to share the burden of responding.

AADES is continuing to support FLX projects between states. The process has not only supported the development of high quality learning materials but also been professional development activities for the participants and has built strong collaborative networks between schools.

Prior to the Principals and Leaders Conference, the AADES Executive met with Florida Virtual School through the work of Lynn Dunne from the Tasmanian Virtual School. The meeting explored the opportunities of working with Florida Virtual School and accessing their materials. This will be further explored over the next few months.

AADES schools are continuing to lead the way in the uses of technology for education. The 2010 AADES Innovation Research grant has been awarded to a consortium of schools working on the use of second life to learning. Brisbane School of Distance Education, Cairns School of Distance Education and Distance Education Centre Victoria have designed a project that is carried out using web 2.0 tools, a secure section of Second life and design software to explore elements of art. The outcomes to this point are showing high levels of student engagement and outstanding student work. The project will report the outcomes of the work at the next AADES Conference in 2011 in Hobart, Tasmania.

I would like to express my thanks to the executive for their time and commitment of the last twelve months.

Bronwyn Stubbs
AADES President

AADES LEADERS’FORUM 2010

Fri, 17 Sep 2010 11:02:29 GMT

Learning in the Real World - Leading Authentic Learning

29 September – 1 October 2010
Hosted by: Te Aho o Te Kura Pounamu – The Correspondence School
Venue: Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington, Aotearoa, New Zealand

For more information:

This link will take you to the forum information or click on Leaders Forum 2010 in the menu above.

AADES Innovation Research Grants

Fri, 17 Sep 2010 10:58:40 GMT

The AADES Innovation Grants provide an opportunity for members to access support from the Association to engage in educational research activities that:

improve engagement in learning for students in flexible and on-line learning programmes.
explore pedagogical approaches to flexible and on-line learning.

It is expected that participation in AADES Innovation Research activities will:

build a culture of collaboration across distance education schools
promote professional learning and sharing amongst distance educators
create opportunities for educators to network with others in like schools across the Association membership

AADES Innovation Grant 2010 - 2011

The successful applicant for the AADES Innovation Research Grants is a consortium from Distance Education Centre of Victoria, Cairns School of Distance Education, Brisbane School of Distance Education – Skoolaborate project

The Skoolaborate project involves three schools, and clearly is exploring different pedagogical approaches to flexible and on line learning. It involves students directly in the project and the new learning.

The following is the outline of the project
“The project will focus on values, culture, beliefs and transitions within curriculum areas.
Skoolaborate is a global initiative that uses a blend of technologies including, blogs, online learning, wiki's and ‘virtual worlds’ to transform learning. We aim to use these tools to provide engaging collaborative learning experiences for students aged between 15 and 17 years of age. The three SDEs will collaboratively design online units of work for students’ use. They will provide opportunities for students to access information about values, cultures, beliefs and transitions and view tasks set in line with each concept. We aim to learn how to use these blended experiences to make learning more meaningful and engaging. The projects we create will integrate curriculum and digital technologies into collaborative actions.
These online discussions will display feedback from all students participating no matter where they sign in from. Teachers and students can work on the units at a time and pace that suits their individual situations. Everyone can leave contributions that will impact on others working on the units. It is hoped that over time the units will be modified and will grow to reflect the diverse nature of our communities.
Our virtual learning space will be secure and only accessible via invitation. Students from the three Distance Education schools will be invited to participate. We will use our initial experiences to gain the skills that allow us to work towards achieving our goal of improving educational outcomes for our Distance Education students – particularly those who are disadvantaged by geographical isolation, medical issues and/or lack of opportunity for social interaction.”

The project structure requires participants to:

Work in collaboration across the three schools

Undertake professional learning and sharing

network with others in like schools

Australasian Association of Distance Education Schools Blog Feed

South Australia is keen to explore new innovations

Australasian Association of Distance Education Schools Australasian Awards

AADES Conference Skoolaborate Art Crimes Presentation

Skoolaborate / AADES National Partnership

2011 AADES Executive Meeting in Darwin

Executive thoughts

Brisbane Art Crimes Progress

Students Open Gallery In Skoolaborate SecondLife

Goals

The 2011 AADES National Conference

Queensland & Victoria partner to develop approaches to National Curriculum issues.

Practical examples of learning and teaching in Virtual Worlds

Some of our keynote speakers

2010 AADES Presidents Report

AADES LEADERS’FORUM 2010

Learning in the Real World - Leading Authentic Learning

29 September – 1 October 2010 Hosted by: Te Aho o Te Kura Pounamu – The Correspondence School Venue: Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington, Aotearoa, New Zealand

AADES Innovation Research Grants

AADES Innovation Grant 2010 - 2011

29 September – 1 October 2010
Hosted by: Te Aho o Te Kura Pounamu – The Correspondence School
Venue: Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington, Aotearoa, New Zealand