Digital technology has enhanced the learning experiences of our distance education students and enables us to forge stronger connections. However, how do we ensure our students develop healthy technology habits? Jocelyn Brewer is a registered psychologist and cyberpsychology researcher who has spent over a decade exploring the impacts of digital technologies on how we live, love and learn. She has extensive experience working in schools as both a teacher and school psychologist and holds a Masters which explored factors which contributed to year 7 students' proneness to smartphone dependence. Jocelyn is the founder of Digital Nutrition. Digital Nutrition is focuses on the intentional and intelligent use of devices and healthy technology habits, improving digital literacy and wellbeing. Join Jocelyn at 1.00pm (AEDT) Thursday 23 March for a webinar on how to support the wellbeing of our students (and ourselves) in the digital age. ‍Stay online and join us for the AADES AGM at 2.15pm (AEDT).

‘Autism isn’t a challenge – it’s a superpower – it enables our creativity to shine.’

VCE Agricultural and Horticultural (AgHort) students have been flourishing with a recent project – creating and building a small AgHort business.

Alice Springs School of the Air is implementing a structured program to teach reading and spelling to the Early Childhood classes to lift student progress and achievement in early literacy.

AADES recently hosted a series of webinars based on workshops from our 2022 conference. Recordings of the webinars are now available for viewing.

The links for next week's webinar series are now available in this article and the webinar section of our website. For those that missed our recent conference or missed out on a specific workshop, AADES is hosting a Webinar Week from 5-9 September. A webinar will be held each weekday from 5-9 September at 1.00pm AEST. Each webinar will run for 45 minutes. Mark your calendars for next week. Click on the article for further details.

Virtual School Victoria received the AADES Project Achievement Award for the Victorian High Ability Program (VHAP) at the recent AADES biennial conference. The program was an initiative with the Victorian Government for high-ability students in Years 5-8 in Victorian public schools. This program is an example of how distance education schools can extend their role in supporting face-to-face schools through a specialised online program.

Keynote speaker: Dr Jordan Nguyen, one of Australia’s most innovative engineers, who is committed to improving the lives of as many people as possible, and to help become a driving force behind both human and technological evolution as we move into the future.

32 students recently performed and produced Picnic at Hanging Rock

Students at the Tasmanian eSchool have been experimenting with Neurographic Art, a technique created by Russian psychologist Pavel Piskarev in 2014.

The AADES Biennial Conference will be held at the National Wine Centre in Adelaide, South Australia, 8-9 August 2022. The conference will showcase what is the best practice in Australia and New Zealand in online and blended education for students from Kindergarten to Year 12. Registrations are now open through the AADES Conference website.

AADES Webinar - Quality Teaching & Visible Learning - Thursday 26 May 1:00pm. AEST Join Finigan School of Distance Education's Deputy Principal Harvey Wilson and Head Teacher Teaching & Learning Ashlee Kellner as they share how they have implemented and adapted the evidence-based practices of Visible learning and Quality Teaching Rounds into the distance education setting.

Two song-writing students at Te Aho o Te Kura Pounamu have had their own songs released under a school initiative that has been given the thumbs up by industry heavyweights.

The 2022 AADES Conference will be held in Adelaide on the 8-9 August 2022. The theme for the conference is Connect Contribute Thrive. The conference venue is the Australian National Wine Centre. AADES is currently calling for workshop proposals and nominations for the AADES Awards. See the Conference and Award sections of the AADES website for further details.

AADES has relaunched its social media channels. Keep up to date with AADES news and connect with distance education colleagues across Australasia through your preferred social media channel (Instagram, Facebook, Twitter).

AgHort students enjoyed the opportunity to learn from industry innovators and meet other like-minded students on a recent excursion.

Students at the Tasmanian eSchool have been looking at Sidney Nolan, more particularly his ‘Ned Kelly’ series.

We are Mai and Siobhan, two Occupational Therapy (OT) students from the University of South Australia. We are based at Open Access College Marden Campus holding a 9-week project to support student engagement in online learning.

The AADES 2022 Annual General Meeting will be held online on Friday 25 March at 1.00pm AEST. Members are invited to attend.‍

A joint Mathematics project between students at the One Arm Point Remote Community School in the Ardyaloon Community, and the Shenton College Deaf Education Centre in Perth has led to the creation of a board game to consolidate Mathematics concepts and help preserve the Bardi language spoken at Ardyaloon.

Virtual School Victoria (VSV) and the Melbourne Recital Centre (MRC) continue to nurture the next generation of composers and performers at the annual Making Waves concert.

Sitting a Year 12 exam and playing cricket in the Women’s Big Bash League are all in a day’s work for Virtual School Victoria (VSV) student, Ella.

2021 is the first year the Tasmanian eSchool has taught Dance as part of our year 7-8 HPE classes and every student embraced the challenge of studying dance from home in their own way.

Alice Springs School of the Air celebrates World Kindness Day through whole school learning and activities.

For four days in September, from Monday 6th to Thursday 9th, Marden Campus was transformed for the first time into “Wellbeing Central.”

Virtual School Victoria (VSV) recently celebrated a significant milestone – the first anniversary of delivering the Victorian High-Ability Program (VHAP).Almost 18,000 Victorian students in Years 5-8 have participated in the State Government initiative that supports government schools to extend their high-ability students.

Open Access College primary students celebrated Book Week 2021 in week 5 of Term 3. We had a special visit from Illustrator Andrew Joyner and learned how to draw elephants!

As part of our work with Port Vila International School, Open Access College has been sponsoring local students to complete high school. Thank you to Claire who has written this letter.

Supporting staff through training modules

VSV’s squad smashes the Stile Super Teacher Challenge

Cairns School of Distance Education (Cairns SDE) is thrilled to have received the Certificate of Commendation from the Consulate-General of Japan for the school's distinguished service to the deepening of ties between Japan and Australia.

Virtual School Victoria's VCE Theatre Studies class produced an incredibly powerful and poignant production of Alana Valentine’s Letters to Lindy in spite of only coming together for two intensive days of rehearsals prior to the live performance.

SA distance education school Open Access College hosts regular ‘Come in Days’ throughout the year to give students the opportunity to mix with their teachers and fellow students. The most recent event involved Stage 1 and 2 Visual Art and Creative Arts students visiting OAC for 'Art Come in Day'.

‘Growing our Learners’ was the theme of the annual Home Tutor Conference for Alice Springs School of the Air, held earlier this year. This week-long conference supports one of our strategic focus areas, partnerships, with our goal of building the capacity of our home tutors to meet their students’ learning needs.

Open Access College student Hudson found that studying online was the ideal way to continue his long-standing passion for learning Japanese.

Meet Eloise, a year 10 student from Open Access College in SA who enjoys singing in the Australian Girls Choir, trampolining and cooking. Eloise came to study online under the medical enrolment program at OAC because of uncontrolled epilepsy. Moving to distance education has done wonders for Eloise's confidence, self-belief and grades. After impressing her teachers with her hard work, leadership qualities and resilience, Eloise wrote an article describing her experience with distance education.

Year 11 VCE students recently travelled to NSW – virtually – for an insightful farm tour with a cotton farmer.

The recent webinar by Professor Doug Fisher on Visible Learning Mindframes in the distance education context including Collective Teacher Efficacy and effective feedback is now available to view as a recording for member schools until 5 July 2021.

As New Zealand’s state distance education provider, and the country’s largest school, Te Aho o Te Kura Pounamu (Te Kura) supports more than 23,000 ākonga (students) with their learning every year. Located throughout New Zealand and overseas, our ākonga come from a wide range of backgrounds and have diverse learning needs, which we support through personalised learning programmes based on their interests, passions and goals. Our ākonga and their whānau have been affected in different ways during the COVID-19 disruptions. Many ākonga had to change or cancel plans at short notice, and find ways to adapt their learning programmes to accommodate government restrictions.

A former VSV student, Talia, has come full circle after recently joining the teaching team at VSV.

Throughout the year, Tasmanian eSchool offers several onsite activity days for students from Kindergarten to Year 12. The first for 2021 was a welcome BBQ at the Northern Campus.

AADES was proud to recently present a 90 minute webinar by Professor Doug Fisher free for all AADES member schools. Doug has recently co-authored The Distance Learning Playbook (Corwin) with John Hattie and Nancy Frey. The book details the latest research on effective teaching and learning in the online learning context. The webinar will include the topics 1. Teacher credibility and teacher clarity in distance learning 2. The design of engaging teaching and learning experiences useful in distance learning. Doug is engaging presenter and a passionate educator. A recording is now available for viewing for a limited time.

Senior ākonga (students) throughout Aotearoa are facing a range of challenges due to COVID-19 disruptions. Some have already left school or are significantly behind and at risk of disengaging, others have faced barriers to learning this year and are at risk of not achieving their NCEA goals. There are also ākonga who at the end of Term 4 may need only a few additional credits to gain NCEA Level 3 or University Entrance. After experiencing multiple disruptions, many Auckland ākonga require additional support. To support these ākonga, Te Aho o Te Kura Pounamu (Te Kura) has partnered with the Ministry of Education to expand its programmes in Term 4 and over the summer break.

Virtual School Victoria (VSV) and the Melbourne Theatre Company (MTC) propel theatre into a new world, providing a glimpse of what theatre could look like during COVID-19 and beyond.

The ‘Improving Myselfie’ classes for year 5, 6 and 7 was part of a transition program trialled in 2020 with great success. The program was empowered students to deepen their understanding of their own ways of working, self-reflect and broadened their skill sets. The program was delivered online weekly, with students focussing on growth mindset, the brain and how we learn, and study skills.

Tasmanian eSchool students have a chance to regularly meet and mix at Northern and Southern Tasmanian Activity Days.

Dubbo School of Distance Education were winners of the NSW T4L (Technology for Learning) Award in 2019 for: “Leader in developing digital collaborative communities”.‍ We would like to present some of our collaborative teaching and learning that has stemmed from our knowledge of adjusting Project-based Learning (PBL) in an online environment, in a webinar “How to Engage an Authentic Audience”.‍ We will take you through our 8 STEPs of engaging a quality authentic audience in your projects that ensures quality learning experiences for your students.

New York Times bestselling author headlines at F-6 virtual connect

Te Kura student Bailey has turned his passion for fixing things, working with his hands, and helping kids in need into a thriving charity.

Paper planes abounded at the recent F-6 Virtual Connect, where Flight was the theme.

Many of our students at Tasmanian eSchool have significant challenges with their social and/or emotional wellbeing. Most of our learners have enrolled with the school under medical/psychological registration criteria. Using data collected from the 2019 Department of Education State-wide Wellbeing Survey,the Student Support Team in collaboration with school leadership developed a whole school response. The Student Support Team consisting of School Psychologists, Social Workers, and leaders of Wellbeing and Inclusion will present how they have systemised a wellbeing program which every learner and teacher has, and continues to experience. They will share how a targeted response has impacted all Kindergarten to Year 12 timetable structures and programs providing our learners and their teachers greater opportunity and capacity to maintain or improve their personal wellbeing.

SIDE’s Technologies Learning Area continues to develop partnerships with district high schools, allowing students at the schools to develop skills in Design and Technology, and schools to upskill staff and use their Design and Technology rooms.

SOTA students travelled a long way to Port Augusta campus with their families and supervisors for their annual school experience.

Not So Distanced: Coming together through Art is a collection of work by Open Access Students in years 7-10. Our students have shown extraordinary resilience during what has been a far from ordinary year. View the culmination of artwork produced during this time, from the safety and comfort of home in our virtual art exhibition.

At Tasmanian eSchool this year, all students from Prep to Year 8 are studying Digital Technologies and German. Our teachers collaborated to find ways to make the learning transferable and fun!

A free webinar will be hosted on 25 June 2020 (1pm AEST). Georgia Gouros, a teacher at the Virtual School Victoria will demonstrate how to scaffold learning through worked examples to support skill acquisition and reduce a learner’s cognitive load.

Elke and Nikola share their distance learning tips with Australia.

Hi, I am Berkley, I live in a caravan and travel around Australia. This means my life is a little different to most… We own a house in SA and occasionally stay there, but for the majority of the time, were out and about all over Australia.

Continuous collaboration, improvements in information technology infrastructure, and innovative use of learning technologies are leading to improved teaching and learning for SIDE’s secondary students living in the Kandiwal Community.

Unpacking a project piloted by Brisbane School of Distance Education to teach Health and Physical Education. The premise for this project is simple: increase the frequency of student performance and coaching feedback in every HPE lesson.

Schools across Australia and throughout the world have moved towards various forms of remote learning and digital methods of operating. CareMonkey hosted a peer-driven webinar on Tuesday, 28th April to help educational leaders share and learn from each other's experiences.

Every year staff and students at the Tasmanian eSchool look forward to opportunities to get together. At the commencement of Term 1, students from both our campuses in Launceston and Hobart met for a local ‘meet and greet’ event.

While Open Access College has been conducting online classes for years, it’s only recently that the concept of distance learning has truly been noticed by most of the Aussie population.

On February 13th OAC and MSC hosted a combined BBQ lunch to Celebrate Apology to the Stolen Generations.

At Capricornia School of Distance Education, we are feeling proud that we have built a method of delivery that we know can withstand the barriers of distance and still cater to the needs of a diverse learning group. Whilst there is a large responsibility on the shoulders of home tutors, the results of their work is evident in student outcomes, the maintaining of a strong learning culture and the positive relationships that Capricornia SDE families have with teachers. We couldn’t do it without them!

Brisbane SDE are collaboratively working to improve visible learning online.

The Tasmanian eSchool SRC support the Lids 4 Kids initiative and also raise awareness in the school community of bullying and how to stand up against it by becoming an "upstander".

Te Kura teachers coming from face-to-face environments often grieve for aspects of their professional self they feel they only know how to express in a face-to-face teaching environment. When tasked with supporting teachers in using a wider range of online teaching tools, my starting point was asking teachers which part of their face-to-face teaching selves they missed the most. We then proceeded to find ways to use digital tools to bring these teaching selves online. Selected examples of practice will be shared, and workshop participants will be invited to share or brainstorm ways of bringing their best teaching selves online.

The AADES 2020 AGM will be held on Friday 27 March at 9.00am (AEST). The meeting will be hosted by Capricornia School of Distance Education, Rockhampton, Queensland. If you would like to attend via web conference please contact jeane.schocroft@openaccess.edu.au for details.

AADES Professional Learning Grants (non-conference years) Purpose, Eligibility, General Information and link to Application Form

Capricornia SDE hosts a state wide networking opportunity for Guidance Officers.

The Tasmanian eSchool celebrates 100 years of distance education in Tasmania from slow horses to the internet and beyond.

The School of Isolated and Distance Education (SIDE) has teamed up with Meekatharra District High School in a ground-breaking virtual learning program that’s changing expectations of what can be achieved through distance education.

Cairns Distance Education students have enjoyed a variety of outdoor activities this year. Camp, Cultural Well being Day and Sports Day are just a few!

VET student success at Brisbane SDE Students at Brisbane SDE are experiencing great success with Vocational Pathways. Anthony using his culinary skills to make pies. Singer, songwriter Molly Servicing and maintaining motor vehicles is one of Casey’s passions. Read on to find out more about these talented students.

The Samoan Language (Gagana Sāmoa) is spoken by nearly half a million people worldwide, including 85,000 people in New Zealand, making it the third most widely spoken language in New Zealand after English and te reo Māori.

The School of Isolated and Distance Education (SIDE) is committed to developing towards becoming a culturally responsive school, moving through the stages of cultural awareness, cultural understanding, cultural competence and cultural responsiveness.

Teaching music online at the Tasmanian eSchool

This semester the young performers of School of Rock have enrolled with Virtual School Victoria as they go on tour.

On Friday 29th March the AADES met at the new Finigan School of Distance Education, based in Queanbeyan NSW and welcomed the school to the AADES Community. Finigan School fo Distance Education is a purpose built K-12 school supporting students across south-eastern NSW. Its facilities include 20 web lesson studios, a satellite lesson studio and 2 video production studios. You can read more about the school here.

The artistry of Te Aho o Te Kura Pounamu (Te Kura) students is now on permanent display in the Ministry of Education’s national office at Mātauranga House.

With the rapid evolution of Technology into the Modern World, it is vital that we prepare our students for the technological future. Distance Education students are currently effective "drivers" of digital systems, but do your students have the skills, knowledge and understanding to be"mechanics" of these digital systems? This article unpacks a STEM program designed and implemented at Capricornia SDE.

BrisbaneSDE … inspiring leadership BrisbaneSDE 2018 School Captain Mahala Karan studied with BrisbaneSDE for 9 years commencing in year 4. She has been awarded ‘The Empowering Young Women’s Award’ in the Greater Brisbane Women in Business Awards. Nominations for this category were open to outstanding young women who demonstrated significant leadership potential and outstanding qualities or performance. Mahala won this award for her significant leadership skills as BrisbaneSDE school captain and the South Queensland Brigade Cadet Under Officer (CUO) in the Australian Army Cadets, looking after approximately 2500 cadets.

Brisbane SDE recently hosted its inaugural e-Gen Forum.

The 2019 Biennial AADES Conference in conjunction with Common Ground Research Networks is pleased to announce the conference dinner will be at MONA. Further details about the awards dinner and pre-conference activities here.

Tasmanian eSchool’s Year 9 and 10 students participated in the NaNoWriNo challenge.

The AADES Annual General Meeting will be hosted at Finigan School of Distance Education in Queanbeyan NSW at 11am (AEDT) on Friday 29th March 2019. Members are invited to access the AGM via WebEx. Please contact jeane.schocroft@openaccess.edu.au prior to the day for details.

The PLACE Project is about the spirit of belonging in an online learning environment. Item braces mutual respect for personal uniqueness, creativity and difference and celebrates connection.

It's awards time again. Every two years AADES presents a range of awards recognising excellence in distance education at its biennial conference.AADES is now calling for nominations for the awards to be presented at the upcoming conference. Please consider colleagues in your jurisdictions who have made outstanding contributions to distance education over the past two years. Details of the each award and the nomination process are contained in this article.

Our Biennial Conference is being held in Hobart from 2-3 May.‍The program (to be released shortly) is looking full and exciting with workshop contributions from every jurisdiction across Australia and New Zealand. Make sure your school is tapping into this opportunity to share in the journeys and discoveries of our distance education community. This article includes information on how to pay for individuals and groups.

SIDE WA Open Day

Tasmanian eSchool have been investigating how they demonstrate their motto "connected, engagaged, successful global citizens." The school has two campuses. The northern campus is based in Launceston and the southern campus is based in Hobart. These two sites are approximately 220 kilometers apart. Both schools deliver online education to students across Tasmania.

In a partnership established between the Distance Education Centre Victoria and Melbourne Theatre Company in 2017 teaching Drama virtually has been explored in a program called ‘In and Out of Worlds. Through this partnership opportunity, created by the Creative Victoria Education and Partnerships funding program, we have explored new ways to navigate meaningful connections between students learning at home, and those physically attending subjects like drama.

Get an insight into how Te Aho o Te Kura Pounamu (Te Kura), New Zealand’s state distance education provider, delivers online learning for early childhood, primary and secondary education. Participants will get insight into the school’s online learning environment; how learners and supervisors interact with learning content; and how teachers manage the environment. Presented by members of Te Kura’s curriculum and online team www.tekura.school.nz Webinar: Thursday 18 October, 12:30pm (ACT) (2:30pm NZ)

For the past several years, Mount Isa School of the Air has been engaging in a community process of creating assessment literate learners in order to enable their teachers to prioritise the teaching of and learning of the Australian Curriculum. Drawing largely from evidence-based works by Fisher and Frey and Hattie, using the Gradual Release of Responsibility as a framework for teaching and learning, the school community have been working collegially towards a deep understanding of the assessment demands of the Curriculum into the classroom suite of materials.

Katherine School of the Air will be hosting an upcoming webinar. Join Sarah Dohl and Nick Lovering for the story of how KSA integrates rubrics into their whole school approach to student feedback. In this session, they will share: - how rubrics are used for student learning - what students are saying about rubrics - how using rubrics has impacted on interactions between student, home tutor and teacher

Katherine School of the Air has again engaged with the national Write a Book in a Day Competiton which has students collaboratively write stories for children in hospitals across the country. Despite some technical hurdles this year's involvement and contribution was a success.

Te Kura has been working hard over the past few years to explore the best ways to create immersive and engaging learning experiences for their students. This year they have been nominated for the 2018 Best Design Awards in recognition of their innovative work in the creation of interactive, multi-sensory learning modules. Read more here. The article includes a link to a video of Te Kura students talking about their learning experiences at Te Kura.