Stephen Heppell

Already more than six years old, this new century is proving to be very different from the 20th century. In the 20th century many of our success stories were characterised by building big things that did things for others - like national rail systems and schools. Economies of scale, productivity outcomes, efficiency and standardisation were found in schools and industry alike. But in the 21st century all the economic success stories are about helping people to help each other. From Google and eBay to communities of practice this is a century built on people and on communication. Ingenuity, esteem, leadership - and followship - all matter. It is the century of contribution rather than consumption. Building learning in this century requires fresh 21st century thought. Recreating 20th century, hierarchical, one-size-fits-all institutions that have failed elsewhere, even with subtle variations and improvements, will not deliver the step change in learning the 21st century tantalisingly offers us. This keynote presentation on Monday 19 November at 9.15am captures and illustrates some of the brave new thinking needed if countries are ambitious enough to want to be 21st century places of learning.

Tony Forster and Roland Gesthuizen

Game Maker's simple drag and drop interface is suitable down to Year 3, but through its powerful scripting language it is applicable to Year 12 and beyond. With Game Maker you can easily create games such as top view, platform games, first person shooters, 3D and networked multiplayer games. It's a fully fledged programming language capable of non-game applications such as physics simulations and databases. Participants will be introduced to a range of support material including a teachers' forum, online tutorials, game templates, graphics and sound resources, lesson plans and sample programs.

Brendan O'Brien

Participants will edit a short video clip using Windows XP Movie Maker which is already on most school computers. The software is easy to use and suitable for most students.

Graeme Summers

Visual Basic Express is a free version of Visual Basic that allows interesting and challenging applications to be developed at school and home. Participants will learn how to produce the structure of animations with scrolling or rotating backgrounds.

Lisa Hayman

Students need to be globally engaged, comfortable with diversity and have knowledge, skills and understandings to operate effectively across cultures. By making effective use of the internet through the use of web based learning and teaching formats (knowledge hunts and WebQuests), along with Web 2.0 tools such as wikis for 24/7 collaborative learning, we can provide students with a range of rich learning experiences that support VELS and issues of student engagement.

Antonia Caridi and Paul Kerr

This session will present an overview of Units 1-2 Information Technology and Units 3-4 Information Technology Applications for those new to teaching VCE IT. It will include detailed descriptions of assessment tasks, teaching strategies, available resources, hardware and software requirements and provide examples of tasks used by teachers in 2007.

Bryan McHugh

If a teacher attempted to address each learning focus of the VELS as an individual item, they will become very quickly disillusioned. The solution is to create units of work that cover a broad range of learning foci. This session will take a multi-domain approach to VELS level 4 but only use free software in the planning and delivery of a unit of work.

Greg Gebhart

Internet safety programs are becoming more important in all schools. The growing use of social networking sites such as MySpace, BeBo and YouTube has led to more children putting themselves at risk. Cyberbullying is also on the increase, with significant growth in the primary sector.
This session will focus on many of the major internet safety issues, and provide advice for schools to help students to have safe experiences on the internet.

Andrew Douch

See how it's possible, even with little IT know-how and a shoestring budget, to transform the teaching and learning experience of your class using technology that students and schools already have. This session will demonstrate how to use a podcast, discussion board, website and instant messaging to create a 24/7 virtual classroom that students can access using an iPod, mobile phone and internet connection. Most students already own these technologies and find them irresistible! So take advantage of the technology students carry in their pockets - engage students, improve student learning, reduce teacher workload, make more efficient use of class time and build rapport between class members.

John Travers

The onset of Web 2.0 and the ready availability of social software has made MySpace and YouTube household names. Social software has obvious application in education, and the development of Personal Learning Environments (PLEs) is an attempt to harness this group of tools in the interest of education. This presentation will cover the short history of PLEs, some significant recent reports on the topic, and opportunities and problems that present themselves. The presentation will outline plans education.au has to provide a PLE for Australian educators.

Steve Blackwell

This session investigates a variety of methods teachers at Pembroke SC use to publish student work and ideas on the internet. It will examine a range of options including web sites, forums, blogs, listservs, wikis and galleries and discuss the benefits and pitfalls of each. Strategies, online services and open source software used for introducing them into the curriculum will also be explored.

Helen Otway

Helen has worked with a variety of teachers in her school setting to integrate and embed ICT into powerful learning across the VELS. Discover how Helen has been able to plan, implement and evaluate an ICT peer coaching program at school level. See how her collaborating colleagues have used technology with their students and the processes involved in reaching both teacher goals and student outcomes. Helen has recently returned from the US where she experienced first hand peer coaching in leading ICT schools. She will share tips and hints from teachers, principals and district level coordinators about initiating and sustaining such a program. A real discussion starter for schools thinking of going down this professional learning path.

Bill Kerr

Alan Kay, winner of the 2004 Turing Award, invented the first object orientated programming language, Smalltalk. His educational vision and activities, developed over 40 years, is just as interesting. This presentation will describe that vision, from Moore's Law to the One Laptop Per Child project.

The following 15 minute sessions will be on in the expo area:

11:00AM - Rationale for higher order thinking skills by Sarah Booton (Austhink)

11:20AM - New technologies in interactive learning by Simon Walsh (Ideal Resources Pty. Ltd.)

11:40AM - Bee-Bot - robots for early years by Annette Kennewell (Educational Experience)

Laurie Savage and Roslyn Meadows

Mind mapping or concept mapping provides students with a quick and powerful tool for organising their thinking and planning. Unfortunately many excellent tools are too expensive for students to access legally at home. Freemind and CMap Tools are two high quality free mind/concept mapping tools that students enjoy working with. They can be used to plan group work, develop rapid response web sites and develop essays. This session demonstrates ways to use such tools, which are tailor-made for 'visualised thinking' with ICT.

Roland Gesthuizen and Peter Lieverdink

The operating system Ubuntu has opened up Linux to the desktop computer user in a powerful new way. Not only is the software free to use and download, there is freedom to inspect and modify. Promoted by Astronaut Mark Shuttleworth, this project is closely coupled with the traditional African communitarian philosophy of 'Ubuntu' and sharing. Ubuntu is jam-packed with free, opensource software.

Graeme Henchel

Croydon SC is using a digital portfolio process structured around the VELS domains. Students use MS Frontpage to manage their own portfolio visible on the school intranet. A template of folders and linked pages is provided to structure the portfolio. Students present their portfolios to parents at student led conferences twice a year. Some cluster primary schools are using a similar concept. This presentation will show examples of portfolios and explain why and how it's done.

Claire Schellebeck

This workshop is designed to take a practical look at creating a SMART notebook lesson integrating links to websites and other software applications already in use at your school. Participants will be given strategies to create more interactive, engaging and accessible lessons for their students.

Anne Baird

Wedderburn P-12 College has been exploring ways to use wikis as a web presence for students and teachers. From using a wiki as a digital portfolio to a repository for class work, the school has given the notion of wikis a little twist, mashed them with a few other Web 2.0 applications and come up with a web presence that works for teachers, students and parents. This workshop will describe that experience and share lots of examples of Web 2.0 applications that enhance our world of Wedderburn wikis.

Rita Ellul and Anne Baird

This session introduces participants to the newest programs available through the Intel Teach program. Participants will be introduced to the free online tools available through the Thinking with Technology program. They will also be introduced to the newest program on offer, Intel Teach Essentials Online, a hybrid of face to face and online. Both programs focus on developing students' higher-order thinking skills and support teachers to think critically about the what, how and why of ICT in teaching and learning. An overview of the Teach Essentials program will also be provided.

Sheryl Carnie and Rob King

The adoption of the VELS in 2007 has seen a significant change in curriculum structure and design at Bairnsdale SC. The ICT domain has been successfully combined with co-domains such as economics, civics and citizenship, geography, the arts, design, communication and others to create units such as collaborating online, hot off the press, interactive games technology, learning to shop, digital photography, create your own virtual business, multimedia projects and more. This session will outline curriculum concepts and discuss the experience gained from delivering these units this year.

Philip Callil

Handheld computers (Palms, PocketPCs etc.) offer the opportunity and promise of one-to-one learning with computers at a significantly more affordable cost than laptop solutions. Excitement and motivation of students are obvious in the classroom - but do they improve learning and if so, how? Participants will learn about results and observations of a three year trial with handhelds with Year 6 students. Also discussed will be experiences from overseas, applications used, curriculum integration, and the pros and cons of class and home use. Trends in handheld technology will be highlighted, with a focus on the work students have undertaken using other educational technology initiated on handheld computers.

Dianna Walker

Whitefriars College developed a two week immersive program for Year 7 based on the theme of sounds. Using ICT extensively, the college integrated ideas about sound across English, SOSE, maths, science and art with the emphasis on student-centred project-based learning. This session provides an overview of the project and its learning outcomes, and promises to be lots of fun.

The following 15 minute sessions will be on in the expo area:

11:20PM - You can easily edit images, make websites and animate stories by Katharine Ebbs (EdSoft)

12:40PM - Lego NXT - learning tool for the next generation by Sue Inness (Modern Teaching Aids Pty Ltd)

1:00PM - Everything and everyone interacting by Jeremy Radovcic (Electroboard)

Wes Warner and Megan Iemma

Find out how to transform your iPod into a mobile excursion device, an assessment tool or even a tool to trick your students into learning. This workshop provides an understanding of the note section within iPods, plus how to create a simple mogopop that can be directly downloaded. The audience will be given the opportunity to create their own mogopop file with stills, text and video they have brought along.

Scott Vaughan

Experience the excitement of developing thrilling products using ActionScript in Macromedia Flash 8. This hands-on session will provide the skills to start you on your own path of discovery for the beginner and intermediate learner. Find a new way to link into Unit 2 IT Pathways and cover the VCAA curriculum.

Maggie Iaquinto

Cascading Style Sheets allow the web developer to separate form (HTML tags) from design (make it look pretty). This session demystifies CSS with a considerable number of hands-on activities. Say goodbye to web authoring packages forever! Learn to write clean and simple code with your own styles. This is a session for beginners in CSS.

Sandy Phillips

What revolution? Has the revolution left some of your teachers behind or worse - still hiding and waiting for things to go back to the way they used to be? The times they are a changing! Yes, you've run the PD sessions, organised support, but some teachers still don't have time for ICT or see its value. How can you connect and support your most reluctant teachers with great ICT resources and a starting place for their own ICT journey? This session provides ideas for school processes, planning, support and resources which require a low level of 'how' but deliver a high level of 'wow!'

Kevork Krozian

Taught or about to teach VCE Software Development? Come and hear the experience of one teacher who uses PHP and MySQL with his class. Ideas, tips and approaches will be shared.

Paula Christophersen

This session focuses on strategies for making assessment fit for purpose. An overview will be provided of the purposes and principles of assessment before examining in more detail strategies for making formative and summative assessment meaningful to student learning. Techniques for developing tests will be discussed together with strategies for ensuring that tasks allow students to demonstrate outcomes at the highest level of performance.

Pia Waugh

There is a serious skills deficiency in ICT, and this is most obvious in the world's fastest growing ICT sector - Open Source. But how do you prepare students with Linux and Open Source skills without creating a massive support overhead for your IT staff? This presentatin will provide practical tools and applications to engage students while keeping maintenance down. It will cover useful Open Source tools for art, music, science and IT. Great Open Source tools for social networking, multimedia, collaboration in the schoolroom, eLearning, virtual reality, gaming and more will be addressed. Participants will be armed with loads of free applications to help your students learn and become agile and multi-skilled learners.

Belinda Anderson

What can you do in your school to accelerate the pace of learning by maximising the use and integration of ICT in all classrooms? It's easy to get the IT teacher involved in using technology but what about those teaching SOSE, PE, English, history, art, geography and maths? The issue is in fact not the curriculum, hours at school, class size, or assessment methods - but engagement. Students seek and need more engaging approaches to learning, and the learning that motivates students the most is where students are already involved the most - digital media. This session will demonstrate how even the most techno phobic teacher can accelerate the pace of learning by maximising the use and integration of ICT.

Anthony Jones

The VELS document articulates the concept that ICT should be integrated across the curriculum and that teachers and learners should create multimedia products. In line with this approach, this session will provide opportunities for participants to look at the process of developing multimedia teaching materials or student activities across a range of science-based subjects using the Easiteach software. Participants will be able to try their products on an interactive whiteboard.

Jill Noble

Oh, how the world has changed. This session discusses the changing world of work and the control and responsibility people have for their careers today. It will assist principals and teachers understand the skills that are in demand, and provide the skills to assist individuals in their careers.

Mark Williamson and Tony Casale

This session provides existing and potential school ICT leaders who are interested in web based applications providing new opportunities for online communication and collaboration. ICT has the potential to enhance the management and administrative capacity of schools by automating processes, thereby freeing school managers to focus on instructional leadership. Teched's online web based applications, automate school scheduling tasks, making paper based systems obsolete. It's a cost effective, time saving management facility that allows school leaders to effectively self manage their event, parent interviews, room / equipment allocations, yard duty rosters and surveys online.

Sue Inness

'Light The Fuse and Get Out of The Way!' - The Frankenstein factor

Teaching was never so much fun and learning so easy. With robotics projects like 'Best In Dog Show', 'Have You Ever Swallowed A Robot', 'Tell Me A Story' and 'Sensors, Senses and Bullies' it is easy to see why students can't resist and the learning slips down like a sugar coated pill! TFind out why other teachers use robotics as a tool for teaching maths and science and as a vehicle for ICT and higher order thinking skills. Learn how they incorporate it into the curriculum and why you should consider robotics as a teaching tool. Robotics has been used with spectacular success in Middle Years, Innovations and Excellence programs, bright futures, clubs, science, mathematics, systems technology and even music, art and literacy! How much VELS can you bear? Robotics will encourage your students to process information and problem solve in amazing ways. The vehicle for this is the brilliant Lego Mindstorms. Take this opportunity to see the newest Lego robotics platform - NXT. Your students will find it irresistible.

Quotes provided with thanks to Ian Maud - Teacher St Pauls Anglican Grammar, Warragul and Chairperson RoboCup Junior Australia

The following 15 minute sessions will be on in the expo area:

2:40PM - Learning Media - literacy and writing tools by Sue Inness (Modern Teaching Aids Pty Ltd)

3:00PM - Everything and everyone interacting by Jeremy Radovcic (Electroboard)

Kathryn Moyle

A challenge for educators is how to prepare students for their lives beyond school. While educators have been rethinking how 'teaching and learning with computers' can be conceptualised, a problem for policy-makers is the 'lag time' between students' lived experiences (which includes technologies) and policy development. All sorts of technologies are integral to students' lives: so integral that we now must wonder about the future of schooling. But so too, technologies provide us with a lens through which schooling can be reconceptualised. Dr Kathryn Moyle examines policies and practices concerning ICT standards in Australia and overseas to imagine the future of schools and students' learning in the 21st century and asks whether we want revolution or evolution? Dr. Kathryn Moyle's keynote presentation is on Tuesday 20 November at 9.15am.

Lee King and Sarah Stewart

Boys' failure in schooling, particularly in literacy, is increasingly alarming educators and parents. Boys generally don't view education positively; many don't like to read or write. Yet, comics and animations have had a motivating power in literacy development for children, especially boys, since their introduction in the 1930s. This type of literature is highly visual, contains complex literary elements, and lends itself to critical examination of cultural and personal issues. They are also a heap of fun! This workshop will examine student work samples, the writing and design skills necessary for creating animations and comics, the tools needed, and the learning and teaching context in which animations and cartoons could be utilised. Using Comic Life and Scratch, participants will be invited to begin crafting their own comics and animations. Participants are asked to raid their photograph albums to collect about six photos for this session. Photos are to be scanned (if not already digital) and saved to a 'flash' drive/USB key/memory stick and brought to the workshop.

Suzanne Tate and Rachael Williams

Would you like to be able to find powerful resources on the Internet quickly and easily? Have you heard of Web 2.0 tools and want to learn more? Would you like your students to be able to collaborate online? This session will focus on using the internet as a powerful tool in the classroom, revising and expanding on your current knowledge and discovering valuable tools and engaging resources for you and your students. Bring some topic ideas to research.

Sarah Pulis and Liddy Nevile

Participants will use a new programming language from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to experience what we are describing as 'creative programming'. Scratch was developed in the Lifelong Kindergarten laboratory by the teams who produced Squeak (modern SmallTalk), StarLogo (massively parallel Logo) and the family of Lego-based robots (most recently, PICO Crickets). Scratch is available free of charge at http://scratch.mit.edu/. No previous programming experience is required for this first of two sessions on creative computing (see session 2306 for part two).

Bryn Jones

Atomic Learning is an award winning and cost-effective software training and support resource. It provides over 25,000 short video tutorials covering 100 software applications and ready-to-use ICT projects. Participants will learn more about Atomic Learning and see how it can be used in a variety of ways from just-in-time support to the production of customised training material and help-desk functions. Teachers already using Atomic Learning may discuss their experiences and effective strategies for its use.

Paula Christophersen

In this session participants will be working with samples of student work and will discuss strategies for making judgements about student progress, based on the VELS ICT standards. Some time will be spent examining factors influencing student progress with the aim of helping teachers develop their own progression point descriptors to support their school's learning and assessment programs.

Cecilie Murray, Sally Bodo and Michael Regan

iPods influence student engagement. iPodagogy changes teacher practice. How? Experience a student's iPod (30 available in session). Learn about this innovative research project at Heathmont College where business and education collaborated together to provide emerging technologies for students and teachers with amazing outcomes. New technologies engage student thinking and imagination, and teachers develop creative approaches to using emerging technologies.

Harry Schlanger

This session outlines ICT tools for teaching VCE Software Development content as prescribed by the new VCAA study design. Outcomes delivered during 2007 are described including original applications written in VB.Net. A student learning website containing course details, timeline, lesson notes, and theory and programming assignments can be loaded as a self-contained application on the intranet and copied by students onto their USB sticks. All software is available free.

Jacqui York and David Taylor

ICT raises real privacy issues for school communities ranging from surveillance in the classroom to cyber-bullying. This session provides an overview of the concept of privacy and privacy regulation. Strategies to address privacy issues in schools will be discussed.

Helen Marotta

Two years ago the only IT Helen used in the class was the data-projector. Now Helen assists students and teachers to make movies, use mobile technologies and blogs. You can too with a little inspiration and plenty of examples from the simplest uses of ICT in the classroom through to the more advanced. Helen has a collection of ideas and practical examples from P-10, across key learning areas.

Mark Richardson

iWeb is the web authoring application in Apple's iLife '06 suite. It allows for easy construction of web sites by drag and drop. This powerful application enables middle years students to create their own websites. It also allows teachers to create web sites to enhance their teaching. Mark will outline the professional development that MacSchoolsNet has run on iWeb and will provide useful resources for teaching iWeb to teachers and students. Examples of how iWeb has been used in schools will be demonstrated.

John Pearce

No idea what any of this means? Want to use the internet for real communication? Easy web publishing via blogs and wikis are for primary and secondary students alike. Furls arrange all those fabulous websites you thought lost. As for podcasts and the rest, the sky is the limit. This session showcases working examples plus a CD with resources and background information to get participants started.

Lauren O'Grady

Discuss the strategies by which computers have been integrated successfully into early years classrooms where students not only use, but create, digital work. This session will demonstrate how to incorporate blogging, webquests, concept maps, freeware and multiliteracies into early years classrooms, enabling participants to do the same with their own students. Participants will find especially interesting the work samples and units that have been developed specifically for the early years classroom.

The following 15 minute sessions will be on in the expo area:

11:00AM - Rationale for higher order thinking skills by Sarah Booton (Austhink)

11:20AM - New technologies in interactive learning by Simon Walsh (Ideal Resources Pty. Ltd.)

11:40AM - Bee-Bot - robots for early years by Annette Kennewell (Educational Experience)

Bill Kerr

Squeak is a powerful drag and drop programming language which has been included on the One Laptop Per Child project. This session will demonstrate how to program in eToys in Squeak.

Cameron Cook

Learn how to quickly and successfully create movies to introduce a new topic, encourage student learning and use as a reflection tool after the completion of a topic. Educators will gain tips in researching the internet, using the audio program Audacity and Microsoft's Movie Maker.

Liddy Nevile and Sarah Pulis

This session will follow and build on participants' experience in creative computing part one (session 2203). Scratch, Alice and similar programs aim to support students' creativity. Part two will introduce the idea of creative programming and include a discussion on the role of programming languages and why particular languages may be chosen. Why do we teach programming? What do kids learn from programming? What do we want them to learn? What do computer science courses want them to know?

Mark Kelly

This session explores Mark Kelly's attempts to solve the information problem of delivering a revised study design in 2007. The entire sordid affair is exposed! Mark describes his approach to the new VCE IT Applications curriculum, providing insight, tips, strategies and approaches for successful learning.

Loretta Leary and Chris Naughtin

Robotics offers the opportunity to integrate science, mathematics and technology through investigation of engineering principles. Construction with Lego in conjunction with programming (robotics) develops student understandings in all three curriculum areas while enhancing problem solving strategies and creativity. Studies (Bergen; Mauch) report increased student motivation. The Success for Boys project suggests the use of Lego as a tool to develop science and mathematics understandings. Palumbo and Palumbo (1993) report that Year 5 students made significant gains on the Raven's Progressive Matrix measure in a study on the use of Lego TC Logo for problem solving development. Research indicates that girls exposed to robotics activities show interest in furthering maths, science and engineering studies and develop confidence and self esteem. Come along and hear how!

Rensche Diggeden and Steve Nichols

This session will look at ways of using ICT to engage middle years' learners, while encouraging them to produce work that demonstrates higher order thinking and academic rigour. Too often, ICT is used as a means of presentation or word processing only, ignoring its potential to transform learning for middle years learners. The session will give practical examples and ideas for integrating ICT in a way that enhances learning and engages learners.

John Pahlow

Learn from one school's approach to supporting staff as they move to work with digital natives in a 21st century learning culture. This session will cover keys to scaffolding, infrastructure, culture, mutual obligation and professional learning. Hear the journey of how one western suburban comprehensive school has worked to address the demands of learners and a 21st century society. Also covered are discussions on how this process has gone so far and where the school is now headed. This session is suitable for staff with roles in managing curriculum, co-ordinating professional learning and/or responsibility for eLearning or infrastructure allocation and management.

Peter Maggs

This presentation will show how the Kahootz 3D software can be combined with live-action video footage, claymation or stop-motion animation to create amazing movies. Participants will be shown how easily they can put students inside 3D Kahootz Worlds or have 3D Kahootz characters do a virtual tour of your school.

Pablo Garcia

How would it be if...you could harness peer pressure to achieve better learning? You knew that every one of your students is actively involved and participating in your lesson? You knew clearly and accurately, during class, whether all your students understand and can apply key concepts? You could instantly extract reports identifying each students' development towards learning objectives? In this session you will experience teaching practices enabled by student response systems and session software, which enable a very powerful form of interactive teaching to achieve the above settings. Teachers can ensure every student is involved, can realistically manage differential rates of learning in their classroom, and can optimise group work to ensure maximum learning for all participants. This workshop is interactive - come prepared to be challenged, and to participate.

The following 15 minute sessions will be on in the expo area:

11:20PM - You can easily edit images, make websites and animate stories by Katharine Ebbs (EdSoft)

12:40PM - Lego NXT - learning tool for the next generation by Sue Inness (Modern Teaching Aids Pty Ltd)

1:00PM - Everything and everyone interacting by Jeremy Radovcic (Electroboard)

Roland Gesthuizen and Richard Jones

Python is a portable, interpreted, object-oriented programming language that lets you write the code you need. It's development started in 1990 at CWI in Amsterdam, Netherlands. It's a new teaching language for universities and increasing in popularity for secondary schools. It runs on most hardware and is free to download and use. This session is an introduction to wet teachers appetites.

Alan Thwaites and Thanh-Truc Pham

Students and teachers spend a lot of time using the internet, but how effective is it as an educational resource? As with other resources, meaningful learning only occurs when higher order thinking skills are required. How can we challenge students to purposefully engage with the information they find? This hands-on workshop explores the use of powerful online thinking tools that are free to educators on the Intel Education website.

Clodagh MacMillan, Rachelle Hedger and Caitriona Thompson

Interactive whiteboards are revolutionising the way education is experienced for many Victorian school children. As a CeLL school, teachers often ask us what they should do with their interactive whiteboards. This session has been designed to meet the needs of these teachers as well as those looking at purchasing interactive whiteboards. The session will include practical, hands-on activities for early years teachers. Activities will be centred on utilising the internet and a variety of software. The content is designed to increase student engagement and inter-disciplinary understandings whilst linking to VELS. Participants will be presented with activities that will allow them to maximise their use of interactive whiteboards.

Emad Attie

Want to learn how to vodcast or podcast your lessons the cheap way? This session is for you. Participants will create podcasts or vodcasts to take back to school for student or staff use. Expensive equipment is not needed so get ready for education of the future.

Joel Stanley

Influenced by the constructionist theories of learning pioneered by Seymour Papert and later Alan Kay, Nicholas Negroponte and his colleagues from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab formed One Laptop Per Child, an organisation tasked with producing low cost, rugged educational tools for the world's children. Joel Stanley spent 10 weeks at MIT as an engineer working on the development of the laptop. He will demonstrate the laptop, highlighting the features that make it a very useful educational tool in the classroom, the playground and at home.

Julianne Lynch and Leonie Rowan

Participation in IT subjects at the senior secondary level is in decline in Australia. Girls' participation is persistently low and has decreased at an even greater rate than that of boys in recent years. The Gender and IT project spoke to both boys and girls in years 10, 11 and 12 to find out why students are increasingly opting out of non-compulsory studies in IT. This presentation focuses on some of the findings in terms of what students respond well to and what they are disengaged by.

Jenny Ashby

The use of ICT has been connected with obesity in children. Epsom PS has been using Nike sensors and iPod Nanos to measure student fitness and tie in the use of ICT with PE, health and fitness, maths, English and other VELS areas. The school received a grant from the Innovations Branch of the Victorian Department of Education and Early Childhood Development and has been using six iPod Nanos and Nike sensors. Are we fitter? Were the students engaged by the fitness workouts? Did the teachers use ICT in their classrooms as a result of the iPod Nanos and Nike sensors? This session reports on the project, its outcomes and demonstrates how the sensors and iPods are used.

Mark Ridgeway

Got your brand new video iPod - great! Play music, watch videos - but did you know that it's also a great teaching tool? Sick of lugging your laptop to class? You can hook your iPod up to the TV or data projector to play videos, show simple power points or play any of a huge range of educational audio or video podcasts that are freely available. Want to know how? Want to know what's out there? In this session participants will find out!

Wan Ng

This session describes practical online learning using the freely available and downloadable Moodle software as an online management system. It will also explore the potential for learning across curriculum areas using handheld computers. The presentation on both aspects of eLearning is based on trialled experiences in primary and secondary schools.

Anthony Norman

This session will demonstrate how a variety of technological advances can be used in primary LOTE classrooms. Areas of discussion will include interactive whiteboards, podcasts, garage band, video and photograph slide shows. A variety of example lessons will be demonstrated for lower, middle and upper primary students.

Mike D'Monte

Schools can use various strategies to develop and improve their presence and image online. Mike D'Monte outlines some of the simple things any school can do to make sure that they are noticed online. But just getting noticed is half the battle, you need to develop online content and services to get the local community to your virtual door time and again. Mike discusses some of the innovative and commonsensical functions and features you can add to boost your profile and to meet the needs of the students, staff and student-families. Mike will demonstrate some of the things that schools are doing right now to engage their target audience and to keep them engaged. No pie-in-the-sky stuff here!

Denise Mendham and Val Lewis

Showcasing inquiry based learning and VELS. Participants will blasting off into space, where students travel from a single word to a tourist brochure. Then participants will celebrate the contributions of famous Indigenous Australians in a multi-media format.

The following 15 minute sessions will be on in the expo area:

2:40PM - Learning Media - literacy and writing tools by Sue Inness (Modern Teaching Aids Pty Ltd)

3:00PM - Everything and everyone interacting by Jeremy Radovcic (Electroboard)

Lindy McKeown

Looking at the development of 3D learning environments including 3D worlds, 3D learning objects and embedded 3D on the web, this presentation provides a glimpse of what the future holds and the opportunities that exist now for students, teachers and professional learning. Lindy will show a range of 3D tools and spaces that revolutionise how we interact across the internet. She will describe how these can blend with existing technologies to create new learning spaces for students and teachers. Lindy will share her experience in the development and use of 3D learning environments for teacher professional development and learning, including her pioneering work in the virtual world called 'Second Life'. She will also share stories of the use of the Teen Grid of Second Life with secondary school students. In this keynote on Wednesday 21 November at 9.15am, Lindy will demonstrate some 3D learning objects and the current state of the development of 3D rooms inside learning management systems.

Darrel Branson

Scratch is a free, cross-platform, graphical programming environment in which students can create and design projects that creatively mix different types of media such as graphics, photos, music and sound. Scratch programming is easy! Students snap together programming pieces much like you would with Lego. It can create animations, interactive games and much more. Come along and have a go at Scratch and see what you can build - you'll start scratching straight away!

Jen Cole

For schools with Apple Macs, Comic Life is an outstanding new communication tool. Comic Life is great for students with literacy difficulties and especially powerful for students on the autism spectrum. Artwork and photos of daily activities can be instantly turned into vibrant, motivating comic books. Easy for teachers and even easier for students to use! This workshop will get you started and you'll never look back!

Jonathon Coombes and Arjen Lentz

Databases are generally invisible 'under the hood' of nearly every web site and business application. A good understanding of databases allows us to effectively deal with data such that we have worthwhile information. This session describes a practical approach to teaching essential database theory. It highlights a practical approach to illustrating set theory in terms of diagrammatic examples and relates this to junior mathematics concepts. The importance of representing data in usable forms will be addressed and related to principles of SQL language. How students can use this in both junior and senior computer studies courses for a greater concrete understanding of database concepts will be demonstrated. This session will also show affordable and easy to use, yet powerful tools, that are available to all students.

Greg Alchin

Students are confronted with complex and mountainous arrays of data which they must make meaning from. To successfully analyse the data, identify patterns and discover relationships so that they may develop informed conclusions, students require strong data literacy skills. This practical workshop shows participants how to use InspireData as an ICT tool to develop student data literacy skills.

Robyn Treyvaud

Cyberbullying, addiction, identity theft, internet security and exposure to inappropriate material are all issues facing teenagers and increasingly, children. As they explore the wonders of Cyberia many do so without their moral compass, with real life consequences. This presentation explores the many ways young people's lives and well-being are impacted by technology and strategies that can be employed to ensure safety and security.

Greg Durkin

There is a high level of content in the new study, so it pays to have a few time savers at hand. By using PHP, MySQL, HTML and CSS we can flatten the learning curve. Working with these modern communication tools, students learn programming, web design, network theory, database management and graphics manipulation in less time than by using a spread of products. Using a secure SSH connection to a classroom server we get the best of both the Microsoft and Linux environments.

Peter Nash

Examine key issues associated with running VET IT using a new training package. The session is a guide to teachers who wish to or are currently running the course. It will cover various options available to ICT educators to gather unit competency evidence, provide options and advice on planning the curriculum, and where you can get support. The value of Web 2.0 technologies to set tasks and communicate with students outside class, work placements and the role of the RTO will also be addressed.

Paul Chandler

Disciplines such as Science have, for many years now, been very interested in students' conceptual understanding of their material. What if we were to apply this focus of 'conceptual understanding' to computing? What might it reveal about our students' learning? And what implications might it hold for our teaching? Come and be part of the exploration.

Martin Levins

Why not take advantage of a 1:1 laptop deployment and get students to publish their work in a Web 2.0 manner on the server? Our 1:1 laptop roll out was based on constructionist philosophies and concentrated efforts were directed at our middle school where teachers were grappling with changing their pedagogies to become more student-centered and project based. This sounded like a good idea at the time! This session explores the benefits and shortcomings of this approach using student work samples and the action research of teachers.

Joseph Papaleo

Jules Verne's 'Around the World in 80 Days' was inspired by 19th century technological breakthroughs. This presentation takes a look at 20th and 21st century technological breakthroughs and how they can be used to complement teaching practices in the 21st century. Using Google Earth, its community forums and video conference technology, this presentation will take you around the world in 80 minutes. Pack your toothbrush and join in the adventure.

Jeremy Radovcic

Explore how the SMART Board interactive whiteboard can facilitate the
effective use of web 2.0 applications and other web enabled software
tools. This example rich session will show you how the SMART Board
interactive whiteboard literally puts everything at your fingertips and
pulls them together in an organised and effective workspace helping you to excite and engage the learners of the future.

Rowan Simms

Rowan Simms, National Solutions Manager for Education at Apple Australia will deliver our Technical Keynote Address. School technicians, ICT leaders and managers will hear about the new and emerging strategies for ICT infrastructure deployment in schools.

The following 15 minute sessions will be on in the expo area:

11:00AM - Rationale for higher order thinking skills by Sarah Booton (Austhink)

11:20AM - New technologies in interactive learning by Simon Walsh (Ideal Resources Pty. Ltd.)

11:40AM - Bee-Bot - robots for early years by Annette Kennewell (Educational Experience)

Suzi Arnott

Heard a lot about Moodle and still not sure if it's right for you? Try this hands on session explore Moodle settings, creating resources and activities and how you can customise your site. I will also show you where to go for help and ideas and plenty of inspiration. This is suitable for a range of subject areas, not necessarily ICT based.

Rachael Williams and Suzanne Tate

Have you thought about podcasting? Perhaps you have no idea where to start? This hands-on session explores podcasting as a useful teaching and learning tool and demonstrates how quickly teachers and students can be sharing ideas and reflecting and recording in the classroom. Participants will look at various examples of podcasting in education, RSS feeds and simple ways to create and publish a podcast. Bring along your ideas and passion for learning and leave armed with the tools to take your class on air.

Con Nikakis

How easily people in business accept new technologies is a vexing problem that has attracted significant interest (world-wide a $Trillion problem). In information systems research there are a number of behavioural models that seek to describe the degree of technology acceptance and the factors that contribute to this. The Technology Acceptance Model is one well-known model that could also be a useful tool for educational administrators needing to assess the likelihood of success for new technology introductions, by helping them to understand the drivers of acceptance in order to proactively design interventions (e.g. training, marketing) targeted at populations of users (teachers) that may be less inclined to adopt and use new technologies. This paper will endeavour to investigate the effect of the digital divide, exploring the differences between digital native students (who have easily coped with new emerging technologies throughout their lives) and their digital immigrant teachers (who have been recently trained in newer technologies but are not 'immersed' in these technologies), as well as how well the Technology Acceptance Model explains technology uptake.

Ian Ralph

Monitoring is an important part of maintaining a reliable network. If you are charged with managing a school network it is much better for staff and students to be told there is a problem before they tell you. Or, better still, for the problem to be fixed becomes a crisis. This presentation will focus on a number of open source or low cost network monitoring tools to help pro-actively manage your school's network.

Claire Bloom

Is VET Multimedia the only VCE subject that doesn't have a textbook? Where do you start? How far do you go? It can all be rather daunting, so this session aims to set your mind at ease by demonstrating student work and classroom strategies that work. For beginners or those contemplating teaching VET Multimedia, this session examines the course requirements and suggests strategies for approaching Unit 1-2 of this exciting and innovative course.

Timothy Kitchen

Strathcona BGGS has revitalised their IT subjects by running a 24/7 TV station via their LMS, and have recently launched their own version of YouTube. Running a range of multimedia electives, such as VET Multimedia and VET Broadcasting, IT classes are now full and have student wait lists. Traditional ICT skills and concepts are now taught through a fun, practical, exciting, innovative, creative and engaging process. This session demonstrates how.

Pablo Garcia

So, your school has chosen a new classroom technology. But - you know that Australian classroom cupboards and storage rooms are littered with expensive 'solutions' which are not effectively used, for a host of excellent reasons. So - what do you have to do to avoid this hard-won initiative from joining the ranks of so many others? The jury is out, and we know the answers. Come to this session to find out! Come prepared to answer some tough questions, about: where you choose to deploy the solutions; your criteria for deciding this; your spend on professional development; pitfalls to watch out for in the installation and training delivery, and especially, downstream milestones you need to track in the effective adoption of the solutions by your teachers.

Mark Kelly

Mark Kelly's approach to VCE Year 11 IT Units 1-2.

Catherine Lang

In recent years we have seen a significant decline in the number of students entering IT courses at all levels of education and subsequently a significant decline in IT graduates. Disappointingly the decline in participation by females is even higher than for males. Last year the Victorian ICT for Women Network and Deakin University hosted a large event to promote ICT careers to young girls - 'Go Girl - Go for IT'. The event was considered a huge success for all involved, but did it make a difference? This session will present survey results showing that a sizable proportion of young women changed their opinion of ICT careers. However, this was not the first of these events, and in the past they have not managed to influence the downturn in ICT enrolments at universities around Australia. We will pose questions related to the benefits of these large events over smaller regional or local promotional events. Audience participation will be encouraged.

Stewart Smith

MySQL is incredibly ubiquitous. MySQL database administrators are not everywhere; MySQL is. Often MySQL is run to power a small web site or two, an application or two, or run on a machine purely for someone else's use (and the install made MySQL just work so you don't have to care). This session goes over the things you need to know about your MySQL installations to keep them healthy without burdening you with work, including MySQL Basics, installation, security, backup, restore, performance and upgrades.

The following 15 minute sessions will be on in the expo area:

11:20PM - You can easily edit images, make websites and animate stories by Katharine Ebbs (EdSoft)

12:40PM - Lego NXT - learning tool for the next generation by Sue Inness (Modern Teaching Aids Pty Ltd)

1:00PM - Everything and everyone interacting by Jeremy Radovcic (Electroboard)

Joanne Wellington and Linda Angeloni

Meeting VELS and VCE requirements, the State Library website teaches critical literacy and research skills to Year 9-12 students. The site has primary source materials, extensive research skills information, video interviews with authors, artists and historians, research process notebooks, historical information, informative links and a student guide to the State Library. Come and explore this new site.

Bernard Catt

Participants will learn how easy and powerful the fischertechnik robotic and control technology kits are to use. These affordable educational kits include robotic arms as well as autonomous, static and remote controlled robots. Using the versatile fischertechnik ROBO PRO software you will build and program a traffic light system, program a robotic arm to pick and place objects or a robot to move around avoiding obstacles.

Teresa Deshon

This session provides participants with some basic SQL programming techniques to enable the inclusion of SQL functions and queries to database outcomes in VCE IT. It includes examples in Delphi and VB and sample outcomes.

Fiona Patterson

Rationale has been designed to scaffold critical thinking skills. It assists students in organising information, structuring their reasoning, locating evidence, evaluating claims and communicating their contentions. This session introduces participants to Rationale's thinking path.

Dr Fiona Patterson teaches Critical Thinking at the University of Melbourne and is the Education Coordinator for Austhink.

Daryl Sutton

This session examines the structure of the VCE VET IT program and identifies completion requirements for the Certificate II - III, and contribution towards the VCE. It explores delivery strategies and the process of RPL for IT training undertaken and skills acquired prior to commencing the program. Participants will be asked to share delivery strategies towards the end of the session.

Chris Enkelmann

Well planned ICT roadmaps are a key element in building solid revolutionised learning platforms to engage staff and students in eLearning. Schools are increasingly dedicating funding towards ICT progression and special projects. This session explores the Department's tools and resources which schools may use to build and implement solid ICT roadmaps to best practice and industry standards. A must see session for school technicians, ICT managers and school leadership teams.

Michelle Dennis

Ever wanted to teach students how to create Flash games? This presentation will briefly introduce participants to the ideas behind, and activities relating to, Actionscript. From here participants can develop a programming curriculum for the classroom. It's assumed participants have a basic understanding of Flash for animation.

Karenina Fromhold

The Ultranet will be an intuitive student centred electronic learning environment that supports high quality learning and teaching, connects students, teachers and parents and enables efficient knowledge transfer. The Department of Education and Early Childhood Development will implement the Ultranet in all Victorian government schools. The Ultranet is an online tool that aims to improve education by linking whole school communities and enabling them to collaborate to improve student learning outcomes in a way not previously possible. This presentation outlines what the Ultranet will do and how it can benefit administrators, teachers, students and parents.

Colin Thompson and Paul Van Eeden

Experience Thornbury HS's demonstration of their new Web 2.0 Classnet.com.au. It's a a free curriculum based 'Youtube' style website. Developed out of ClassTV / Channel31 (community television), it enables teachers and students to upload content with passwords onto a secure monitored site. This also enables schools to showcase short films, animations, claymation and music clips to the world. Thornbury HS teachers helped created Syn FM and Class TV.

Paul Stewart

Paul will escort participants on an exploration of productivity tools and approaches utilising the best the web has to offer. His tour include the following stops - taming email, keeping track of students, parents etc., time-saving folksonomies, tumblelogs, blogs and collaborative applications, RSS feeds, readers and subscriptions, Google tips, Firefox extensions, effective time management applications and online vocabulary tools. Paul will draw upon a range of time-saving tips and techniques he has found useful as a teacher and eLearning coordinator.

Ron Gauci and Gary Isaacs

Being a part of the ICT industry over the past 20 years has allowed Ron to experience not only technology at the bleeding edge but the impact it's had on our lives. Through a light hearted perspective, this session provides participants with an opportunity to learn from Ron's experiences and gain insight into the more exciting side of what it means to be in the ICT industry.

Darrell Vanderwolf

** In conjunction with EdSoft **

Darrell Vanderwolf from New Magic Australia will take you though the easy-to-use Vegas Movie Studio software. Sony Vegas Movie Studio software is widely used in primary and secondary schools for video editing, multimedia content creation and school yearbook DVD production. This session shows how effortlessly and quickly students can take recorded video, digital stills and other content and add titles and effects to make a production that looks great. Output to DVD is also included in this session.

The following 15 minute sessions will be on in the expo area:

2:40PM - Learning Media - literacy and writing tools by Sue Inness (Modern Teaching Aids Pty Ltd)

3:00PM - Everything and everyone interacting by Jeremy Radovcic (Electroboard)