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Current Edition: 2007 Issue 4 Volume 17

1. President's Message by Adrian Janson
   So why aren't students doing IT?  This is the question that has perplexed many of us as the current trend of declining enrolments at our respective schools continues.   Certainly many of us have invested a great deal of energy in promoting our courses and introducing innovation and interesting programs like game design and animation into the junior and middle years.  Industry demand is high for IT graduates and job prospects are plentiful.  We have all tried to deliver the message – but it doesn't seem to be working...

2. Editorial by Renee Hoareau
   This year’s VITTA conference, “Rethinking Education, you say you want a revolution?”  Dr Stephen, our keynote, gives some inspiring information about the creative ways in which physical learning spaces are being engineered.  New ways of teaching and learning in the 21st century addresses the needs of our digitally capable students . Further this shift from paper based learning to include screen based learning is demanding educators to reconsider their teaching and how they will manage their learning environment...

3. From the VCAA Corner by Paula Christopherson
   It's that time of the year to reflect on the success or otherwise of the VCAA curriculum ICT domain in VELS and the VCE IT study design and how well you implemented them. Selecting appropriate criteria to measure success is important; there are a range of viewpoints to be considered, such as learners', teachers', administrators'/ curriculum developers', community's, policy makers', and a range of factors such as suitability, level of difficulty, ease of implementation (interpretation), relevance to identified needs and goals, and flexibility (design)...

4. Roland's Scrapbook by Roland Gesthuizen
   Switched on by turning off Last term, I took a picture of the Orion constellation during the GLOBE at night project (1). In Australia we also call this the flying saucepan. The project involved thousands of other students, families and citizen-scientists around the globe with results shared with a central online database. The aim was to estimate the magnitude or brightness of stars that we can see with the naked eye to calculate and record the level of light pollution in the general atmosphere...

5. Blogging Across the Disciplines by Kelly Beattie
   The Nature of blogsTo understand how you might use a blog in your classroom, you really need to understand the nature and features of blogs. Knowing this will help you to determine how it might work in your classrooms. The following are the features of blogs that lend themselves to education.Personal editorshipThe main feature of a blog is that it is a personal medium. Students put their own thoughts and ideas into their contributions. This makes the blog relevant to the students and gives them ownership of their work...

6. Wow! The Wonderful World of Web 2.0 by Anne Mirtschin
   Earlier this year I asked our computer technician if he knew anything about web 2.0. Several hours later he gave me an article that he had found online. Using web 2.0 then went on the backburner as I tried to learn MS Access and Dreamweaver for the new ITA course!!!!! In May, I attended a conference in Melbourne and attended a session on useful web 2.0 sites. I was hooked!!! Soon after, our school was successful in achieving a Rich Picture Case Studies enabling grade 6 students to work with volunteers from the Penshurst Volcano Discovery Centre and develop podcasts for this centre and the volcanic surrounds (the area has applied for geo park status)...

7. Film making with students by Tim Bain
   It's the golden age of low-budget filmmaking! Film festivals, pay TV programmes and Internet sites such as YouTube are chock-a-block with zero-budget movies, and it's all thanks to the wonders of digital video. Digital video makes filmmaking so simple. A school student can cheaply shoot their flick on a digital video camera, plug it into a PC or Mac, and then edit their footage on free user-friendly editing software. Finally – with just a few clicks of a mouse – he or she can burn the film to a high-resolution DVD, or upload it onto the web for a worldwide audience to enjoy...

8. Designers Not Consumers by Janice Youl
     Computer games are not just about violence and ruthlessness. Computer games, whether off the shelf or designed with particular learning outcomes in mind, can engage and motivate learners. Games can be effective learning tools, not just because students enjoy playing them, but because they require decision making, social networking and higher order thinking skills such as analysis, strategy and problem solving...

9. 2007 Programming Awards by Caroline Bailey
   The VITTA year wouldn't be complete without offering young programmers the chance to compete against their peers to win in the Programming Awards.This year the awards were sponsored by the Australian Computer Society, with support from the Cancer Council's SunSmart program, Microsoft, Multi Media Victoria, Open Source Victoria and ASISTM.The awards were structured around 3 categories: Novice, Intermediate and Open Challenge. Novice and Intermediate entries are judged internally by the school and participation certificates are awarded...

10. A Slow Start for Girls in the World by Irena White
    Game development is the fastest growing digital media industry in the world.According to Tom Crago, President of the Game Developers' Association of Australia, the demand for skilled 3D animators and programmers from professional game development studios is expected to double in the next five years...

11. Play and effective teaching and learning by Peter Nash
    Play and Effective teaching and learning in "playful learning environments"- is there need for pedagogical change? 1.0 The nature of play:In education contexts learners need engagement, and be willing to commit with energy to what we are doing (Rieber, Smith, & Noah, 1998). What are educators doing to facilitate this? Rieber et al. (1998), Makedon (1984) and Resnick (2006) discuss that games provide the ability to construct the linking of human cognition and the application of technology...

12. Graphic design using Open Source tools by Donna Benjamin
     Earlier this year, I engaged in some professional learning by taking a Red Hat Master Class with Andy Fitzsimon on "Open Source Graphic Design".Andy spoke primarily about three Open Source tools, the GIMP (Image manipulation), Scribus (Desktop Publishing) and went on to cover Inkscape (Vector Illustration) in particular detail.  Each of these tools are freely available for download from the Internet, with no restriction on the number of computers they can be installed on, including students' and teachers' home machines...

13. Report on the SiMERR 2007 National Summit by Roland Gesthuizen
    This National Summit was organised by the ACCE at the Australian Science and Mathematics School (ASMS) Flinders University, Adelaide SA from Thursday 4 to Friday 5 October 2007.http://simerr.une.edu.auSiMERR aims to increase our awareness and understanding of learning outcomes for students of computing studies, regardless of school or location...

14. PD Report by Caroline Bailey
    The recent VITTA Conference has been an exciting focus of the largest professional development program run by VITTA. More about the Conference highlights will be reported in the next issue of  Infonet. On October 10, VITTA and Loddon Mallee Regional Department of Education organised for Paula Christophersen (VCAA), Denise Mendham and Stella Cugley to travel to Mildura to present sessions for both primary and secondary teachers about VELS and Progression Points.    As many of you know professional development is a constant and continual organisational concern of the association...

15. 3-in-6 Awards by -
    3in6 is a video and animation award for teams of school students who work together to plan, film, edit and create a 3 minute video or a 1 minute animation in just six hours on a designated day. Student teams can be any age from Year 5-6 (Primary), Year 7-9 (Junior Secondary) to Year 10-11 (Senior Secondary). Our participants this year really pushed their technical, thinking and presentation skills to produce excellent results and indeed entries were very informative and entertaining...

16. Advertorial - Motivate Digital Storytelling with Finn Cragg Content by Lyn Hawkins
    At a recent teacher workshop a selection of short student digital stories and movies created by Kulin District High School – all the way from regional Western Australia - inspired teachers who were looking for ways to engage their students to write in a digital context. The student's movies were created using animated footage from Finn Cragg's “Caravan” in Microsoft's Movie Maker. Kulin DHS Media teacher, Erin Bailey provided her students with Finn Cragg's video clips so they could experience working with professionally created animated images as she wanted them to focus on editing, post-production and narrative development...

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